Parsha Vayechi (Gen.47:28-50:26) begins with the words, "And Jacob lived” but much like Parashat Chayei Sarah, this Torah portion is about the death of a righteous soul. Both had lived remarkable dynamic lives even though their days were filled with joy and hardship. Jacob’s happier times were spent with Joseph, the son he cherished and tutored in the secrets of sacred knowledge for 17 years, until the lad was sold into slavery.
When Jacob immigrated to Egypt, he spent his final 17 years in contentment thanks to Joseph. That’s a total of 34 blissful years, alluded to in the phrase, “And Jacob lived”, which carries a numerical value (gematria) of 34 (see David Woolf’s Torah IQ - The Great Torah Riddle Book).
In Egypt, Jacob experienced a kind of elder statesman status in the eyes of the Egyptians, so much that his burial was treated like a state funeral with much ceremony. The procession included all the leaders of Egypt, the household of Pharaoh, and the heads of the tribes of Israel. But according to the midrash, Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer, Jacob’s burial in Hebron was marred by unhappy circumstances with the arrival of his errant brother, Esau, who barred entrance to the Cave of Macpelah.
As the eldest son of Isaac, Esau claimed ownership of the burial site, ignoring the fact that, years earlier he sold the rights to Jacob. Joseph dispatched his swift brother, Naphtali to fetch the deed which he stored for safekeeping. Esau continued to rail against his deceased brother while the mourners looked on. Among them was Chushim, from the tribe of Dan. Cushim was deaf and became enraged at the sight of such a desecration of Jacob’s burial. Sword in hand, he ran to Esau, cutting off his head which fell onto the kever of Isaac and rolled into his lap. Esau’s clan picked up the headless corpse and departed. Such accounts are always ripe with lessons for us. I have wondered if the real message is that today’s enemies of Israel are those led by Esau's spirit who wants to eternally remain “ahead” of Jacob…
Rashi tells us this sidra is "closed" because there are no spaces between Vayechi and the previous parasha. This aspect of being closed can be seen in much of the narrative in Parashat Vayechi. It signals the closing of an era with the deaths of Jacob and Joseph which saw a reversal in Egypt’s regard for the Children of Israel.
Other commentaries point to Jacob being unable to determine the date of Israel’s redemption. The reader will recall the dream of the sulam, the spiral array with angels of the four world empires ascending and descending in their temporary power over the Jewish People. The fourth angel of Edom, which morphed into the Roman empire, climbed out of sight, so that Jacob could not see it coming down. This meant that the time when Edom’s influence finally ended was a subject closed to Jacob.
The fate his descendants is also foretold within this closed Torah parasha. Jacob’s descendants were unable to see their future enslavement in Egypt that imperceptibly began with Joseph's death on a Shabbat afternoon, at the age of 110. It eventually led to the harshest oppression following the death of the last surviving brother, Levi.
Before Joseph passes, his final words reveal his original gift for revealing secrets. His coded message was in the form of the phrase, Pakod Yifkod, meaning “God will surely remember". Those words would be known only to Israel’s future redeemer and a select few among Israel’s leadership.
One hundred thirty-nine years after Joseph’s death, the elders of Israel hear Moses utter “Pakod Yifkod” and their eyes were opened to the Redemption at hand. The Children of Israel were filled with hope when the news of this revelation spread to the enslaved masses. Their sense of purpose was renewed.
Jacob’s legacy thrives today. We must simply open our eyes and see a nation who rejects the world view of Esau, a philosophy that sprang from Rome and fuels Western materialism. But the Jewish People, the nation descended from Jacob, continues his legacy as they continue to renew and return to the path of Jacob, always striving for spiritual growth, ethical living, and a commitment to serving God and humanity.
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