READING 9 - THE JEWISH READINGS - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
The root is the same as DaVaR" [to speak, talk, pronounce words], to substantialize our ideas by using words as real and pragmatic things [Davar means both "nonsubstantial thing" and "thing, object"]. Our faith needs words to speak with others and recognize in them the spirit of blessing, truth and life.
THE JEWISH READINGS
Shabbat VAYEKHI [(And Jacob) was in the Land of Canaan]
End of the reading of Bereshit/Genesis, the First Book of Moses or Torah [Written Law].
Portion of the Torah - Parshat Torah: 47:28-50:26
Prophetic portion - Haftarah: First Book of Kings 2:1-12
And thus Jacob came to Egypt to see his son Joseph. He died in Egypt, but before his death he speaks to each of his sons and utters words of blessing. It should be pointed out that Jacob had received his name of Israel when he fought at night with what we usually consider as the Angel of God if not God Himself, wanting to know Whom he is facing [Genesis 32:25].
Jacob was given a new name first for his own call and salvation. But, in the pericope of this week he is not facing God to know the identity of his Creator. He does not struggle to know who might be the Only One God. He speaks to his sons as human and sometimes sinful characters who are not connected by some uniformity, but gather and find their unity in the form of a human kaleidoscope full of various colours. Marc Chagall has depicted these sons with their specificities as mirrors of God shining with manifold brilliances.
A dying man who could remain a singleton extends his life through his sons and a tribe of twelve receives his name. It shows that it is not possible to approach one's identity as something special and unique. Unicity comes from a diversity of personalities.
Would it have been possible for Jacob to bless his sons in such a wise in the Land of Canaan? Jacob-Israel dies in exile and his body will return lifeless to the Land of Promises. But his words are a blessing for each son. And all sons shape the new entity of a twelve-fold tribe of Israel, though outside the Land of Canaan. Egypt becomes a place compared to a bosom, a jail that opens its gates by miracle in order to anticipate the ingathering of all the nations.
"I call my son out of Egypt" is said in Matthew 2:25 referring to Jesus when King Herod has died and Jesus returned to the Land of Israel [comp. Hosea 11:1]. But the blessing given to each son is full of significances. For example, Joseph, the firstborn to Rachel, will continue to be recalled in the Jewish tradition as concerns the laying of the hands upon the children when the father pronounces the priestly blessing at the entrance of the shabbat, mentioning Ephraim and Manaseh who are not considered as Jews because their mother was an Egyptian woman.
The Twelve sons are a family tribe with an eschatological call, not restricted to a nation but including all the nations. The same does happen when Jesus called the twelve disciples [Matthew 10:1, Mark 6:7, Luke 6:13] and gave them the power to heal and to cure in the Name of God. The disciples could also remain the chosen ones and it seems that their quarrels in the Acts of the Apostles show how it is difficult, in spirit and truth, to go beyond words and reach the wisdom of Faith.
They as the successors and the contemporaries of the sons of Israel called to "judge the twelve Tribes of Israel" [Matthew 19:28, Luke 22:30]. And "Therefore all Israel shall be saved" [Romans 11:26].
One thing should be noted: the First Book of Moses or Bereshit/Genesis begins with a life-gving and creating Word of God concerning every human being. It ends with the blessing of the dying patriarch, father of the sons of Israel, giving his soul to God in a foreign country. The provocative late rabbi and polemist Yeshayahu Leibowicz used to draw the attention of the youth to the fact that Israel did not become holy in the Land of Canaan but was called to holiness from outside the Land.
The Word created the heaven and earth and blew a spirit of life into the human shape, every human being. Jacob's blessings upon his sons confirms his call. A blessing is stronger than death or disease and we should contemplate the depth of a blessing,
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