Judeo Talk

Shabbat Shalom, everyone, and an extra prayer for peace in Gaza. It is my hope and the hope of many in this world that this time next shabbat the conflict will have ended.

The Torah portion for today is Vayechi, Genesis 47:28-50:26. In this parsha, we see the deaths of both Jacob and his son Joseph. In the sense of raw plot, not a lot happens in this parsha, but there is a great depth of symbolism in the little bit that does happen.

The parsha opens with the aging and eventual ill health of Jacob, the last of the three patriarchs. As we saw last week, Joseph revealed himself to his family and gave them a home in Goshen, a territory within Egypt where he was a powerful political figure. As Jacob lay dying, he requests that his body be taken back to Canaan so he can be laid to rest in the same cave as his parents Isaac and Rebecca, his grandparents Abraham and Sarah, as well as his wives Leah and Rachel. But before that happens, there is a very interesting episode involving Joseph’s sons, Manassah and Ephraim.

At this point, Jacob is blind and infirm. He calls Joseph to him to explain his burial wishes and also to bless Joseph and his sons. Jacob gives a blessing to the boys, his left hand on the head of Manassah and his right on the head of Ephraim. In that culture at that time, the right hand represented the stronger and the better side of things. In this case, when Jacob passes the blessing of God’s promise to make his descendants a great and prosperous people, he gives the better part of the blessing to Ephraim. At first, Joseph believes his father is mistaken because he is blind. Ephraim is the younger of the two brothers and therefore not traditionally entitled to a greater portion of an inheritance. But when Joseph attempts to correct Jacob, Jacob insists that he knows exactly what he’s doing and that the blessing of the second born is intentional.

Later, as Jacob essentially reads his last will to his sons, he once again breaks with the tradition of allotting inheritance by the order of birth. Rather, Jacob gives his portions and blessings to his sons based on their righteousness. Those who were violent get nothing, those who were irresponsible get next to nothing, those who were lazy get very little, and those who were good and holy inherit wealth and power. Interestingly, this part of the parsha reads like a poem pasted into the regular story. It is full of metaphors and powerful imagery. This isn’t in a poetic format just to be fancy. Jacob’s sons are each the progenitors of the famous twelve tribes of Israel. The listing of their crimes and virtues is epic because it represents an entire nation, not just a family.

This is not the first, nor the last time the Torah uses small groups of people to represent whole societies. This episode belongs to a recurring theme in the Torah about responsibility throughout the generations. By allotting the wealth and blessings of his people based on merit, Jacob sets the precedent that the soon-to-be-Jewish people are not just another dynasty ruled by notions of power. Not only does this create a focus on justice, it also serves as a strong allegory for how we affect future generations with our present acts. Like this story’s previous threads about preparedness, the reading of the will of Jacob warns us that the lives we lead echo throughout time. A life of violence leads to a fallow future, a life of complacency leads to empty servitude. We are most certainly meant to read this portion and ask ourselves what legacy we will leave to future generations. Do we deserve to receive the blessings of our fathers, or have we yet to earn it?

Shalom, friends. It’s Wednesday at Judeo Talk and that means it’s time for our weekly Hebrew lesson. Every week we will be discussing a different Hebrew letter, word or phrase and its importance to Jewish faith and culture.

This being our first installment of Wednesday Hebrew, we’re already on the subject of beginnings. So, I thought I’d take the opportunity to give a quick lesson about one of the most famous phrases in the Torah.
The word Bereishit (Beh-ray-sheet), which means “In the beginning”.

This is the first word in the Hebrew bible, known colloquially as The Old Testament. Hebrew is a very deep, complex language that is often used in the Torah in such a way that single words, even individual letters have multiple layers of meaning. The fact that Bereishit is the first word in the Torah, and more precisely that the letter Bet is the first letter in the Torah, is itself a lesson and an object of focus for the rest of the Hebrew bible.

The Hebrew letter Bet makes the same sound as the English letter B. In the word “Bereishit” the Bet acts as the common suffix “Bih” meaning “In”. The word “Reishit” meaning “Beginning” comes from the term “Rishon” which means “First”. In fact, the word “Rishon” plays an important part in the Book of Genesis. “Rishon” is visually and phonetically very distinct from the more common root for the number 1, which is “Echad”. Linguistic focus points like this appear throughout the Torah and are meant to give us pause and to indicate something special. Using the term “Rishon” and its derivatives makes this portion of the Torah focus on beginnings, on firsts and most importantly on uniqueness.

There is also a Midrash associated with Bet and the importance of its placement at the very beginning of the Torah. Young Jews are asked to imagine themselves as the dot in the middle of Bet. Notice how the only clear path is directly forward (Hebrew is read from right to left). If the Torah begins with Bet and we live our lives by the Torah, then we must remember to keep our minds on the present and on the potential of the future. We must not dwell on the past, which is irretrievably behind us. We must not gaze at our feet in inaction or preoccupy ourselves with the grave above which we walk. And however pious we may be we must not look upward to Heaven, either for guidance or in aspirations toward paradise, while there is so much for us to do here in life.

So, from the very beginning (literally), the Torah establishes itself as document concerned with life. As we continue with our lessons, we will see this sentiment reiterated time and again. This is the true depth and power of Torah study. In every letter there is a lesson. The stories themselves are important, but how they are told can have just as much, or sometimes more, meaning.