Parshat
Vayechi
Yaakov has reached the age of one hundred forty seven
and realizes that the end of his days is approaching. He made Yosef
promise him that Yosef would not bury Yaakov in Egypt.
When Yaakov is very ill, Yosef brings his two sons Ephraim and Menashe to Yaakov for a blessing. Yaakov tells Yosef that Ephraim and Mensahe would be counted among Yaakov’s own sons. They would each be the head of their own tribe.
Yaakov stretches out his hands to bless the sons. He places his right hand on Ephraim’s (the younger) head and his left hand on Menashe. When Yosef tries to switch Yaakov’s hands, but Yaakov insists that this is the correct way since he has foreseen that the younger shall be greater than the elder.
Yaakov now calls all of his sons and gives them each a special unique prophesy about the future generations of each tribe. Yaakov commands his sons to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah. Soon after, Yaakov “returned to his people”.
Yosef weeps for his father and begins the preparation to bury his father as directed. He obtains Pharoahs’s permission to leave Egypt and travels to Canaan with his brothers. When they return, the brothers are afraid that Yosef will change his mind about providing for them, but Yosef assures them that they will be taken care of. Many years go by, and at the age of one hundred and ten, Yosef dies and is embalmed by the Egyptians. Before his death, he made his brothers promise that when they eventually leave Egypt, they will bring his body with them.
Rashi writes that Yaakov wanted to reveal the coming of the Messiah, but the Divine Presence withdrew from him. The sages comment that had Yaakov revealed the day of the coming of the Messiah, the Jews would lose their bechirah (free will) and act improperly (knowing that they could always repent in the days before the Messiah’s coming).
The question is, if Hashem foresaw all these troubles for Yaakov and his family, why did He allow Yosef to be sold into slavery? The sages say that even though Hashem knows what is going to happen, people have the free will to choose to do good or evil. The brothers did not know what Hashem wanted and so from their perspective, they committed a sin and needed to repent. Hashem new that Chava was going to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but didn’t force her to do so. With regard to teshuvah, the purpose of sin in the world is to cause teshuvah to elevate ourselves (our souls) to higher levels of growth and spirituality. That does not mean that sin is good. It simply means that if Hashem created the World, He created both good and evil. The sages write that Hashem says, “I created the yetzer hara (evil inclination), but I also created the Torah as its antidote”. We have studied previously that the Talmud says : “Where the baalei teshuvah (repentant perople)stand, even the tzadikim cannot stand”. This means that someone who has overcome adversity develops a greater inner strength than someone who has never encountered such adversity.
Some sages say that we are in the days near the coming of the Messiah. Why are they saying this now when Yaakov was forbidden? The explanation comes in the form of a story (a moshel or parable):
A father and son began a journey to a fair many miles from home. They had hardly gone a few miles when the son repeated began to ask, “When will we get there?” The father never responded even though the son kept asking over and over again. Finally, the father responds with an exact time of arrival. “Why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning?”, asks the son. “Because”, says the father, “Initially, we were very far away from our destination. Now that we are very close, I have a better idea of when we will arrive.” The Malbim ( Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel) was a nineteenth century sage who made such predictions and the story of the father and the son is attributed to him.
There is a midrash which states that on his deathbed, Yaakov was afraid that his sons would forget the ways of Hashem. To ease his concern, his sons declared "
”,
“Hear, O Yisroel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” To
this Yaakov replied “Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom
for all eternity (… 
)
. Thus, when we say the Shema twice daily, we are not only declaring
our allegiance to Hashem, but calling back to our patriarch Yaakov ,
assuring him that more than three thousand years later, we are still
the Children of Yisroel and we still follow the ways of the Torah and
Hashem.
The blessings of Ephraim and Menashe are still remembered by us to this day. Every Friday night, parents will bless their sons with the phrase, “May the Lord make thee like Ephraim and Menashe”. Why are these sons chosen for this blessing? The reason is that they were born in exile and maintained there identity despite of the overwhelming urge to completely assimilate. The sages also say that there was never any envy between the two brothers. Unlike the brothers of Yosef (who sold him into slavery) and the disciples of Rabbi Akiva (24,000 of whom were killed in a plague because they did not respect each other), these two brothers are the role models for our own children.
The sages say that the Israelites merited redemption from Egypt, for among other reasons, they kept their Hebrew names (see Sefer Shemot). We see this even with Queen Esther and the story of Purim. There are interesting parallels between Esther and Yosef. In fact, Hashem is never explicitly mentioned in the story of Esther (similar to the fact that Hashem never speaks directly to Yosef either). When the Jews triumphed over the wicked Haman, they renewed their faith in Hashem and Torah more so than when they received it the first time on Mt. Sinai!
The Book of Genesis describes more than the creation of the world. It describes our spiritual purpose in the world. Hashem says that the Jews should , “build for Me a Sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them”. Hashem desired a dwelling place in this world. He gave the Jews the Torah and built the first and second temples to achieve that goal. With the Temple no longer standing, we must make the world a better dwelling place for Hashem through Torah study, prayer, charity, and deeds of lovingkindness. As we shall see in the Book of Exodus, the descent in Egypt was only the beginning of a necessary process of refining the Jewish soul to prepare for the ultimate redemption. In this way, we progress from strength to strength. For that that reason, at the conclusion of each book of the Torah, we say:
When Yaakov is very ill, Yosef brings his two sons Ephraim and Menashe to Yaakov for a blessing. Yaakov tells Yosef that Ephraim and Mensahe would be counted among Yaakov’s own sons. They would each be the head of their own tribe.
Yaakov stretches out his hands to bless the sons. He places his right hand on Ephraim’s (the younger) head and his left hand on Menashe. When Yosef tries to switch Yaakov’s hands, but Yaakov insists that this is the correct way since he has foreseen that the younger shall be greater than the elder.
Yaakov now calls all of his sons and gives them each a special unique prophesy about the future generations of each tribe. Yaakov commands his sons to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah. Soon after, Yaakov “returned to his people”.
Yosef weeps for his father and begins the preparation to bury his father as directed. He obtains Pharoahs’s permission to leave Egypt and travels to Canaan with his brothers. When they return, the brothers are afraid that Yosef will change his mind about providing for them, but Yosef assures them that they will be taken care of. Many years go by, and at the age of one hundred and ten, Yosef dies and is embalmed by the Egyptians. Before his death, he made his brothers promise that when they eventually leave Egypt, they will bring his body with them.
And Yaakov called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together
that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the end of days.
Rashi writes that Yaakov wanted to reveal the coming of the Messiah, but the Divine Presence withdrew from him. The sages comment that had Yaakov revealed the day of the coming of the Messiah, the Jews would lose their bechirah (free will) and act improperly (knowing that they could always repent in the days before the Messiah’s coming).
The question is, if Hashem foresaw all these troubles for Yaakov and his family, why did He allow Yosef to be sold into slavery? The sages say that even though Hashem knows what is going to happen, people have the free will to choose to do good or evil. The brothers did not know what Hashem wanted and so from their perspective, they committed a sin and needed to repent. Hashem new that Chava was going to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, but didn’t force her to do so. With regard to teshuvah, the purpose of sin in the world is to cause teshuvah to elevate ourselves (our souls) to higher levels of growth and spirituality. That does not mean that sin is good. It simply means that if Hashem created the World, He created both good and evil. The sages write that Hashem says, “I created the yetzer hara (evil inclination), but I also created the Torah as its antidote”. We have studied previously that the Talmud says : “Where the baalei teshuvah (repentant perople)stand, even the tzadikim cannot stand”. This means that someone who has overcome adversity develops a greater inner strength than someone who has never encountered such adversity.
Some sages say that we are in the days near the coming of the Messiah. Why are they saying this now when Yaakov was forbidden? The explanation comes in the form of a story (a moshel or parable):
A father and son began a journey to a fair many miles from home. They had hardly gone a few miles when the son repeated began to ask, “When will we get there?” The father never responded even though the son kept asking over and over again. Finally, the father responds with an exact time of arrival. “Why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning?”, asks the son. “Because”, says the father, “Initially, we were very far away from our destination. Now that we are very close, I have a better idea of when we will arrive.” The Malbim ( Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yechiel Michel) was a nineteenth century sage who made such predictions and the story of the father and the son is attributed to him.
There is a midrash which states that on his deathbed, Yaakov was afraid that his sons would forget the ways of Hashem. To ease his concern, his sons declared "
”,
“Hear, O Yisroel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” To
this Yaakov replied “Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom
for all eternity (… )
. Thus, when we say the Shema twice daily, we are not only declaring
our allegiance to Hashem, but calling back to our patriarch Yaakov ,
assuring him that more than three thousand years later, we are still
the Children of Yisroel and we still follow the ways of the Torah and
Hashem. The blessings of Ephraim and Menashe are still remembered by us to this day. Every Friday night, parents will bless their sons with the phrase, “May the Lord make thee like Ephraim and Menashe”. Why are these sons chosen for this blessing? The reason is that they were born in exile and maintained there identity despite of the overwhelming urge to completely assimilate. The sages also say that there was never any envy between the two brothers. Unlike the brothers of Yosef (who sold him into slavery) and the disciples of Rabbi Akiva (24,000 of whom were killed in a plague because they did not respect each other), these two brothers are the role models for our own children.
The sages say that the Israelites merited redemption from Egypt, for among other reasons, they kept their Hebrew names (see Sefer Shemot). We see this even with Queen Esther and the story of Purim. There are interesting parallels between Esther and Yosef. In fact, Hashem is never explicitly mentioned in the story of Esther (similar to the fact that Hashem never speaks directly to Yosef either). When the Jews triumphed over the wicked Haman, they renewed their faith in Hashem and Torah more so than when they received it the first time on Mt. Sinai!
The Book of Genesis describes more than the creation of the world. It describes our spiritual purpose in the world. Hashem says that the Jews should , “build for Me a Sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them”. Hashem desired a dwelling place in this world. He gave the Jews the Torah and built the first and second temples to achieve that goal. With the Temple no longer standing, we must make the world a better dwelling place for Hashem through Torah study, prayer, charity, and deeds of lovingkindness. As we shall see in the Book of Exodus, the descent in Egypt was only the beginning of a necessary process of refining the Jewish soul to prepare for the ultimate redemption. In this way, we progress from strength to strength. For that that reason, at the conclusion of each book of the Torah, we say:
Chazak! Chazak! V’nitchazeik
Be Strong! Be Strong! And Grow in Strength!
