Double Ascent

I will go down with you to Egypt, and will also surely bring you up again (a’alcha gam aloh), and Joseph will lay his hand upon your eyes.                                                                Genesis   46:4

            Numerous commentators have suggested explanations of the addition of the phrase “gam aloh” (here translated as “surely bring you up again”).

            Radak explains the phrase to refer to Jacob’s sons.

            Tzror haMor expands upon Radak’s comment and writes that the additional words refer to the future ascent, that is a promise of redemption not only for Jacobs children, but for their descendants as well. Thus, the phrase conveys the Divine promise of the ultimate redemption, which we eagerly await today.

            Or haḤayyim suggests that the phrase hints at the spiritual aspect of the ascent to the Land of Israel, and God’s message is that the ascent will indeed be spiritual as well as physical. That which can be achieved spiritually in the Land cannot be reached outside of her.

            Rabbeinu Beḥayye writes:

This is a promise to Jacob’s descendants that God will redeem them from their exile and bring them up to the Land of Israel, and after they are settled in the Land, which is the essential place of fulfilling Torah and mitzvot, He [promised an additional ascent, which is the World to Come, which awaits his descendants. This is hinted at in our Sages’ comment “all Israel have a portion of the World to Come.” [Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 90a]

            We can add that the phrase hints as well at an additional comment of the Sages:

Anyone who walks four cubits in the Land of Israel is assured of a place in the World to Come. [Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 111a]

            Indeed, the Land of Israel, the Land of the Shechina, is the place most suited for spiritual advancement and for entry into the World to Come.