January 6, 2023 * Parshat Vayechi

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Yisrael in Mitzrayim

Jacob spends about a third of the book of Genesis with the name Israel. His name is changed (twice, actually) in Parshat Vayishlach. Here, now, in the last parsha of the book of Bereishit, where we’ve followed our ancestors’ stories, we use this name, Israel, twice, in a different way.

The first occurs as Jacob explains to Joseph that all of Israel will bless their children by invoking the names Ephraim and Menashe, that our sons should be like them. Israel here is indicating all of the people of Israel. The second time, as the book is wrapped up, we are told that these are the twelve tribes of Israel, those descended from Israel. Though we started off as an individual, Avraham, with a calling and a small family that struggled to be created, we are now the people of Israel and the next book will describe our challenges as a community.

The end of this book, however, is not a celebration of Jacob’s life or how an Israelite was one of Pharoah’s closest advisors. Instead, we end with Joseph asking his brothers, the sons of Israel, to be brought to the land God promised to our forefathers. We are told that Joseph was embalmed and placed in a coffin b’mitzrayim. This last word could describe the physical space where his coffin was left - in a narrow place, it could describe the land in which it was buried, in Mitzrayim - Egypt, and it also describes the place where Egypt is left for the next 430 years - a place of trouble and suffering.

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