PARASHATH VAYECHI.
ALIYAH 1 [47:28 - 48:9] - JACOB NEARS DEATH.
After 17 years in Egypt, Jacob sees the end of his days approaching. He asks Joseph to swear to bury him in the Land of Israel, not in Egypt; and he grants Joseph's sons, Menasseh and Ephraim, equal status with his own sons. He summons Menasseh and Ephraim to bless them.
ALIYAH 2 [48:10-16]; ALIYAH 3 [48:17-22] - THE BLESSING OF MENASSEH AND EPHRAIM.
With his eyesight failing, Jacob blesses the two sons of Joseph, with a moment of seeming confusion that recalls the tangled tale of Jacob's own acquisition of blessing and birthright from his nearly blind father Isaac.
ALIYAH 4 [49:1-18] - BLESSINGS OF THE SONS OF LEAH, AND BILHAH'S SON DAN.
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, and Dan are blessed.
ALIYAH 5 [49:19-26] - BLESSINGS OF THE SONS OF ZILPAH, BILHAH'S SON NAPHTHALI, AND JOSEPH.
ALIYAH 6 [49:27 - 50:20] - BLESSING OF BENJAMIN; JACOB'S DEATH.
ALIYAH 7 [50:21-26] - JOSEPH DIES AND IS BURIED IN EGYPT.
The Bible is not a story of perfect families; the Bible is one big long book of messed-up families. In Genesis, from the very beginning, we have seen troubled family relationships: Cain and Abel, Abraham and his household, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, and now Joseph and his brothers. What kept them going was their faith that there was a place for them in G-d's plans. [243]
