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December 17, 2021
The Recurring Patterns of Biblical, and Jewish, History
“Our father Jacob never dies.”
This week’s Torah reading of Vay’ḥi (Genesis 47:28-50:26) is mostly concerned with the final days and death of Jacob in Egypt. And while its opening phrase is generally translated “And Jacob lived,” the absence of a single dot in the Hebrew spelling of the first word allows it to be read “And Jacob will live”—leading to the midrash that “Our father Jacob never dies.” Interpreting this teaching through a kabbalistic lens, and drawing on the rabbinic dictum that “the deeds of the fathers are a sign [of what will befall] the children,” David Wolpe concludes that we ought to see in Jacob’s life the repeating patterns of Jewish history:
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The Recurring Patterns of Biblical, and Jewish, History
“Our father Jacob never dies.”