Endings And Beginnings: Vayechi.2021

 Endings And Beginnings: Vayechi.2021

By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

January 1, 2021

By some coincidence, this week’s Torah portion, the last one of the book of Genesis, is also the one with which we ushered out 2020 and welcomed in 2021. Perhaps the comparisons should stop with this curious coincidence, especially since the next book, Exodus, finds the Israelites enslaved to a tyrannical and anti-Semitic Pharaoh who is intent on destroying them.

And yet the sense of closure that endings bring, and the hope, wishes and prayers that new beginnings engender are true for the calendar as well as for our sacred texts.

In this Torah portion (Vayechi, Genesis 47:28—50:26) we read about Jacob’s death, and soon after, also Joseph’s. These sad events conclude the saga of the First Family of the Jewish People, but not before these two protagonists bestow their blessings on the generations that will follow them.

On his deathbed, surrounded by his sons and grandchildren, Jacob blesses them all, while saving the best for Judah and Joseph. Joseph, too, expresses his most profound hopes—that when the Israelites return to their homeland as God had promised, they will take his remains with them and not leave him in the land of his exile.

Jacob’s blessings, while sometimes obscure, seem to indicate the future course of the Tribes of Israel—the confrontations that will arise as well as the unity and accord that will prevail in the end. Joseph goes even farther, expressing his faith in the Redemption that God will bring about for God’s People.  

In our own day, like Jacob and Joseph, while looking back with dismay at one of the worst years in our lives, as we turn our gaze towards a new beginning and a new year, today we too may be permitted a measure of hope and optimism.

2020 was a year of loss, anxiety and sadness for all of us. 

For Americans, it was the year of the most contentious and divisive national elections in memory. It was the year of social awakening and reckoning. It was the year of COVID.

It was a year that had us thinking about what really matters in life.

And even as we turn a new page in our calendars, we know that we aren’t out of the woods yet. It will take all we’ve learned in 2020 plus some, before we can breathe freely again. Even after we all receive our vaccines, for months yet we will continue practicing the routine we’ve gotten used to at this point: Washing our hands frequently (to the tune of Happy Birthday To You, twice!), wearing face covering and maintaining social distance. 

But, with God's help, the end of this frightful pandemic IS, hopefully, in sight. Though the rollout of vaccination seems slow and hampered by a variety of circumstances, the process of healing—physical, psychological and social—has begun. 

And so this is my prayer for this Gregorian calendar new year, New Year’s 2021: That we emerge from this experience with new understanding of our fragility, yet also with renewed strength and confidence. May we learn to be more mindful of our health, more appreciative of people and things that we may have taken for granted in the past.  May we gain deeper understanding of the gift of time allotted to us and learn to use it in a responsible and generous way. And finally, as we begin to return to a more normal way of life, may we find sure footing and move on, cautiously, with greater awareness of our place and role in the world.

I look forward—as do we all, I am sure—to a day soon when we will be able to gather in person again and embrace our families, friends and communities.

May 2021 bring us all recovery, strength, hope and health. Happy New Year!

© 2021 by Boaz D. Heilman