Parshah Summary – P’shat
Jacob lives the final seventeen years of his life in Egypt. Before his passing, he asks Joseph to take an oath that he will bury him in the Holy Land. He blesses Joseph’s two sons, Menasheh and Ephraim, elevating them to the status of his own sons as progenitors of tribes within the people of Israel. Jacob blesses his twelve sons, assigning to each his role as a tribe, and Reuven, Shimon and Levi, are rebuked. Among the blessings, Naphtali is granted the swiftness of a deer, Benjamin the ferociousness of a wolf, and Joseph is blessed with beauty and fertility.
Jacob/Israel then dies. A large funeral procession consisting of Jacob’s descendants, Pharaoh’s ministers, the leading citizens of Egypt and the Egyptian cavalry accompanies Jacob on his final journey to the Holy Land, where he is buried in the Cave of Makhpelah in Hebron. Joseph dies in Egypt, at the age of one hundred and ten. He, too, instructs that his bones be taken out of Egypt and buried in the Holy Land, but this would happen only with the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt many years later. Before he dies, Joseph tells the Children of Israel: “Hashem will surely remember you, and bring you up out of this land, to the land of your ancestors…”
Torah of Awakening: Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיְחִ֤י יַעֲקֹב֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם שְׁבַ֥ע עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה שָׁנָ֑ה וַיְהִ֤י יְמֵֽי־יַעֲקֹב֙ שְׁנֵ֣י חַיָּ֔יו שֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֔ים וְאַרְבָּעִ֥ים וּמְאַ֖ת שָׁנָֽה׃ Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, and it was that the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred and forty-seven years… - Bereisheet (Genesis) 47:28, Parshat Vayekhi
The Maggid of Mezritch taught on this verse:
צַדִּיק כַּתָּמָר יִפְרָח כְּאֶרֶז בַּלְּבָנון יִשגֶּה – The righteous will blossom like a date palm, like a cedar in Lebanon, they will grow tall… The Maggid said, “There are two types of tzaddikim. Some spend their time with people – with teaching and counselling them, while others are concerned only with the teachings themselves. The first bear nourishing fruit, like the date palm; the second are like the cedar: lofty but unfruitful.” On the surface, this teaching of the Maggid is probably a critique of the elitist rabbinate that Hasidism came to counter by making Jewish spirituality accessible to the common person. But on a deeper level, the “date-palm” and the “cedar” represent two different answers to the core question we must each ask ourselves: “How shall I live?” וַיְחִ֤י יַעֲקֹב֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם שְׁבַ֥ע עֶשְׂרֵ֖ה שָׁנָ֑ה – Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt… The first mention of “seventeen years” was back in Parshat Vayeishev, where Joseph is described as a na’ar – a seventeen-year-old youth. Seventeen, then, hints at youthfulness, and Joseph is the embodiment of youthfulness: he is both beloved and hated, he has big and unrealistic seeming dreams, and he has no common sense about how to get along with his brothers. בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם – in the land of Egypt… Egypt, on the other hand, means limitation, suffering, constricted-ness: Egypt is מִצְרַיִם Mitzrayim, from צַר tzar, which means “narrow.” The immature Joseph must first get enslaved in Egypt before his eventual ascent to Egyptian royalty. In this parshah, Jacob, who represents all of Israel, parallels this journey – the youthful family goes down into Egypt in order to mature into a people through the suffering of slavery which begins in the next book of Shemot. Similarly, the youthfulness in each of us gets constricted by the limitations and conditioning of our physical bodies, families and culture. But the purpose of this life’s suffering is to learn and practice not being burdened by the temporary challenges of life. Like Joseph, we can become like cream – always “rising to the top,” no matter how much life beats us down. The key is Presence: being the awareness of whatever arises in the moment, and not identifying with the judgements of the mind: וּמֵעֵ֗ץ הַדַּ֙עַת֙ ט֣וֹב וָרָ֔ע לֹ֥א תֹאכַ֖ל מִמֶּ֑נּוּ כִּ֗י בְּי֛וֹם אֲכׇלְךָ֥ מִמֶּ֖נּוּ מ֥וֹת תָּמֽוּת׃ “From the Tree of Knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for on the day you eat of it, you shall die.” - Bereisheet 2:17 מוֹת תָּמֽוּת – literally: dead, you shall die… Meaning: the process of identifying with the judgements of the mind leads us to a kind of inner deadness. The message is, don’t die dead! Instead… וַיְחִ֤י יַעֲקֹב֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם – Jacob lived in the land of Egypt… Learn to embrace the moment as it is, so that you may live, even in “Egypt,” and become fruitful, even in constriction and suffering – that is meditation. But how do we do that? וַיְהִ֤י יְמֵֽי־יַעֲקֹב֙ שְׁנֵ֣י חַיָּ֔יו שֶׁ֣בַע שָׁנִ֔ים וְאַרְבָּעִ֥ים וּמְאַ֖ת שָׁנָֽה׃ – And it was that the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were one hundred and forty-seven years… The message is that, like most things that are worthwhile, it takes time; we can achieve spiritual maturity only by practicing over time. After all, Presence in the face of suffering is definitely not a quality of youthfulness, but of age and maturity. This is partly because it takes lifetime of experience with suffering to learn how to really let go. But also, as we get older and approach the ultimate Letting Go, it is natural for attachments to fall away on their own to some degree. This is hinted at in the blessing Jacob gives to Joseph’s two sons, Menasheh and Ephraim. Menasheh is named such by Joseph because, “The Divine has made me forget (Nashani) my troubles,” hinting at old age, which is fitting since Menasheh is the elder. Ephraim is named such because “The Divine has made me fruitful (Hifrani) in the land of my suffering,” which is fitting for the younger brother. But Jacob deliberately switches his hands, giving the blessing of the elder to the younger, which is why the traditional blessing for boys on Erev Shabbat is that they should be like Ephraim and Menasheh, and not the other way around, as if to say: Let go of your troubles while you are still fruitful. In other words, die before you die! מוֹת תָּמֽוּת – dead, you shall die… But this teaching is not the death of the spirit which comes from “eating” of the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad,” this is the death of ego – that is, of identification with the impulsive self of youth, and the blossoming of the mature spirit. We can taste the mature spirit while we live, before the moment of physical death, if we use our suffering, our “Egypt,” as Joseph did: to practicing letting go and accepting the moment as it is, while holding the intention of the bigger vision, of the spiritual maturity we are becoming. To do this, we of course need to stay with the process, neither pulling away nor pushing for something other than this moment; this is the Path of ח Het, the middah of Patience. In this week of Shabbat Vayekhi, the Sabbath of Life, may we recognize the precious opportunity we have in this life, to “die before we die,” to embrace life in its bitter and sweet, and through this practice to give birth to the “fruit” of mature consciousness.
Read past teachings on Vayekhi HERE.
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