Parashat Vayehi
Friday Night Shabbat Services, Tonight 12/25, at 7 PM. We hope you can join us.
Saturday morning services are tomorrow morning, December 26, at 9 AM. Kidush sponsored by the Koeller family in honor of our special congregation and Jewish home, Beth El.
Cantor Ben Moshe’s Message
The Book of Genesis can be read as a long tale of recurring sibling rivalry. From Cain and Abel through the story of Joseph, Sefer B’reshit tells of older brothers resentful of their younger brothers’ successes (and in the case of Leah and Rahel, sisters as well). In our parshah, Vayehi, the latest of B’reshit, we finally see something different. Yisrael/Ya’akov wishes to bless his grandsons, the sons of his favorite Joseph. He deliberately switches his hands to give the firstborn blessing to Ephraim, the younger, instead of the actual firstborn M’nasheh. Tradition says that he did so because of a prophetic vision that the Tribe of Ephraim would actually be greater than the Tribe of M’nasheh. In any event, the Torah does not report any conflict between the two brothers despite their grandfather’s favoritism. It is perhaps for this reason that Jewish parents, when blessing their sons before Shabbat and Festival meals, use he words from our parshah “May God make you like Ephraim and M’nasheh”. May we all live up to this blessing, and live in love and harmony with all of our brothers and sisters-all of humanity. Shabbat Shalom.
Hazzan Yitzhak Ben-Moshe
We will resume Sunday Fundays, a.k.a. Sunday School on January 10 at 10 AM.
Rabbi Tarlow’s Weekly Parasha from the Center for Crypto Jewish studies:
This week we conclude our yearly study of the Book of Genesis with the parashah called VaYichee. You will find this section beginning in Genesis 47:28 and continuing until the end of the book. This week’s section deals with the eternal struggle between father and son, between human beings and between G’d and humanity. The parashah’s initial verses set the stage. By the book’s end we see that Joseph has had to make his own life in a foreign land. Now reunited with his father (we have to wonder why Joseph took so many years to tell his father that he was alive and then made his enfeebled dad come to him) Jacob insisted that Joseph take full responsibility for his, Jacob’s, funeral instating that Joseph bury him not in Egypt but rather in the land of Israel.Joseph’s reply was a terse: “A’aseh cdivarchah/I will do as you ask/according to what you say to me”. Jacob then reacted by stating once again in he tersest of manner: “Hishavah li/Then swear on it for me.” How come? Why does Jacob need a second statement? What do the words ‘hishavah li’ tell us about the relationship between Jacob and Joseph, or the relationship between any two people? Have the years of separation caused Jacob both to love his son and not to trust him? There is, however another possibility. Do these words represent the conclusion of a series of oaths started first by Abraham and now coming to an end with the death of the last patriarch? Once again, we see that the characters in Genesis are extremely human. Each lived his or her life in a precariousness state. Are all relationships fragile?From God’s relationship with Adam until Jacob’s relationship with Joseph the book emphasizes a sense of struggle and the realization that life is not lived on a single plane but rather it is a web of entanglements. Genesis, then, ends with humanity now on its own, responsible for its own actions. Is this final oath symbolic of our being free to soar toward G’d or fail? Does it represent that both the G’d-human, and human-human relationship will be ones of struggle and of hope? As we will see in the next book, that of Exodus, Genesis was a mere introduction to the struggles and dreams that will lie ahead.
Community News: Grand re-opening of the Austin Community Mikveh: Save the Date. 17 January.