Weekly reading:
Parashah Vayechi: Gen 47:28-50:26
Haftorah: I Ki 2:1-12
Suggested HaBerith HaChadashah Reading: 1 Pet 1:1-9
Gen 47:28-31 And Yaʽaqoḇ lived in the land of Mitsrayim seventeen years. So the length of Yaʽaqoḇ’s life was one hundred and forty-seven years.
29 And the time for Yisra’ĕl to die drew near, and he called his son Yosĕph and said to him, “Now if I have found favour in your eyes, please put your hand under my thigh, and show kindness and truth to me. Please do not bury me in Mitsrayim,
30 but I shall lie with my fathers, and you shall take me up out of Mitsrayim and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I do as you have said.”
31 And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him, and Yisra’ĕl bowed himself on the head of the bed.
Gen 48:1-22 And after these events it came to be that it was said to Yosĕph, “See, your father is sick.” And he took with him his two sons, Menashsheh and Ephrayim.
2 And Yaʽaqoḇ was told, “See, your son Yosĕph is coming to you.” And Yisra’ĕl strengthened himself and sat up on the bed.
3 And Yaʽaqoḇ said to Yosĕph, “Ěl Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Kenaʽan and blessed me,
4 and said to me, ‘See, I am making you bear fruit and shall increase you and make of you an assembly of peoples, and give this land to your seed after you as an everlasting possession.’
5 “And now, your two sons, Ephrayim and Menashsheh, who were born to you in the land of Mitsrayim before I came to you in Mitsrayim, are mine – as Re’uḇĕn and Shimʽon, they are mine.
6 “Your offspring whom you shall bring forth after them are yours, and let them be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance.
7 “And I, when I came from Paddan, Raḥĕl died beside me in the land of Kenaʽan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath. And I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bĕyth Leḥem.”
8 And Yisra’ĕl saw Yosĕph’s sons, and said, “Who are these?”
9 And Yosĕph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom Elohim has given me in this place.” And he said, “Please bring them to me, and let me bless them.”
Second
10 And the eyes of Yisra’ĕl were dim with age, and he was unable to see. And he drew them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.
11 And Yisra’ĕl said to Yosĕph, “I had not thought to see your face. But see, Elohim has also shown me your seed!”
12 So Yosĕph brought them from between his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth.
13 And Yosĕph took them both, Ephrayim with his right hand toward Yisra’ĕl’s left hand, and Menashsheh with his left hand toward Yisra’ĕl’s right hand, and brought them near him.
14 And Yisra’ĕl stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephrayim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Menashsheh’s head, consciously directing his hands, for Menashsheh was the first-born.
15 And he blessed Yosĕph, and said, “The Elohim before whom my fathers Aḇraham and Yitsḥaq walked, the Elohim who has fed me all my life long to this day,
16 the Messenger who has redeemed me from all evil – bless the youths! And let my name be called upon them, and the name of my fathers Aḇraham and Yitsḥaq. And let them increase to a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
Thirth
17 And when Yosĕph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephrayim, it was evil in his eyes; and he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from the head of Ephrayim to the head of Menashsheh.
18 And Yosĕph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the first-born, put your right hand on his head.”
19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also becomes a people, and he also is great. And yet, his younger brother is greater than he, and his seed is to become the completeness of the nations.”
20 And he blessed them on that day, saying, “In you Yisra’ĕl shall bless, saying, ‘Elohim make you as Ephrayim and as Menashsheh!’ ” Thus he put Ephrayim before Menashsheh.
21 And Yisra’ĕl said to Yosĕph, “See, I am dying, but Elohim shall be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.
22 “And I, I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
Fourth
Gen 49:1-33 And Yaʽaqoḇ called his sons and said, “Gather together, so that I declare to you what is to befall you in the last days:
2 “Gather together and hear, you sons of Yaʽaqoḇ, and listen to Yisra’ĕl your father.
3 “Re’uḇĕn, you are my first-born, my power and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of exaltation and the excellency of power.
4 “Boiling like water, you do not excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, then you defiled it – he went up to my couch.
5 “Shimʽon and Lĕwi are brothers, their weapons are implements of violence.
6 “Let my being not enter their council, let my esteem not be united to their assembly; because they slew a man in their displeasure, and they lamed an ox in pleasure.
7 “Cursed be their displeasure for it is fierce, and their wrath for it is cruel! I divide them in Yaʽaqoḇ and scatter them in Yisra’ĕl.
8 “You, Yehuḏah, your brothers praise you; your hand is on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children bow down before you.
9 “Yehuḏah is a lion’s cub; from the prey you have gone up, my son! He bowed down, he crouched like a lion. And like a lion, who does rouse him?
10 “The sceptre shall not turn aside from Yehuḏah, nor a Lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to Him is the obedience of peoples.
11 “Binding his donkey to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 “His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
13 “Zeḇulun dwells at the seashore, he is for a haven for ships, and his border is unto Tsiḏon.
14 “Yissasḵar is a strong donkey lying down between two burdens,
15 and he saw that a resting place was good, and that the land was pleasant, and he inclined his shoulder to bear a burden, and became a subject to slave labour.
16 “Dan rightly rules his people as one of the tribes of Yisra’ĕl.
17 “Dan is a serpent by the way, an adder by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider falls backward.
18 “I have waited for your deliverance, O יהוה!
19 “Gaḏ, a raiding band raids him, but he raids its heel.
Fifth
20 “Bread from Ashĕr is rich, and he gives delicacies of a sovereign.
21 “Naphtali is a deer let loose, he gives words of elegance.
22 “Yosĕph is an offshoot of a fruit-bearing tree, an offshoot of a fruit-bearing tree by a fountain, his branches run over a wall.
23 “And the archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him.
24 “But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty One of Yaʽaqoḇ – from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Yisra’ĕl –
25 from the Ěl of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26 “The blessings of your father have excelled the blessings of my ancestors, up to the limit of the everlasting hills. They are on the head of Yosĕph, and on the crown of the head of him who was separated from his brothers.
Sixth
27 “Binyamin is a wolf that tears, in the morning he eats prey, and at night he divides the spoil.”
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra’ĕl, and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them, he blessed each one according to his own blessing.
29 And he commanded them, and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people, bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Ḥittite,
30 in the cave that is in the field of Maḵpĕlah, which is before Mamrĕ in the land of Kenaʽan, which Aḇraham bought with the field of Ephron the Ḥittite as a possession for a burial site.
31 There they buried Aḇraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Yitsḥaq and Riḇqah his wife, and there I buried Lĕ’ah –
32 the field purchased, and the cave which is in it, from the sons of Ḥĕth.”
33 And when Yaʽaqoḇ ended commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Gen 50:1-26 And Yosĕph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him, and kissed him.
2 And Yosĕph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Yisra’ĕl.
3 And forty days were completed for him, for so are completed the days of embalming. And the Mitsrites wept for him seventy days.
4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Yosĕph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If, now, I have found favour in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,
5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “See, I am dying, bury me in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Kenaʽan.” And now, please let me go up and bury my father, and return.’ ”
6 And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
7 And Yosĕph went up to bury his father. And with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Mitsrayim,
8 and all the house of Yosĕph, and his brothers, and his father’s house. Only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen.
9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great company.
10 And they came to the threshing-floor of Ataḏ, which is beyond the Yardĕn, and they lamented there with a great and very heavy lamentation. And he observed seven days of mourning for his father.
11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Kenaʽanites, saw the mourning at the threshing-floor of Ataḏ, they said, “This is a grievous mourning for the Mitsrites.” That is why its name was called Aḇĕl Mitsrayim, which is beyond the Yardĕn.
12 And his sons did to him as he had commanded them,
13 for his sons brought him to the land of Kenaʽan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Maḵpĕlah, before Mamrĕ, which Aḇraham bought with the field from Ephron the Ḥittite as property for a burial site.
14 And after he had buried his father, Yosĕph returned to Mitsrayim, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.
15 And when Yosĕph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Yosĕph hates us, and pays us back all the evil which we did to him?”
16 And they sent word to Yosĕph, saying, “Before your father died he commanded, saying,
17 ‘This is what you are to say to Yosĕph, “I beg you, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the Elohim of your father.” And Yosĕph wept when they spoke to him.
18 And his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “See, we are your servants.”
19 And Yosĕph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of Elohim?
20 “And you, you intended evil against me, but Elohim intended it for good, in order to do it as it is this day, to keep a great many people alive.
Seventh
21 “And now, do not fear, I provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
22 And Yosĕph dwelt in Mitsrayim, he and his father’s household. And Yosĕph lived one hundred and ten years.
Maftier
23 And Yosĕph saw Ephrayim’s children to the third generation. The children of Maḵir, son of Menashsheh, were also brought up on Yosĕph’s knees.
24 And Yosĕph said to his brothers, “I am dying, but Elohim shall certainly visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ.”
25 And Yosĕph made the children of Yisra’ĕl swear, saying, “Elohim shall certainly visit you, and you shall bring up my bones from here.”
26 And Yosĕph died, being one hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was placed in a coffin in Mitsrayim.
Haftorah: I Ki 2:1-12
1Ki 2:1-12 And the days of Dawiḏ drew near to die, and he commanded Shelomoh his son, saying,
2 “I am going the way of all the earth. And you shall be strong, and be a man.
3 “And guard the Charge of יהוה your Elohim: to walk in His ways, to guard His laws, His commands, His right-rulings, and His witnesses, as it is written in the Torah of Mosheh, so that you do wisely all that you do and wherever you turn;
4 so that יהוה does establish His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons guard their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their being,’ saying, ‘there is not to cease a man of yours on the throne of Yisra’ĕl.’
5 “And also, you know what Yo’aḇ son of Tseruyah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Yisra’ĕl, to Aḇnĕr son of Nĕr and Amasa son of Yether, that he slew them, and shed the blood of battle in peace, and put the blood of battle on his belt that was around his waist, and on his sandals that were on his feet.
6 “So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his grey hair go down to the grave in peace.
7 “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gilʽaḏite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for so they came to me when I fled from Aḇshalom your brother.
8 “And see, with you is Shimʽi son of Gĕra, the Binyamite from Baḥurim, who cursed me with a grievous cursing in the day when I went to Maḥanayim. But he came down to meet me at the Yardĕn, and I swore to him by יהוה, saying, ‘I shall not put you to death with the sword.’
9 “And now, do not leave him unpunished, for you are a wise man and know what you should do to him, and shall bring his grey hair down to the grave with blood.”
10 And Dawiḏ slept with his fathers, and was buried in the City of Dawiḏ.
11 And the days that Dawiḏ reigned over Yisra’ĕl was forty years. He reigned seven years in Ḥeḇron, and in Yerushalayim he reigned thirty-three years.
12 And Shelomoh sat on the throne of his father Dawiḏ. And his reign was firmly established.
Suggested HaBerith HaChadashah Reading: 1 Pet 1:1-9
1Pe 1:1-9 Kĕpha, an emissary of יהושע Messiah, to the chosen, strangers of the dispersion in Pontos, Galatia, Kappadokia, Asia, and Bithunia,
2 chosen according to the foreknowledge of Elohim the Father, set apart by the Spirit unto obedience1 and sprinkling of the blood of יהושע Messiah: Favour and peace be increased to you. Footnote: 1Obedience is also stressed in vv. 14 & 22.
3 Blessed be the Elohim and Father of our Master יהושע Messiah, who according to His great compassion has caused us to be born again to a living expectation through the resurrection of יהושע Messiah from the dead,
4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in the heavens for you,
5 who are protected by the power of Elohim through belief, for a deliverance ready to be revealed in the last time,
6 in which you exult, even though for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by manifold trials,
7 in order that the proving of your belief – much more precious than gold that perishes, and proven by fire – might be found to result in praise and respect and esteem at the revelation of יהושע Messiah,
8 whom having not seen, you love; in whom you exult with unspeakable and esteemed joy, yet not seeing, but believing,
9 obtaining the goal of your belief: a deliverance of lives.
Vayechi Aliya Summary |
| General Overview: This week's Torah reading, Vayechi, discusses Jacob's final years. Shortly before his passing, Jacob blesses Joseph's children as well as his own. A massive funeral procession escorts Jacob's body to Canaan. The reading, and the Book of Genesis, concludes with Joseph's death. First Aliyah: Jacob lived his last seventeen years in Egypt. When Jacob sensed that his days were numbered he summoned Joseph and asked him to promise that he would bury him in Israel. Joseph acceded to the request. When Jacob then fell ill, Joseph visited him, accompanied by his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob conferred upon Ephraim and Manasseh the status of tribal progenitors, a status hitherto enjoyed only by Jacob's sons. Joseph asked his father to bless Ephraim and Manasseh. Second Aliyah: Joseph presents his two sons, placing Manasseh, the firstborn, to Jacob's right, and Ephraim to Jacob's left. Jacob, who was nearly blind at this point, crossed his hands, placing his right – more prestigious – hand on Ephraim's head. He blessed them: "May the angel who redeemed me from all harm bless the youths, and may they be called by my name and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and may they multiply abundantly like fish, in the midst of the land." Third Aliyah: Joseph was disturbed that Jacob placed his right hand on Ephraim, and he attempted to adjust his father's hands. "I know, my son, I know," Jacob responded, explaining that the "younger brother will be greater, and his children['s fame] will fill the nations." Jacob blessed the two boys further, saying that all of Israel will bless each other by saying: "May G‑d make you like Ephraim and Manasseh." Fourth Aliyah: Jacob summoned all his sons, and delivered to each a poetic, and sometimes cryptic, parting personal message. Reuben was chastised for his impetuousness and for "ascending upon his father's bed." Shimon and Levi were rebuked for their anger, which expressed itself in the killing of the Shechemites and the attempted execution of Joseph. Judah was blessed with monarchy, success in waging battle, and an abundance of wine and milk in his portion. Zebulon was blessed with success in his sea-trade endeavors. Jacob likened Issachar to a thick-boned donkey who finds both rest and ample work. Dan was blessed with the tenacity of a serpent and the ability to judge. Fifth Aliyah: Gad was blessed with bravery in battle. Asher's blessing: an abundance of olive oil. Naphtali was blessed with the speed of a deer. Joseph was recognized for his charm, suffering, and righteousness, and was showered with a variety of blessings. Sixth Aliyah: Benjamin was likened to a devouring wolf. Jacob then repeated his request to be buried in Israel, in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron, and he passed away at the age of 147. After an extended national mourning period, Joseph received Pharaoh's permission to carry Jacob's body up to Israel. A huge funeral procession consisting of all the elders of Egypt as well as Jacob's family went and buried Jacob. After returning to Egypt, Joseph's brothers feared that now, after Jacob had passed away, Joseph would exact revenge from them for selling him into slavery. Joseph reassured them that he harbored no ill feelings towards them. Seventh Aliyah: Joseph lived until the age of 110. Before passing away he told his brothers that G‑d would eventually take them out of Egypt and return them to the Promised Land. Joseph asked his brothers to promise that when that time arrived they would carry his remains with them, and inter him in Israel. |
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