The chapter is a collection of aphorisms in poetry form. It contains blessings and curses, admonitions and praise, and geographical and historical observations-all in the form of biblical poetry. Generally, this chapter is known as “The Blessings of Jacob,” because it contains Jacob’s blessing of each of his twelve sons. Jacob’s Testament (Gen 49) demonstrates the value of literary structure, techniques, and conventions for mining the depth and intricacies of the Torah. Nothing happened accidentally all the events, and the biblical record of them, attest to Hashem’s choice of Israel and Israel’s part in his plan of consummation and salvation.
The literary construction reinforces the biblical teaching that Israel’s formative age was not simply a chain of random coincidences but was a series of events ordered according to Hashem’s design.
Both fathers pass on their final instructions, exhortations, and prophetic pronouncements, two of which have messianic dimensions (Gen 49:10 and 1 Kings 2:4, 12 referring to 2 Sam 7:12–26).Ī deeper dive into the literary characteristics of the last three chapters of Genesis allows us to appreciate the Torah as literature, reinforces the conviction that Israel’s formation is part of Hashem’s design, and reveals the depth and intricacies of Hashem’s care, excellence, and attention to details and broad strokes.įor example, three distinct narrative cycles come to an end in Vayechi: 1) the patriarchal period begins with the divine promise of nationhood to Abraham (Gen 12:2), and the fulfillment of that promise is expressed through the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen 49:28) 2) the Jacob narrative commences with a promise from Hashem that Jacob will have numerous offspring (Gen 28:14), and fittingly concludes with the death-bed scene of Jacob surrounded by his sons and grandsons (Gen 49:28) 3) the narrative of Joseph, which began in Genesis 37, concludes with the death of Joseph (Gen 50:26). A closer look at the texts reveals that both deal with the approaching death of Jacob and David and their final words to their sons. What do these aphorisms from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) have to do with this week’s Torah portion? At first glance, we see that both Torah and Haftarah readings for Vayechi deal with the death of leaders, Jacob and Joseph in Genesis and David in 1 Kings. The end of a matter is better than the beginning of it.