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January 1, 2007/ 11 Tevet  5767
Parashat Vayechi
Rabbi Neal Gold
 
Perhaps you’re familiar with the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. It’s an operetta based upon a handful of classic fairy tales that everyone knows (Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc.) sewn together into one play. The narratives thread in and out of one another throughout the first act, and when the act draws to a close, the various plots end the way they always do: “…And they lived happily ever after.” Intermission.

 Then comes the truly brilliant thing: the play has an Act II.

In other words, the second half of Into the Woods asks, what happens after “happily ever after”?
Parashat Vayechi asks the same question. We have reached the culmination of the saga of Joseph’s life, and the denouement of our patriarch Jacob’s story as well. After all the lies and deception between Joseph and his brothers, last week they were tearfully reunited and all was revealed. After 22 years of believing Joseph to be dead, Jacob is told that Joseph is indeed alive and well and second only to Pharaoh in command of all Egypt. Jacob, his sons, and their families were brought down to Egypt with great fanfare, to settle comfortably in the region of Goshen. All that was last week.

This week’s portion is about what happens after “happily ever after.” Rashi tells us as much in his first comment on the Parsha:

Why is this Torah portion stumah/“closed” [that is, immediately connected to the previous portion]? Because once Jacob died, the eyes and heart of Israel became closed because of the suffering of the enslavement, for they [the Egyptians] had already begun enslaving them. (Rashi, Genesis 47:28).

Rashi is noting that according the Masoretic tradition, Vayechi is the only weekly portion in the entire Torah that does not begin with a clear paragraph marker in a Torah scroll to designate it. And he explains the reason for this: with this subtle clue, a feeling of foreboding begins to set in. It is gradual, and we can’t identify the exact moment when it begins. Like the riff of a blues song, the high water is rising and only those paying close attention will get away. The years of slavery have begun, and Jacob’s family doesn’t even realize it yet.
Really? How can Rashi say “They had already begun enslaving them”? There are no taskmasters yet, no mud and straw. This is a generation before the new Pharaoh who arises in Egypt “who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). Joseph seems to be on top of the world, and his family, when they arrived, appeared to be honored guests.

But Jacob, who has deceived and been deceived often enough in his life to know the score, knows better. So does his son Joseph, who more than a little bit resembles his father (see the Midrash in Bereishit Rabbah 84:6, which describes how remarkably similar Jacob and Joseph are in experience and in appearance). By the end of our parasha, Joseph will realize that his family’s situation in Egypt is nowhere near as secure as it had been a few years earlier. Jacob can be buried back in Canaan; Joseph can only make his brothers and descendents swear that “When G-d will surely take notice of you, bring my bones up from here” (Genesis 50:25). Joseph knows that the popular opinion has turned away from his family, and that their position seems far more precarious.

It is worth reading through the entire torah portion and noting what signs the text gives us that what was once such a successful marriage – the Jews and Egyptian society – has started to sour. In part this tale is a warning of the seduction of the Diaspora.

But there is a deeper spiritual story as well. Joseph’s spiritual genius throughout his life is his ability to “pull the camera back,” to see the big picture and discern the fingerprints of G-d on his life and the life of those around him. Most of us are too preoccupied with the ‘busy-ness’ of life to pay too close attention to such things, but Joseph constantly had G-d’s name on his lips (see Rashi to Genesis 39:3). Joseph understands that even though G-d doesn’t speak to him in the manner G-d spoke to his forebears, the divine hand remains very imminent behind the scenes, guiding the events of his life.

In Goshen, Rashi teaches, the Jews’ eyes and their heart were “stopped up.” What does this mean? That they saw but they didn’t see, they could think but didn’t discern. They had become immune to the grandeur of the big picture of which they were a part. From there, the slope to slavery was slippery. Bondage was already there, before the first taskmaster’s whip was raised. The forces of darkness and fascism are always ready to seize a foothold when people do not see or hear or feel.

But there’s one more twist: “The opposite is also true!” teach the Rabbis. If descent is lurking around every corner, so is revelation. Time and again throughout the classic Midrash we are reminded that the tools of our redemption and healing are also all around us every day, if only we had eyes to see and hearts to discern. They’ve been placed there, waiting for us to take them up and to get on with the work of fixing the brokenness that is apparent all around us.

The awful mistake is to think that this is the last act, that we are living “happily ever after.” There is still much work to be done. How do you know that G-d’s plan for you isn’t over yet? The first clue is that you’re still alive, here, now.
Rabbi Neal Gold, a member of the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, is rabbi of Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, Massachusetts.

UJC Rabbinic Cabinet Chair: Rabbi Ronald Schwarzberg
Vice Chairs: Rabbi Jonathan Schnitzer,  Rabbi Steven Foster,  Rabbi Amy Small
President: Rabbi Bennett F. Miller, D.Min.
Honorary Chair: Rabbi Matthew Simon
Vice President, Jewish Renaissance and Renewal: Dr. Eric Levine
Mekor Chaim Editor & Coordinator: Saul Epstein
Senior Consultant, Rabbinic Cabinet: Rabbi Gerald Weider