Shabat Table Talk
This week’s teaching commentary was prepared by Rev. Dr. Paul Mailackachalil, Director of Manna Bat Kol, Kerala, India. Bat Kol alumna 
Week of 27 December 2009 -2 January 2010
Torah Portion: Gen. 47:28-48:22
Haftarah: 1 Kgs 2:1-12
Readings for Sunday
Parashat Va-y’chi (“he lived,” refers to Jacob’s residing in Egypt) serves as a transition between the stories in Genesis and Exodus. It is both a conclusion of Genesis and foreshadowing of Exodus. Jacob wants to ensure the continuity of his family as his life comes to an end. Consequently, the parashah points both to the past and to the future. The past is represented by the patriarchal blessing which features the divine promises of progeny. We find a mutual relationship and intimacy of Jacob with his forefathers and his progeny.
Jacob, the son of Abraham was chosen by Yah. He is of the lineage of the great forefathers Abraham and Isaac. In and through Jacob the blessings of Yah bestowed on Abraham were fulfilled. Jacob acknowledges his relationship with his parents; on his death he wants to be laid to rest with them in peace and harmony. This shows that Jacob attains the full realization of life only in and through the relationhip with his ancestors. In his life we find that all his struggles were about finding harmony with Yah, wih his brother, and with his children. All his struggles were to find the face of Yah in his friends and in his foes. Along with concern for his family, his concern for the land is also highlighted in his thoughts. He insists that he must be laid to rest in the family tomb that was brought by Abraham in Canaan, the cave of Machpelah purchased from Ephron, the Hittite. The parashah foreshadows the Exodus: Jacob’s burial procession from Egypt to Canaan anticipates the Israelites’ journey out of Egypt. Thus his death becomes a uniting factor of the family, as well as, Yah’s divine plan concerning both the past and the future of Israel as a community.
Jacob blesses his children before his death. He thwarts the plans of humans in blessing Ephraim and Manasseh. It recalls the blessing story of Jacob himself where we find the younger son getting the blessing reserved to the elder son. In the blessings Jacob uttered over each of his descendents, we find the flow of the divine plan and the growth of divine mercy. Jacob has a blessing for each of them. It shows that Yah acts in and through Jacob, he was a seer and visionary. He rightly bears the name ‘Israel’, one who ‘battles with Yah.’ All his struggles were struggles with Yah and Yah helped him succeed. Jacob has become a blessing and he could see even in the face of Esau, his brother who was determined to murder him, to the face of Yah. He is able to have a blessing for every one. It seems Yah blessed whom Jacob blessed.
Joseph plays the leading role among his brothers. Here we see the ‘rejected stone becoming the corner stone’ (cf Ps 118:22). Joseph has matured through the strenuous journeys of his life and is able to take responsibility for his family. He is the one charged with Jacob’s burial instructions. Joseph makes sure that his father’s deathbed wish is carried out faithfully. Jacob makes Joseph swear that his dead body will be taken out of Egypt, the land of slavery, and into the land of promise. We find in the death bedwish of Jacob an aspiration and hope for the glorious future of Israelites. Jacob was sure that an exodus would take place and the people be freed from exile in Egypt. Though frustrated, Jacob was never disappointed, he always kept great hope in a promising future. Jacob seems somehow to keep a faith in life after death too. That is why he wants to be laid to rest with his parents after his death. He wants his children too to pass out of the land of Egypt into Canaan.
In the haftarah we read of David’s death and of his last instructions. He admonishes his son, Solomon, to take courage and to be a man. Solomon is asked to keep the mandates of Yah and the decrees written in the law of Moses. David, too, is said to be going the way of all humankind and just as Jacob he, too thinks of his forefathers and progeny. Here see find death as a time of meditation where man restoresf his horizontal relationhip with human beings and his vertical relationship with Yah. Both Jacob and David are great personalities of the past, who moulded the future and remain as shining stars on the horizon of human thought.
Great personalities like Jacob and David were conscious of their identity and their mutual link between past and future. They had their own blessings to share with their progeny as they had shared the blessings of their forefathers. Both were hopeful of a glorious future. They could hope against hope and thus they stand as an inspiration for us to be a blessing.
Sunday readings for the feast of the Epiphany: In the first reading from Third Isaiah, Yah asks the Israelites to rise up in splendour for the Light has come. It shows great hope of salvation even when darkness covers the earth. Nations shall walk by light and kings by believers’ shining radiance. Paul in the letter to the Ephesians says the mystery of God which was hidden, is revealed through Christ. The gospel from Matthew (the only gospel that mentions the event) speaks of the visit of the wise men who sought wisdom and found it in the babe born in manger. By describing the visit of these three officials to Bethlehem, Matthew reveals that even pagan Gentiles are affected by Jesus’ birth. Furthermore, the magi’s gifts, items used at the burial of a king, suggest that the child’s importnace involves his death.
For Reflection and Discussion: (1) Do we have a blessing for our descendents? (2) How do we feel connected to our forefathers and progeny? Do I feel as a stranger, alien and disconnected? (3) How hopeful we are in the world of rivalries and sectarianism?
Bibliography: Eskenazi & Weiss, The Torah – A Women’s Commentary (New York: URJ Press 2008); Gunther, The Torah: A Modern Commentary (New York: URJ Press 2005); Kehot, Chumash. Interpolated Translation for Parshah Chayei Sarah. Incorporates Rashi’s commentary and the works of Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (California 2008 ); Nehama Leibowitz, New Studies in Bereshit, (New York: Lambda Pub).
