Torah Readings for Friday, January 10, 2025
Asarah be-Tevet (Tenth of
Tevet)
This minor fast
day commemorates the start of the siege of
Torah
32:11-14; 34:1-10 Shemot (Exodus)
As part of the observance, the Torah is read at both the Morning and the Afternoon Service. The Torah portion is the same for both services. It is a short reading with only three aliyot i.e., only three people are called to the Torah. In the Afternoon Service, the Torah reading is followed by a Haftarah chosen especially for this day. The first part of the reading (chapter 32) portrays God’s anger at the Israelites for the Golden Calf. The second and third parts of the reading (chapter 34) describe Moshe’s return to the mountaintop to receive the Ten Commandments for the second time. As Rabbi Kolatch points out, this is a fitting reading for a minor fast day since it contains the reminder that “sin leads to tragedy and expressions of remorse lead to forgiveness.”
Haftarah
55:6-56-8 Isaiah
This is the same haftarah read with Vayeilech, the ninth sedrah in Devarim. In the haftarah, Isaiah calls upon the people to “Maintain justice and do what is right.” The term for “right” in Hebrew is Tzedakah. On fast days, it is even more important than on other days, to provide contributions for the poor (Tzedakah). Two reasons are given for reading the haftarah in the afternoon instead of the morning. One is that by reading it in the afternoon, people will have had all morning to perform acts of Tzedakah. A second reason is that on three of the more minor fast days, people are allowed to go to work. Reading the haftarah in the morning would extend the service to the point where it could become burdensome. Since Mincha is relatively short, it would be less burdensome on the community to read the haftarah at the Afternoon Service.
Personal Sadness of Asarah
be-Tevet (Tenth of Tevet)
Yahrzeit of Judith Sharon Rosenstein (nee Levin)
Known to one and all as Judy, she truly was an Ashit Chayil, “A Woman of Valor.” A devoted wife, loving mother, doting grandmother, faithful friend as well as daughter and sister extraordinaire, Judy was a gift to all who were fortunate enough to be part of her life. “And her children called her ‘Blessed’.” May her name always be remembered.
Torah Readings for Saturday, January 11, 2025
Vayechi (“And he lived” as in “Jacob lived…”)
47:28 - 50:26 Bereshit (Genesis)
Vayechi is the twelfth and final sedrah in the
book of Bereshit or Genesis. The sedrah takes its name from the first
Hebrew word in the first sentence of the reading, “And Jacob lived (Vayechi) in
the
Deathbed Promises and Fulfillment of a
Dream (47:28-48:22)
After living
seventeen years in Egypt with Joseph, the same number of years Joseph lived
with Jacob before being sold into slavery, Jacob senses that he is about to
die. Jacob summons Joseph and makes him
take a formal oath that he, Joseph, will bury Jacob in the family plot in
Canaan. Once Joseph has taken the oath,
Israel bows to Joseph. Remember Jacob’s
question, “Are we to come and bow low to you on the ground” (37:10)? It would appear that in the end
The First Set of Blessings (48:1-20)
The sedrah contains two sets of blessings. The first set involves Joseph and his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. In a touching scene the sick and dying Jacob tells Joseph about the blessing he has received from God. As part of the fulfillment of that blessing, Jacob adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own two sons. Although Manasseh is the older and Ephraim is the younger, Jacob administers the blessing in reverse order. Joseph thinks that his ailing father does not know what he is doing, but Jacob assures him that he is in full control. Once again, the older shall serve the younger. Primogeniture does not rule. Additionally, Jacob assigns an extra portion to Joseph. The eleventh son has supplanted the first-born Rueben. This section ends with a seemingly melancholy promise that will in fact sustain the Jewish people throughout the ages, “I am about to die; but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.” Once again, Jacob reminds us that God will be with us no matter where we go.
The Second Set of Blessings (49:1-33)
Now the dying
Jacob summons his sons for their final blessings. Please note that in the previous chapter,
Joseph had heard that his father was ill and he went to him. Why his brothers did not go to see him of
their own volition and only came when summoned is a bit of puzzlement. Regardless, the actual blessings are viewed
in two different ways. Some accept the
statement in the text, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you
in days to come” and read the blessings as prophesy. Others contend that the blessings were
written at a much later date to justify or explain the fate that had befallen
the various tribes. Regardless, it might
be interesting to compare the tribes at the end of Bereshit with tribes we read
about at the end of Devarim:
|
Bereshit: |
Devarim: |
|
Rueben |
Rueben |
|
Simeon |
|
|
Levi |
Levi |
|
|
Benjamin |
|
Zebulun |
Joseph |
|
Issachar |
Zebulun |
|
Dan |
Issachar |
|
Gad |
Gad |
|
Asher |
Dan |
|
Joseph |
Naphtali |
|
Naphtali |
Asher |
|
Benjamin |
|
Moses was able
to get to twelve because Joseph is
really two tribes in his counting - Ephraim and Manasseh. Remember that Moses does not mention
Simeon. This question of who are the
Twelve Tribes can be a continuing challenge.
Following the text as written, Jacob uses poetry to bestow blessings and
judgments upon each of his sons. For his
first three sons, Rueben, Simeon, and Levi he has words of harsh judgment. Only when he gets to
The Burial of Jacob and the Death of
Joseph (50:1-26)
The first
fourteen verses describe the burial of Jacob in great detail. Contrary to Jewish tradition, Jacob is
embalmed. The Egyptians mourn the father
of Pharaoh’s leading minister in grand fashion. But in
Themes
Customs and Ceremonies
Shiva - “…And he observed a mourning period of seven days for his father.” Joseph’s mourning for his father presages the sitting of Shiva - the seven days of mourning observed following the burial of a Jew.
Chesed V’emet (True Kindness) - When Jacob makes
Joseph swear to bury him in
Shabbat Blessing - It is customary for parents to bless
their children at home on Friday evening usually before the singing of Shalom
Aleichem. The blessing for sons begins
with the words, “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” These words refer to the blessing that Jacob
conferred on his two grandsons, the sons of Joseph. They were a source of pride because they were
able to maintain their Jewish identity despite having been born in
Shema - Between the first line of the Shema
(Hear O Israel; the Lord is our God, the Lord is One) and the V’ahavta, we
recite Baruch Shem kvod malchuto l’olam va-ed (Blessed is the name of His
Glorious majesty forever and ever). Among
traditional Jews, these words are uttered softly, almost silently. One of the reasons given for the muted
utterance of the words comes from the deathbed scene of Jacob. Jacob’s sons affirmed their belief in
Adonai. When they said, “Hear O
Burial - According to Rashi, Jacob insisted on
being buried in Canaan for at least two reasons. First, Jacob considered the Promised Land to
be the holiest spot on earth. Secondly,
he knew that the Egyptians had a tendency to deify the dead and he did not want
become an idol. In keeping with the
example of Jacob, Jews often make arrangements to be buried in
Names
There are two
significant shifts in nomenclature in this sedrah. First, the Jewish people are now “the
Israelites.” The term “sons of
Jacob
The third
patriarch is far too complex a figure for us to discuss in this brief
guide. At the end of his life, Jacob
does not sound like a happy man. “Few
and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans
of my fathers during their sojourns.” He
dies a stranger in a stranger land. At
the end of his life, he has to live off the kindness of his son. He must rely on Joseph’s promise that he will
in fact be properly buried. Considering
how much trickery Jacob had seen in his life time, we can only wonder how
confident he was that he would in fact be buried in the manner promised. So what is Jacob’s merit? What makes him unique? Abraham was the originator, the founding
father. Isaac was the figure of
continuity. He was the one who kept
Abraham’s vision alive and passed it along to the next generation. But Jacob was the one who transmitted the
tradition to an entire family. Abraham
kept Isaac but lost Ishmael. Isaac kept
Jacob but lost Esau. Jacob did not lose
anybody. He transmitted the vision of
God that he had seen on the way to Paddan, on the way back from Paddan and on
his way into to
Joseph
Once again, we
are dealing with a figure far too complex to be summarized in a mere
guide. Joseph is described as a Tzadik,
a righteous man. One reason for this
appellation was his rejection of Potiphar’s wife. In its own right, his behavior was
meritorious. But when his behavior is
compared with that of Rueben and Bilha or Judah and Tamar, Joseph’s ability to
control his appetites really does set him way above his contemporaries. Joseph is a person capable of growth and
maturation; a person capable of learning from his past mistakes. He learns to be loving, loyal and forgiving. Joseph is a person who engenders trust. Whether it is Potiphar, the head jailer or
Pharaoh himself, people immediately entrust him with their affairs and leave
him to take care of everything. So why
isn’t he a Patriarch? Maybe it is
because he is a dreamer. God spoke
directly to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.
But he did not speak to Joseph.
Instead Joseph dreamed dreams and listened to the dreams of others. Using his intuition, he looked for the divine
message in the world of hazy, half-formed images. Furthermore, unlike his three famous
forefathers, Joseph was not a singular recipient of a birthright. He was one of twelve recipients of Jacob’s
blessings. The unique relationship was
with the children of
Jacob and the
Tabernacle
In describing the final removal of Jacob’s body to the cave of Machpelah, the Torah says, “His sons carried him to the land of Canaan…” (50:13). According to some commentators, Jacob left his sons with specific instructions as to where they should stand as they carried his coffin. In addition, neither Levi nor Joseph was to touch the coffin. The order of march described here mirrors the order of the encampment around the Tabernacle described in the second chapter of Bamidbar. Was the trip to Machpelah a “dry-run” for the wanderings in the Wilderness that would lead to the Promised Land? Was the merit of Jacob so great that he was entitled to a level of consideration equivalent to the Tabernacle? In Judaism we do not worship our ancestors. But we do honor them for their accomplishments. Sometimes we have a tendency to fixate on the foibles and weakness of great people, in this case the Patriarchs and other leaders of the Jewish people. While it is important to note their shortcomings, it is of greater importance to recognize their accomplishments. At the end of the day, each of them played their part in getting our people to the next bend in the road. Hopefully, somebody will be able to say that about each of us some day instead of just waxing eloquent over our human shortcomings.
God
This is a comment about all of Bereshit, not just this week’s portion. But in a time and a season of the year when there are those in our world who claim to own God or have the only way to Him, the following lesson from the first book of the Torah seems worth mentioning. For the Jew, God exists from before the moment of creation. There is no need to prove his existence. God is the God of all mankind. He is not the unique possession of the Jewish people. Unlike other religions, as we can see throughout Bereshit, God and His blessings are open to all. Yes, the Jew has a unique relationship with God, as we can see from the Covenant, but it is a relationship based on responsibility not blind, divine favoritism. And last but not least, God is always with us. Throughout Bereshit, He would appear to remind of us of that fact. This is one of the critical messages of the last twelve weekly portions.
Continuity
After describing the burial of Jacob the text describes the fear of the brothers. “Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and fully repay us” (50:15). Joseph’s reassurance that he will do them no hard is a sign that the moral order that God has been instilling in His people will continue even though the Patriarchs are dead. Joseph is the first leader who has not spoken with God, yet he accepts God’s will and abides by His ethical law.
Why we study
For those who are looking for different reasons for studying Torah, consider the following comment from The Tanya. This quote comes from one of the daily readings that often coincide with the conclusion of the book of Bereshit. “That is why our Sages have said that ‘if even one individual sits and engages in Torah study, the Divine Presence rests upon him.’ For when one engages in Torah study his surrender to Godliness emerges, to affect him on a revealed, external level since such study entails setting aside one’s own notions and presumptions in order to understand and accept God’s wisdom and Will as expressed in Torah. It is this surrender to Godliness that causes the Divine Presence to rest upon the Torah student.”
Torah, Talmud and
Tefilah (Prayer)
In this week’s Torah portion Jacob and Joseph die. Each of these great, powerful men was dependent on those who remain behind to see to it that they were buried in a proper manner. The Talmud picks up this theme when it lists “escorting the dead” as one of the ten activities in which a person should engage while awaiting the end of days. (The list includes a wide variety of activities ranging from performing acts of life kindness to providing for a bride’s dowry to study). This list is recited daily in the introductory prayers of the morning service. In other words, the obligation of the living to the dead was considered important enough that we not only study about it, but we are reminded of it every day. Taking care of the dead is the ultimate mitzvah since the one performing the act can expect no reward from the recipient. And the one receiving the benefit cannot say thank you. This is proof positive that the reward for performing the mitzvah is the performance of the mitzvah.
How Long is a Long Life
Abraham died at
the age of 175. Isaac died at the age of
180. Based on the law of rising
expectation for successive generations one would guess that Jacob would die at
the age of 185. Wrong! He died at the age of 147. On the surface this would be a case of
regression. And based on the idea that
length of days is related to merit, it would appear that after only three
generations, the Jewish people were on a downward spiral. Surprisingly W. Gunther Plaut, the Reform
Biblical Commentator, writes a commentary on this sedrah using the arcane
concepts of numerology. He contends that
these conclusions come from an erroneous comprehension of mathematical
concepts. Using the concept of squared
numbers, Plaut contends that in fact each generation did successively
better. Thus:
|
Abraham: |
175 = 5 squared times 7 |
|
Isaac: |
180 = 6 squared times 5 |
|
Jacob: |
147 = 7 squared times 3 |
In other words, if the life span of the patriarchs is measured as numbers squared then there is in fact a numeric progression. At the same time we find out that Joseph died at the age of 110 which is the same age at which Joshua would die. In other words, Joseph, the prototypical Diaspora Jew and Joshua, the first Zionist, lived to the same age. But does any of this really make any difference? Is this not an example of making quantity synonymous with quality? As Alan King said, “It is not how long you live, but how well you live” that really matters. The first member of Kibbutz Beit Hashitah died at the age of 16. He was attacked by Arab thugs during the uprisings in the 1930’s. As he lay dying, he wrote the following. “How sad it is to die so young. How sweet it is to die for one’s country.” American history offers further proof that mere longevity is not synonymous with great accomplishments. On the long year’s side we find: Ronald Regan and Gerald Ford each died at the age of 93. Richard Nixon died at the age of 81. On the short years side we find: Franklin Roosevelt died at the age of 63. Teddy Roosevelt died at the age of 60. And Abraham Lincoln died at the age of 57.
Blessings
The final
chapter of Bereshit (Genesis) ends with three climatic moments
which, in reverse chronological order are, the death of Joseph, the death of
Jacob and Jacob’s blessing of his sons.
Except for literalists, the blessings are an enigmatic event. Professor James Kugel points that some modern
scholars see the blessings as being an insertion in the original
narrative. They see the blessings as
dating from the period of David and Solomon, which would still mean that they
are a very old part of Jewish tradition.
Rather than viewing them as prophecy, these critics see the blessings as
a way that the House of David explained the political and social conditions
that existed during the rise of the Davidic dynasty. The listing of the twelve sons cemented the
authenticity of the twelve tribes as the original political and social unit of
the Israelite people. But the blessings
tie the twelve tribes to the same father which means they are really a common
people thus providing an ancient stamp of approval to David’s moves to unite
the twelve tribes unto one nation under one king. The blessings also provide an explanation for
Judah’s dominant role in the new political order. The blessing of each of the first three sons
(
Chazak Shabbat
In past years, The Conservative Movement (USCJ) has designated this Shabbat as Chazak Shabbat, in honor of Jews fifty five years and over. This became an annual event for Conservative congregations and it coincided with the reading of Vayechi. On Chazak Shabbat, older members of these synagogues were encouraged to take a prominent role in the Shabbat services including leading the worship service, reading the Torah, chanting the Haftarah and reciting Kiddush. American society has made a fetish out of worshiping youth (the generation that told us not to trust anybody over thirty now insists that sixty is the new forty). Turning the practices of Chazak Shabbat into our daily congregational and communal activities is a way of ensuring that those with gray or thinning hair have the opportunity to play a vital role in Jewish life.
Portent of Pesach
When it comes time to take Jacob’s body to Canaan, Pharaoh sends the brothers and their households. “Only their children and their flocks and their herds were left in the region of Goshen” (50:8). Compare this with the episode in Shemot (Exodus). Between the 7th and 8th plagues, Moses tells Pharaoh that everybody, including “our sons and daughter, our flocks and herds” are to be allowed to go. But Pharaoh puts his foot down and tells Moses that only the men can go. Both monarchs were holding the children hostage to ensure that the Israelites would return; in one case from the burial and in the other case from worshipping God in the Wilderness. The difference is that Joseph agreed to the terms and Moses did not. He was not leaving without all of the people and all of their possessions. Joseph’s behavior was that of a man making a rational decision; a man with a stake in the society in which he was living. But Moses was acting under Divine Direction and he had been made responsible for being the human agent leading the liberation of his whole people. This is the concept of The Whole House of Israel. This concept resonated with David Ben-Gurion in the early days of the State of Israel. Despite Israel’s fragile economy in the earliest days of her existence, he insisted on bringing Jews from all over the world. Even though it would mean additional hardship, he opened Israel’s doors to those Holocaust survivors who suffered from extreme physical handicap. The state of Israel was for The Whole House of Israel.
The First Funeral
Meir Shalev has written a fascinating book entitled Beginnings in which he catalogues and provides insights about Biblical “firsts” such as the first kiss, the first dream, the first love, etc. If he should update this tome he might want to add “the first funeral” which is described in the week’s Torah portion. Bereshit records several deaths and several burials, but in “Vayechi” we are confronted with the first full-blown funeral complete with the kinds of customs and ceremonies that make up the modern American funeral industry or as Jessica Mitford called it in her book of the same title, “The American Way of Death.” Interestingly enough, this lavish ceremony is not a product of Jewish law or Israelite custom. It is a product of Egypt, a culture that built the great pyramids and cities of the dead - a culture that worshipped death. This stands in stark contrast with Jewish culture which is centered on living. We drink to “l’chaim.” When it comes to the commandments we are taught, “by these laws shall you live.” And every morning, we recite “Aylu D’Vorim” which provides us with a list of daily tasks that reminds us that life is more than just an ante-room to death, but something to be seized and enjoyed to its fullest. The Egyptians may have thought they were doing Jacob a great honor with this elaborate funeral. Apparently the Jewish view of things was quite different as we can see in subsequent books of the Torah when we read about the deaths of Miriam, Aaron and Moses.
Missing Children
In speaking to Joseph at the start of the sedrah, Jacob says that “your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine” (48:5) but says that any children born to Joseph from now on will be his (Joseph’s). But the Torah never makes any reference to any other children. Does this mean that Joseph had only these two sons or did he have more children which remain nameless because for some reason they were not considered part of the Children of Israel?
Reality Reverses Dreams
In what would appear to be a validation of the youthful Joseph’s dream that his brothers would bow down before him, following the burial of Jacob, “his brothers went to him themselves and flung themselves before him” and offered to serve him as “slaves.” But Joseph rejected this adoration by asking the rhetorical question, “Am I a substitute for God?” (50:19). This is further is additional proof of the maturation of Joseph. It is also the final manifestation of what some would say makes Joseph a Tzadik, a righteous person - his willingness to forgive his brothers and to see the hand of God in the world of man. Think about it, the men who threw him in a pit, ate a meal while plotting to kill and then sold him into slavery are totally in his power. How many of us would be willing to forgo the luxury of revenge let alone express a faith in God at this level?
The End Beats the
Beginning
Bereshit begins with repeated rejections of God (Adam and Eve, Abel and the generation of Noah). It ends with a total acceptance in belief in God and His role in history as can be seen with Jacob’s last conversation with God before he goes to Egypt and Joseph’s last speech with his brothers, “although you intended me harm, God intended it for good.” The journey “down into Egypt” may also be seen as a journey “upward to a greater closeness with God.” Chazak Chazak.
Haftarah
2:1-12 First Kings
The Book/The Man:
The Book of Kings is the fourth book the second section of the
TaNaCh. In Jewish tradition the Book of
Kings is one book. The divisions into
Kings I and II came with the creation of the Septuagint. Kings begins with the last days of King David,
continues with the reign of King Solomon and then chronicles the kingships of
the two kingdoms,
The Message: This haftarah marks our third encounter with the opening chapters of First Kings as we have made our way through the first book of the Torah. Hopefully, this means that you are starting to get a sense of the book in its entirety. The first chapter of Kings provided the haftarah for Chayei Sarah. This chapter depicted King David’s final days when he selected Solomon to succeed him as King. First Kings 3:15-4:1 provided the haftarah for Miketz. It described the early events of Solomon’s reign shortly after the death of David. This week’s haftarah fits between the other two and actually describes the last moments of King David’s life. The haftarah is a strange amalgam of the pious and the practical, which is consistent with David’s entire life. On the one hand, he tells Solomon that the key to success is following God’s law. And then he tells him to kill Joab and Shimei but to honor the sons of Barzillai because they had supported him during Absalom’s rebellion. David may have his spiritual side. But as a practical potentate he knows that removing one’s enemies and rewarding one’s friends is the key to political and dynastic success. The last chapters of First Chronicles describe these events in a much more matter of fact manner without any of the intrigue. Both versions do end in the same manner with the chronology of his reign and Solomon enthroned as his successor.
Theme Link: Both
the sedrah and the haftarah describe the death of great leaders, Jacob and
David. In fact except for the names, the
text is identical in its language. “And
the days of
Antiquity of the Torah:
We have heard different views about who wrote the Torah and when it was
written. When David tells Solomon to
follow God’s teachings, he describes them as being “written in the Torah of
Moses.” In other words, we have reason
to believe that people in David’s time knew of the Torah and connected it with
Moses. The books that describe David’s
life - Samuel and Kings - were written at a later date. But this reference apparently was not
inconsistent with their conception of the Davidic period. No, this is not conclusive evidence, but it
sure does help to strengthen the case.
Copyright;
January, 2025; Mitchell A. Levin
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