Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

This is the twelfth and final Parsha in the book of Beresheit. Twelve is an essential number to the nation of Israel. We are made out of twelve parts by design not chance. Twelve denotes unity through the twelve months of the year. Our division of the day into two periods of twelve hours is intentional as well. Twelve is especially effective for helping us find unity in time. This week the twelve sons of Israel find unity in action. For an ever so brief moment the house of Yakov is united. It isn’t simple to produce nor does it last long.

The first half of this week’s Parsha is Yakov blessing his sons. While some of his blessings are the kind that we all would want to receive, not all of them are. In fact, some of them even contain elements of a curse. Yakov’s blessing of his sons is not in order that they will all feel greater affection for him. His blessing is so that they will grow into the people and nation that the world needs them to be.

For many of the sons Yakov’s blessing held truths that they would have preferred to have left unsaid. Still, what he revealed to them was the purpose of the nation of Israel - to create a thriving and ethical society in the land of Israel that serves the one G!d through morality and spirituality. Yakov’s blessing highlights the difference in methodology that each of the brothers and tribes will bring to this project. Yakov emphasizes that each of the various talents found in the brothers is needed to bring our project to fruition, and that they can only be brought together through a shared vision of the tribes. The purpose of Yakov’s blessings was not to tell his sons what they already knew to be true, rather it was to give them a shared vision. A future in which no one needs to be ashamed of what they lack, because that is where they know their brother will assist them.

Yakov gave them a task and gave each of the brothers their assignment towards that task. The problem is the vision he shared with them is for the land of Israel when we live there and in our Parsha he and his whole family are in Egypt, Israel is just a memory of the past or vision of the future. What could motivate them now to come together? Death.

Yakov’s death is the ultimate act in his long and eventful life. The death and burial of Avarham and Yitzhak, the first two patriarchs of Israel, occupies only a few lines in the Torah. Yakov’s death and burial was the event of the century for southern Canaan. Death is the ultimate motivator. Ideally, we are motivated by the knowledge of our own impending death, but often it takes the loss of others to shake us out of our lethargy. Yakov’s death was the event that was able to motivate his sons to bring to life the vision he shared with them.

Our world was shaken out of its slumber by the death, through murder, of hundreds of our brothers and sisters. The challenge of staying true to the vision of our fathers is just as real today as it was when Yakov delivered it to his sons over three-thousand years ago. Our challenge is to act now according to this vision and motivate ourselves, for too many righteous have already laid down their lives to leave us inspired for the rest of history.

Shabbat Shalom!