| Before it’s all said and done, what do we make of the dust-ups, hurts, disappointments and dramas of our messy lives? it’s tempting to answer that we bear them as best we can, and even make meaning of them – and hopefully we do. But is there more? Is there a way to redeem what happens in our lives? Is there a way to bless others by what we ourselves have become? That’s Jacob’s last blessing, and ours – with bonus content from one of my students. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Vayehi 5786 (2025-26)
This week’s final Torah portion of the Book of Genesis poignantly concludes our founding ancestry. The Children of Israel safely reside in Egypt. Jacob (Israel) dies, then Joseph dies. Next up is Exodus: a new Pharaoh will arise who knows not Joseph, and enslave the Children of Israel. Their cry will rise up to God. Moses will grow up in Pharaoh’s palace only to flee the stench of bondage, encounter a bush that burns but is not consumed, and be deployed to liberate our ancestors.
But first patriarch Jacob blesses his descendants, starting with Joseph’s children. Jacob’s blessing is at once simple but profound (Genesis 48:15-16):
| הָֽאֱלֹהִ֡ים אֲשֶׁר֩ הִתְהַלְּכ֨וּ אֲבֹתַ֤י לְפָנָיו֙ אַבְרָהָ֣ם וְיִצְחָ֔ק הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ הָרֹעֶ֣ה אֹתִ֔י מֵעוֹדִ֖י עַד־הַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה׃ הַמַּלְאָךְ֩ הַגֹּאֵ֨ל אֹתִ֜י מִכָּל־רָ֗ע יְבָרֵךְ֮ אֶת־הַנְּעָרִים֒ וְיִקָּרֵ֤א בָהֶם֙ שְׁמִ֔י וְשֵׁ֥ם אֲבֹתַ֖י אַבְרָהָ֣ם וְיִצְחָ֑ק וְיִדְגּ֥וּ לָרֹ֖ב בְּקֶ֥רֶב הָאָֽרֶץ׃ | “God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day: May the angel who redeems me from all harm bless the children. In them may my name be called, and the names of Abraham and Isaac – and may they teem abundantly upon the earth.” |
“May the angel who redeemed me from all harm.” What profound words, because Jacob suffered plenty of harm and heartache in his life – arguably more than anyone else in Torah:
- His brother (Eisav) tried to kill him, forcing him to flee his parents (Isaac and Rebecca).
- An early wrestle left him with a lifelong limp.
- He worked seven years on the promise of his beloved Rachel’s hand in marriage, only to be duped at the altar.
- His daughter (Dinah) was raped.
- His 10 elder sons went on a retributive killing spree, forcing Jacob to flee with his family.
- Jacob’s wife Rachel died in childbirth with their youngest son (Benjamin).
- The 10 elder sons sold their brother Joseph and told Jacob that a wild beast had killed Joseph, hurtling Jacob into life-crushing grief.
- A famine risked the family’s life, forcing Jacob to risk his remaining sons in hopes of placating an unknown Egyptian vizier.
Jacob certainly wasn’t spared suffering and heartache. Yet in his elder years, as he blessed his grandchildren, he invoked the “angel who redeemed me from all harm”!
Jacob’s blessing, and the truth of his life, were not that an angel protected him from harm, and certainly not from suffering. Rather, his blessing and truth were that a power beyond himself – an angel (literally “messenger”) – somehow redeemed them.
We’re not told how – yet we know that the answer can’t be that Jacob’s limps, losses and lifelong sufferings suddenly disappeared. They didn’t. Redemption isn’t about magic.
Rather, Jacob’s redemption was that he himself transformed. He learned that he could face and triumph over adversity. He learned that he was far stronger than perhaps he realized. He learned the pains of trickery and deceit, and by all accounts became righteous by empathy for the sufferings he himself caused in his younger years. He learned the healing power of genuine forgiveness (or at least setting untempered anger and fear aside).
And what was the “angel” or “messenger”? Again we’re not told: I leave it to the reader’s faith, hope and imagination.All of us are Jacob. All of us accrue in our lives hurts and heartaches, the scars of messy lives lived, the limps of missteps and perhaps body slams. Maybe the greatest blessing isn’t to emerge unscathed but to be redeemed precisely so. Maybe the greatest blessing is to show others that their own lives might be redeemed in kind, generation after generation, through the sands of time – uniting our people and all people of spirit in a collective evolution.
May it be for good, blessing and the redemption of transformation. May the angel of wrestles, dreams and sacred redirections bless each of us and those who come after.
Bonus content: One of my seminary students – now-Rabbi Irwin Keller in California – learned these materials with me and wrote something lovely about them, including an original song. Take a read and listen.
David Evan Markus 