Parshat Vayehi

Birth is a beginning,

And death a destination.

And life is a journey...

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts.

Both Shakespeare and a poem found in the gates of repentance for YomKippur share the common theme of the challenge of life and the gravity with which we sometimes look back on it in the end. We don't necessarily remember the small moments, but rather the transitions, the big events or life changes that caused us to veer of course (who were we to know that the course itself might not have befit us?).

The memory of traversing many roads in an attempt to arrive in a snowed in city or the constant stress of running in order to wait-these pass with time. As do, unfortunately, the satisfaction with life in a particular moment or the memory of how someone laughed or smiled at you in just such a way. But the people who pass through our lives, they make a lasting impression. And we too, make a lasting impression upon them.

In this week's parsha, Vayehi, Jacob knows his death is imminent and so calls all his children to him to bless them, both individually and as a collective. Jacob is not wasting his exit, choosing instead to exit gracefully and with power. He chooses to use the power and attention that comes with death to bless his children, offering them their birthrights' at the same time. Instead of stopping the journey of life with his death, Jacob is prolonging his experience through his sons and playing even more parts than those given him in his human existance.

But first, Jacob calls Jospeh to bring his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Yet, as always happens in the Torah, there is a twist. Jacob places his right hand on Ephraim, the youngest son and his left on Menasseh, as written in Genesis 48:13-14. This is quickly corrected by Joseph (48:17, who somehow knows that his father's eye sight is failing him. Yet, as happens with Jacob himself, the younger son indeed is given the birthright in genesis 48:19. Ephraim is the one promised to be a great nations his "seed [set to become] a multitude of nations, with Menasseh still being promised greatness, but on a lesser scale.

Then come the blessings to each of the twelve tribes, possibly seen as prophesy for what they will become. Jacob is the playwright for his sons future and is orally giving them the adventures they will take and be granted.

Yet what also motivates this Torah portion is the set up for the future of the rest of the Torah. We get the settling into Egypt and the prosperity from the twelve tribes. The people of Israel have become a people in and of themselves, allowing for the slavery in Egypt that begins the exodus story.

Before the slavery can occur, however, Jacob must die and take his exist gracefully. Shakespeare penned, in As You Like It that the

"last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

Jacob is specifically not taking his leave in that way. Rather, he chooses to fight and remain full of life to the end. However, he leaves his history behind. And as the characters do when death strikes in As You Like It, they mourn the death of their fellow travelers on the journey of life and then raise a glass (or in the Jewish case, have a meal) in honor of the deceased loved one. Genesis 50:10 we see the beginning of the traditional Jewish mourning period, seven days of sadness where one is given the time to openly grieve the loss. of his or her loved ones. This period, called shiva in Hebrew, gives the mourners time for outward prayer, reflection and memory. They move from beings in a state of aninut to one of aveilut (mourning). This allows them to move their focus from dealing with the death arrangements to doing the necessary grief work to continue on with life.

The pain but also beauty of this week long period is fitting to occur at the end of berashit. Although the characters we met in this first book of Torah never lived in our lifetimes, we feel as though we met them. We now have even days, a period of shiva, to remember the lessons we learned before we continue into the next book of the Torah.

However, the lesson we take from week's parsha is much simpler. It is the reminder that we must let pain, sorrow and grief run its natural course and help those around us experience their emotions as they occur. We must not minimize other people's grief and we must aid as we are able.

Shabbat shalom.