The end of the Book of Bereshit- Parashat Vayechi: an end-time prophecy. וַיְחִי Va-Yechi Genesis 47:28–50: end Haftarah: 1 Kings 2:1-12 Yaakov lived vayechi וַיְחִי in the land of Egypt seventeen years; thus Yaakov lived to be 147 years old. Genesis 47:28 Our Parasha begins with Yaakov’s death and ends with Yossef’s. With their death, ends the glorious era of the Patriarchs, the Avot and the Book of Genesis, Bereshit, בְּרֵאשִׁית, the beginnings. The foundations of the Jewish nation and the basis of G-d’s plan are established. Knowing his death is near, Yaakov calls to Yossef and makes him swear that he will bury him in the Land of Israel. He will be the first Jew of the Diaspora to be buried in Israel, having been the first to wander. He is showing his descendants the way back; the exile in Egypt being only a step, not finality. After all those years of suffering and separation, Yaakov is happy to be able to bless his grandsons as being part of the twelve tribes. These two grandsons, Ephraim and Menashe, are the first brothers within the family not to fight. Yossef, their father, though alone in Egypt has kept his Jewish identity intact and taught his children to do the same. Rashi, in his commentaries, tells us that Ephraim was studying with his grandfather Yaakov, and that from Ephraim will come Yehoshua (Joshua), who will study with Moshe. Ephraim is the spiritual heir, and we have seen many times in the Word of G-d, the birthright being given to the one on whom rests the calling. Still today, Jewish people bless their children on Shabbat’s eve with the same blessing Yaakov prophesized to Ephraim and Menashe: Then he added this blessing on them that day: “Israel will speak of you in their own blessings by saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe.’” Genesis 48:20 By blessing our children in this way, we wish them to be strong enough to keep their Jewish identity wherever they may live, even if it is within a hostile and pagan environment, so that the Name of G-d may be sanctified. Then Yaakov said to Yossef: Israel then said to Yossef, “You see that I am dying, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your ancestors. Moreover, I am giving to you a shechem achad, שְׁכֶם אַחַד more than to your brothers; I captured it from the Emori with my sword and bow.” Genesis 48:21-22 We will look here at the very interesting word shechem, the significance of which unveils partly the Jewish history and G-d’s plan of Redemption. The word Shechem שְׁכֶם has several meanings: - First of all this is Shechem, a city of Canaan. - It was the first stop of Avraham in the Holy Land: Avram passed through the land to the place called Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. The Kena‘ani were then in the land. Genesis 12:6 - There G-d will give him and to his descendants the Land and Avraham builds the first altar: Adonai appeared to Avram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to Adonai, who had appeared to him. Genesis 12:7 - It is also Yaakov’s first stop at his coming back to the Land from his exile at Lavan’s. He also builds an altar: Having traveled from Paddan–Aram, Yaakov arrived safely at the city of Shechem, in Kena‘an, and set up camp near the city. From the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, he bought for one hundred pieces of silver the parcel of land where he had pitched his tent. There he put up an altar, which he called El–Elohei–Yisra-El. (God, the God of Israel) Genesis 33:18-20 This is the place where Dinah, Yaakov’s daughter was captured and raped and where Yossef was thrown in a pit by his brothers: …and Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivi, the local ruler, saw her, grabbed her, raped her and humiliated her. Genesis 34:2 He said to him, “Go now, see whether things are going well with your brothers and with the sheep, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him away from the Hevron Valley, and he went to Shechem. Genesis 37:14 It is the city located between Mount Eval and Mount Garizim, the place where the blessings and the curses were proclaimed, in front of Gilgal: When Adonai your God brings you into the land you are entering in order to take possession of it, you are to put the blessing on Mount G’rizim and the curse on Mount ‘Eival. Both are west of the Yarden, in the direction of the sunset, in the land of the Kena‘ani living in the ‘Aravah, across from Gilgal, near the pistachio trees of Moreh. Deuteronomy 11:29-30 There again, at the end of the conquest of Israel with Yehoshua, Yossef’s bones will be buried. The bones of Yossef, which the people of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Yaakov had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver; and they became a possession of the descendants of Yossef. Joshua 24:32 Shechem שְׁכֶם, is a first step and a decisive place for both a commitment to G-d and for tests meant to purify the people of G-d. It is the next step after Gilgal. The other meaning of this word is: “shoulder”, as mentioned in the following verse: For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, עַל-שִׁכְמו, and he will be given the name Pele–Yo‘etz El Gibbor Avi–‘Ad Sar–Shalom (Wonder of a Counselor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace). Isaiah 9:6 To Yossef has been given a portion in addition and this portion שְׁכֶם is that of the Mashiach! We have seen in our previous Parashot that Yossef was the image of the suffering Messiah from Isaiah 53. Shechem is a main stop and a necessary one, a stop of sufferings to finally reach deliverance and divine authority. Yossef, sold at Shechem, will be exiled to Egypt where he will end as the Vice-Roy and he will glorify G-d’s name by his faithfulness to the Covenant of the circumcision. Yossef receives this city as a token for his victory from the tests G-d sent him, and he will be buried there at the end, when Israel will inherit his land; he will then peacefully rest in the Land of Israel! Dear friends, don’t regard as strange the fiery ordeal occurring among you to test you, as if something extraordinary were happening to you. Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah’s sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when his Shechina is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12-13 To read the following: sukkatdavid.net
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:12:40 +0000
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