Vayechi – Faith and Family

The tragic events we have recently faced have stimulated amongst many Jews a renewed sense of connection to both our faith and our people. On both sides of the ocean, we have been able to see more clearly who our real friends are and how much we need each other, while the reawakening of the ancient and enduring hatred that afflicted our ancestors has moved many to reaffirm the ancient and enduring faith of those ancestors. This is the glimmer of light within the current darkness. We will be ripe for better days and for the coming of the Moshiach only when we, Klal Yisrael, know and connect with both G-d and each other, coming home to both our faith and our people.

The realization of this dual challenge is critical to success. Too often we focus on one to the exclusion of the other, on either the return to G-d or to achdut. That is insufficient. We critically need both.

This was what Yaakov came to realize at the very end of his life. As the Talmud tells it (Pesachim 56a), as he assembled his sons around his deathbed, Yaakov had hoped to share with them the vision of a healed world, legalot et haketz, but there was something blocking his spiritual vision, nistalka mimenu Shechina. Upon encountering this bump, Yaakov’s first assumption was that there was a failure of faith amongst his children, that perhaps - like Avraham and Yitzchak - there were amongst his children those who did not believe in the One G-d. They quickly reassured him that this was not the case, as they raised their voices and made the declaration of Shema affirming that their hearts, like his, were filled with belief in the same One G-d. Yaakov was relieved to hear this, and blessed Hashem in gratitude, but the mystery remained unsolved. If all was well with his family, why had the Shechina left him when they congregated around his bed?

While their connection to the One G-d was strong, what was missing was their bond with each other as One Nation. As is apparent at the very end of our parsha, the tension and the distrust between the brothers remained. Despite Yosef’s genuine embrace, his brothers worried that he continued to harbor resentment towards them and would strike back at them when the opportunity arose. They may have had faith in G-d, but they did not trust each other, leaving them fractured.

There is a unique quality to the prayers of Shabbat. Every other day of the year, weekdays or yamim tovim, we say essentially the same Amidah prayer morning, afternoon, and night. On Shabbat, the prayers change, beginning with the invocation of the Shabbat of creation in the evening, continuing to the morning when we speak of the Shabbat when we stood before G-d at Sinai, and concluding with Mincha’s reference to the Shabbat of Moshiach, characterized by Ata echad v’shimcha echad u’mi k’amcha Yisrael goy echad ba’aretz, “You G-d are one and Your name is One and who is comparable to your nation Israel, a unified nation on earth.” To merit this future world of Moshiach, we need to affirm both the clarity of our faith in G-d and our faithfulness to each and every other member of Klal Yisrael. As we have noted before in the name of Rav Yitzchak Hutner, the words Shema Yisrael, “Hear O Israel”, are not just an introduction but an essential part of the Jew’s declaration of faith: our connection to G-d is built on our connection to each other (Pachad Yitzchak, Chanukah, 13:3).

The Shabbos of creation was experienced by the entire humanity embodied in one person, Adam, in the presence of G-d. When we stood before Him next at Sinai, we did it as one man with one heart. We must focus our efforts to overcome the roadblocks and the pettiness as we seek to reach the day soon when once again, we will stand as one indivisible nation before G-d, connected to both our faith and to each other.