VAYECHI_GENESIS XLVII:28-L:26
The brothers’ reconciliation allowed Yaacov to bid farewell to this world in peace, with the awareness that the seed he sowed through his offspring would flourish and beget a nation in the not-too-distant future. Although adversity can lead to depression, in the case of the patriarch, struggle, and angst, coping, and disappointment become the stepping stones that allowed him to climb to emotional and spiritual maturity.
He had common traits with Yosef, his favorite son. Just as Esav hated Yaacov and wanted to kill him, so did the brothers hate and try to eliminate Yosef. Yaacov shared with Yosef a penchant for dreams; both were visionaries. But unlike the first patriarchs, he ultimately knew how to keep the family united, being selective with affection and reproach without expelling any child from the paternal home.
Finally, he gathered his children around his deathbed. He identified the aspirations and shortcomings of each of them in the hope that they could take care of the deficient aspects of their personalities and give birth to a people who would carry the message of monotheism to Humanity. These chapters do not begin with a new paragraph in the written text of the Tora, as is often the case.
The Chachamim wished to begin with the word Vayechi, “And he lived,” found in the middle of a paragraph, to imply that Yaacov did not really pass away but is still alive. In the case of Avraham and Yitschak, the text states, “And he expired and died.” In the case of Yaacov, on the other hand, the text reads: “And he expired and joined his people.” There is no mention that he died. According to Rabbi Yochanan: “Our father Yaacov did not die. Someone said to him: ‘Then it was in vain that they mourned for him, embalmed him, and buried him?’ Rabbi Yochanan replied that it was an allusive interpretation according to the phrase: ‘And you, fear not, my servant Yaakov…, I will save you from distant places and your descendants from the land of their captivity…”. Drawing a parallel between Yaacov and his descendants, it can be said that as his offspring live, Yaacov lives.
According to the Talmud, Yaacov was embalmed because they believed he had died, but in reality, he was still alive. The Chachamim interpreted the phrase Yoshev ohalim: “who resides in tents”, as an allusion to the studies he carried on in the schools of Shem and Ever, the two great scholars of the time. In this sense, tradition teaches that Yaacov transmitted to his descendants the importance of the study, an indication that the Mishna teaches with “Talmud Torah keneged kulam”: “study has preference over other virtues.” This is the great teaching of Yaacov. The second lesson, we suggest, is the value of family integrity.
However, in the presence of four wives, Yaacov achieved understanding and loyalty among his sons. This effective relationship was preceded by a long trajectory that included envy, jealousy, hatred, and aggressiveness between the brothers. Perhaps the episode of the journey to Egypt in search of food and the confrontation with the Egyptian ruler, who was really their brother Yosef, whom they did not recognize, was the catalytic agent that brought the brothers closer. But above all, it served to make them recognize the mistakes they had made in the past, especially with their brother Yosef. Emotional and spiritual growth demands the courage to face error and sin in biblical language. “Kol Israel arevim ze laze”: “in the collective of Israel, everyone is responsible for others.” This maxim is a corollary of the above.
Just as Yaacov ended his days in Egyptian exile, his offspring suffered from Galut for millennia. Perhaps, for this reason, having to face the danger of the unknown and the rejection of the native inhabitants of the different lands they inhabited and considered as outsiders even after centuries of permanence, they developed a deep spirit of solidarity that allowed them to face the discrimination and hatred that an intolerant, inexplicable and enigmatic anti-Semitism unleashed against them.
From these qualities that Yaacov left as a legacy to his descendants derives the idea that the patriarch is still alive because they are the fundamental elements that have allowed that, parallel to the disappearance of colossal civilizations, the Jewish people managed to survive all those who tried to exterminate him.
