December 29, 2012

Va-y’chi, Genesis 47:28–50:26

The End of Genesis...But Only the Beginning of Our People's Story

Bruce Kadden

This Shabbat, we conclude the Book of Genesis with Parashat Va-y’chi. Whenever we finish reading a book, even a book of Torah, it is important to reflect on where we have been, what we have covered since the beginning of the book. Over the past twelve weeks, we have made our way through Genesis, beginning with Creation and the mythological stories that attempt to explain how the world as we know it came to be.

Then, we began the story of our people, with God's call to Abram to leave his home and go to a land that God would show him (Genesis 12:1). In return, God promised "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and it shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will pronounce doom on those who curse you; through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (12:2–3).

The rest of the Book of Genesis tells the story of Abraham (as he was renamed) and his family, the challenges that they faced, and their faithfulness despite adversity. We follow this family from generation to generation, as the covenant is passed first to Isaac and then to Jacob, each facing and overcoming their own challenges.

Finally, the story of this "first family of Judaism" is concluded in Va-y’chi, with the death first of Jacob and then of Joseph. Before he dies, Jacob blesses Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh, and then offers a blessing to each of his own sons. But while this narrative closes one chapter in the story of our people, at the same time, it begins another, looking forward to the next stage of the journey.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, in commenting on this portion, notes that Genesis, like the Tanach as a whole, "is a story without an ending which looks forward to an open future rather than reaching closure" (Covenant & Conversation: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible, Genesis: The Book of Beginnings, New Milford, CT: Maggid Books and The Orthodox Union, 2009, p. 350). Although the loose ends of this particular part of the story are neatly tied up, we know we are not at the end of the story, but only at its beginning.

Indeed, throughout Genesis there has been a tension between the past and the future, between what was and what is yet to be. The covenant that God makes with Abraham serves to direct our attention toward the future. But, we also learn early on (Genesis 15:13) that this future will include being "strangers in a land not theirs" and being "enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years."

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