Vayechi - Overcoming the Challenges of Passing On

The Rabbis in their great wisdom made this one of the weekly portions that does not have a large space before it when you read it from the Torah scroll.  The reason for this they explained was because it is a portion that deals with the going up of a Tzaddik's soul.  When a Tzaddik's soul goes up, we are left with the feeling of no space and no light and the metaphor for this is the lack of space before this Torah portion (see first Rashi on the sedra).

The Tanya in the section of Epistles, Epistle 27, discusses the passing on of a Tzaddik according to the wisdom of the Zorhar and Kabbala that the soul of the Tzaddik is more revealed after it leaves the physical body since the body is merely a veil for the light of the Tzaddik's soul.

A central figure in our generation, the Rebbe, discusses at length the efforts involved in staying connected to the Tzaddik after his physical body is no longer with us.  The Previous Rebbe's discourse connected to the day of his passing is titled, Basi Legani, "I came to my garden".  It discusses the central concepts of making a dwelling place here in this world by our unflagging commitment (referred to in the discourse as the "foolish" (in the eyes of others) commitment to self-sanctification ) to rebuilding the Temple within ourselves through setting times for Torah learning in our day. This can be accomplished only through a constant struggle with the Animal soul to refine it and not give in to its temptation to sink to lower levels of involvement with the physical. The Rebbe elaborated on this point annually on the yahrtzeit of the Previous Rebbe.

In Tanya, Ch. 9, the Ba'al HaTanya discusses the struggle between the Animal Soul and Divine Soul. There he explains that the advantage of the Divine Soul and its "secret weapon" as it were is its unflagging commitment to G-d.  The Divine Soul has a constant connection to its source and  therefeore its commitment to G-d is based on the fact that it sees G-d .  Because it sees G-d it is unrelenting in its struggle to make this world into a reality where it can again see G-d without the veils of physicality.

The Rebbe explains (in his last discourse, Ata Tetzave) that the level of seeing G-d is insufficient for there is yet a higher level of commitment to the One Above made possible by the teaching of the Moshe Rabbeinu of the generation.  There the Rebbe points out that this connection on the level of Yechida can be honed to the point that the Jew himself is connected without external guidance, this is manifested by complete unity with all the Jews around them.  Therefore, the passing away of the leader of the generation, our forefather Ya'akov, in this week's portion should inspire us with a redoubled commitment to learning the teachings of our leaders and that they should become one with us to the point where we are connected to G-d and see His Blessed Infinite Light in this physical reality.