Rabbi Michael RosensweigParshat Vayechi: The Convergence of Personal Legacy and National Destiny in Jewish Leadership

Parshat Vayechi begins by registering "Yaakov's" years in Mitzrayim, and then his entire life span of 147 years. Thereupon, we read of "Yisrael's" response to his impending petirah - "vayikrivu yemei Yisrael la-mut", his understandable preoccupation with receiving a proper burial, specifically in Eretz Yisrael. The pesukim that follow record Yaakov's curious demand that his trusted son Yosef, who in this very context is described in otherwise superfluous filial terms - "li-beno le-Yosef"- formalize his commitment to execute this bequest with an official covenant-"im na mazati chein be-eihecha sim na yadecha tachat yereichi..."- reinforced by an oath - "vayomer hishavah li". This climactic exchange between the bechir ha-avot, whose name is synonymous with national destiny, and his most beloved progeny culminates with an objective gesture of acknowledgement and appreciation -"vayishtachu Yisrael al rosh ha-mitah"!

The transition from the personal"Yaakov" to the national legacy figure"Yisrael" accounts for the tone and emphasis of this depiction. Evidently, the choice of burial venue was not primarily a personal preference, but a matter of transcendent symbolic and substantive significance. Moreover, it was important to emphasize that while the diaspora-Mitzrayim experience was a vital phase in the development of Yaakov's family, the shevatim, and the fledgling Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael exclusively embodied the national destiny. It was inconceivable that "Yisrael" could be buried elsewhere, irrespective of the high spiritual quality of his final years. While "Yaakov" implicitly and absolutely trusted his beloved son, it would have been an egregious breach of national and historical responsibility for "Yisrael" to entrust this transcendent mission without proper contractual protocols, notwithstanding his personal confidence in the assigned agent. Yisrael's conduct reflects not gratuitous suspicion and excessive caution, but a heightened sensitivity and principled devotion to historic mission and national destiny.

Indeed, these pesukim strikingly echo parallel formulations that convey two important episodes in the life of Avraham Avinu, the father of the nation. In both of these chapters, the luxury of personal trust and reliance was rejected, as Avraham correctly perceived the tasks in question as ones of historical national import.

Like the internment of Yaakov-Yisrael, the purchase of mearat hamechpelah and the burial of Sarah, the first matriarch, were conceived not merely as private initiatives, but as issues of national legacy. Thus, the negotiation for the acquisition of the mearat hamachpelah assumed a formal and public character (particularly when the benei Cheit remarked that "nesi Elokim atah betocheinu"), replete with numerous reciprocal public exchanges, multiple bowings, and exceedingly transparent terms and conditions. The Torah's formulations -"va-yakam Avraham va-yishtachu le-am ha-aretz li-benei Cheit...va-yishtachu Avraham lifnei am ha-aretz" (Bereishit 23:7, 12) resonate in Yaakov's own burial negotiation, as cited.

The demand for formal covenantal protocols, and specifically the mode of "sim na yadecha tachat yereichi", reinforced by an oath commitment - "hishavah li" - vividly invokes the episode of Avraham's charge to his loyal assistant Eliezer to secure Yitzhak's betrothal. As in the Yaakov-Yosef parallel, Eliezer's unassailable credentials of trustworthiness are accentuated precisely to underscore their irrelevance to the execution of this national mission. Thus, "vayomer Avraham el avdo zekan beito hamoshel be-kol asher lo" precedes the formalistic posture of "sim na yadecha tachat yereichi", as well as "vi-ashbiacha ba-Hashem Elokei ha-shamayim ve-Elokei ha-aretz asher lo tikach ishah livni mi-benot ha-kenani asher anochi yosheiv be-kirbo." It is self-evident that procuring the appropriate mate for Yitzchak was foremost a challenge with enormous ramifications for the continuity of the avot, as well as for the future structure and development of Klal Yisrael.

The convergence of personal and national motifs characterizes the entire parshah of Vayechi. The Torah consistently oscillates between "Yaakov" the individual and "Yisrael" the embodiment of national aspirations. His encounter with Ephraim and Menasheh sees him transition from his private to his national profile in a single passuk before shifting back to individual status (48:2,3) ("vayaged le-Yaakov, vayomer hineh bincha Yosef ba eilecha; vayitchazek yisrael vayeishev al ha-mitah. Vayomer Yaakov...").

Undoubtedly, "Yisrael's" unrelenting insistence on giving priority to Ephraim over Menasheh stemmed from national and long-term considerations, as Chazal and the mefarshim note. Thus, the Torah records that these grandchildren were initially indecipherable to "Yisrael" (48:8 - "vayare Yisrael et benei Yosef vayomer mi eileh": "ve-einei Yisrael kavdu mi-zoken lo yuchal lirot"), though they must have been very familiar to "Yaakov", their intimate grandfather, as Yosef's confused plea - "va-yomer Yosef el aviv: banai heim asher natan Elokim ba-zeh" (48:9-10) indicates.

Finally, Yaakov's final bequest to the shevatim (49:1-33) again reflects the dialectic of both an intimate nuclear family farewell, as well as an encounter with and characterization of the shevatim, the core structure of Klal Yisrael for all generations. The oscillation between Yaakov (49:1,2,3 ) and Yisrael (49:2, 50:3) is even more striking in this context.

The Torah's message, conveyed by some of these oscillations and by the demand for historic responsibility that also establishes the inadequacy of personal confidence or trust in a matter that impacts the historical destiny of Klal Yisrael, is that the very nature of Jewish leadership entails some, though not all, blurring of the lines that typically demarcate the public and private dimensions of life. The comprehensiveness of Jewish law, the integrity of halakhic life, and the demanding character of Jewish leadership, demands an acute sense of historic responsibility even when that impinges upon the ethos of personal trust. The convergence of public and personal dimensions of Jewish life and law was itself the profound final legacy bequeathed by Yaakov-Yisrael, the bechir ha-avot.