The righteous even when dead are called living TB Taanit 5

If I have counted correctly, today’s daf TB Taanit 5 contains eight conversations between Rav Naḥman and Rabbi Yitzḥak. Both Rabbi Yitzḥak and Rabbi Naḥman were Rabbi Yoḥanan’s outstanding students. Apparently Rabbi Yitzḥak specialized in Aggada and Rav Naḥman specialized in Halakha. Rabbi Yitzḥak (bar Pinkhas) spent a considerable amount of time in Babylonia and brought with him the Torah interpretations from the land of Israel and especially from his teacher Rabbi Yoḥanan.

Once during a meal Rav Naḥman ask Rabbi  Yitzḥak to teach him some Torah, but Rabbi  Yitzḥak initially refused because he said, “Rabbi Yoḥanan said: One may not speak during a meal, lest the trachea will precede the esophagus. Food is meant to enter the esophagus, and when one speaks his trachea opens and the food might enter there. And therefore, one should not speak during a meal, as he might come into the danger of choking. After they had eaten, Rabbi Yitzḥak said to Rav Naḥman that Rabbi Yoḥanan said as follows: Our patriarch Jacob did not die. Rav Naḥman asked him in surprise: And was it for naught that the eulogizers eulogized him and the embalmers embalmed him and the buriers buried him? Rabbi Yitzḥak replied to Rav Naḥman: I am interpreting a verse, as it is stated: “Therefore do not fear, Jacob My servant, says the Lord, neither be dismayed, Israel, for I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity” (Jeremiah 30:10). This verse juxtaposes Jacob to his seed: Just as his seed is alive when redeemed, so too, Jacob himself is alive.” (Sefaria.org translation).

All the classical commentators do somersaults trying to explain Rabbi Yitzḥak’s contention that Jacob did not die. Rabbi Isaiah Pinto went so far as to say that Jacob did not die in Egypt, but fainted and all his senses were annulled (brain-dead, but still breathing?) and he only truly died after he returned to the land of Israel for burial. Others claim that Abraham’s and Isaac’s future life energy was diluted because they gave birth not only a righteous child who followed in their path, but also wicked children, Ishmael and Esau, who did not. Only all of Jacob’s offspring were righteous thus Jacob’s life force continues to “live” undiluted.

I like to propose a much simpler solution. A righteous person’s words and deeds perpetuate his memory. They have an everlasting positive effect on all of his descendants whether they are cognizant of them are not. The same is not true for the wicked. Even in life the wicked person’s influence is very much circumscribed. As Rashi comments: “For indeed the wicked even while alive are called dead and the righteous even when dead are called living, as it is said, (2 Samuel 23:20) “And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada the son of a living man”. (Rashi on Genesis 11:32 based on the TB Berakhot 18b) 

Similarly Hugh Robert Orr writes in his poem “They Softly Walk”

They are not dead who live

In hearts they leave behind.

In those whom they have blessed

They live a life again,

And shall live through the years

Eternal life, and grow

Each day more beautiful

As time declares there good,

Forgets the rest, and proves

Their immortality.