Vayechi 5786
Swear to Me
This week we are reading Parashat Vayechi (Gen 47:28–50:26), taking us all the way through to the end of the book of Genesis. Let’s start our final look at Genesis for the year with a puzzler.
The first verses of the parashah explain that, towards the end of his life, Jacob made Joseph swear to bury him in his ancestral burial place (the Cave of Machpelah). Once he actually falls ill, Joseph brings his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, to get a final blessing from him. To set up the puzzle, I’ll quote what happens then from the translation of NJPS:
Gen 48:3 ff. And Jacob said to Joseph, “El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and He blessed me, and said to me, ‘I will make you fertile and numerous, making of you a community of peoples; and I will assign this land to your offspring to come for an everlasting possession.’ Now, your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine no less than Reuben and Simeon. But progeny born to you after them shall be yours; they shall be recorded instead of their brothers in their inheritance. Noticing Joseph’s sons, Israel asked, “Who are these?” And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” “Bring them up to me,” he said, “that I may bless them.”
Jacob is gratified because he had never expected to see Joseph again and now here he is not only with Joseph but with the grandkids. However … did you notice that I’ve left something out?
Now for a second and more substantial puzzler — the answer to which, I believe, is provided by that missing verse. Let’s go back to the beginning of the parashah again and focus in a little more closely:
Gen. 47:28 Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt, so that the span of Jacob’s life came to one hundred and forty-seven years. 29 And when the time approached for Israel to die, he summoned his son Joseph and said to him, “Do me this favor, place your hand under my thigh as a pledge of your steadfast loyalty: please do not bury me in Egypt. 30 When I lie down with my fathers, take me up from Egypt and bury me in their burial-place.” He replied, “I will do as you have spoken.” 31 And he said, “Swear to me.” And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.
V. 31 is the kicker, as far as I’m concerned. Joseph has said he would do as Jacob had asked — and Jacob doesn’t believe him! He makes Joseph swear to him that he will bury him back in Canaan and not in Egypt.
The question I have to ask myself is why. Joseph is the Prime Minister of Egypt; he’s totally capable of mustering the money, the time, and the resources to take Jacob back to the land of Canaan and bury him there — as indeed happens. Why doesn’t Jacob trust Joseph to do that? Now that they are reconciled at last, Joseph has been extremely kind to his father and to his brothers. He’s given them “the best of all the land of Egypt” (45:20) and taken special care of them.
Why would Jacob think that Joseph might be blowing smoke here: “Sure, Dad, I will,” but not really have any intention of doing so? The answer, I think, is in the verse that I left out of the story when I introduced it. I omitted the verse numbers there, so someone who is not perfectly familiar with the text does not really see that anything is missing. Here is the missing verse:
Gen 48:7 I [do this because], when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, while I was journeying in the land of Canaan, when still some distance short of Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath”—now Bethlehem.
You see how out of place this verse seems to be in the middle of telling Joseph, “Your two sons are now going to be considered as my sons. NJPS has turned the single word וַאֲנִ֣י va’ani ‘and I’ into an entire explanatory clause: “I [do this because] …” If it’s a case of “like father like son,” Joseph might just not want to bother schlepping all the way back to the land of Canaan to bury Jacob at Hebron in the family tomb. Did you do that for my mother, Dad?
Again: what did Jacob do when his wife — and, I might add, the most beloved of his four wives, his wife Rachel, Joseph’s own mother — died while they were on the road? Jacob did not bother to bring her to Bethlehem and then on to Hebron and bury her. He just dug a hole by the side of the road, interred her, and moved on. I suspect that Jacob is thinking, What if he does to me what I did to my wife? Ohhh … not merely my wife, but his own mother. I abandoned her by the side of the road.
Now let’s look at the NJPS addition to the verse and try to parse out the logic of it. “I do this because …” What exactly is it that Jacob is doing “because” he buried Rachel by the side of the road?
Adopting Joseph’s first two Egyptian sons as his own? Sorry, I don’t really see a logical connection there.
Making Joseph swear to keep his promise to bury Jacob in Canaan? Bingo! Jacob is asking Joseph to do something for him that Jacob did not do for his mother.
Is Jacob speaking this way because he is near the end of his life and his mind is wandering, or is there something a little bit Freudian going on here? This is not a family where there’s a lot of communication between the generations. It seems that Joseph’s brothers are not the only ones who are resentful or upset because of Jacob’s relationship with Joseph’s mother. But there’s also one more reason Jacob makes Joseph swear — he is that kind of guy. After all, it’s not the first time Jacob has said this.
When his older (if just by a few minutes) twin brother asks for some hot soup, Jacob insists on buying his birthright. Fine, says Esau, just give me some soup:
Gen 25:33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
To quote the relevant words, “swear to me … and he swore to him,” in Hebrew for the sake of comparison:
Gen 25:33 הִשָּׁ֤בְעָה לִּי֙ … וַיִּשָּׁבַ֖ע ל֑וֹ
Gen 47:31 הִשָּֽׁבְעָה֙ לִ֔י וַיִּשָּׁבַ֖ע ל֑וֹ
It is what we biblical scholars like to call an inclusio, an envelope structure where the same words mark the beginning and end of a passage — in this case, not a small literary unit, but the passage of Jacob’s life, from almost the beginning of his story to almost the end. It tells us something, I think, about how the biblical writer wanted us to understand this character.
Next week, on to the book of Exodus! Be prepared, because from now for the rest of the year it is going to be all Moses, (almost) all of the time.