for Parshat VaYechi
i
Jacob flees home, fleeing his brother.
He asks God to return him to his father's house—
someday,
when the danger is gone,
when it will be safe.
Then he lifted up his feet
and he set off.
*
Decades later
he returns to his father’s land
only to leave
living seventeen years in Egypt
dying in Egypt
one-hundred forty seven years old
blessing his twelve sons.
And he gathered his feet
and was gathered to his nation.
ii
Jacob asks God
for his father’s house,
for his childhood.
God gives him something else.
God gathers Jacob to his nation,
not to his father’s home.
God makes him an old patriarch
giving blessing,
years past being a child.
*
It is almost a return
but not a return.
iii
God sets us out on a journey
not for us to come back to the same spot
but also not to depart utterly.
We are to lift up our feet
and walk far,
to widen the story:
to make a nation
from a father’s home,
fatherhood from childhood,
our time of dependency
into a blessing for others.
*
That is the journey
of a good life.
_____
Shabbat shalom,
Abe
Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, Esther Chaya bat Yael Miriam, and for NeshamaEmunah bat Batya
www.TorahParsha.com / @TorahParsha
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