Archive

This week’s parasha closes Sefer Bereishit (Genesis). As we prepare to close the book on this sefer, it is important to briefly review its broad themes.

Bereishit’s earlier parshiot recount the events which lead to the creation of a special group of people meant to maintain a close relationship with Hashem. At first, it appears that Hashem ‘hopes’ to establish a close relationship with all of humanity; all people are created in the “image of God” (“tzelem Elokim”). We noted that the Torah implies that humanity’s being patterned after the image of God is not simply a description of human nature, but a tripartite *mission*:

1. Humanity is to emulate Hashem’s creativity by procreating.
2. Humanity is to emulate Hashem’s mastery by mastering the created world.
3. Humanity is to emulate Hashem’s moral perfection by behaving morally.

“Tzelem Elokim” is not handed to us on a silver platter, it is a mission. Humanity is granted the basic potential to achieve mastery, creativity, and morality, and is charged to actualize this potential. We are not born “images of Hashem”; we are born as mirrors, so to speak. The choices we make determine whether we will stand before Hashem, reflecting His image, or face in other directions, and therefore reflect things other than His image.

If “tzelem Elokim” is a mission, then it can be failed. Indeed, humanity begins to disappoint early on. Adam and Hava’s older son, Kayyin (Cain), murders his brother, failing as a tzelem Elokim (as demonstrated from the text). Kayyin’s descendants readily absorb his example of readiness to murder, clearly a basic moral failure. Kayyin and his “line” are eventually replaced by Shet (Seth) and his descendants.

As humanity grows beyond the proportions of a single family, its moral failure becomes epidemic. Humanity successfully exercises mastery and creativity, inventing crucial industrial processes, musical instruments, and agricultural methods. But morally, humanity has failed. Hashem ‘regrets’ having created humanity and destroys all of the failed “tzelem Elokim”s along with the animal kingdom, saving only the righteous Noah and his family.

The destruction of the world “uncreates” creation, reversing the step-by-step process of creation with a parallel step-by-step process of destruction. But the seeds of recreation are planted before destruction: Hashem commands that all species be preserved in preparation for the step-by-step recreation of the world. In reestablishing the world, Hashem repeats to Noah and his family the three-part “tzelem Elokim” mission, this time stressing the prohibition of murder in order to address humanity’s past failure to achieve the moral part of the “tzelem” mission.

Hashem’s “disappointment” leads Him to change the original plan of maintaining a close relationship with all of humanity. Consequently, the next major event the Torah reports is the appearance of Avraham. Until this point, we hear nothing of “special” nations and “special” lands, of Hashem’s being “the God” of a particular nation. Avraham’s appearance changes all this. Hashem has decided that while humanity at large has failed the tzelem mission, a special group of devoted individuals can achieve this mission (and perhaps eventually lead the rest of humanity closer to this goal).

At this point, we began to focus on the selection of the Avot and the rejection of various figures along the way. The Torah presents the greatness of the Avot as emerging from their successfully meeting the challenges with which they struggle. The strength the Avot display as they develop is what makes them Avot. We traced the growth of Avraham’s trust in Hashem from his initial uncertainty of Hashem’s promises, to the breathtaking faith he manifests at the Akeida (Binding of Isaac). Along the way, we learned about Avraham’s struggles for justice (saving Sedom), his courageous self-sacrifice (saving Lot from captivity), and other lessons too detailed to sacrifice to synopsis. We also examined the rejection of Yishmael for his vicious, cynical sniggering.

We paused at Hayyei Sara to look at the perspective of the Avot on Eretz Yizrael as a place to *live,* not merely a place to make “posthumous aliyah.” Avraham’s purchase of the Cave of Mahpela focused our attention on his insistence on establishing a permanent personal hold on a piece of the holy ground and his joy at being able to establish permanent *residence* there (not merely permanent *decedence* there). The same pattern appears later with regard to other Avot, who consistently stress the *field* of Mahpela—the place of fruit-bearing, living trees—and do not focus only on the cave, the place of burial. As we will see shortly, this theme recurs as Sefer Bereishit comes to a close.

We turned our attention to the development of Ya’akov, through his deception of his father and brother, his development under Lavan’s careful “tutelage,” and his heroic self-transformation in facing Hashem’s angel and his brother Eisav. His triumph arrives when he merits the blessings of spiritual destiny which Yitzhak had given him in potential twenty years before. The change of Ya’akov’s name to Yisrael signifies a change in his character, in his approach to challenges. We also noted the rejection of Eisav aqs leader of God’s future nation and found text-grounded justification for this rejection.

We next turned to the development and selection of Yehuda and Yosef as leaders among Ya’akov’s sons. We first traced Yosef’s development from self-centeredness and immaturity (noted by Hazal and criticized freely by them and medieval commentators) to Hashem-centeredness, maturity, generosity, and greater mastery of the complexity of leadership. Next, we examined Yehuda’s development, pinpointing his greatness in his ability to courageously admit wrongdoing and learn from it, and his capacity for self-regeneration in taking responsibility for his brothers and protecting his vulnerable father’s feelings. In this context, we briefly touched upon Re’uvein’s mistakes (Hazal refer to him as a “bekhor shoteh,” a “foolish first-born”), which, despite his courage, spell his rejection as leader of Ya’akov’s sons.

Most recently, we traced Yosef’s manipulation of his brothers in his effort to see if they have done teshuva (repented) for selling him and learned the lessons of responsibility necessary for the family to reunite and continue to grow toward its destiny as a nation.

In all of these discussions, our aim has been to understand the Torah and to try to take “personally” all of the lessons these stories offer us in conducting our own lives.

When you write a coherent essay, you make sure (or you ought to, anyway) to structure your paragraphs so that the paragraphs “hold hands”—you embed transitions in the end of each paragraph and the beginning of the next paragraph in order to communicate to your readers that you are “shifting gears,” shifting focus to a new idea, and in order to draw them with you as you move on.

Parashat Va-Yhi is just such a transition. Sefer Bereishit follows the relationship between Hashem and humanity from its universal beginnings to its focus on a small group, and then through the process of the selection of great individuals (“Avot”) to found and lead that group. Sefer Shemot develops a different theme: the creation of a national consciousness and national character (see also Abravanel’s introduction to Sefer Shemot, which expands on this theme). Parashat Va-Yhi is the transition between the “individuals” theme of Bereishit and the “nation” theme of Shemot.

Imagine that you didn’t know that Sefer Bereishit ends with Parashat Va-Yhi. What signs of transition to a new theme could you find in the parasha?

“NO JEW WILL BE LEFT BEHIND” (apologies to MBD):

Sefer Berfollows a pattern of selection and rejof sons: Yitzhak is chosen and Yishmael rejected, Ya’akov is chosen and Eisav rejected. In contrast, Parashat Va-Yhi confirms all of Ya’akov’s sons as members of the future nation, participants in the destiny promised to Yisrael by E-l Shad-dai (recall Parashat VaYishlah). Although some sons are singled out in our parasha for criticism or praise, the fact that no one is rejected despite his flaws shows that Hashem (and Ya’akov) has decided that this entire group will found the nation. Since the theme of Sefer Bereishit is the selection of founders for the nation, and since this process of selection seems to have reached completion, the Sefer is complete.

This brings up an important observation: our discussions of Va-Yeishev, Mikkeitz, and Va-Yigash have shown that the sons of Ya’akov are highly diverse people. Re’uvein, Yehuda, and Yosef, for example, are all leaders, but their personalities and leadership styles are clearly divergent. The centerpiece of this week’s parasha—Ya’akov’s blessings to his sons—confirms and deepens this observation. Each of Ya’akov’s sons faces different challenges and brings different strengths to bear on them. The fact that no one is rejected from participating in creating the Jewish nation indicates that all of these different strengths are necessary. Besides combining the legacies of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Ya’akov, the nation needs the internal diversity of different perspectives in order to adequately achieve its mission.

To illustrate with just one example, the different strengths of the various shevatim (tribes) have provided leaders whose characteristics enable them to successfully lead in the diverse places and times in which we have needed leadership. Bringing a nation out of enslavement and facilitating the nation’s communication with Hashem at Sinai (Moshe, Shevet Leivi) demands a different set of leadership characteristics than does leading a nation into a new land, conquering it, and apportioning it (Yehoshua, Shevet Ephrayyim). Unifying a splintered, tribally organized nation and establishing a permanent dynasty (David, Shevet Yehuda) demands a different set of leadership capabilities than does leading the exiled nation through a time of critical emergency with wisdom and faith (Mordekhai, Shevet Binyamin). There are dozens of such examples; despite Yehuda’s basic hold on the monarchy, different circumstances have demanded leadership from other tribes as well. The leadership resources provided by this internal diversity have enabled us to succesfully face challenges of all kinds. Hopefully, Hashem will continue to provide us with leaders to help us deal with the challenges we encounter in the present and future.

[Of course, as Jewish history demonstrates, the “down side” of this internal multiplicity is that separate entities can work not only with each other, but also against each other.]

As mentioned above, Sefer Shemot develops themes of our national development. These themes first begin to resonate in a number of specific contexts in our parasha. Of course, the basic idea that the Avot will produce a nation has been clear since as early as Parashat Lekh Lekha, when Hashem promises to make Avraham into a “great nation.” Yitzhak and Ya’akov also receive promises of nationhood. But national themes have slipped into the background in more recent parshiot: VaYeishev, Mikkeitz, and Va-Yigash focus largely on events within Ya’akov’s family and make little or no mention of the national aspect. But Va-Yhi brings national themes back into focus in two different ways:

Parashat Va-Yhi is not only where familar national themes (“I will make you into a great nation”) begin to reappear in the text, it is also the place where some national themes appear for the first time. When Ya’akov repeats to Yosef the blessing he received from E-l Shad-dai, he is repeating a theme we know well:

Ya’akov said to Yosef, “E-l Shad-dai appeared to me at Luz in the Land of Cana’an and blessed me. He said to me, “I shall increase you, multiply you, and make you into a throng of nations; I shall give this land to your children after you as a permanent possession . . . .”

But when Ya’akov turns to Shimon and Leivi and curses their anger for their massacre of Shekhem, his words evoke the picture of a nation established on its own land:

“Shimon and Leivi are brothers; weapons of violence are their wares. In their council shall my soul not come; in their gathering shall my soul not rejoice, for in their fury they killed men, and by their will they uprooted oxen. Cursed is their anger for its strength, and their fury for its hardness; I shall split them up among Ya’akov and scatter them among Yisrael.”

Shimon and Leivi must be scattered throughout the national homeland in order to guarantee that they do not once again come together and wreak violence out of measure. Sefer Yehoshua reports that indeed, Shimon receives a portion of Eretz Yisrael surrounded by the portion of Yehuda, whose job is apparently to control Shimon. And the Torah tells us many times that Leivi never receives a portion of Eretz Yizrael, and receives only individual cities scattered thoughout the land. (As we will see, Leivi’s “punishment” turns out much different than Shimon’s!) In terms of our theme, what is clear for the first time is that each of Ya’akov’s sons will be part of a nation, that this nation will conquer and occupy Cana’an, and that each son’s descendants will receive a portion of the land (except Shimon and Leivi). This already suggests the tribal arrangement of Kelal Yisrael which we know from later on in the Torah, but its appearance here is unprecedented.

Ya’akov’s mention of Ephrayyim and Menashe’s growth into nationhood is also not a “new” story—they are merely being included in the destiny of Ya’akov’s children—but what Ya’akov says to Yosef just after blessing the two boys sounds a theme which will occupy the first half of Sefer Shemot: redemption from Egypt and return to Cana’an:

Yisrael said to Yosef, “I am going to die; Hashem shall be with you and return you to the land of your fathers . . . .”

Ya’akov’s blessing to Yehuda also sounds a theme which telegraphs “national institution” as a basic assumption. Not only will Yehuda be the acknowledged leader of his brothers, as Ya’akov predicts as he begins the blessing to Yehuda, but Yehuda’s authority will continue far into the future:

“The staff [”shevet”] will not be removed from Yehuda, nor law-making authority [”me-hokek”] from between his legs, until Shilo comes, and to him is the gathering of nations.”

The mefarshim (commentators) debate whether “Shilo” refers to David, the Messiah, or some other personality or event; they also debate the meaning of “yik’hat amim.” But it seems clear that Yehuda is being given broad authority to rule and to make or enforce laws—a promise which can refer only to a polity governed by laws: a nation.

One other very important term which appears for the first time in our parasha is the term “shevet”—literally, “staff.” In fact, this term appears only three times in all of Sefer Bereishit—all three in our parasha: 49:10 with regard to Yehuda’s authority, 49:16 with regard to Dan, and 49:28 with regard to all of the sons of Ya’akov. Note that this word is used here in different ways, since “staff” can symbolize a number of things. With regard to Yehuda, “shevet” refers specifically to leadership (the leader carries a special staff, similar to a scepter, as we see later in the case of Moshe); with regard to Dan, “shevet” seems to mean something very similar to “shofet,” “judge”; and when used to refer to all of the sons, “shevet” meanswhat we mean when we refer to the “Twelve tribes”—each tribal leader carries a staff (“shev”) representing his authority and separate identity from the other tribes, and this term is borrowed to refer to the entire tribe itself.

Although many of us are used to thinking of the sons of Ya’akov as the “shevatim” (“tribes”), the fact is that until now, they have been only individuals, not founders of tribes which comprise a nation. As our parasha looks forward through Ya’akov’s blessings into the distant future of the nation and anticipates the national themes of Sefer Shemot, the parasha begins to suggest the notion of tribes.

We have already noted that our parasha anticipates the themes of exodus and redemption in Ya’akov’s assurance to Yosef that Hashem will eventually return the family to Cana’an. Yosef also assures his brothers before his own death that Hashem will “remember” them and eventually return them to Cana’an. But our parasha also directs our attention to the dual connections established by the Avot with Eretz Cana’an:

Ya’akov brings us back to a familiar theme (if you were with us for Parashat Hayyei Sara) when he commands his sons with his final words to bury him in the Cave of Mahpela:

He commanded them, saying, “I am to be gathered to my nation [=die]; bury me with my fathers in the *CAVE* in the *FIELD* of Efron the Hittite; in the *CAVE* in the *FIELD* of Mahpela which is before Mamre in the Land of Cana’an, the *FIELD* which Avraham bought from Efron the Hittite as a possession. There they buried Avraham and Sara his wife; there they buried Yitzhak and Rivka, his wife; and there I buried Le’ah -- [in] the purchase from the Hittites of the *FIELD* and the *CAVE* in it.”

His sons carried him to the Land of Cana’an and buried him in the *CAVE* of the *FIELD* of Mahpela, the *FIELD* which Avraham had bought as a grave-possession from Efron the Hittite, [which is] before Mamre.

Ya’akov’s request to his sons seems very repetitive and wordy—he mentions the field and the cave three times, mentions twice that the field and cave were bought from Efron the Hittite, mentions unnecessarily that Avraham was the one who bought the field, and goes through the entire list of the people already buried there. What is so important about these details?

If Ya’akov’s only intention is to give his sons directions to the field and cave, it should hardly be necessary to list the current occupants of the cave, or who originally owned it and who bought it, or to mention “field” and “cave” so many times. Why such formality, detail, and repetition in describing this piece of real estate? And why does the Torah repeat some of these details in narrating Ya’akov’s burial?

If you recall our discussion of Parashat Hayyei Sara (or our brief review of it above), you will remember that we understood the complex and somewhat bizarre negotiations between Avraham and Efron the Hittite as an unspoken struggle on the part of Avraham to buy a piece of land as a personal foothold in Eretz Cana’an, and on the part of the Hittites to prevent him from gaining such a foothold. The “fierce politeness” of the Hittites and the “insistent obsequiousness” of Avraham betray this struggle, hidden beneath a veneer of genteel gentile generosity and gracious but firm Abrahamic refusal. Avraham avoids accepting a free grave-space among the grave plots of the Hittites and succeeds in purchasing not only a grave plot of his own, but a field to go with it; not simply a place to go once he is dead, but also a place to live! And indeed, as the Torah tells us on several occasions subsequent to this sale, the Avot do live in Hevron, the city of the Field of Mahpela (and in which the Cave is located).

Why is Avraham so eager to buy a plot in Eretz Cana’an? Avraham has been promised by Hashem that he will receive Eretz Cana’an. But as he grows older and sees that no process seems to be unfolding which will grant him the land, he begins to wonder whether Hashem intends to fulfill His promise. Eventually, he asks Hashem directly: “How do I know that I will inherit it?” (15:8).

Hashem responds by correcting Avraham’s misunderstanding of the promise: Avraham himself would not inherit the land; he would “join his fathers in peace,” dying without participating in the struggle for the Land. After four generations of exile and enslavement in a foreign country, his descendants would return to conquer and inherit Eretz Cana’an. Avraham places complete faith in this promise, but he is somewhat disappointed that he himself will not inherit the land. Shortly afterward comes his opportunity to gain a personal stake in the Land: the death of his wife and the chance to use the search for a grave for her as a lever to manipulate the “people of the land” into selling him a plot of his own (since they cannot get away with outrightly refusing to give a burial place to the bereaved Avraham). [For the full development of this theme, our discussion of Hayyei Sara is available those interested.]

Ya’akov recognizes the danger facing his sons as they settle into Egyptian life and raise their families under Yosef’s providence and protection: that they will forget about Eretz Cana’an and their connection to it, that they will not maintain the hope of returning to their land. In order to guard against this, he communicates to his sons the message of return: Hashem will eventually bring them back from Egypt to Cana’an. To reinforce their memories of the land and the importance it holds for the family, he paints a vivid snapshot of one important piece of it—the family home and burial plot in Hevron:

These strategies highlight two aspects of our relationship to Eretz Yisrael (which we discussed at Hayyei Sara):

Unfortunately, the “Cave” gets much more press nowadays than the “Field”—it is much easier to make a casual touristy visit to the touchstones of Jewish history in Eretz Yisrael (Kotel, graves, archaeological sites, museums, etc.) than it is to make a personal commitment to the “Field” (living in the land, spending time learning in yeshiva there, etc.). But the fact remains that the “Cave” connection serves an important function today as it did then: to maintain our connection to the land even when we have no to the “Field.”

This may explain why Ya’akov is so insistent on being buried in Eretz Cana’an and why Yosef later displays the same desire. Besides his own personal desire to be buried with his wife, parents, and grandparents, Ya’akov also knows that for his sons, bringing his body back to Cana’an for burial will also be a powerful experience which will renew their connection to the land and refresh their desire to return to it. The procession to Cana’an is not merely a funeral, it is also a pilgrimage to the family home.

Yosef understands this, and therefore, when he reminds his brothers that Hashem will eventually return them to Cana’an, he makes his brothers swear that they will bring his bones up with them. This promise not only expresses Yosef’s desire to be buried in Cana’an, it also guarantees that Bnei Yisrael will not forget their connection to the land.

This may sound extreme, but the best way to prepare for learning through any book of Tanakh is to lightning-read the entire Sefer. This is the first step in my own preparation, and I consider it valuable for the following reasons:

As you cruise through the text at high speed: