When Jacob Summoned His Strength (Vayechi #1)

This week completes the annual reading of Sefer Bereishis (the Book of Genesis). A great number of important events occur in these final chapters, all of which have profound and lasting impact on the Jewish people. In a quick summary, Vayechi contains the blessing of Ephraim and Menasheh, the gathering of the 12 sons at Jacob’s deathbed, the prophetic blessings of the 12 sons by their father, Jacob’s death, and Joseph’s fulfilment of his promise to bury his father in the Land of Canaan. 

All of these topics are fascinating, but let us look at the interesting introduction of the first blessings: “It was after these things that Joseph was told, ‘Your father is ill.’ So he took with him his two sons, Menasheh and Ephraim. When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to see you,’ Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed” (48:1-2).

At first, this line strikes an emotional chord in me. Jacob is old, he is sick, and he knows he is dying, but when his son comes, he makes a great effort to pull himself together. Many commentaries, including Rashi, explain this action as respect for the high station that Joseph had achieved, second to the king. Other commentators pointed to it being a demonstration of the importance of what he was about to say. For instance, the Daas Zikanim stated: “He [Jacob] did not wish to bless his sons while bedridden, as he said that the blessing of a person clearly on the brink of dying would not be considered as having been given by someone in possession of all his faculties.”

Perhaps, however, it is also a hint to the deeper relationship of Jacob and Joseph. For Joseph, whose final years of youth he missed, Jacob still felt a need to appear strong. Or, perhaps, he worried most about how Joseph would react to seeing him old and feeble since he was aware of the great tragedies Joseph had suffered and how much his youthful relationship with his father had meant to him.

Kibbud Av v’Eim, honoring your father and mother is not only one of the ten commandments, but it is a mitzvah for which there is a great deal of explicit halachic conversations. It is a mitzvah for which Joseph is often greatly praised, and perhaps here we see the beautiful depth of their relationship.

About Genesis 48:1-2, Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch writes:

48:1 - Above, where Jacob wants something from Joseph, he has him called. Here, where he wishes to give something to Joseph...he simply has him told “your father is ill.” He is not to be called, he is to come as a child, in the feelings of a child when he hears that his aged father is ill, and at this opportunity Jacob gives him that which he has to apportion him. Jacob, even when he is giving the highest gift, does not make much of a parade of it.

48:2 - Joseph does not know how his father is and does not wish to excite him, so he has him told just casually that he is coming to visit him, and only then has him told that he is there.  

In many ways, Genesis is a strange narrative of the beginning of the Jewish people. The relationships within are anything but simple and are often far from ideal. Jacob is in no way painted as the perfect father, particular in his actions favoring one child over the others. These two verses, however, teach a subtle but beautiful lesson about how wonderful a mature parent-child relationship can be.

There is, however, something else about these verses that grabbed my attention, particularly the second verse: “When Jacob was told, ‘Your son Joseph has come to see you,’ Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed” (48:2).  Another way of looking at these verses is that Jacob the father was told that his son had arrived, but Israel - the force of the Jewish nation - knew that now was the time to pass on the strength and vigor of the children of Abraham.  This is why, in the middle of one verse, the name changes from Jacob to Israel. The sickly body of Jacob is invigorated by the soul of Israel to make certain that the holy covenant is passed down properly to the next generation.

Please Hashem, let me have the strength of character to have an ideal type of relationship with my children and that I can be a proper conduit of the beautiful blessings of my Jewish ancestors.