Who Are These?

Parashat Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26)

When Jacob was one hundred and forty-seven years old he realized his life on this earth had come to an end. Because of this he called Joseph to him and made him swear that when he departed from this life that Joseph would not bury his body in Egypt, but take it back to Canaan and bury it there. The next thing we learn is that Jacob has become seriously ill. When Joseph understood the severity of his father’s illness he brought his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to his father so that he would bless them. Jacob tells Joseph:

And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. (Genesis 48:5–6)

However, when Joseph presents his sons to his father, Jacob acts as if he doesn’t know them after being around them for the last seventeen years. He asks Joseph, “Who are these?” (v. 8). Most people attribute Jacob’s question of their identity to his eyesight, because just two verses later the Torah tells us, “Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see” (v. 10). However, there may be a deeper answer given to us by the Torah, and one that can help us see a beautiful picture of what Yeshua has done for us.

The Power of Hope

Genesis 44:18-47:27

Is this week’s Torah portion we learn about the reunion of Joseph and his family. How appropriate for the name of the portion to be called Vayigash, which means, “and he came near.” After a long period of being apart from his family, Joseph was able to come near his family. Not only did Joseph reveal himself to his brothers after the long wait for his plan to succeed, but he was also reunited with his father who had given up hope of Joseph’s survival years beforehand. 

After revealing himself to his brothers, he instructed them to go back and get their father and all of their possessions and move down to Egypt where he would provide for them. Once they got back home to their father, however, Jacob did not initially believe the news about Joseph:

And they told him, “Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. (Genesis 45:26–27)

In this translation we read that Jacob’s heart “became numb.” However, the Hebrew is more evocative. It says that his heart “fainted.” He simply could not believe Joseph could be alive after all these years. His pessimism was based on his challenging life. Jacob was 130 years old and had lived through many difficult circumstances. When he ended up moving down to Egypt and met Pharaoh, he explained:

The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning. (Genesis 47:9)