Genesis Va-yechi: Farewell to Jacob, Farewell to Months

On the URJ website, Rabbi Zoë Klein's Farewell to Jacob, Farewell to Months brings meaning to this week’s parasha Va-y'chi (Genesis 47:28−50:26):

As we reach the end of the secular year, our Torah portion too is full of endings. It is the end of the Book of Genesis, the very last portion, and in it we read of the end of Jacob's life, as well as the end of Joseph's life. As Jacob is laying on his deathbed, he turns and sees each of his children and musters up the energy to say a few final words to each of them. With much imagery, he tries to sum up the character of his boys, and the truth is, most of them are not really that great. Reuben had an affair with one of his father's wives. Simeon and Levi killed thousands of men. The brothers threw Joseph into the pit, sold him into slavery, and then told their father he had been torn to shreds by a wild beast.

According to Rabbinic legend (Babylonian Talmud, Pesach 56a), as Jacob was on his deathbed, his twelve sons gathered around him as summoned. Jacob looked at the faces of the sons enwreathing him and realized that this one was violent and this one was self-serving and this one was a sinner and this one was weak and this one was brazen. "How can I leave this world, Jacob thought, "with my sons so misguided and divided! The dying patriarch began to cry, imagining what would happen once he was gone, how faith in the God of Isaac and Abraham would probably die with him. His youngest son, Benjamin, sensing his father's anguish, leaned close and whispered to him, " Sh'ma Yisrael , hear Israel, hear Jacob, listen Father, Adonai Eloheinu . Despite how it seems, be assured, Adonai is our God; we do believe, Adonai Echad , ‘God is One,' and we are one. We are together no matter where our paths lead us, Father; we are a family, and we are one. Jacob's soul was immediately soothed. He turned to Benjamin and whispered gratefully to God about his youngest son, Baruch shem kavod malchuto l'olam va-ed , "Blessed be his kingdom forever and ever.

When we recite Sh'ma , we remember this Torah portion. We close our eyes and, behind our lids, imagine approaching Jacob's bed. He is softly weeping. The color is drained from his face. His hair is a cloud of ice crystals evaporating in cool mist in the sun. His bed is as an altar. Hosts of dust angels sail through the shafts of pink and gold sunlight, somersaulting in his shallow breath. We come near and kneel beside him, hands lightly on the thin sheet over his angular body. We begin our prayer . . . Shhhhh . . . and his weeping subsides. Sh'ma Yisrael . . . listen Israel . . . we remind him that his name is Israel and that we carry on that strong namesake. Yes, there will be obstacles. Yes, there will be opponents. But we are all wrestlers, and we have faith in the same Source.

Parallels have been drawn between Jacob's twelve sons and the twelve months of the year, and out of the imagery of Jacob's words, symbols or flags of each of the tribes, corresponding to zodiac signs for each month, have been developed through literature and art. Like birthstones, each tribe is assigned a precious stone embedded into the breastplate of the High Priest.

In keeping with our patriarch, who looked around him at his end at his twelve boys and said a word of farewell to each of them, we too look around at the twelve months that have passed and give them our final testament and farewell. How were the past months like the tribes of Israel?

Jacob says to Reuben, "Boil up like water no more (Genesis 49:4). How was our past year unstable, like water ready to boil? What are the powers that overtook us, the temptations to which we submitted and that we'd have boil up no more?

To Simeon and Levi: "Cursed is their wrath so fierce (49:7). What were the faces of wrath we encountered this year in our own circles and in the world? Do we recall the flags of Israel and the United States burning in the Middle East? How have we assuaged our own prejudices and wrath? To Judah: "Your brothers shall heap praise on you (49:8). How have we earned the praise and respect of our family this year?

To Zebulun Jacob says, "He will be a harbor for ships (49:13). We pray that our homes and our synagogues become a harbor for ships, that we are drawn safely into port at the close of tiresome days, that we find peace in the twelve moons to come and many, many moons more.

To Issachar: "He bent his shoulder to the burden, to be subjected to forced labor (49:15). How have we handled the burdens in our lives? When have we followed, and when have we led?

To Dan: "Dan will lead his people's cause (49:16). How this year have we led our people's cause? How have we participated to make our own voices heard in the issues that matter most? Have we written letters, attended rallies, generated petitions . . . or have we allowed ourselves to believe we cannot make a difference? How have our houses of worship helped us to organize and advocate for tikkun olam ?

To Gad: "Gad shall be raided by raiders (49:19). This year we saw Israel raided. How do we continue to reach out and facilitate the creation of an infrastructure of peace in the land we hold so dear? To Asher: "Asher—his food is fat (49:20). To feed our consumptive American appetites, whom have we raided? Have we paid enough attention to those who work in darkness and dread to provide the luxuries we take for granted?

To Naphtali: "Naphtali, a mountain-ewe born, bears lovely lambs in the folds (49:21). What were the loveliest things in which you participated this past year? To Benjamin: "Benjamin is a wolf that rends (49:27). What have we raided this year? Have we been generous with others this year, and when have we thought only of ourselves?

Finally, to Joseph, Jacob says, "Joseph is a wild she-ass's son (49:22). When during this past year have we behaved as a mensch? And when, quite frankly, have we been, well, um . . . a donkey?

Rabbi Zoë Klein is a rabbi at Temple Isaiah, Los Angeles, California. A book of her poetry, House Plant Meadow , will be published this year by David R. Godine, and she is the author of a chapter in The Women's Haftarah Commentary (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004)