Vayihi
Midrash indicates that during the time that Jacob thought Joseph was dead Jacob was like an empty husk; he was bereft of both his son and his connection to God. Woodenly walking through his days, Jacob’s devastation was complete. His son was gone. The Shechinah left him. This double-pain is connected.
When Jacob thought that Joseph was dead, he also believed that he had failed in his life’s mission: it had been revealed to him that if his sons died before him, he would descend to Gehinom 1. With Joseph apparently dead, Jacob spent his years awaiting his bitter fate in the "Next Universe." That is why when the message arrived that Joseph was alive, the Torah declares: The spirit of Jacob their father lived."2 The Shechinah had returned to Father Jacob.
After twenty-two years, father and son reunite. The Torah describes this moment: "He (Joseph) saw him, he fell on his neck, and cried." 3
After twenty-two years Joseph could only weep. The tears of anger, regret and separation covered Joseph’s face and blurred his vision. What did Jacob do while Joseph cried? Rashi again provides an answer:
Jacob did not fall on the neck of Joseph. He did not kiss him. He did not weep. The Sages explain that Jacob was saying the Sh'ma. 4
Jacob's response to seeing his long-lost son was to say the Sh'ma? After not seeing his son for more than two decades -- remember that Jacob believed that Joseph was torn by wild beasts—Jacob had already come to terms with the death of his son and accepted his future consignment to Gehinom – Jacob uttered the Sh'ma! Why?
Why did Jacob say Shma Yisrael and not just cry like his son? Or why not simply give thanks to God? Even more, why did he add the words Shma Yisrael, “Listen Israel,” when Jacob could have just said, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. After all, who was Jacob speaking to (remember his new name was Israel)? Was he talking to himself?
No, Jacob is addressing a hopeful future. Until now, there was only a dismal end to the family line, a sudden end to his grandfather’s and father’s legacy. Having broken the line of transmission when Joseph died, Jacob expected only Gehinom for himself and a historical footnote for the nascent Jewish people.
That is why Jacob added the words "Listen Israel." He spoke to the future. Think of Jacob’s prayer as “Listen you yet-unborn-generations who shall be know by my name Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.”
D’var Aher:
The holy Torah reads as passages that flow from one column to the next. With no spaces or beaks in the long narrative they form a seamless line connecting passage streams. Invariably, when one Torah portion ends and another begins there is a space, a break in the rush of words. This is not true in Vayichi. There is no break. It is called satum, "closed."
In an oddity with the usual division of parshiot in the Torah last week’s portion ends and this one begins with no discernable break. Why is this portion satum? Rashi shares that the death of Jacob caused a closing of the eyes and hearts of Israel. The troubles of the oppression began. The nation that gave them sanctuary would now become their ruthless oppressor. As a result, Jacob wanted to reveal the end of days to his children to give them hope. As a seer he knew that he could decipher what would happen to his descendents. Jacob gathered his children around his bedside and share with them the future. As he opened his mouth to speak the prophecy evaporated, the future was closed to him. 5
The death of Jacob represented the end of an era. The patriarchal age was drawing to a close. A new generation would begin with no visible leader to guide them. Jacob felt an almost desperate need to reveal to his children what waited for them. He wished to give them hope.
And Jacob called his sons and said 'Gather, and I will tell you, what will happen to you in the end of days ..." 6
Jacob gathered his children around his bedside. Ailing, weak and frail from the visage of the Angel of Death nearing, Jacob wanted to inform them of the future. A momentary pause. A lapse in memory. Jacob became disoriented, confused. Instead, he blessed them. At the moment this revelation is to take place, Jacob's vision eludes him. This is how the Talmud describes the scene:
Jacob wished to reveal the ketz, the end of time, but the Shechinahleft him. He became bewildered. He was prescient just a moment before. What happened to him? Jacob said, "Perhaps there is a flaw in my children like Abraham who fathered Ishmael, or father Isaac who bore Esau." 7
In his blank confusion and emptiness Jacob did not fear dementia he agonized that there was something lacking in his children. Perhaps, Jacob thought, he had failed.
The Talmud then connects Jacob's fear with the errant offspring of his father and grandfather. Why should Jacob have expected that his children would be greater than the children of Abraham or Isaac? If Abraham could father an Ishmael and Isaac could father an Esau, why would Jacob expect that his family would emerge whole? If this was true then Jacob was the last of his lineage.
Jacob's sons respond to their father’s deep and real fear. They responded to his sudden silence by saying, "Sh'ma Israel Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad, Listen Israel, the Lord is Our God, the Lord is One." What the children affirmed before the last dying Patriarch was that they would be true to his moral path. Jacob would die and his tradition would extend beyond his life. At that moment, in response to his children, Jacob answered, "Boruch Shem Kevod Malchuto L'olam Va'ed, Blessed be the honorable name of His kingship forever and ever." Pesahim 56a
With these words, they assure their father that they truly accept the One God. There is, however, a deeper meaning behind their choice of declaration. By saying the Sh'ma, they are actually reminding their father of another episode in his life, and thus trying to communicate something very specific to Jacob. Let us look at that episode.
The Michilta teaches:
Israel declares "Listen Israel, the Lord is Our God, the Lord is One" and the Ruach HaKodesh, the "Holy Spirit," cries out and says from Heaven "Who is like Your Nation Israel, a singular nation on earth." [I Chronicles 17:7, Michilta Bishalach section 3]
Just as the Jews are dedicated to God, so God is dedicated to the Jewish people. The response of Heaven to our Sh'ma is the declaration of nationhood.
In response to his sons, Jacob shows he understands this as he responds: "Boruch Shem Kivod Malchuto L'olam Va'ed - Blessed be the honorable Name of His Kingship forever and ever."
This declaration was later said on Yom Kippur by the Jewish people, when they would hear the Divine Name, YHVH, pronounced by the High Priest, the utterance of the ineffable name being in itself a manifestation of the Shechinah.
When Jacob realizes that his children are complete, "one nation," he utters the words the entire nation will later use to respond to the Shechinah.
Now the Book of Genesis comes to its end. Slavery and eventual exodus from Egypt will follow, and destiny will lead the Jews to Mount Sinai. The Sh'ma will remain the "pledge of allegiance" of this nation. Over the generations, many will declare it in all sorts of situations, and the Shechinah will always take notice.
For some reason, God chose that the "end of days" not be revealed by Jacob. This was not an indication of unworthiness, either on the part of Jacob or of his children. Rather, it was an indication that some books must remain closed.
This ends the Book of Genesis.
Chazak chazak, v'nitchazek!
First, the Chumash Bereshit. While it begins with the glow of Creation, the smells of a brand new world, the aromas of Gan Eden, it ends with the death of Joseph and his embalment, the empitome of the vain Egyptian effort to preserve the lifeless body as if it were alive. The promise of the Promised Land is reduced to a Judenrein Canaan with all the Jews in Egypt, living in Goshen, and without reaching into the beginning of Shemot, and the doom that faces them after Joseph dies and his favors for Egypt are forgotten, we already feel that doom looming at the end of Bereshit.
Look at the disappointments, the failures in the first of the Five Books. Adam is expelled from the Garden. The Flood destroys Mankind. The Rainbow appears, and it is peaceful and beautiful, but Sodom is still destroyed by fire and brimstone. Noah the Saint gets drunk after the Flood. Abraham the first Oleh is also the first Yored. He has to prove his loyalty to God by agreeing to sacrifice his son. Isaac is ready to participate in this gory retreat from monotheistic ethics, and is blinded by Esau's venison, ready to give the blessings to the wrong son. Jacob, the heel,
has to use trickery, with the aid of his good mother Rebecca, to gain the blessings.
And he tries to bribe Esau into letting him and his family live.
Joseph and his brothers start off with fratricidal tension and betrayal, and even though there is a reconciliation at the end, all the members of the family remain in Egypt, and express their fealty to the Promised Land by burying Jacob there, and promising Joseph that his bones will be brought there later.
Could Joseph’s wish be far simpler? Might the dying prayer be a petition for hope?
According to the Piazetzner Rebbe, the great Rebbe of the Warsaw ghetto, we need to read Rashi differently. According to him, Rashi reads, bikeish liglot et haketz. He read it as “liglot”, not “ligalot”. Liglot means “to banish”, while ligalot means “to reveal”. They are both spelled exactly the same way but you can read it according to the Piazetzner, it provides a new shaft of light on the end of Jacob’s life?
Why did the Torah not leave the regular gap of white parchment before this week’s portion? Illumined by the Piazetzner, Rashi explains that it was because Jacob wanted to banish the ketz, the “end”, which also means “finitude” or “contraction”. In other words, Jacob wanted to banish this finite existence. Jacob wanted to impart to his children the secrets of the white spaces of the Torah; the pre-verbal, pre-existential layers of reality. But Jacob was “closed” from doing so; it quickly became revealed to him that it was the will of God that his children find that out on their own; that they discover these truths through their own efforts, through the actions that they take in this world.
the Rashbam (47:29) says that the true beginning of our parsha is 47:27, (Vayeishev Yisroel etc.), but the congregations did not want to end parshas Vayigash with the details of how Pharoh became owner of the land.
1 Rashi on 37:35
2 Genesis 45:27
3 Genesis 46:29
4 Rashi on 46:29
5 Rashi 47:28 and Breshit Rabba 96:1
6 Genesis 49:1-3
7 Pesahim 56a
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