Addict Torah: VaYehi 2023/5784

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Rabbi Mark Borowitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 78

This week’s parashah is Va-yechi (and he lived). Again, as in Chayei Sarah, the Torah teaches us that when someone is about to die, we talk about that person’s life and living, not his or her death. The lesson here is that we have to live all of our life; we are obligated to stay present and keep growing until we die. Too many of us stop living long before we die physically. We stop living by not continuing to grow and learn. We stop living by staying stuck in the past. We stop living by being consumed by resentment and entitlement.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 293

In later Hebrew, the words for this phrase 'steadfast loyalty' come to mean 'true kindness' (hesed v'emet). Jewish tradition defines 'true kindness' as a good deed for which no reciprocal favor can be anticipated, such as tending to the needs of the dead.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 822, Kindle Edition

But the kindness shown to a dead person—in the form of burial and a eulogy—is always true kindness. In addition, it is disinterested; one expects no favors from the dead ( Itturei Torah ).

Rashi on Genesis 47:31

(1) וישתחו ישראל AND ISRAEL PROSTRATED HIMSELF — The proverb says: Though the lion is king “when the fox has his time, bow to him” (Megillah 16b). (2) על ראש המטה UPON THE BED’S HEAD — He turned towards the Divine Presence (the Shechinah) (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 3). They (the Rabbis) inferred from this that the Shechinah is above the pillow of a sick person (Shabbat 12b). Another interpretation of על ראש המטה He bowed himself in thanks FOR HIM WHO WAS THE CHIEF (ראש) OF HIS CHILDREN — in thanks because his children were heart-whole with God, and none of them was wicked, for even Joseph who was a king and moreover had been a captive amongst heathen peoples yet maintained his righteousness (Sifré ואתחנן 31).

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson, The Everyday Torah, p. 80-81, Kindle Edition

Yet Jacob turned to Joseph, who was neither the eldest nor the head of the brothers. Why did the aged Jacob behave in such a strange way? Answers the midrash, "Because Joseph had the means of fulfilling [his wishes]." Jacob called Joseph because he was simply the most suited for the purpose Jacob had in mind. Never mind that he lacked the title (of bekhor). Forget that he didn't have the position of leader of the family...Perhaps this can serve as a role model for us as well. When we have a need, we should find the person with the attributes of soul, wisdom, and concern suitable to help us solve our problem or to achieve our goal. That doesn't always require a title. I remember my first day in rabbinical school. Nervous beginning students, we met with the then-dean, Rabbi Joel Roth. Rabbi Roth told us to look around the room, saying that the people with whom we were studying were the greatest spiritual resource we would find during our studies and later on in life. I remember how struck I was by his wisdom, how true it has remained to this day. My peers, people who were going through what I was experiencing, were among the most helpful then and have remained lifelong friends since...Rabbi Roth was reminding us, as does the example of Jacob calling Joseph, to look to any available source for help, not simply to the favored few with titles, degrees, or status.

Bava Metzia 87a, 15

Until Jacob, there was no illness leading up to death; rather, one would die suddenly. Jacob came and prayed for mercy, and illness was brought to the world, allowing one to prepare for his death, as it is stated: “And one said to Joseph: Behold, your father is sick” (Genesis 48:1), which is the first time that sickness preceding death is mentioned in the Bible.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 294

Jacob on his deathbed remembers two incidents from his long and full life: When he was young, God appeared to him and told him that he would become a special person; and Rachel, the woman he loved, died young.

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire, location 8396, Kindle Edition

Maharal’s assumption is that the personal dramas of the patriarchs and matriarchs are always indicative of metaphysical reality. Here, he touches on the classic philosophical problem of the One and the Many, and proposes a tragic acceptance of this world as one of multiple, conflicting versions of truth. Without a single indubitable focus, human beings naturally tend to “other gods,” to “rival wives.” This, Rachel argues, is in the very nature of this world, as God made it, and as she has experienced it, in her most intimate knowledge of “otherness.” This is not a world of perfect love, of pure forms, but rather one of diffracted, partial relationships, of kaleidoscopic, shifting appearances.

Michael Carasik, citing Abarbanel, The Commentator's Bible: Genesis, p. 423

One schechem more, alluding to the city of Shechem, where Joesph would be buried.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 902, Kindle Edition

48:22. one shoulder over your brothers. This expression appears to refer to Joseph’s getting two tribes while each of his brothers gets only one. But it also puns on the word for shoulder, Hebrew š kem (Shechem). Shechem is the name of the city that will one day be the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and it is located in one of the Joseph tribes (Manasseh).

Rabbi Mark Borowitz, Finding Recovery and Yourself in Torah, p. 82

Our tradition teaches us to bless our male children, saying, “May you be like Ephraim and Manasseh.” The sages teach us that this is said because these two stayed true to the tenets of Judaism even though they were raised in Egypt. They welcomed the stranger, they saw each person as a holy soul, and they lived with compassion and justice. Each of us needs to remember to bless those around us each week, each day, each moment.

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 510-511, Kindle Edition

Joseph received two gifts from his father. The first was Shechem, the city that Jacob had defended, with sword and bow, against the depredations of the Amorite kings when they tried to take revenge upon his sons for the outrage committed there...Shechem was his reward, because, with his chastity, he stemmed the tide of immorality that burst loose in Shechem first of all. Besides, he had a prior claim upon the city. Shechem, son of Hamor, the master of the city, had given it to Dinah as a present, and the wife of Joseph, Asenath, being the daughter of Dinah, the city belonged to him by right.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation, vol. 1, p. 339-340

To be sure, he had all the trappings of earthly success – “God has made me fruitful” – but Egypt had become “the land of my affliction.” Why? Because it was exile. There is a sociological observation about immigrant groups, known as Hansen’s Law: “The second generation seeks to remember what the first generation sought to forget.”[2] Joseph went through this transformation very quickly. It was already complete by the time his second son was born. By calling this child Ephraim, he was remembering what, when Menasheh was born, he was trying to forget: who he was, where he came from, where he belonged. On this reading, Jacob’s blessing of Ephraim over Menasheh had nothing to do with their ages and everything to do with their names. He knew that the stay of his family in Egypt would not be a short one.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 341, Kindle edition

Abravanel offers an explanation of this extraordinary flourish of rhetoric that makes some sense of a difficult text. There are four reasons that Ya’akov calls together his sons, Abravanel says: (a) to bestow blessings on them; (b) to rebuke those who have transgressed; (c) to foretell the future of the family and, by extension, the tribes of Israel; and (d) to bequeath to the sons (and the tribes that will spring from their loins) specific parts of Eretz Yisrael.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 341

Given the degree to which this speech is about the future rather than the present or past, it should be no surprise that, as Abravanel reads it, Ya’akov’s larger purpose is to avert future quarrels over the kingship of Israel by explaining to the twelve sons which of their virtues and deficiencies leaves them ill- or well-suited for the throne. Only one can rule, and Ya’akov’s final act—other than securing Yosef’s promise that he will be reunited with Avraham, Sarah, Yitzkhak, and Rivkah in the cave of Makhpelah—is to decide whose line will have that distinction...It would seem at first glance that Yehudah’s dalliance with Tamar might have disqualifed him from the kingship, but in some ways it is his finest moment. After all, he publicly acknowledged his sin and took responsibility for it in a way that few of the characters in Bereishit do.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 304

His bow stayed taut Joseph remained steadfast in the face of adversity and drew his strength from God, who championed his cause.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 304

Jacob...Israel Do these refer to the Patriarch - or to the people Israel? The ambiguity is probably deliberate. The Patriarch and the people are now as one.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 305

blessings of the heaven above/Blessings of the deep that couches below Some of Joseph's remarkable achievements came about because he was fortunate to be blessed with good qualities from birth. At the same time he encountered chaos and misfortune and overcame them.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 803, Kindle Edition

The entire cosmos, from the heavens above to the primeval waters below, participates in the blessing [of Joseph by Jacob].

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire, location 7916, Kindle Edition

Dialectically opposed to this, however, is the sense of spiritual power that clearly emanates from him, as he allocates blessings and destinies to his children and grandchildren. They wait breathlessly, silently, on his words. Even Joseph’s one protest at the apparent error—as Jacob crosses his hands over his grandsons’ heads (48:14)—is informed by the urgency of his desire to waste no drop of the precious substance that Jacob is dispensing. The patriarch is at the center of a force field called “blessing”: the position of his hands, the words he articulates, create a reality that his children regard with great awe, even with trepidation.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 823, Kindle Edition

blessing each one (49:28). How could Jacob have “blessed” Simeon and Levi, given the harsh words he directed toward them (49:5–7)? One interpreter of this verse suggests that Jacob’s rebuke of his sons was, in fact, a blessing. In cursing their anger specifically—rather than his sons—Jacob sought to temper it, and to encourage them to distance themselves from their inappropriate behaviors. In this sense, his criticism was intended as a blessing, offering his sons a chance to renounce their past actions and become better people (Itturei Torah).

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 306

Jacob is described as 'lifting his feet' to begin his journey after his dream of the ladder at BethEl. His journey will have taken him to three countries. He has loved, he has fought, he has known bereavement. Now, after many years, Jacob can finally stop wondering and struggling...We can see him as the examplar of the flawed person who can outgrow his flaws. He seeks contentment and never succeeds in finding it because there is always one more challenge to overcome. To be a Jew is to be a descendant of Jacob/Israel.

Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire, location 8011, Kindle Edition

Jacob—so much more prolific than they, with an expansive vitality expressed in thirteen children—is concerned with the question of coherence. His terror is precisely a terror of the wasted, the excess, the unusable. The ultimate compliment that is paid him in midrashic rhetoric—“His bed was whole, complete”—comes to symbolize a life fully used, energies fully metabolized, its parts tending toward integral meaning. But the compliment carries with it an undertow of anxiety: on his deathbed, Jacob is still unsure about the project of his life.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 812, Kindle Edition

This is a state funeral. In fact, the Canaanites perceive it as “a solemn mourning for Egypt” (v. 11)

Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, p. 522-523, Kindle Edition

Moreover, Pharaoh issued a decree in all parts of the land menacing those with death who would not accompany Joseph and his brethren upon their journey to Canaan with their father's remains, and accordingly the procession that followed the bier of Jacob was made up of the princes and nobles of Egypt as well as the common people.

Midrash Tanchuman, Vayechi 17:5

And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, etc. (Gen. 50:15). What did they see that frightened them? As they were returning from the burial of their father, they saw their brother go to the pit into which they had hurled him, in order to bless it. He blessed the pit with the benediction “Blessed be the place where He performed a miracle for me,” just as any man is required to pronounce a blessing at the place where a miracle had been performed in his behalf. When they beheld this they cried out: Now that our father is dead, Joseph will hate us and will fully requite us for all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying: Thy father did command … “So shall ye say unto Joseph: Forgive” (Gen. 50:15–16). We have searched the entire Scripture and are unable to find any place where Jacob uttered this remark. This statement is introduced to teach us the importance of peace. The Holy One, blessed be He, wrote these words in the Torah for the sake of peace alone.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 923, Kindle Edition

50:16. Your father had commanded before his death. We never find out whether Joseph—or his brothers—ever told Jacob what his brothers did to him. The brothers claim that Jacob commanded that Joseph should forgive them, but we do not know if they are making this up or not. Either way, it is the right message: after a parent’s death, the children should try to heal any old wounds and draw close.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 818-819, Kindle Edition

Joseph’s weeping and the brothers’ prostrating themselves and calling themselves “your slaves” is a replay of the earlier meetings between Joseph and his brothers (especially 45:1–5). But this time, at last, the relationship is wholly repaired: The brothers are fully reunited, not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. The next step, taken at the beginning of Exodus, is for this family to become a people.

CCAR, The Torah: A Women's Commentary, p. 831

There’s Only One Question - By Merle Field

And the only answer

is to keep crying,

to cry daily,

the way one

is supposed to

write daily

or pray daily,

as a discipline.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 924, Kindle Edition

50:18. we’re yours as slaves. This is the final ironic recompense in the chain of deceptions in this family. The brothers who once sold Joseph as a slave now say that they will be his slaves.

Richard Elliott Friedman, Commentary on the Torah, p. 926, Kindle Edition

50:21. he spoke on their heart. We have seen that each act of deception since Jacob led to another deception that came as a recompense. Thus deceptions and hurts within a family can go on in a perpetual cycle. In order to bring it to an end, one member of the family who is entitled to retribution must stop the cycle and forgive instead. That is what Joseph does here.

Rabbi Shai Held, The Heart of Torah, volume 1, loc. 2445, Kindle edition

Joseph may well have harbored fantasies of hurting his brothers and exacting revenge—and here, finally, is his chance. But with his father dead and his brothers at his mercy, what does he do? He insists that punishment is God’s prerogative rather than his. And then, again, the poignant refrain: “He comforted them and spoke kindly to them” (literally spoke to their hearts, vayedaber al libam) (50:21). Joseph and his family have discovered the power of comforting speech. Sarah’s failure is Joseph’s success; what she forgets, he at last remembers. Fully conscious of his power to wound those who have wounded him, Joseph instead heeds a commandment Moses will soon receive: not to take revenge or bear a grudge (Lev. 19:18). Sometimes people achieve greatness through the use of power. But in this remarkable moment, Joseph models a different kind of greatness: the majesty of restraint.

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson, The Everyday Torah, p. 81-82, Kindle Edition

But now that Jacob was dead, what was to become of them? The Torah tells us that Joseph hastened to reassure his terrified siblings: "He comforted them and spoke to their hearts." Rabbinic tradition focused on that peculiar and striking phrase, speaking to their hearts. Whatever does that mean? Rashi, basing his commentary on Midrash B'raisheet Rabbah, explains that these were "words which were accepted by the heart." Joseph was able to put himself in his brothers' shoes, to imagine their terror and their weakness. Rather than exploiting their panic, rather than giving a lecture, he chose his words so that his brothers would be able to understand what he wanted to say, so that the comfort he intended would be received. So often, we speak without considering how our listeners might hear our words. In getting it off our chest, we don't pause to reflect on what we have now dumped on the chests of others. Not so Joseph. He knew that his brothers needed assurance that he understood their fears and needed to know that he shared their estimation of what ought to happen. In English, we call that ability empathy. The rabbinic phrase is "what comes from the heart goes straight to the heart." The only comfort Joseph could offer was to open his heart to his brothers. He truly listened to their concerns, and then he, in turn, shared his heart with them. From the depths of his heart to the depths of theirs, no misunderstanding, no distortion, no animosity could intrude. In acting the way he did, Joseph offered a role model for us all to follow.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation, p. 342

As we have already discussed, this final scene is the resolution of one of the central problems of the book of Genesis: the continuing theme of sibling rivalry. A book replete with tensions, hatred, and competition ends with forgiveness. This closing is essential to the biblical drama of redemption, for if brothers cannot live together, how can nations? And if nations cannot live together, how can the human world survive? Only now, with the reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers, can the story move on to the birth of Israel as a nation, passing from the crucible of slavery to the constitution of freedom as a people under the sovereignty of God.

RA & USCJ, Etz Chayim: Torah and Commentary, p. 310

The last words of the Book of Genesis, 'a coffin in Etypt,' foreshadow the events of the opening chapter of Exodus, the enslavement of the Hebrews, the killing of the Hebrew babies, and the birth of Moses who will be places in a coffin-like basket in the Nile.

George Robinson, Essential Torah, p. 343, Kindle Edition

Until now, the Torah has told the story of this one family, through several generations, the Chosen Ones of God. Now, they must begin the hard work of forging a nation from these beginnings. The prologue is over. Now the story of Am Yisrael—the central story of the Torah—can begin.

Rabbi Jill Hammer, Torah Queeries, p. 68, 68, 71

The “beginning of all things” has become a steady progression of generations, and as one generation departs, it offers wisdom to the new generation that arises. The story continues because those who hear the story remember...Memory is at the center of Parashat Vayechi. The stakes are high, for if the people do not remember, they will blend into Egyptian life, and the unique blessings of the descendants of Abraham and Sarah will be lost. Because of this danger, Jacob does his best to remember—though he is not the one who ensures the memory and continuity of the tribe. Jacob has given his children his good wishes, his blessing, even his anger, but it is Joseph—the queerest of all Genesis characters—who gives the newborn tribe the gift of memory...As we read the “end” of Parashat Vayechi—“Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years and was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt”—we see that it is not an end at all. Hundreds of years after his death, Joseph will summon his people to remember their ancestors, their past, their story. His coffin will be borne in honor alongside the Ark that bears the presence of the Shekhinah. He will be buried in the land of Israel, in the city of Shechem—the city where, long ago, he began his search for his brothers. Joseph teaches us that remembering is as important as physical survival in establishing identity.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Covenant and Conversation, vol. 1, pp. 345-348

...we tend to take for granted the idea of the asymmetry of time: The future is open, but the past is closed. Before us lie a series of paths. Which we take depends upon our choice. Behind us lies the history of our previous decisions, none of which we can undo. We cannot go back in time. That is a logical impossibility. We can affect what is yet to be; but, in the words of the sages, “What has been, has been,” and we cannot alter it. With or without repentance, the past is surely immutable. All of this is true, but it is not the whole truth. The revolutionary idea behind Joseph’s ...words is that there are two concepts of the past. The first is what happened. The second is the significance, the meaning, of what happened. In ancient Israel a new concept of time was born. This did more than change the history of the West; in a sense, it created it. Until Tanakh, time was generally conceived as a series of eternal recurrences, endlessly repeating a pattern that belonged to the immutable structure of the universe. The seasons – spring, summer, autumn, winter – and the lifecycle – birth, growth, decline and death – were a reiterated sequence in which nothing fundamentally changed. This is variously called cyclical, or cosmological, or mythic time... ...This conception of time produces a deeply conservative philosophy of life. It justifies the status quo. Inequalities are seen as written into the structure of the universe. All attempts to change society are destined to fail. People are what they are, and the world is what it is always been. At best this view leads to resignation, at worst to despair. There is no ultimate meaning in history... The Jewish understanding of time that emerges from Tanakh, in contrast, was utterly revolutionary. For the first time people began to conceive that God had created the universe in freedom, and that by making man in His image, He endowed him too with freedom. That being so, he might be different tomorrow from what he was today, and if he could change himself, he could begin to change the world. Time became an arena of change. With this, the concept of history (as opposed to myth) was born.,,Here is how the British historian J.H. Plumb puts it in his book, The Death of the Past: "The concept that within the history of mankind itself a process was at work which would mould his future, and lead man to situations totally different from his past, seems to have found its first expression among the Jews…. With the Jews, the past became…an intimate part of destiny and an interpretation of the future…. The uniqueness of this concept lay in the idea of development. The past was no longer static, a mere store of information, example and events, but dynamic, an unfolding story…. This sense of narrative and of unfolding purpose bit deeply into European consciousness." And what applies to nations, applies also to individuals. We live life forwards, but we understand it backwards... It was the gift of Judaism to the world to discover time as a narrative... That too was the profound philosophical-spiritual truth Joseph conveyed to his brothers. By your repentance – he intimated to them – you have changed the story of which you are a part. The harm you intended to do ultimately brought about good. So long as you stayed the people prepared to sell a brother into slavery, none of that good could be attributed to you, but now you have transformed yourself through teshuva, and so have transformed the story of your life as well. By your change of heart you have earned the right to be included in a narrative whose ultimate outcome was benign. We now see the profound overarching structure of the book of Genesis. It begins with God creating the universe in freedom. It ends with the family of Jacob on the brink of creating a new social universe of freedom which begins in slavery, but ends in the giving and receiving of the Torah, Israel’s “constitution of liberty.” Israel is charged with the task of changing the moral vision of mankind, but it can only do so if individual Jews, of whom the forerunners were Jacob’s children, are capable of changing themselves – that ultimate assertion of freedom we call teshuva. Time then becomes an arena of change in which the future redeems the past and a new concept is born – the idea we call hope.