Shabbat Shalom Kol Yisrael. It is our pleasure to present this week's
Torah Parsha commentary by Nazarene Yisraelite Rabbi T. (Mordecai) Mitchell,
Rabbi and Rosh Zaken of B'nai Yeshurun Nazarene Yisraelite Synagogue,
Kittanning, Pa., and board member of the Union of Nazarene Yisraelite
Congregations. It is our sincere hope and prayer that these commentaries
encourage, inspire, and strengthen the body of Messiah in Kol Yisrael. This week
our Parsha is Vay'chi (And he lived) Bereshith 47:28 50:26.
Our Haftarah portion is Melakim Alef (1 Kings) 2:1 23. Our suggested Brit Chadasha readings are: Acts 7:9 16; Ibrim (Hebrews)
11:2122. Also please read Tehillim (Psalms) 146.
Bereshith
47:28 And Ya'aqob lived in the land of Mitsrayim
seventeen years. So the length of Ya'aqob's life was one hundred and forty-seven
years.
29 And
the time for Yisrael to die drew near, and he called his son Yoseph and said to
him, Now if I have found favor in your eyes, please put your hand under my
thigh, and show kindness and truth to me. Please do not bury me in
Mitsrayim,
30 but
I shall lie with my fathers, and you shall take me up out of Mitsrayim and bury
me in their burial place. And he said, I do as you have
said.
If we will have it, we have two different code words or
hints in the opening words of this Parsha. The Phrase And Ya'aqob lived... hints that he not
only had a satisfied and peaceful life, but that he ...lived in the sense that (according to
the Zohar) he had attained a high degree of spirituality.
Ya'aqob was well advanced in years. He was, we might say,
retired. He no longer had to concern himself with earning a daily living. The
work was now done by his sons and grandchildren. He was free to concentrate on
spiritual matters. He was also too advanced in age to be distracted by the
physical matters that often distract younger people. Truly, Ya'aqob was a
golden ager. The older we become the more we have an opportunity to advance in
wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. As we age we should strive to climb higher
on the tree of life.
We must not forget that through all this, Ya'aqob dwelt in
Mitsrayim (Egypt) a place of extreme negativity. When Yahweh blesses us with
enlightenment, with The Light, it doesn't matter where we may dwell. Although
Eretz Yisrael is certainly the most spiritual place on earth, and has the
highest concentration of positive spiritual energy, we do not necessarily have
to be in The Land to receive great spiritual blessings.
Now the strange paradox is that although Ya'aqob prospered
spiritually in Egypt like he was unable to do anywhere else, he sensed the great
negativity of the land and fully understood that this strange land was not, and
never would be, his home, or the home of his descendants. He knew that his
offspring did not have the spiritual strength to overcome the great negativity
of the land.
Therefore, he makes his trusted and beloved son Yoseph swear
an oath to bury him the The Land of his fathers.
Physically, on the Pshat level, if at all possible we must
take care to see that we are buried in a proper and fitting place. As we grow
older, we must also plan for our physical death and direct trusted loved ones to
carry out our wishes.
We must also note that in verse 28, he is referred to as
...Ya'aqob but in the
next verse, he is called Yisrael. As we may know, Ya'aqob means supplanter, or
heel grabber, a usurper. But Yisrael on the other hand, means
he who overcomes or rules with El. (Elohim). This verse denotes a rather rapid transition from a worldly
to a spiritual change in character.
In 48:5 Ya'aqob legally adopts Yoseph's two sons, Ephrayim
and Menashsheh, who were born in Egypt.
In verse 13, Yoseph guides the lads toward their grandfather
for a blessing, placing them in order of their birth, Ephrayim on Yisrael's
left, and Menashsheh on his right. But in verse 14 Yisrael crosses his hands,
placing the right on Ephrayim and the left on Menashsheh. We must note again, in
these several verses, Ya'aqob is referred to as Yisrael. He is not acting in
some physical sense, but rather acting under the direct guidance of the Ruach
HaKodesh (The Holy Spirit).
In verse 17, this act greatly displeases Yoseph, and he
attempts to remove his father's hand from Ephrayim and place it on Menashsheh.
In verse 18, he chides his father for what he perceives as a careless
mistake.
Even a person as righteous and spiritual as Yoseph can
sometimes misunderstand Yahweh's plan. He can be deceived by what his eyes lead
him to believe. If this can (and indeed did) happen to Yoseph, a man who had
great strength of character and who reached a high state of spiritual
development, how much more can it happen to us. Often we see the physical or
what seems to be, but fail to see the higher spiritual motives. We see what
seems to be the obvious, but fail to see the hidden.
With that thought in mind, I would like to move on to the
blessings with which Ya'aqob blessed his children. Each of us have our own
unique talents and blessings from Almighty Yahweh. Each of us has his or her own
strengths and weaknesses.
For the sake of time we will not go through all the
individual blessings bestowed on each tribe. However, there is one I would like
to concentrate on in closing and that is the blessing of
Yissakar.
As we said earlier, we often fail to see the spiritual
intent in certain circumstances, and this includes the spoken (or written)
word.
In Bereshith 49:14 we read: Yissakar is a strong donkey, lying down between two
burdens.
On the surface it may seem strange to call someone a donkey
(or as we might say in the vernacular, a jackass), However, as some might
assume, this was not an insult or put down but rather a direct
compliment.
Donkeys that carry burdens have great strength. They will
not fall under the weight of life's burdens. In verse 14, however, we see that
the donkey is lying down and is between two burdens no less.
Sometimes things can get to be too much, even for the
strongest among us and we must, for a while, lie down, so to speak. In a
prophetic sense, however, the two burdens are the two houses, Ephrayim and
Yehudah. The houses are divided, and trying to carry both is simply too taxing
for even the strongest. To make the burden easier, the two must be made into
one.
In the next verse, 15, the donkey sees a resting place that
is good, one where he can be eased of his almost unbearable burden. That resting
place is a land it is The Land, or Eretz Yisrael. This is where Ephrayim and
Yehudah, according to Yehezkiel 37:16 24 will become once again united as a
physical and as a spiritual nation, and become one in belief and purpose.
At the end of verse 15 we read, ...and (the donkey,
Yissakar) became subject to
slave labor.
The donkey symbolizes our determination to bear the burdens
that Yahweh gives us without complaint. If we are called to do a work for
Yahweh, we have no choice. We must serve Him, or we must perish. The lyrics to
an old Bob Dylan song went something like ..ya gotta
serve somebody... Our choice is simple, we serve
Almighty Yahweh, Whose yoke is easy and Whose burden is light, or we
serve haSatan.
With the reading of
chapter 50 in this Parsha we conclude the book of Bereshith. Personally, our
family derives great blessings from reading Bereshith. It is with great sadness
that our studies of this great book end for almost another year as we must move
on to other Torah treasures. My regret is that I was not able to devote the time
I had planned to devote to a study of the deeper (Sod level) treasures hidden in
Bereshith. Well, perhaps next year, Yahweh willing, we'll learn more.
As we end a study of
each book of Torah, it is a cherished custom to recite a Hebrew blessing:
Chazek,
Chazek v'nit Chazek, Be strong, be strong and may we be
strengthened. truly, each book of Yahweh's Torah imparts a
special strength to those who study with an open mind and in sincerity and
truth. May Almighty Yahweh bless us all, b'Shem Yahshua Meshikaynu, as we seek
to learn more of His way and mold our lives to His written Torah and to His
Living Torah, Yahshua our Messiah.
Comments or questions
regarding this week's commentary may be addressed to Rabbi Mitchell by e-mail
at: yoel@arm-tek.net
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