Welcome to Daily Bitachon . We are now taking Bitachon lessons from the Pesukim that we read at Bikurim, that are the foundation of Magid in the Haggadah . We're telling the story of Yaakov going down to Mitzrayim and the next two words that we're going to discuss are ויגר שם Vayagor Sham / And they sojourned there. The Baal Haggadah explains that Yaakov Avinu's intention was not to become entrenched in the land, just to be there temporarily. He proves it from a Pasuk in Bereshit where the brothers tell Paroah, "Lagur ba'aretz banu/We came just to be sojourners ." (The Haggadah quotes from Parashat Ki Tavo in Devarim , which is a short synopsis of the events that occurred in Bereshit, which we refer back to) Ki ein mir'eh la'tzon asher la'avadecha/ We have no grazing area for our sheep. We're shepherds. We have no grazing area. And we're here temporarily. There's a very important lesson hiding in this little story about them not having a grazing area for their sheep. We know that the Egyptians worshipped sheep, and they did not like the shepherds who, so to say, did not necessarily treat sheep with the same respect that they did. Their sheep were not sheared or used as a commodity the way the Jewish people did. Yaakov and his family, going back to his time in Lavan's house, benefitted from and used sheep for their own purses. This was not the way the Egyptians worshipped them. So in truth, they were coming down to Egypt with a profession that would cause them to be distanced from the Egyptians. So we can see two areas where Hashem was preparing the road for them, decades in advance. Avraham was a shepherd, Yitzchak was a shepherd, Yaakov was a shepherd. They were all shepherds. The great Tzadikim are all called shepherds. David was a shepherd... Rabbeinu Bachya on this pasuk, and many others, explain that this is because a shepherd has time to think and meditate and contemplate, and that was a way to connect to Hashem, in a profession that allows for it. That is why they chose that profession. That's the simple, natural explanation. But now, as Hashem is always preparing the future, there are another two great benefits. Benefit number one is, when you're dealing with sheep on a day-to-day basis, cleaning them, and getting down and dirty, so to say, with them, you lose your respect for them, so there's no way you're going to treat them as a god. You know what they are. You're not going to worship them. So benefit number two is that the Egyptians would distance themselves from us. They were forced to separate from the Egyptians because they were not in the business that the Mitzrim appreciated. Look how Hashem was preparing from generations before, to put us in a situation that was right for us. When they came to Egypt, they might have said, " Oh my gosh, this is the worst possible profession! No one, no one likes this profession here." But in hindsight it was actually a protection. It might have caused us to be distanced, and that might be why we moved to the ghetto of Goshen and did not mix with everybody else. But that's what was necessary, and that's what was good for us.