D'var Torah in a Minute

We've made it to the end of the year and the end of the first book of the Torah. This week is Parashat Vayechi, the last portion of the book of Genesis and with it, the conclusion of the Patriarchal narrative. Jacob, now 137 years old, has come to the end of his life, and he wants to bless his children. First, he summons Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Menashe. He blesses his grandsons, elevating them to the status of his own sons, who will go on to found tribes. In what appears to be a pattern throughout the period of the Patriarchs, Ephraim, the younger son, is given precedence over his older brother.  After blessing Joseph's sons, Jacob assembles his 12 sons and pronounces a long narrative blessing for all of them, with a section for each son. While the blessings for the younger sons are fairly standard affairs, with some wordplay that is lost in translation, the blessings for his older sons have an interesting aspect. Jacob's oldest children are blessed not just fo...

Three years ago, my dad was invited to read the afternoon Torah reading for Yom Kippur at the Reform synagogue he and my stepmother attend. The verses listed were not the traditional reading from Leviticus, bit rather a selection from this week's portion. I was confused by this difference in the Torah reading, as the traditional selection deals with sin and holiness, while the Reform portion seemed to be a simple narrative about how the Israelites ended up in Egypt. When I had the opportunity to ask the rabbi about it, he pointed out that the passage, which I saw as being about the Jews going down to Egypt, was also the episode of Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers. As we talked about last week, Joseph had framed Benjamin for stealing a goblet and demanded his imprisonment as a test of character for his brothers. Judah passes the test with flying colors, making an impassioned plea and citing the distress losing both of Rachel's son's would cause Jacob. When Josep...

This week's parashah is all about tests of character. Early on, Joseph is summoned from his prison cell to interpret a dream for Pharaoh. Based on the interpretation, predicting seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, Pharaoh appoints Joseph to be viceroy, vested with full executive authority, only Pharaoh being above him. One of the chief responsibilities of this office is managing the creation of a strategic food stockpile during the years of plenty in preparation for the famine. The famine is so widespread that even in Canaan there is no food to be had. Jacob sends his ten oldest sons to Egypt to buy food, and when they arrive, they are brought to Joseph, who they don't recognize. After ascertaining that his family is well, he commands the brothers to return with the last brother (and Joseph's only full sibling), Benjamin, but sending them with food and surreptitiously returning their money.  Jacob is loath to part with Benjamin, having already lost o...

 After first being introduced to Jacob's sons in previous weeks, the narrative shifts from the Patriarchs to the first Israelites. The story picks up with Joseph, now 17, shepherding his father's flocks alongside his brothers. Now, being the firstborn of Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife, Joseph was the favorite child. In recognition of his special affection for Joseph, Jacob bought his son a k'tonet pasim , a striped or ornamented tunic, sometimes translated as a "coat of many colors." The 11 other sons of Jacob may have understood that the relationship between Jacob and Rachel would mean that her eldest son would always have a special place in their father's affection, but this obvious statement of how much more Joseph was loved (commentators understand the text to mean that Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other children combined) made the rest bitter, and understandably so. Joseph's coat annoyed his brothers, but what made them mad were the things ...

When I started out on this project to post a weekly d'var Torah, there were a couple of weeks for which I was looking forward to writing. This is one of them, sort of. I wasn't 100% sure of when I would work this topic in, but this week seems like the right place. This week's parashah is Vayishlach, and in it, Jacob, along with his entire camp, prepares to meet Esau and his entourage. After sending ahead livestock as a peace-offering to his brother, Jacob sends his family across the Yabbok River, but before he can follow them, he is accosted by a mysterious figure who wrestles with him all night. Jacob's opponent is understood by commentators to have been an angel, likely Esau's guardian angel, but angel or not, he cannot defeat Jacob, even after magically dislocating Jacob's hip. To earn his freedom, the angel gives Jacob a blessing, and, like his grandfather, a meaningful renaming. “Your name," the angel says, "shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, f...