“Wish not so much to live long as to live well.”(Benjamin Franklin)
When Yaakov meets Pharaoh an interesting conversation ensues: Pharaoh asks Yaakov how old he is Yaakov replies that “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few… have been the days of the years of my life,…" He distinguishes between " the years of my pilgrimage" and" the years of my life".
What is the nature of this conversation Pharaoh and Yaakov had two different worldviews on what it means to live? Pharaoh defined life in a purely physical sense. He wanted to know how old Yaakov was. Yaakov, on the other hand, defined life by the ability to serve HaShem and be productive without distractions. Yaakov lived until now for 130 years, but during many of those years he was preoccupied with crisis and tragedy Yosef’s plight was on his mind for the last 22 years and that inhibited his ability to focus on improving his life.
Yaakov did not feel that the years he spent dealing with crisis and tragedy were as productive as they could have been, certainly when he compared those years to his father Yitzchak’s life. We certainly can try our best to make the most out of any situation by avoiding distractions that disturb us from using our time positively and creatively Our life is compared to a book, we speak of the Book of Life. The value of a book is arrived at not by its length but by its quality. “Wish not so much to live long as to live well". Thus Yaakov spoke of ” the years of my pilgrimage" and" the years of my life"!
Rabbi E. S. Weisz
שחמט דיגיטל