Vayechi

📜 The Story

Parashat Vayechi is the last portion in the book of Bereishit. Yaakov lived in Egypt for seventeen years, near his beloved son Yosef, in peace and honor. When he felt his time was near, he called Yosef and made him swear not to bury him in Egypt, but to carry his bones up to the land of Canaan, to the Cave of Machpelah, where Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivkah, and Leah are buried.

Yaakov gathered all his sons together and blessed each one with a special blessing suited to him, hinting at the future of the tribes that would come from them. He also blessed Yosef's two sons, Efraim and Menashe, and from this came the custom of parents blessing their sons, 'May God make you like Efraim and like Menashe.' Yaakov placed his hands deliberately, his right hand on the younger Efraim and his left hand on the older Menashe, because he saw with divine insight that Efraim would grow to be more prominent.

Before he passed away, Yaakov told Yosef and his brothers the important verse, 'The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah,' hinting that kingship would come from the tribe of Yehudah. Yaakov passed away at the age of one hundred forty seven, and his sons faithfully carried out his wishes. They embalmed him according to Egyptian custom, and accompanied him in a great procession to the land of Canaan, where they buried him in the Cave of Machpelah.

After Yaakov's passing, the brothers feared that Yosef would take revenge on them for what they had done to him in the past, but Yosef reassured them with the famous words, 'You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.' He showed that even when hard things happen, God guides everything toward a good outcome in the end. Yosef continued to care for his whole family in Egypt with love and generosity.

At the end of the parasha, Yosef too grows old, and before his death he makes his brothers swear that when God redeems the children of Israel from Egypt, they will carry his bones up with them to the land of Israel. Yosef passed away at the age of one hundred ten, was embalmed, and remained in Egypt until the Exodus. So the book of Bereishit, the book of the forefathers, comes to a close, and the path begins toward the book of Shemot and the Egyptian exile.