Vayechi D'var Torah: Delivered by Bennett Simon, January 3rd

“And Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt.  “47:28

And Jacob died and was gathered to his people…” 50:1

My topic today is “what is a life,?” taking as my text, the account of Jacob’s life, and using the text to scrutinize his character.

The lenses through which I am viewing these matters are exemplified in the following three epigrams:

1)Socrates, “The unexamined life is not liveable for a human being” (38a, 5-6, Plato’s Apology)

2)Chassidic tale:Reb Zusha was laying on his deathbed surrounded by his disciples. He was crying and no one could comfort him. One student asked his Rebbe, “Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham.”Reb Zusha answered, “When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribune, they won’t ask me,’Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,’ rather, they will ask me, “Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?” Why didn’t I fulfill my potential, and why didn’t I follow the path that could have been mine?

(From Sefaria, thanks to Rabbi Victor)

3)JK Rowling’s(Harry Potter’s ‘mother’) Harvard commencement speech: “Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life…” 

Your CV does not, include your failures. (June 5, 2008)

Consider Jacob’s summation of his life as he is introduced by Joseph to Pharaoh in last week’s parsha, Va’yigash, 47;7-10,

”And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob:’How many are the years of your life? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh: ‘

The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years; ; few and evil have have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the years of their sojourning.’” 

A second “summary” appears in this parsha, Va-y-chee, chapter 48. He recounts with more gratitude, citing what God had promised him in the visions/dream at Bethel, first as he was fleeing from Esaufor his life (Gen 28) and a second time as he is returning from :Padan Aram to the land of Canaan and his father’s house.(Gen 35).

At this juncture in the story, God already seems to be delivering on His promises. When he beholds the two sons of Joseph, Menasseh and Ephraim, (he has some trouble recognizing them, but w’ll leave that at the moment): “And Israel said unto Joseph: ‘I had not thought to see thy face; and, lo,God hath let me see thy seed also.’” (48:11) Interestingly, the text suddenly switches from “Yaakov” to ”Yisrael, Israel,”perhaps as he is beholding the future of the people, embodied in these sons of Joseph.

So, we might surmise, in the seventeen years he’s been. In Egypt, including the famine years, he has perhaps mellowed and learned gratitude.

Let us briefly review the life of Jacob. Starting with his experience in Rebekkah’s womb,(chapter 25) there the twins struggled with each other and “two nations are in your womb,” He emerges second grasping the heel of his brother Esau. He is “a quiet man dwelling in tents,” and Esau is a hunter. He succeeds in getting Esau to sell him his birthright. Later on, (27), Rebekkah convinces Jacob to use deceit and secure Isaac’s blessing that should be preserved for the firstborn.This sequence sets up the pattern around rights of the firstborn, that is endemic in Jacob’s life. Jacob has to flee to Padan Aram to escape with his life from Esau’s anger, and to land in the household of Rebekkah’s deceiving brother, Laban and now Jacob is the victim of deception around Laban cheating him out of marrying Rachel. He suffers further for 14 more years with Laban’s chicanery, working to earn Rachel as a wife (with two handmaids, Zilpah and Bilha) and accumulate flocks wealth and children.He has to flee with his wives and flocks from Laban, who finally and grudgingly, parts on non-hostile terms from Jacob.

Jacob then needs to contrive to meet Esau, uncertain about the outcome. The night before the encounter with Esau he has this nocturnal experience of wrestling with the angel of God, prevailing, being renamed Yisrael, but injured—now a limping man (cf. Oedipus). In a way, this the first time, and the only time, that he cannot escape and must wrestle for his life, and sustain serious damage. 1

 Jacob and Esau manmaged some sort of reconciliation, a peaceful parting of ways, and a later coming together at the death of their father Isaac.In the dialogue between him and Esau  Jacob’s indirectly refers to the blessing he stole from Esau—33:11, “kach nah et beer-ca-tee” , using the root “bracha”—varyingly translated as if “the abundance I’ve been granted” or alternatively, “take please  my b’racha, (sc. the one I stole from you.) 

1-  I thank Annette Miller for telling me about Rabbi Jonathan Sacks making this observation

He proceded on his journey through the land, and his beloved Rachel goes into a difficult labor,  delivers Benjamin and dies. Adding to his woe, he cannot bury her at the cave of Machpela in Hebron, but buries her on the road to Efrat. (“Rachel’s Tomb).

Immediately following the death of Rachel in the text (ch.35) is the story of Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, having intercourse with Bilha, Rachel’s handmaiden, and his father’s concubine (Hebrew “pee-leg-esh”a higher status than the ,earlier term used for Bilhah and Zilpah “ah-mah,” handmaid, thereby increasing the outrage of Reuben”s behavior.)

All of this has happened even before the central horror/trauma of his life, the narrative of his disastrous favoring Joseph above all of his brothers. Details include the coat of many colors, Joseph’s dreams (cf. Robbie’s D’var Torah of December 20), the brothers almost killing Joseph, or letting him die, being sold to slavery in Egypt; and the awful lie (covering up an awful truth) of Joseph’s being killed by a wild beast; Jacob’s endless grieving, —he will go bereft to Sheol.

Then the story  Dinah, her being seized by Shechem, the agreement that Shechem could marry her if all the men of the city get circumcised, Simeon and Levi slaughtering the males,the looting the city, and also taking as booty  all the women  and children.

Further on, Jacob has to face the fact of the famine, sends his sons to buy food.  

This triggers the sequence of sons going down to Egypt, Joseph taking hostages, Simeon, and then Benjamin—horrible for Jacob.

Judah steps up to offer his own children as hostages/prisoners, Joseph breaks down, reveals his identity. Brothers go back to tell Jacob about Joseph, and bring Jacob and “seventy souls” down to settle in Egypt during the years of famine in Canaan.

So, this constitutes the bulk of what Jacob has in mind when he tells Pharaoh how evil have been his days.

What omissions stand out in this history? Using the lens of the J.K. Rowling admonition, that a true life history must include failures, how does Jacob rate?

       Has Jacob owned up to his history of the deception that he and Rebekkah contrived?

       He does not admit that he did not adequately rebuke Joseph the boy who was so special, or reflect that he should not have treated him so specially and cited the anger and envy of his brot1hers. He rebukes Joseph only when he hears Joseph’s second dream, in which Jacob is bowing down to Joseph.He never confronts the brothers with what they did to Joseph, and the role of his behavior in setting up Joseph as an object of anger and envy. And he repeats with Menasseh and Ephraim the family pattern of removing the priority of the first born.

Now, using the lens of the Reb Zusha story, it seems that Jacob is indeed being Jacob!

He does not report that his response to what Simeon and Levi did in Shechem was not to reproach them for their cruelty—chastise them only for exposing him and his kin to danger from avenging Canaanites. Early in the brothers’ deliberations on how to deal with the situation with Dinah and negotiations with Shechem and his father 

Chamor, he keeps his council, (34:5) perhaps signaling to Simeon and Levi that as far as he’s concerned, they could get away with murder.

For the moment,  using the Socratic lens of “the examined/unexamined life” we can ask:does Jacob engage in examining himself? How much self-deception marks his character?

This parsha gives some indication of Jacob having learned something and undergone some measure of change.I cite two areas: gratitude and ability to rebuke, both of which we see as he approaches his death. In the scene of Joseph coming with his two sons, and Jacob blessing them, he expresses his wonder, or astonishment, that not only has he lived to see Joseph alive and so important, but that he lives to see Joseph’s offspring. He tells Joseph that God is fulfilling the promises that He, God,  made to Jacob.Further, in his addressing Joseph and Menasseh and Ephraim, he adds, “May the angel who has repeatedly saved/redeemed me, bless these boys…” (48:15-16) One could argue, make a Midrash, that Jacob might have said to Pharaoh, “Yes, I’ve had a very hard life, but I am grateful to God, and now to my son Joseph, for all that they have done for me.” But, better late than never! Next, change is seen in the “blessings/prophecies” he delivers to each of the sons.He rebukes Reuben for his temperament of being labile like water, and specifically for the act of sleeping with his concubine Bilhah.

Further, he rebukes Simeon and Levi for their cruelty, how they deliberately “maimed an ox,” I.e. slaughtered the males of Shechem, (and despoiled the city? Not clear if that’s included in the rebuke).

Now, I can envisage some of you listening to my examination of Jacob and think I’m being harsh and judgmental, characterizing him almost as a kind of trickster, deceiver, escape artist, and self deceiver!

Let me then make two points:

What I am doing, accurately or inaccurately, is taking Jacob very seriously! Which is an important part of why we read and re-read these stories—we are supposed, indeed virtually commanded, to learn from them. So, when needed, we must call a spade a spade, not spare Jacob or us from being rebuked! I acknowledge that it is also important “not to use the spade as a club”, —to quote a patient in a case study we had used in my residency training)

A second point, is raised by Leon Kass in his book on Genesis, The Beginning of Wisdom. Why was Jacob selected to be the named forbear of the Jewish people, the children of Israel? Precisely because of his mix of virtues and flaws, he can be a believable and qualified ancestor! He is more like us than are Abraham and Isaac!

The Biblical narrative thus also presents us with a curriculum vitae that is fuller and more complete than the CV that Jacob presented to Pharaoh, and we are thereby given the opportunity to see him more fully than he sees himself. And that is another believable aspect of Jacob, that others may see more about us than we see ourselves.

I’d like to add that working on “And Jacob lived…” What is a life? Has been a occasion some “reflection “ on my own life—especially at these dates, Robbie’s birthday and our wedding anniversary. 

There, I feel doubly fortunate we are so fortunate and grateful that we have this Torah as a source for ongoing exploration of what constitutes our own lives.

Shabbat Shalom and thank you.