An Overview of Genesis : Vayechi – The Art of Coming
Closer
In the Book of Genesis, from the beginning, with the
fratricide of Cain and Abel to the end, with the unity of the sons of Joseph,
Ephriam and Menashe, an overall Tshuva/repentance has taken place, but
it is very incomplete.
At the end of the Book of Genesis, we do not sail off
happily ever after into the horizon. We go down into slavery.
One view holds that slavery was not a consequence of
anything we did – it was simply part of God’s plan, spelled out at the ‘Covenant
of Between the Pieces’ (Genesis 15), which stipulates exile, slavery and
suffering.
Another view is that, in Genesis, “nobody ever paid
the piper”. Joseph didn’t pay for his sins against his brothers, and they
didn’t pay for their sins against him. In this view, the slavery of the Jewish
people is a consequence of this. The family of Abraham objectified each other
and treated each other as slaves, and so their children were objectified and
treated as slaves. One Midrash says that within the slavery of the Jewish
people, there was no hierarchy – suffering proved to be the great equalizer.
This continues throughout history – so that there is some resolution, but never
full payment. It is not shalem/complete, and not shalem/paid for.
The Gemara (Hagigah 4a-b) tells the strange tale heard
by R. Bibi b. Abaye,
“who was frequently visited by the Angel of death. [Once] the latter
said to his messenger: Go, bring me Miriam, the hairdresser! He went and
brought him Miriam, the children’s nurse. Said he to him: I told thee Miriam,
the women’s hairdresser. He answered: If so, I will take her back. Said he to
him: Since thou has brought her, let her be added. But how were you able to her
get? – She was holding a shovel in her hand and was heating and raking the
oven. She took it and put it on her foot and burnt herself, thus her luck was
impaired and I brought her.
The name ‘Miriam the hairdresser/megaddela’ is
often thought to refer to Mary Magdalene from the story of Jesus. In this text
the messenger of the Angel of death confuses Mary Magdalene with Miriam, the
sister of Moses. The question raised here is can someone die before their time?
Can the Angel of death make a mistake? In this story, Moses’ sister Miriam is
made vulnerable by burning her foot, and the Angel’s messenger is able to take
her before her time.
Once a person is in a place of danger, he is judged
individually, and only God’s kindness can bring salvation. This is the premise
of Birkat Hagomel – the blessing we recite upon seeing a place where we
once experienced a miracle that saved us from imminent danger. By the strict standard of din/Judgment,
everyone deserves to die, so it is only a miracle - brought about by Hashem’s
compassion - that can save us from a life-threatening situation.
By the strict standard of Justice, Joseph should have
died in the pit, just as the Baker (who according to Ishbitz represents Joseph)
later dies in Pharaoh’s prison, and Messiah, son of Joseph will die at the End
of Days.
Another interesting aspect of the Messianic process is
that Lot is a part of this process.
A key part of the whole Messianic process is in the
idea of going down to go up. This is why before the Davidic Messiah, we are
told we will experience painful ‘birth-pangs’ and Armageddon, a period of
turmoil in which Messiah son of Joseph will die. In order to rise up, we must
first go down into chaos.
The Zohar in Vayechi says: ‘R. Simeon said: Jacob’s life was always one
of hardship, but whenever he looked at Joseph he thought he saw his mother
again, because Joseph closely resembled Rachel, and at such a time he forgot
all his sorrows. When, however, Joseph was parted from him, this was a worse
blow than all the previous ones, and he wept every day for the seventeen years
that Joseph had been with him. Hence Providence compensated him with another
seventeen years of Joseph’s company, during which he lived in ease and luxury.
Tradition tells us that all those seventeen years the Divine Presence rested
upon him, and therefore they were called “life”. So it says that when his sons
told him that Joseph was alive, “the spirit of Jacob their father revived”
(Genesis 44:27), for up to then the spirit had been dead within him and he had
not been in a state to receive another in its place, since the spirit from
above does not rest on an empty spot.’
R. Jose said: ‘The Shechinah does not rest on a place which is defective
or disturbed, but only in a place properly prepared, a place of joyfulness.
Hence all the years that Joseph was away and Jacob was in sadness, the
Shechinah did not rest on him.’
So we have learnt that R. Eleazar said in the name of R. Abba: ‘It is
written, “Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing”,
to show that the service of God should be performed with joy.’ This accords
with what R. Eleasar has elsewhere said, that when Elisha desired the spirit to
rest upon him, he said “and now bring me a minstrel” (2 Kings 3:15).
The irony here is that the spirit of prophecy rested
upon Jacob while he was in Egypt, where as normally, prophecy occurs only in
Eretz Israel. In his ability to receive prophecy in Mitzrayim, Jacob reached
the level of prophecy of Moses.
The irony extends to the issue of simcha/joy,
and how it came to Jacob, enabling him to achieve a very high level of
prophecy. In this section, The Zohar goes on to say that when R. Shimon bar
Yochai died, “the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed”.
This is also the case after the death of Jacob, when the children of Israel went
down into slavery. The ‘closing of the eyes of Israel’ echoes the story of
Tamar, who seduced Judah at Patach Enayim/the opening of the eyes.
There is a great teaching in this, about our need to
embrace the dark places. This is the key to the whole process of going down to
go up.
The goal is to achieve a life of gratitude and simcha/joy.
If we look back to Parshat Yayigash – we see that Jacob said to Pharaoh (47:9)
“My journey through life has lasted 130 years…The days of my life have been few
and hard. I did not live as long as my fathers did during their pilgrimage
through life.”
When seen in this light, we can see Jacob as the
personification of this redemptive process of going down to go up. In his
speech to Pharaoh, he is describing the internal process of every human being. In
Parshat Vayechi, he moves from the embittered state described in his words to
Pharaoh to a state of gratitude and joy.
In a larger context, this process operates throughout
the entire Book of Genesis. Genesis represents the journey from bitter
perceptions and comparisons, in which there is no comfort of solace, to a state
of gratitude and joy. We see this
process very clearly in Leah’s working through of her bitterness in her naming
of her first four sons, and in Rachel’s working through of her bitterness about
not being able to have children.
Embitterment is a sterile state.
In the beginning Cain compares himself to Abel. This
leads to murder and a black cloud over the world. This is the starting point
for the therapeutic process. The Book of Genesis shows us that by embracing the
‘Tree of Death’, or negativity, redemption can grow out of this very blackness.
This dynamic process is contrasted by the state symbolized by Vayeshev
Yaakov b’aretz megurei aviv/And Jacob settled in the land where his fathers
had trembled (Genesis 37:1).
In Parshat Vayigash, Jacob compares his lot to that of
his fathers, and is jealous over the wealth and tranquillity enjoyed by them.
He feels that by comparison, his life has been nothing but hardship and
trouble.
The truth is, however, that hardship and trouble are
often simply avoided in the Book of Genesis. Abraham cast out Hagar and
Ishmael. Isaac was spared because Jacob was forced into exile and Esau was
rejected by Rebecca. Dinah and her daughter Osnat are sent away. Joseph is sent
away. As long as this family is ejecting people, it is not working through its
issues. The family needs to learn to counter the natural tendency to entropy that
is present in all relationships.
Through this entropy, two people come to reflect each
other’s darkness. Through transference, people turn into each other’s worst
nightmare.
This is a great example of where our strengths become
our obstacles, and our weaknesses become our opportunities.
The darkest places of any two people will always meet
up once they are in a relationship, because our darkest places are where we
were hurt as children. As people come close to each other, as some point they
will experience the other in the same way they were hurt as a child. As soon as
we do a reality check, we see that our assumptions take us to a place of hurt
feelings. The closer two people become to each other, the more this will
happen.
The Torah suggests that the antidote to this entropic
process is to learn not to become reactive. This is the meaning of the Mishna
in Avot (4:1) ‘Who is mighty? He who conquers his yetzer/passions.’ Our
task is to conquer our reactivity to the world.
In Parshat Vayechi/’And he lived’, Jacob comes
alive. Until now, he has been buffeted by the winds of fortune, and he is
embittered by all misfortune he has encountered. Before, he was stuck in the
world of denial – the world of Vayeshev. He wanted to dwell in serenity
in the place where his fathers trembled. Here, when he is blessing Joseph, he
speaks of (48:15) “The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked…”
Here, the Torah picks up a theme that runs throughout
the Book of Genesis – the ability to walk in front of God, into the dark places,
without looking for a way out or a way to avoid.
The central paradox of Vayechi is in how by going into
Egypt – eretz Mitzrayim – the place of narrowness and specifically to Goshen – the land of materiality, Jacob’s
awareness of God becomes great. This finding God in the darkness is Abraham’s
great innovation.
This ‘walking into darkness to find God’ takes a lot
of hard work over a long period of time, and it can only be achieved by taking
small, incremental steps.
The sons of Jacob did not, however, repeat the process
that Abraham pioneered. Abraham went down into Egypt and became heavy with
money, which resulted in him realizing that he wanted to live in the desert,
and not in the fleshpots of Egypt. Now,
however; ‘The fledgling nation of Israel settled
in Mitzrayim, in the Goshen district. They were grabbed by the
land (Veye/azi ba), and were fertile, with their population increasing
very rapidly.’ (Genesis 47:27 )
Mizrayim is a place of fear and desire
– fear because it is very oppressive, and desire because it is so materially
seductive. The land literally grabbed them and held onto them, so that they
couldn’t go back after five years, as Abraham had done.
Abraham’s movement from Egypt into the
desert is part of the Messianic process.
The other theme picked up here in Parshat Vayechi is
that of the Messianic process and the role in this process of Lot, who
represents Everyman. When Lot went down to Egypt, he experienced it as “God’s
own garden” (Genesis 13:10). Like Abraham, Lot also went down to Egypt and
became rich, but as a result of this, he wanted to stay there. He believed he
could hold onto Abraham’s values while living in a place like Egypt – and in
this, he is Everyman, and he is the Jewish people, who believed they could stay
in Egypt and hold onto Jacob’s values. For Lot/Everyman, Egypt is Paradise.
It’s clear why the children of Israel didn’t go back.
They were given land, and then they bought more land, and this is how the land
grabbed them. Meanwhile, the Egyptians were stripped of everything they owned.
(Genesis 47:15-22)
From this discrepancy, we can feel the darkness
descend. The Jews own land and the Egyptians own none, and here, just as in the
story of Cain and Abel, the jealousy is brewing.
It is this – fear, desire and reactivity - that closes
the eyes of Israel.
One of the great moments in the Book of Genesis is
how, when Joseph and Judah finally come together, Joseph (the tzaddik/righteous
one) becomes the Baal Tshuva/penitent, and Judah (the baal tshuva)
becomes the tzaddik. Joseph breaks down and cries, while Judah speaks
with the force of a tzaddik/righteous man. Each contributes and benefits
from the experience of coming closer to the other.
Just as Miriam - in the passage from the Gemara cited
at the beginning of this chapter - was taken by the Angel of death when she
burnt her foot, so any one person standing alone becomes vulnerable, and loses
the aura of divine protection.
This introduces a third and related theme of the Book
of Genesis – that of reciprocity. In a relationship, where each person’s
talents and faults match up with those of the other, we achieve a certain
reciprocity, and with this we can work together to build a community.
Our darkest places are also our greatest opportunity
for tshuva. These places are the fulcrum of our lives, but we can only
uncover them in a close relationship with another person, through the
diagnostic feedback of our hurt feelings. It is through this reciprocity that
Joseph becomes the penitent, and Judah the tzaddik. They are able to
find their greatest strength in their weakest places, and to understand that
our strongest places are the most vulnerable, because it is here that we are in
danger of complacency.
Joseph could have responded to this situation by
refusing to come close to Judah. He had been separated from his family for many
years, he had a good life in Egypt, and he could have simply chosen to move on,
and not acknowledge the family that had abandoned him and sold him into
slavery.
The messianic process, however, requires the incredible
tenacity demonstrated by Joseph. It requires us to hang in there, and keep
talking, because this is the only way we will eventually come together. Another,
related part of the process is in giving people room to change. If we rigidly
lock others into a specific role, everyone becomes stuck.
The family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob doesn’t solve
all of its problems in the Book of Genesis, but it does move a little. They
come together, and they stay together. They reconcile, albeit not in an ideal
way, but they are still talking. The natural condition of all systems and
relationships is entropy, with everything moving away from everything else, and
the only way we can counter this is to keep talking, especially in the dark
times. This is true also of our relationship with Hashem.
The process is characterized by a series of constant
ups and downs. A good example of this is the electro-cardiogram, where if the
person is dead, the line is flat, while life is represented by a series of
constant ups and downs. Not only do we need to take small steps, but we need to
appreciate that the process is one of three steps forward, two steps back.
The messianic process is made up of our attempts to
see God, and to be seen by God. This requires depth of vision, as we learn in
the Gemara (Hagigah 2a):
Yohanan b. Dahabai said in the name of R. Judah: A man who is blind in
one eye is exempt from appearing at the Temple, as it is said, Yir’eh
[He will see], Year’eh [He will be seen]. As He comes to see, so He
comes to be seen: just as [He comes] to see with both eyes, so also to be seen
with both eyes.
This is a very interesting, and very crucial Torah.
The difference between one-eyed sight and two-eyed sight is one of perspective
and depth.
The Ben Ish Chai explains that “both eyes” means the
ability to see God simultaneously as both Chessed/Loving-kindness and Gevurah/Strict
Judgement. The Four Letter Name of God incorporates both these attributes.
When Jacob came to Egypt and was reunited with Joseph
after seventeen years of separation, his eyes were opened – he was able to
see God with both eyes – God as Loving-kindness and God as Judge. This is
the meaning of V’yechi Yaakov – And Jacob lived. In Egypt, the darkest
place in the world, Jacob finally overcame his reactivity. He found true simcha/joy,
and not just the denial of Vayeshev. When he died, his children could
come together and recite Shema – the ultimate affirmation of the One-ness
of God.