Shabbat Table Talk

Parashat Vayehi

Erev Shabbat, 24 December 2004
Week of 19-25 December
Torah portion: Gen. 47:28-50:26
Haftarah: I Kgs. 2:1-12
Readings for Sun., 26 December: Sir. 3:2-6, 12-14; Col. 3:12:21; Mt. 2:13-15, 19-23

Our parashah this week opens with a deathbed scene, the only deathbed scene in the Torah. Jacob knows he is about to die. He has a last message that he wants to give to his sons. Families are complex units and none more so than Jacob’s. During such deathbed moments, past intra-family relationships are relived, both good and bad. Perhaps we have been there ourselves!

Vayehi…Ya’akov lived. This is a deathbed scene but it begins with life. These are the final moments of a dying person’s reflections on life. It is not surprising therefore that in Jacob’s case they become moments of blessing and prayer, moments of conversation with Joseph, and moments of reflection between himself and his other sons. Appreciation notices following a person’s death are usually from the perspective of how a person lived. When a colleague of mine died suddenly, the newspaper 'Appreciation' notice mentioned: “The qualities that drew people to him were his great love of (often irreverent) fun, his love of a good party, his generosity, and his openness and frankness.” He would never intentionally hurt anyone, and when he did so inadvertently it was always clear how deeply he regretted having done so. There was no subterfuge about him—what you saw was what you got—and he always treated people as he liked to be treated himself. On the evening of his passing there was thunder and lightning and monsoon-like rains. It was as if nature were marking the earthly exit of this man who was ‘big’ in so many ways.

Jacob too is marking his exit from this world. “Now Ya’akov called his sons and said: Gather round that I may tell you what will befall you in the aftertime of days. Come together and hearken, sons of Ya’akov, hearken to Yisrael your father” (49:1-2). The Hebrew word kara means both ‘call’ and ‘befall.’ Hence, a more literal translation of this text is, “Gather round, that I may tell you what will call to you.” Events are not just events that “befall” us, but events are a “call,” a “cry,” a pleading, an invitation for our response. Notice that Jacob twice repeats the word “hearken.” If events “call out” then they must be hearkened to. Hearken so that you may give a fitting response. Listen! Listen in on an event, a prophecy, a dream, and hear the call. When we look upon events as events that just happen to us, our behavior will be one of reaction and not response.

So what happened in this final scene? (48:15). Jacob blessed Joseph. The blessing was actually addressed not to Joseph but only to Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. So why does Scripture say that Jacob blessed Joseph? In order to show that there is no greater blessing for a father than the wish that his children should take after him and become good people. Genesis 48:15 is thus the greatest blessing their father Joseph could possibly have received. Every blessing bestowed by a person is at the core a prayer. Placing his hands in the solemn act, Jacob sees himself as God’s co-worker and as an essential link between the generations. A person cannot take God’s place. Notice Joseph’s own question in 50:19, “For am I in place of God?” But neither can God take the place of parents and grandparents in the shaping of the children’s future.

Jacob’s blessing has often served as a classic example of prayer. It begins with adoration; it proceeds to thanksgiving, and only then to the petition. Jacob speaks of the God of his Fathers; this is his link with the past. God is his Lord because of tradition, but not only because of tradition. He is his God also through personal experience and relationship. This remains the basic nature of Jewish worship. God is approached as the God of history, especially Jewish history. Beyond that, each generation has to rediscover for itself the God who was the God of the Fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, and for Christians, also the God of Jesus Christ.

Following the blessing to Joseph, Rachel’s death and burial resurface in Jacob’s consciousness. The depth of his love for Rachel is indeed expressed in the phrase “Rachel died on me in the land of Canaan…” (48:7.) For Ramban the plain explanation is that Jacob spoke in an apologetic tone pleading with Joseph not to be angry with him for this last request to bury him in the cave of Machpelah on the grounds that he had not buried his mother there. The cave of Machpelah was where Leah was buried. Joseph heeds the repetition of this dying wish of his father.

Joseph and Judah are the only two sons whom Jacob addresses directly. The others, with the exception of the first-born Reuben, are only spoken about. When the text turns to Judah it turns resolutely to the future. It is through him that God’s mysterious designs will be carried on. It was Judah’s tribe that survived destruction and deportation by the Babylonians, and provided continuity for the children of Israel. It was from Judah that the Jew took his name. It was from Judah that David—and ultimately Jesus—would be born.

Following Jacob’s death, difficulties emerged again between Joseph and his brothers. “When Yosef’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said: “What if Yosef holds a grudge against us…”(50:15). The Hebrew verb rah (to see) is interesting. In its usage in Ex. 20:15, “When all the people saw the thunder…,” the Sefat Emet maintains that each person of Israel saw the root of his or her own life force. Likewise for Joseph’s brothers the text is referring to an inward awareness of the consequences of their father’s death. Rashi explains: “They perceived the effects of his death on Joseph. They were used to dining with Joseph, the latter keeping on close terms with them out of respect for their father.”

As soon as Jacob died, he ceased to be on close terms with them; public affairs and the burden of state over-shadowed family matters. Each one repaired to his own business, the focal point of their family interest having disappeared” (Liebowitz). But the brothers did manage to say to Joseph, “Your father commanded before his death, saying…forgive your brothers’ offence and their sin…”(50:17). The commentators vary in their opinions as to whether or not Jacob left any such message to the brothers. Is it conceivable that he would have entrusted the brothers with such a message and left Joseph out? Rashi in his comments says that the brothers deviated from the truth for the sake of peace. However, as Leibowitz points out, the commentators do not deal with the problem of whether it is permissible to behave in this way.

We reach the finale of the Book of Genesis with the story of Joseph’s death as a kind of epilogue. We realize that behind the man—behind the friend of Pharaoh—stands God, the Friend of Abraham and the Guardian of Israel. Joseph’s greatness is in large measure due to his own awareness that he is serving a higher destiny. Egypt has been good to him; it has given him everything a man could hope for. Still, to him it represents exile: his home is elsewhere. It is to a land not yet his that his bones will be taken; as his people wander, he will wander; as they find a home, he will find his home with them.

Genesis/Bereshit opens, “In the Beginning God created…”(1:1). It is a Book that reaches from the creation of the world to the creation of the people of Israel. Now at Christmas time it can also be added, “In the Beginning was the Word…and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn.1:1,14).

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For Reflection [1] What events in your life have ‘called’ for a response, that you ‘hearkened’ to? [2] “A dying person sees both past and future with great clarity” (Fox). Has this been your experience?

Bibliography Fox, The Five Books of Moses (New York, 1995); Fritz, Genesis, 2002, Exodus, 2003 Lectures (Bat Kol, Jerusalem); N. Leibowitz, New Studies in Bereshit, Genesis (Lambda, N.Y.); RSV Bible (Oxford 1977); Plaut, The Torah, A Modern Commentary (New York, 1981).

This week’s teaching commentary, first published in 2002, was prepared by Mary O'Sullivan, rsm, Dublin, Ireland; Bat Kol alumna, 2001-2004.