Torah Stories By Hannah Parasha Vayechi

Ya’akov lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Ya’akov’s life came to one hundred and forty-seven years. And when the time approached for Yisrael to die, he called his son Yosef and said to him, “Do me this favour, place your hand under my thigh as a pledge of your steadfast loyalty: Please do not bury me in Egypt. When I lie down with my fathers, take me up from Egypt and bury me in their burial-place.” He replied, “I will do as you have spoken.” And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. Then Yisrael bowed at the head of the bed.

Some time later Yosef was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. When Ya’akov was told, “Your son Yosef has come to see you,” Yisrael summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

And Ya’akov said to Yosef: “El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and He blessed me, and said to me, ‘I will make you fertile and numerous, making of you a community of peoples; and I will assign this land to you and your offspring to come as an everlasting possession.’ Now, your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine no less than Reuben and Simeon. But offspring born to you after them shall be yours, they shall be recorded in stead of their brothers in their inheritance. I do this because when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, while I was journeying in the land of Canaan, when still some distance short of Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath.” (Now Bethlehem)

Noticing Yosef’s sons, Yisrael asked, “Who are these?” And Yosef said to his father, “They are my sons, whom G-d has given me here.” “Bring them up to me,” he said, “that I may bless them.” Now Yisrael’s eyes were dim with age; he could not see. So Yosef brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Yisrael said to Yosef, “I never expected to see you again, and here G-d has let me see your children as well.”

Yosef then removed them from his knees, and bowed low with his face to the ground. Yosef took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand – to Yisrael’s left- and Manasseh with his left hand – to Yisrael’s right – and brought them close to him. But Yisrael stretched out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head – thus crossing his hands – although Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Yosef saying,

“The G-d in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Yitzchak walked,

The G-d who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day –

The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm –

Bless the lads.

In them may my name be recalled,

And the names of my fathers Abraham and Yitzchak,

And may they multiply in millions upon the earth.”

When Yosef saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it wrong; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. “Not so, Father,” Yosef said to his father, “for the other is the first-born; place your right hand on his head.” But his father objected, saying, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Yet his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations.” So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you shall Yisrael invoke blessings saying: G-d make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

Then Yisrael said to Yosef, “I am about to die; but G-d will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. And now, I assign to you one portion more than to your brothers, which I wrested from the Amorites with my sword and bow.”

And Ya’akov called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.

Assemble and listen, oh sons of Ya’akov;

Listen to Yisrael your father:

Reuben, you are my first-born,

My might and first fruit of my energy,

Exceeding in rank

And exceeding in honour

Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer;

For when you mounted your father’s bed,

You brought disgrace – my couch he mounted!

Simeon and Levi are a pair;

Their weapons are tools of lawlessness.

Let not my person be included in their council,

Let not my being be counted in their assembly.

For when angry they slay men,

And when pleased they maim oxen.

Cursed be their anger so fierce,

And their wrath so relentless.

I will divide them in Ya’akov,

Scatter them in Yisrael.

You, oh Yehudah, your brothers shall praise;

Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes;

Your father’s sons shall bow low to you.

Yehudah is a lion’s whelp;

On prey, my son, have you grown.

He crouches, lies down, like a lion,

Like the king of beasts – who dare rouse him?

The sceptre shall not depart from Yehudah,

Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet;

So that tribute shall come to him

And the homage of peoples be his.

He tethers his donkey to a vine,

His donkey’s foal to a choice vine;

He washes his garment in wine,

His robe in blood of grapes

His eyes are darker than wine;

His teeth are whiter than milk.

Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore;

He shall be a haven for ships,

And his flank shall rest on Sidon.

Issachar is a strong-boned donkey,

Crouching among the sheepfolds.

When he saw how good was security,

And how pleasant was the country,

He bent his shoulder to the burden,

And became a toiling serf.

Dan shall govern his people,

As one of the tribes of Yisrael.

Dan shall be a serpent by the road,

A viper by the path,

That bites the horse’s heels

So that his rider is thrown backward.

I wait for your deliverance, O HaShem!

Gad shall be raided by raiders,

But he shall raid at their heels.

Asher’s bread shall be rich,

And he shall produce royal dainties.

Naphtali is a hind let loose,

Which produces lovely fawns.

Yosef is a wild ass,

A wild ass by a spring

- wild colts on a hillside.

Archers bitterly assailed him;

They shot at him and harried him.

Yet his bow stayed taut,

And his arms were made firm

By the hands of the Mighty One of Ya’akov –

There, the Shepherd, the Rock of Yisrael –

The G-d of your father who helps you

With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that couches below,

Blessings of the breast and womb.

The blessings of your father

Surpass the blessings of my ancestors,

To the utmost bounds of the eternal hills.

May they rest on the head of Yosef,

On the brow of the elect of his brothers.

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;

In the morning he consumes the foe,

And in the evening he divides the spoil.”

All these were the tribes of Yisrael, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, addressing to each a parting word appropriate to him.

Then he instructed them, saying to them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave which is in the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site – there Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried; there Yitzchak and his wife Rivkah were buried; and there I buried Leah – the field and the cave in it, bought from the Hittites.” When Ya’akov finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed and, breathing his last, he was gathered to his people.

(The monument today that is at the cave at Machpelah)

Yosef flung himself on his father’s face and cried over him and kissed him. Then Yosef ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Yisrael. It required forty days for such is the full period for embalming. The Egyptians mourned for him seventy days; and when the mourning period was over, Yosef spoke to Pharaoh’s court, saying, “Do me this favour, and lay this appeal before Pharaoh: My father made me swear, saying, ‘I am about to die. Be sure to bury me in the grave which I made which I made ready for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now, therefore, let me go and bury my father; then I shall return.” And Pharaoh said, “go up and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath.”

So Yosef went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the officials of Pharaoh, the senior members of his court, and all of Egypt’s dignitaries, together with all of Yosef’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the region of Goshen. Chariots, too, and horsemen went up with him; it was a very large troop.

When they came to Goren ha-Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn lamentation; and he observed a mourning period of seven days for his father. And when the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at Goren ha-Atad, they said, “This is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians.” That is why it was named Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them. His sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field near Mamre, which Abraham had bought for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. After burying his father, Yosef returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

When Yosef’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Yosef still bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong that we did him!” So they sent a message to Yosef, “Before his death your father left this instruction: So shall you say to Yosef, “Forgive, I urge you, the offence and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly. Therefore, please forgive the offence of the servants of the G-d of your father.” And Yosef was in tears as they spoke to him.

His brothers went to him themselves, flung themselves before him, and said, “We are prepared to be your slaves.” But Yosef said to them, “Have no fear! Am I a substitute for G-d? Besides, although you intended me harm, G-d intended it for good, so as to bring about the present result – the survival of many people. And so, fear not. I will sustain you and your children.” Thus he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

So Yosef and his father’s household remained in Egypt. Yosef lived one hundred and ten years. Yosef lived to see children of the third generation of Ephraim; the children of Machir son of Manasseh were likewise born upon Yosef’s knees. At length, Yosef said to his brothers, “I am about to die. G-d will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, to Yitzchak and to Ya’akov.” So Yosef made the sons of Yisrael swear, saying, “When G-d has taken notice of you, you shall carry up my bones from here.”

Yosef died at the age of one hundred and ten years, and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.