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VAYECHI

The Chumash Bereshith began with blessings – God’s blessings to His creatures to inhabit and exploit His wondrous world – and it ends with blessings – Yaakov’s blessings to his sons, the tribes of Israel. The blessings are, so to speak, the bookends of this awe inspiring story of the human race in general and the Jewish people in particular. Jewish tradition always treasures things that begin with blessings and end with blessings.

Between the beginning of the Chumash Bereshith and its conclusion in this week’s, parsha there are many occurrences – not all of them blessed and pleasant. There are wars and violence, famines and tyrants, tragedies and rebellious and disappointing children. There are stories of great sacrifice and noble endeavor, of soaring morality and the loneliness of being right in a world that is very wrong. The book of Bereshith is truly the book of humankind, of every person.

We all enter into the world with blessings and smiles, being held and cuddled. And we leave this world also with blessings but this time with tears, alone but hopefully not forgotten. The blessings that mark our lives are never the same to every person, neither at our beginning nor at our end. We see this clearly from the special blessings granted to our patriarchs and matriarchs by the God of Israel and by the individually special blessings granted by Yaakov to his sons. Every person is entitled to blessing in this world. But every person is entitled to his or her own particular blessing. In Judaism, there are no one-size-fits-all blessings.

The Torah emphasizes that Yaakov saw his children as individuals and not as a conformist mass of people. Even the three sons – Reuven, Shimon, and Levi – who, at first understanding of the parsha, one could say were not blessed by Yaakov, nevertheless also were blessed. Not only were they blessed and included in the general blessing that Yaakov gave to his sons, as Rashi points out, but they were also blessed individually through the very criticism of their faults that were pointed out by Yaakov.

Sometimes in life, the greatest gift and blessing that a parent can give to a child is the criticism of that child’s traits and weaknesses so that these faults may yet be corrected and improved upon. Yaakov sees his children not as only being the next generation of his family but rather as being the future and eternity of the Jewish people. As such, faults neglected and not corrected remain eternal faults eventually impacting on the lives of millions of people. As a child, it is painful to receive an injection of immunization from diseases. At the moment, the child certainly does not appreciate the prick of the needle. But no one can argue the fact that the parent arranging for such an immunization is giving the child a most valuable blessing. Yaakov’s words to these three sons should be viewed in that perspective as well. An immunization against bad traits and counterproductive behavior is a most precious blessing.

Shabat shalom.

Rabbi Berel Wein