Vayechi - Pivoting from a grand vision to a local one
Genesis 47:28 - 50:26 | Kings 2:1 - 12
Summary: There are times when we have the capacity to see the big picture. But that’s not the only, or best, thing to see. Sometimes it is best to see what is literally in front of us, right now.
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I’ve always had a hard time articulating my thoughts and feelings about this week’s Torah reading. At least I’m not alone in that - before his death, Ya’akov himself sought to reveal something broad and encompassing, and instead revealed something local and limited. So it seems to me that the gap between what we want to say and what we are able to articulate is the place in which this Torah reading lives.
As we come to the end of the book of Genesis, Ya’akov has left the land of Canaan - the land that was promised to him and to his descendants - and gone down to Egypt. For intents and purposes it was inevitable that Ya’akov and his descendants would go down to Egypt. God told Ya’akov’s grandfather Avraham, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.” This is that. Ya’akov knows that he is leading his family into 400 years of darkness, exile, away from home.
And yet, Ya’akov knows that Egypt is not the end of his family. The second part of that promise from God to Avraham is clear to him - “but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.” And God told Ya’akov, directly, “I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back.” Knowing this, as his death approaches, Ya’akov holds that vision of a far future.
Or, rather, he sometimes holds this vision. It sort of flits in and out. He can grasp it at his best moments. On his deathbed, he tells his sons, “Gather up and I will tell you what will happen in the far future” but, as the Midrash points out, the vision he is holding soon leaves him, and he instead reveals something less grand: “He wished to reveal to them the end of Israel’s exile but the Shechinah departed from him and he began to speak of other things.”
These “other things”, as we will see, are more personal, more local. They no longer include a broad vision that touches the horizon of their future. Rather, his individual sons are told about who they are, about their respective strengths and weaknesses - Reuvain is impetuous; Shimon and Levi are violent; Yehudah - you are a natural leader. When he finishes the list, he closes his eyes for the last time, and that is that.
And when Ya’akov’s eyes closed, there was a ripple effect. Rashi: “As soon as our father Ya’akov departed this life the hearts and eyes of Israel were closed.” It seems that everyone's eyes ceased to see the horizon.
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What do you see when you are not looking toward the horizon? Lots. Plenty. You see what’s right in front of you. You see the people in your neighborhood. Look even less toward the horizon and you see even more of those people. Without any grand vision, any pernicious expectations, any perceived ultimate end, without anything toward which we are moving, or fighting, or struggling, or trying to achieve, we see a world teeming with life. We are feeling, connecting, empathizing, sharing, and loving, growing, healing, enjoying.
There are certainly moments that call upon us to strive, to aspire, and to march forward, to set goals and reach toward them, to choose a destination and try to get there. But not all moments are like that (thank God!). Knowing - and accepting - when it is time to let go, at least momentarily, of thoughts as to where we are going, in order to concentrate on who and where we are and who we are there with - this is the difference between disappointment and recalibration.
This is what Ya’akov teaches us so brilliantly. “He wished to reveal to them the end of Israel’s exile but the Shechinah departed from him and he began to speak of other things.” His pivot is so quick. “I have a grand vision! I know how it’s going to go, and how it’s going to end. I understand everything. It is all one! Ah, wait. It’s gone. OK. Let me tell you something else. Let me tell you about you. I want you all to know who you are, but also to know who each other is. Slow down. Look around.”
Ah, yes. Look around.