Bar’chu
et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed!
Baruch
ata YHVH Eloheinu melech ha-olam asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu
eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the
blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have selected us from among all the peoples, and have given us
your Torah.)
This is the final parashah of Beresheet – Va yechi –
“and he lived” the sages taught that this final parashah of Beresheet served as
a transition for the next book of the Torah – Shemot – “names”. Yakov and his
sons died in Mitzraim, yet we know that their future generations would live to
re-enter the land of Yisrael. This is the ‘’Kibbutz Galuyot’’ of the ‘’Amidah’’
– the prayers for the ingathering of the exiles. See Zech 14
It would be a few centuries before Yisrael returned
once again to the Promised Land. Many would have died while waiting to return.
This final portion, although it gives the details of the deaths of Yakov and
Yosef, reminds us of the many descendants who would come from them. It reminds
us that there will be a resurrection after death.
Gen 49:28 All these are the twelve tribes of Yisra’ĕl,
and this is what their father spoke to them. And he blessed them, he blessed
each one according to his own blessing.
When we read what
Yakov had to say to some of his sons, it doesn’t sound like he was blessing them.
Yakov understood the redemptive value even of their failures and short comings
– note also the address of Yakov the brother of Yahshua to the 12 tribes.
Jas 1:1 Yaʽaqoḇ, a servant of Elohim
and of the Master יהושע Messiah, to
the twelve tribes who are in the dispersion: Greetings.
The individual and
collective failure of the sons of Yakov and their descendants will have great
redemptive value in the last days.
Rom 11:15 For if their casting away is the restoration
to favour of the world, what is their acceptance but life from the dead?