Vayishlach Thoughts

 The last 17 years of Jacob’s life were spent in Egypt.  Like all tzaddikim the aging Patriarch was told of the moment of his death, so he gathered his children around his bedside as he was about to leave this world.  Yet before Jacob speaks to his children, he first blesses his grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh.   Young, innocent and untainted grandfather Jacob blesses them and to this day we bless out children in the same way, “May G-d make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.”

Then Jacob turns to his children.
Question: what would you do if you knew you had hours perhaps a day to live?
What would matter?
What you want to put in order?
What words would you need to speak?  Is there something that was left undone?  

Imagine the feeling and import of dying.
Is there a reason why G-d only reveals this secret to tzaddikim and keeps the rest of us in dark?
 
 The Torah reading tells the story of Jacob's final conversation with his children. With profound vision, moving prose and astonishing candidness Jacob speaks to each of his sons, heart-to-heart, just moments before he is about to pass on to the next world.
"Come and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel," Jacob begins. 
"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my power and the beginning of my might, foremost in rank and foremost in power. Water-like impetuosity -- you will not be preeminent, for you went up onto your father's bed; onto my couch and defiled it."
What does this mean?  If we go back a generation, we will remember the scene:

Reuben was impetuous as he sought consort with Bilhah his father’s concubine right after Rachel died.  Yet this was not the only wrong committed by the man.
His very name, Reuben, meaning, "see, a son," was bestowed upon him by his mother, "Because G-d has discerned my humiliation, for now my husband will love me."
The Torah then relates, "Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrakes, which he brought to his mother Leah (they were an aphrodisiac). Rachel said to Leah, 'Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.' But she said to her, 'wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?' Rachel said, 'Therefore, he shall lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.'"    As a result, Jacob spent the night with Leah instead of Rachel.
Here then are Jacob's final words to Judah:
"A lion cub is Judah; from the prey, my son, you elevated yourself. He [Judah] crouches, lies down like a lion, like an awesome lion, who will dare rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah; nations will submit to him until the final tranquility comes."
Since that blessing was bestowed on Judah his distant heir was David, royalty among the Jewish people belonged to Judah's tribe. The messiah himself, we are told, will be descendent of Judah.  Even our very name, "Jews" or, in Hebrew Yehudim, or in Yiddish, Yidden, is derived from the name Judah, or Yehudah. It was Judah who conferred his identity on the people.

The blessing continues, “His eyes are red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.”
The eyes and the mouth are the key organs for the body.  The eyes see and color everything.  If we like someone anything they do is good.  If we dislike someone they may do exactly as the person that we liked but  we will assume that they probably have ulterior motives.
Dan lacol adam l’kaf zachut, states Pirkay Avot.  “Judge every person righteously.”
Can you control your judgementalism?
And the mouth, what goes in is important that is why have laws kashrut. Equally important is what comes out why we have so many laws about controlling the tongue.
Like with one’s eyes …can we control even for this day, what goes in and comes out?