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Parashat Vayechi
January 7, 2012
Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg
“Vayechi” means “he lived.” Interesting title for a parasha mostly about death and burial! But this is also a parasha about blessing the next generation.
As we wrap up the book of Genesis, Jacob is on his deathbed, and we have two scenes of blessing, one as he blesses his grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh, and the other as he blesses of each of his sons. Jacob recalls where the ancestors are buried, in the Cave of Machpelah, and he instructs his sons to bury him there. Earlier, he also recounts to Joseph how he buried his wife Rachel on the road to Bethlehem. At the end of the parasha, Joseph dies, and the last words of the book of Genesis are that “he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.”
As we finish reading this book, it is as if we are attending a funeral, or multiple funerals. Every single dead ancestor is mentioned, up to and including Joseph. What is the Torah trying to tell us here? What is the impact on the reader of recounting all of these deaths and burials and burial plots at the end of Genesis? What and who is really dying here?
Next week as we begin the book of Exodus, we will no longer tell the story of individual ancestors and their families; we will begin the story of a nation. What needs to be buried in order to begin this new phase? What will be the continuous thread? How will the blessings manifest themselves in the future?
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