Parashat VaYechi Genesis 47:28-50:26
Dear TBE Community,
לִישׁוּעָתְךָ קִוִּיתִי יְהֹוָה׃
For your salvation I wait, Adonai!
Jacob utters this exclamation (Genesis 49:18) suddenly in between the parting words he gives his children on his deathbed.
Where does this seemingly unprompted exclamation stem from? Is it the calling of a man who feels the last moments of his life waning, who already sees that mysterious light on the other side? Is it an exclamation of impatient anticipation or of weary apprehension or an expression of concern for what will be in store for his descendants? Is it uttered with enthusiasm or in exasperation?
In thinking about a possible answer, I want to backtrack to verse 49:1, which introduces the scene of Jacob’s farewell words to the tribes of Israel:
וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל־בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים׃
And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come.
What are these days to come? Are they literally days to come, as in what happens next year, or in this new year? Or does the term refer to the end-of-days, the redemptive, messianic days?
Rashi says that Jacob wished to reveal to his sons the end of Israel’s exile, but the Shechinah departed from his eyes, and he began to speak of other, more immediate matters.
Meaning: Jacob’s parting words to the tribes (Genesis 49:3-27) are not prophecies about the redemptive end-of-days. They are something else – advice, wishes, praises – and not all of them are positive. Reuben, Shimeon and Levi are in for a harsh rebuke; there is no closure in store for them in their father’s final moments.
Yet don’t Jacob’s words describe his sons’ future after all? Don’t these mysterious, sometimes lyrical, sometimes blunt images feel like irrevocable pronouncements, uttered with the authority of a prophet? In that vein, Ibn Ezra for example argues that Jacob’s words do indeed describe divine visions, that he spoke על דרך הנבואה “by way of prophecy.”
Maybe the answer lies somewhere in between Rashi and Ibn Ezra. Jacob’s words foretell the future, but they don’t describe the end of days. They can still count as prophecies, visions, because poetically and mystically/mysteriously, there is an overlap between wishes and visions, an intersection where the Shechinah, the divine presence hovers and yet, humans will never be able to fully see and grasp everything.
As in a dream, when we know yet don’t know exactly. As when Jacob knew he had found God in a certain place: He may not have known everything that would happen in this very same place, he might not have imagined or even seen the threshing floor that King David would buy, the structure of the actual Temple – but he knew that the place was special, holy.
And thus it is when our wishes merge with our intuitive visions and become something that lies both within and outside of us. When we feel that the universe opens just before it closes again and we need additional strength or confidence, trust or faith; love for life to make sense of it all.
Maybe that’s what Jacob felt, back in verse 49:18: His words to his sons rose from a certainty and knowledge deep within himself. But at the same time, he also knew he could only see so far: For your salvation, I wait, Adonai!
He may have been challenging God – Nu? He may have been reluctant, exasperated, cynical, impatient – Jacob was never one to put his spirit easily into God’s hands. And yet, as he is carrying through with his final words, he does exactly that.
Shabbat Shalom, and Happy 2026. Hazak hazak, ve’nithazek!
Rabbi Julia Knobloch