VaYechi

Bereishit 47:28-50:16

From Bereishit to Shemot: "The End of Something"

Julia Andelman, 5762

I am struck by the many elements of finality in Parashat VaYehi, which ends Sefer Bereishit. The parashah begins by informing us of Ya‘akov's imminent death. Before he dies, however, Ya‘akov gives lengthy instructions concerning his wish to be buried in Kena‘an ano not in Egypt; he blesses Yoseph's sons, raising their status to that of his own sons; and he delivers a lengthy poem concerning the destiny and character of his sons and the tribes which they will father. The end of the parashah then recounts Ya‘akov's death, followed almost immediately by the death of Yoseph, which constitutes the last pasuk of Sefer Bereishit.

When I was in high school I read a short story entitled "The End of Something", by Ernest Hemingway. Precisely because of its ambiguity, this title has come back to me many times over the years. I find that often during transitional moments it is unclear what exactly is beginning and what is ending. What phase of my life have I just completed? How will I look back on it later? Where will the new phase lead me, and how will it feel? Thus when I realize that it is the end of "something" in my life but I'm not sure exactly what, I am challenged to reflect upon and analyze my process and progress.

Similarly, the preponderance of endings in this week's parashah compels me to think about what is ending in each case. Since I will be addressing things on a more thematic level this week, I encourage you to look more deeply at the text and particularly at the events that I will not discuss here in order to develop your own reactions and ideas. I am first struck by Ya‘akov's death, to which many pesukim are dedicated and around which the whole parashah really revolves. Earlier in Sefer Bereishit, we learn of the deaths and burials of Avraham and Yitzhak in just a few short pesukim each. Sarah's death is also mentioned briefly, while we hear of the deaths of Rivkah and Leah only in this week's parashah, long after they occurred, when Ya‘akov mentions that they too were buried in the family burial ground of the Cave of Makhpeilah (49:31). The death of Rahel constitutes a slightly more significant narrative element, since she died in childbirth while traveling, but even there the account is relatively brief (35:16-20).

The sense of unusual finality and gravity surrounding Ya‘akov's death is further compounded by the subsequent death of Yoseph, who was the emotional center of Ya‘akov's life. (The first pasuk of the parashah states that Ya‘akov lived - "וַיְחִי" - for seventeen years in Egypt after reuniting with Yoseph before he died. The rabbis note that Ya‘akov had lived together with Yoseph for the same amount of time at the beginning of Yoseph's life, since he was sold at the age of seventeen (37:2). The numerical value of the word "וַיְחִי" is 34, the sum of 17 + 17, indicating that the years Ya‘akov spent with Yoseph were the only ones during which he felt complete and lived life to the fullest.)

Why does the narrative of Ya‘akov's death receive such preferential treatment? On a formal level, Prof. Nahum Sarna points out in the JPS Torah Commentary that Ya‘akov is the only patriarch to die outside of the land of Kena‘an and that his burial, therefore, requires extensive instructions, thus explaining the verbosity here (p. 323). But I would like to suggest that the great emphasis on Ya‘akov's death also signals a deeper shift in the currents, namely that the closing of Sefer Bereishit signifies the end of an era, symbolized by the death of the final patriarch. The family history is over; we are no longer dealing with one favored son in each generation but with a set of twelve soon-to-be tribes that will shortly form a clan and ultimately a nation. We will no longer hear the details of our "heroes'" lives-how they meet their spouses and build their fortunes, where they experience revelation and how they struggle with God. In fact, we will no longer know the Israelites on a personal level at all, with the exception of their leaders and other significant figures who surface in the exodus and the subsequent years in the desert. But even these leaders will not be familiar to us as were the original family members, whose conversations with their loved ones and with God we heard, whose lives we followed from beginning to end - with the one exception of Moshe. It is as if the "childhood" of the Israelite people is over: they have left home to experience adolescence in exile, returning to the Promised Land only when they have reached adulthood. Yoseph represents the cusp of this growth spurt, the transitional moment at the loss of childhood, and thus his death is the note upon which Sefer Bereishit ends; Sefer Shemot begins with a "new king who did not know Yoseph" ("וַיָּקָם מֶלֶךְ חָדָשׁ עַל מִצְרָיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַע אֶת יוֹסֵף", 1:8)- for we have left this era behind.

This liminal moment is evident in the long poem of berakhot (not exactly blessings here but more descriptions and prophesies) that Ya‘akov delivers to his sons (49:1-28). While I will not discuss this section in depth here, since it is probably the most difficult section of Sefer Bereishit, I will just note that if you look closely you will see that for the most part these berakhot relate to Ya‘akov's children not as individuals but as tribes, with just a few exceptions. Prof. Sarna notes that the berakhot for several of the sons are consistent with descriptions later in Tanakh that characterize the different Israelite tribes and their strengths and weaknesses (p. 331). At the close of this sequence of berakhot, Bereishit 49:28 states, "כָּל אֵלֶּה שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר" -- "All these were the tribes of Israel, twelve in number." This is the first reference in the Torah to the twelve tribes. What started as a parent's farewell to his children has become a compass pointing towards the future of a people.

[Note that a very similar sequence of berakhot arises in Parashat VeZot HaBerakhah, the last parashah in the Torah (chapter 33). Here too is a transitional moment: the Israelites are on the brink of entering Eretz Yisrael and will make the momentous shift in identity from a nomadic amalgam of clans to a settled nation. It is quite worthwhile to sit down and compare and contrast these two sets of berakhot when you have the time. How and why are the berakhot different or similar? What purpose does each set serve?]

In the spirit of the Torah, may we all learn to stop and take stock at key transitional moments of our lives, reflecting on where we have come from and preparing for whatever the future may have in store for us.