TORAH SPARKS
Parashat Vayhi
January 13-14, 2017 16 Tevet 5777
Annual
(Genesis 47:28-50:26): Etz Hayim p. 293-311; Hertz p. 180-191
Triennial
(Genesis 47:28-48:22): Etz Hayim p. 293-298; Hertz p. 180-183
Haftarah (1Kings 2:1-12): Etz Hayim p. 312-314;
Hertz p. 191-192
The Shirley & Jacob
Fuchsberg Center
8 Agron Street, P.O. Box
7456, Jerusalem, Israel 94265
Tel:
972-2-625-6386 Fax: 972-2-623-4127
Families as Complex Organisms
Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb, CY Faculty and Coordinator,
Torah Sparks
Parashat Vayhi, and Jacob lived, closes the
book of Bereishit and the lives of Jacob and his son Joseph. Hayyei
Sarah, seven weeks ago, was similar – another parashah with a title
of life and a subject of death of two major figures – Sarah and Abraham. Hayyei
Sarah ended on a happy note; Isaac and Ishmael bury Abraham together,
suggesting that they had reconciled their differences.
“Happy families are all
alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” so begins Anna Karenina.
The sibling situation at the end of Vayhi is less idyllic; closer to
Tolstoy. On returning from Jacob’s funeral, the Torah tells us, When
Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said: “What if
Joseph still hates us and pays us back for the wrong we did to him?” (50:15).
It’s a poignant moment forty years after they had cast Joseph into the pit;
seventeen years since they had been reunited in Egypt, the brothers are still
worried and anxious.
What is it that “the
brothers saw that their father was dead” that caused this angst?
Rashi brings the Midrash that Joseph no longer invited them to eat with him as
he did when Yakov had been alive. No big surprise here how many families
maintain the same degree of sibling cohesion after the parents are gone?
Another Midrash tells that on
the way back from Jacob s funeral in Hevron, Joseph “halach v’hetzitz
betoch ha’bor” he went to look into the pit into which he’d been
cast four decades earlier. The Midrash says he did it to thank God for the
miraculous outcome of that incident. But when the brothers saw Joseph looking
into that pit, different thoughts ran through their minds: amru: lu
yist’menu, maybe he’ll hate us. That’s not the childhood video they want to
show at family gatherings. The heavy burden of deep-seated, unresolved guilt
did not originate with Freud.
The saddest moment of this
little episode is when the brothers say:
‘Before he died your father
left this instruction: Forgive your brothers
(50:16-17). Were they telling
the truth? Rashi says no, Jacob never gave
such an instruction; shinu
dvar mipnei ha’shalom they told a lie for the sake of peace. And most of
the commentators agree. It’s not such a strange human tendency fudge the
truth to improve relations or a situation. We all do it. So good to see you
again … such a delicious dinner.
Yet there is data to suggest
that, davka (indeed), it was true. Jacob knew very well of
precedent in the family of sibling hostility deferred till father dies:
after Rivka and he had plotted to get Isaac’s blessing, the Torah says (27:41)
“And Esau hated Jacob and said in his heart, As soon as mourning for my
father is over, I ll kill my brother Jacob.”
And more recently Jacob
himself in his “blessings” to his children in the immediately
preceding chapter – cursed Shimon and Levi for their murderous acts against the
people of Shechem following the rape of Dina decades earlier. Jacob
was a person who shamar et hadavar (37:11), remembered things; kept
accounts. No seven or twelve year Statute of Limitations for him.
Family relations in the Torah
three thousand years ago, between generations and within generations, could be
complex, painful, bitter, sweet; often “all of the above.” Just like
they are today.
A Vort
for Parashat Vayhi
Rabbi Daniel Goldfarb, CY Faculty
Joseph s brothers are very worried that, after
the death of Jacob their father, Joseph would punish them for what they did to
him years ago. They plead twice that he forgive them (Gen 50:17) as
your brothers and as servants of the God of your
father, on which Rashi says: your father is
dead, but his God still lives. The Ateret Tsvi explains, citing the
Talmudic statement that when a person is suffering, God suffers with him even
if he is a sinner (Hagiga 15b), that the brothers are reminding Joseph that
even if his father, to whom Joseph obviously would not have wanted to cause
suffering, is gone; God, who identifies with our suffering no less, is still
here.
Table
Talk
Vered
Hollander-Goldfarb, CY Faculty
We have reached the end of Bereshit, the first
book of the Torah. Now the stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs come to a
close with the stories of the end of the lives of Ya akov (Jacob) and Joseph.
1) How long does Yaakov live in Egypt (47:28)?
Why do you think that the Torah tells us how long he was in Egypt? This number
appears elsewhere in the story of Yaakov/Joseph. Do you remember what was
counted? (37:1-2 can help you.) Is there any connection between the two?
2) On his death bed, Yaakov gives Joseph a
double share of the land (48:5-6). How will this work? (As you read through the
Tanakh, note that there is no tribe of Joseph, there is the tribe of Ephraim
and the tribe of Manasseh.) Why do you think that Yaakov does this? Why might
Joseph be entitled to this? (The first-born son was entitled to a double
share.)
3) When Yaakov dies, a large group of people
comes along on the trip to Canaan to bury him (50:7-10). Who, other than his
family, attend the funeral? How do they show their respect for Yaakov? Why do
you think that these people had such great respect for Yaakov?
4) Where do the sons bury Yaakov (50:13)? Why
do you think that Yaakov asked to be buried there? (Use 49:29-32 to help you.)
5) After the brothers return from burying
Yaakov they send a message to Joseph (50:15-17). What is the message? Why did
they send it? Why was this not of concern until now?