Bereshit 47:28 – 50:26
Miriam Klimova
Every end is a new beginning. And this beginning will also have its end one day.
It’s hard for us to accept serious and difficult changes in our lives, to find the strength to determine our next steps, it is hard to deal with our emotions. Jewish tradition teaches that we should never succumb to despair and it tells us that we should bless for the bad things just the same as we bless for the good things (Babylonian Talmud 60b):
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”חַיָּיב אָדָם לְבָרֵךְ עַל הָרָעָה כְּשֵׁם שֶׁמְּבָרֵךְ עַל הַטּוֹבָה”[/perfectpullquote]
That’s how the Book of Bereshit ends – its final parsha concludes two life stories – of Yaakov and Josef, whom we’ve known from the moment when their mothers were pregnant with them up until the time of their deaths. We have set out on an emotional journey encompassing life’s ups and downs along with them. We have shared their bitterness and we saw how joy overshadowed their sorrows.
Parasha Va-yechi starts with a description of Yaakov’s final days, his final moments. His life flashed before his eyes. Yaakov is the third and perhaps the most complicated among the patriarchs. He was a figure full of paradoxes and contradictory emotions. It seems that his soul encompassed good, but sometimes also evil, and his body was ruled alternately by his mind and his emotions.
Already at a young age he rebelled against the “law of birthright”. He stole the blessing intended for his older brother. He was punished for this by many years of exile from his parents’ home and by a father-in-law who turned out to be an even greater fraudster than himself. In the same generation we see a parallel between two stories: since you can mistaken the younger brother for the older one – Yaakow and Esau, it means that the older sister can also be mistaken for the younger one – Lea and Rachel.
In Judaism the status of the firstborn entailed a special relationship not only with the parents and brothers, but also with God. The firstborn was viewed as holy, as someone on the sidelines, belonging to God. Although at first glance it seems that the birthright is decided in a natural way – the first one wins – the Torah text shows that neither God nor the forefathers were automatically bound by it. There was always a freedom of choice, or at least the Torah is trying to make it look this way by describing on many occasions the motif of the youngest son being preferred over the oldest one.
Yaakov rebels against the “law of birthright” yet another time when he elevates Yosef, the son of his beloved woman, above his older brothers, the sons of Lea. But for this kind of discrimination, for having a “favorite” among his children, he will be punished by many years of sorrow and mourning after his beloved son.
Va-yechi Yaakow – “Yaakov lived”. The Romans would also say, when informing about the death of a distinguished figure – vixit, “he lived”. About how many people can we actually say that they’ve truly lived? All the elements were there in Yaakov’s story, he got to live his life to the fullest, as the one who after a struggle with God’s messenger or with God Himself heard:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Bereshit 32:29)[/perfectpullquote]
The twists and turns in his life and the changes in Yaakov-Israel’s identity reach a culmination in our parsha. Even the text itself emphasizes that when it calls him alternatively Israel and Yaakov, sometimes even in the same verse.
Yaakov himself claims that he did not have a happy life, and he can’t hide his deep disappointment with his three oldest sons. But now, as his death is near, he envisions a hope for a bright future. He is old and ill, but his mind is hard as a rock. When Yosef comes to visit him in the company of his two sons, suddenly something strange happens: Yaakov says:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“Now, your two sons… shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh…”.
(Bereshit 48:5)[/perfectpullquote]
He is still filled with love towards Yosef, the son of his beloved Rachel, so on his deathbed he decides to “formally” adopt Ephraim and Menashe, just as if they were his own sons. Why? They will both inherit as independent tribes in the Land of Israel, and therefore Yosef will indeed receive “twice” as much as his brothers, as if he were the oldest of Yaakov’s sons.
In addition, Yaakov yet again – for the third time – rebels against the “rules of birthright”: he gives the blessing intended for Menashe, Yosef’s oldest son, to Ephraim, the younger brother. He puts his right hand on Ephraim’s head and his left hand on Menashe’s head.
(Jacob blessing Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh by Benjamin West)
Jacob sums up his life, he prepares his last will, he utters his final words to his two grandchildren and also to all of his twelve sons. It’s not the first time when we see a father blessing his sons before his death: Itzchak blessed Yaakov and he also did it before dying. We might think that a blessing is something symbolic. But the Torah makes it clear for us that a blessing is something really important. Otherwise, why would Yaakov steal his brother’s blessing? Otherwise, why would he deliberately bless Ephraim with the firstborns’ blessing? In Biblical times blessings and curses were strictly connected with the belief in the power of words. In some cultures it was believed that such formulas and actions have an independent and inevitable magical influence. In Judaism such words were in fact a plea to God, whose calling was to confirm them; they had an influence on him.
Times have changed and we no longer view blessings as having magical power, but rather as an expression of hope, as words of encouragement. But it’s worth to learn one important conclusion from our parsha – that human words have great power. No, not a magical or prophetic one, and yet each one of us can bring a smile on someone else’s face with our words, but each one of us can also cause unimaginable pain with our words. Words can destroy us, but they can also build a whole world.
Maybe there be a will…. that we never run out of good words!…
And that’s how we end the book of Bereshit, the book which we started with the words:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Bereshit 1:3)[/perfectpullquote]
Shabbat Shalom!
Translated from Polish by: Marzena Szymańska-Błotnicka
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