Leaving a Legacy
Dec 18, 2010 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Text Study | Vayehi
What kind of legacy will we leave when we die? Much of our fear of dying is similar to Jacob’s, as described in this week’s Torah portion and further imagined in the midrash above. We worry that our ideals and our values will not survive among the next generation.
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Judaism and the Afterlife
Jan 6, 1996 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
The title of this week’s parasha is full of irony.
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Mercy and Truth
Dec 25, 1993 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
My father’s synagogue in the small Pennsylvania town of Pottstown was known by the name “Congregation Mercy and Truth.” As an irreverent youngster, more interested in sports than in matters of the spirit, I always thought it an odd name for a synagogue. Learning Hebrew befuddled me still more, because the Hebrew name of Hesed shel Emet (a merciful act of truth) didn’t fully correspond to the English. It was only years later that I discovered that the Hebrew name was based on a sage bit of midrash on a phrase used by Jacob at the beginning of this week’s parasha.
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Finding Peace at Home and Abroad
Jan 10, 1998 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
Sometimes the point of a passage hinges on what is missing rather than on what is said. I find this to be the case in the final exchange between Joseph and his brothers. The family has just returned to Egypt after burying Jacob in the cave of Machpelah in Hebron, and the brothers are overcome with fear of Joseph’s intentions. With their father gone, might Joseph now seek to punish them for what they had done to him years before? Was it only Jacob’s presence that had stayed his vengeful hand? The Torah uncharacteristically tells us what ran through their minds: “When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, ‘What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong that we did him!’ (Genesis 50:15)”
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The Archetype of the Firstborn
Jan 2, 1999 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
As the book of Genesis daws to a close, it circles back to the beginning. The displacement of the firstborn, the theme which has dominated the narrative throughout, is reiterated one last time. And this final reiteration is as arbitrary as the first. At the dawn of human history, it was the sacrifice of Abel, the younger son of Adam and Eve, that found favor in God’s eyes and not that of Cain, even though Cain was the first to turn to God in a spirit of thanksgiving (Genesis 4:3-4). Divine rejection quickly led to human aggression. The episode foreshadows the pervasive preference for the younger brother which becomes the connective tissue of all the patriarchal stories.
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Meaning in the Torah’s Layout
Dec 25, 1999 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
Everything is susceptible to midrashic interpretation, including the physical appearance of the Torah text. As you know from aliyot to the Torah, the text of the Torah scroll is not divided onto chapters or verses, as it is in our printed edition of the Torah, but rather into units separated from each other by empty space. When the Torah scroll is raised to be bound and the text is turned to the congregation for viewing, these breaks in the written script stand out conspicuously. The ancient text contains neither vowels nor punctuation, only words arranged in passages of different sizes defined by their context and set off by gaps in the writing.
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Children’s Blessings
Jan 13, 2001 By Melissa Crespy | Commentary | Vayehi
There’s a beautiful custom the Jewish people have on Friday evenings, of blessing our children before making kiddush. We place our hands on the head of each child, and for boys we say, “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” For girls we say “May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” And for all the children we add the Priestly Blessing which asks for God’s protection, blessing, and grace. As the mother of a much-longed-for child, I know the power of feeling that sweet child’s head under my fingers as I bless him and thank God for his existence in my life. I imagine that parents in many centuries before me have had the same depth of feeling as they paused each Shabbat to touch each child, bless him or her, and to thank God for the miracle in their hands.
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Portraits of Grief
Dec 29, 2001 By Ismar Schorsch | Commentary | Vayehi
At the end of a tumultuous life, Jacob dies what was once called “a good death.” Two things are granted him: the time to prepare for his death and the comfort of dying in the midst of family. In his 147th year, as his life forces ebb, he exacts a promise from Joseph not to bury him in Egypt, but in the ancestral burial ground in Hebron. He bestows on Joseph an extra portion over that of his brothers by elevating his sons, Ephraim and Menasseh, to a status equal to that of Joseph’s brothers. And he shares with each of his own sons portents of things to come, concluding with the repetition of his wish to be laid to rest in the cave of Machpelah. In short, Jacob dies unwracked by pain, with his wits about him and nothing left unsaid. The final verse of his biography conveys a sense of closure and completion: “When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and breathing his last, he was gathered to his people” (49:33).
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