Though parshas Vayechi is a distinct parsha as determined by Torah sheba'al pe, our oral tradition, it does not enjoy the clear Torah shebichsav demarcation that marks every other parsha in Torah. That means that Vayechi is missing the nine blank spaces that indicate the start of a new parsha and chapter to every baal koreh, student, sage and parshan. Bringing Vayechi and Vayigash side by side much as one slides closed two panes of a window, signals to us, according to Rashi, that upon the death of Yaakov Aveinu the eyes and hearts of the Jewish people were similarly closed shut.
Nevertheless the meaning of the message is unclear and the faint connection between the metaphor and the message should leave us all puzzled. In a similar matter, the omission of all white spaces throughout parshas Vayetze led Harav Chaim Shmuelevitz to investigate it in the following manner. He pointed out the Rashi at the beginning of Sefer Vayikra, explains that the white spaces in the Torah represent the downtime that Moshe Rabeinu needed to absorb what he had just studied. Now we may question, as the Mirrer Rosh Yeshiva does in Vayetze, is the lesson of the shutting down of the hearts and eyes of the shevatim important enough to justify robbing Moshe Rabeinu of the opportunity that even he needs, to digest and absorb new teachings?
It would seem to me that the Torah is simply instructing us to read Veyechi both as an independent parsha as well as a continuation of parhsas Vayigash. For what purpose, might this be?
The final pasuk in Vayigash describes the complacency of Yaakov's family in their new surroundings, (47:27) "And Yisrael dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; they acquired property in it and they were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly." Understandably, Yosef's efforts to prepare a place for his brothers were successful. They were allowed to live as shepherds, somewhat independently in Goshen, perhaps at first as part of the royal family who had saved the country, and probably strengthened by the guidance and teachings of Yaakov. There is good news here for the Diasporas of the future: unfriendly environments may surprisingly become a haven for the prosperity of Torah study, and the establishment of independent Jewish communities committed to Torah and the propagation of its culture and ethics.
That is why it so important to juxtapose the last words of the aging Ya'akov as he reminds his children of how far they are from home and how uncomfortable they all have to be in Mitzrayim. To be sure, Ya'akov's request to be buried in Chevron, setting his children apart from their hosts as they make the trip home, was to be a defining experience. This charge would remind them to dream of the cedar trees that they brought with them and the code phrase pkod yifkod that would mark the beginning of the end of trouble, which they had not yet envisioned.
Unfortunately but predictably with the passing of Yaakov, his children, their eyes and their hearts, shut out his final thoughts, allowing the culture of Mitzrayim to severely impact them. Thus the measured confluence of Vayigash and Vayechi implore us to appreciate and utilize the blessings of a golden galus even as we make sure that throughout them, Yaakov Avinu's final breathes reverberate powerfully and unceasingly.