Parshat Vayichi

Who Are These?

Rabbi Ari Kahn
Vay'chi is the last parsha in the first book of the Torah. One of the major messages of the entire book of
Bereishit, which reappears in Vay'chi, has been the theme of the younger brother succeeding while the
older brother has failed. This concept transcends history, and transmits a theological principle: Surely
the Jews, who were not the strongest nation, were comforted by the knowledge that those chosen by G-
d are not always the powerful or the bombastic. No, the word of G-d is often heard in the still, small
voice.1 In Vay'chi, it is Ephraim, the younger of Yosef's two sons, who stands out.

As Ya'akov nears his death he summons his beloved son Yosef:

And it came to pass after these things, that one told Yosef, 'Behold, your father is sick'; and he
took with him his two sons, Menashe and Ephraim. (48:1)

Ya'akov, who will soon bless all his children, begins with Yosef and his progeny:

And Ya'akov said to Yosef, 'G-d Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and
blessed me, And He said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will
make of you a multitude of people; and will give this land to your seed after you for an
everlasting possession.' And now your two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, who were born to you
in the land of Egypt before I came to you to Egypt, are mine; as Reuven and Shimon, they
shall be mine. And your issue, born to you after them, shall be yours, and shall be called after
the name of their brothers in their inheritance. (48:3-6)

This blessing, so basic to our consciousness and our Shabbat practice, seems quite simple in its
message: These children of Yosef, who are a generation removed from their uncles, have succeeded in
transcending their generational limitations. Under normal circumstances, a palatable change can be
discerned between one generation and the next. Certainly today, post-Sinai, a spiritual devolution can
be felt. The blessing of Ya'akov was that as Ephraim and Menashe had not suffered from this
phenomenon, neither should subsequent generations of children.

After Yosef's entrance, and his fathers initial blessing, Ya'akov turns his eye toward these children:

And Israel saw Yosef’s sons, and said, 'Who are these'? (42:8)
1
As best displayed by the vision of Eliyahu:
And he said, 'Go out, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong
wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the
wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the
fire; and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Melachim 19:11,12)
After the blessing they have just received, it seems strange that Ya'akov does not even recognize the
beneficiaries of his good will. This can most likely be attributed to Ya'akov's blindness. Alternatively,
one may posit that the immigrant grandfather Ya'akov does not recognize his Egyptian-born and -raised
grandchildren. Perhaps they were dressed in their Egyptian aristocratic garb, and Ya'akov is therefore
surprised. If this is the case, the blessings do not seem readily understood, unless cognitively Ya'akov
knew of his grandchildren's fidelity to tradition despite the cultural climate of their upbringing, and
despite his inability to identify them. Despite being a generation removed, and the products of Egyptian
culture, the children of Yosef have remained on the same spiritual strata as their uncles.

Rashi cites a Midrash which sees Ya'akov's question in a different light:

'And Israel saw the sons of Yosef': he wished to bless them but his clairvoyance eluded him,
for Yerovam and Ahav were destined to descend from Ephraim. 'And said who are these?'
From where did these, unworthy of a blessing, descend? (Rashi 48:8 based on Midrash
Tanchuma)

According to Rashi, Ya'akov's question has nothing to do with the people standing in front of him.
Rather, like so much of Ya'akov's speech in this Parsha, the references are not focused merely on the
past or present, but events in the future which were yet to unfold. It is with an eye toward the future
that Ya'akov performs an act which confounds Yosef:

And Yosef took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Yisrael’s left hand, and Menashe
in his left hand toward Yisrael’s right hand, and brought them near to him. And Yisrael
stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his
left hand upon Menashe’s head, changing his hands; for Menashe was the firstborn.
… And when Yosef saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it
displeased him; and he held up his father’s hand, to move it from Ephraim’s head to
Menashe’s head. And Yosef said to his father, 'Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put
your right hand upon his head.' And his father refused, and said, 'I know it, my son, I know it;
he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall
be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.' (48:13-19)

Rashi again, makes a specific identification:

"But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he," - For Yehoshua was destined to
descend from him. He would inherit the land, and teach Torah to Israel (48:19)

The two great descendants of Ephraim, singled out for infamy and greatness respectively, were
Yerovam and Yehosha. While Yehoshua is certainly better known, the contrast between these two
people will shed light on Parshat Vay'chi and serve as a fitting conclusion to the entire book of
Bereishit.
Yerovam is introduced in the Book of Melachim, during the reign of Shlomo. Shlomo was a great king,
but he allowed his various relationships to lead him astray. Heathen lived in his palaces, and alien
practice was introduced into Israel from his very home.

And the man Yerovam was a mighty man of valor; and Shlomo, seeing that the young man
was industrious, made him ruler over all the labor of the house of Yosef. (I Melachim 11:28)

The Talmud informs us of the greatness of Yerovam:

R. Yochanan said: Why did Yerovam merit sovereignty? Because he reproved Solomon. … As
it is written, 'And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built
Millo, and repaired the breaches of the City of David his father. He said thus to him: Your
father David made breaches in the wall, that Israel might come up [to Jerusalem] on the
Festivals; while you have closed them, in order to exact toll for the benefit of Paroh's
daughter. (Sanhedrin 101b)

As a result of Yerovam's greatness he soon meets a prophet of G-d:

And it came to pass at that time when Yerovam went from Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahiya
the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and the two
were alone in the field; And Ahiya caught the new garment that was on him, and tore it in
twelve pieces; And he said to Yerovam, 'Take you ten pieces; for thus said the Lord, the G-d of
Israel, 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom from the hand of Shlomo, and will give ten tribes to
you; But he shall have one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the
city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel; (1 Melachim 11:29-32)

Because of Shlomo's indiscretions he was deemed unworthy to rule over all of Israel. Because of the
merit of his father David, the dynasty would not be destroyed, merely temporarily limited in its scope.
The role of Yerovam was to form a caretaker monarchy. Jerusalem the holy city, and the holy, chosen
Davidic monarchy which it parallels, are eternal. Their unique status can never be vanquished.

It is interesting how the tide has turned: in Bereishit it was Yehuda who had led the united front against
Yosef, ten brothers against the one. Now it is Yerovam from the tribe of Yosef, who will lead a united
front against Sholomo from the tribe of Yehuda. It is also interesting how the garment which is ripped
into 12 pieces is called a SIMLA, an inversion of the letters of the name Shlomo.

The unraveling of Yerovam begins when he takes his role as leader and becomes anxious about the
upcoming pilgrimage to Jerusalem: If the people do travel to Jerusalem, the erstwhile Davidic
monarchy now led by Shlomo's son Rehavam could regain its luster and power, spurred by religious
revival of the masses in the streets of her capital.
 Then Yerovam built Sh'chem in Mount Ephraim, and lived there; and went out from there, and
built Penuel. And Yerovam said in his heart, 'Now shall the kingdom return to the house of
David; If this people go up to do sacrifice in the House of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall
the heart of this people turn back to their Lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill
me, and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah. (1 Melachim 12:25-27)

At this point Yerovam comes up with a tragic plan: replace Jerusalem, or at least make it obsolete,
redundant.

And the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for
you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you out of the land of
Egypt. And he set one in Beit-El, and the other he placed in Dan. (1 Kings 12:28,29)

While his motivations are clear, his behavior is shocking. Why would he possibly wish to replicate
arguably the greatest tragedy in Jewish history? At the foot Sinai the Jews proved their unfaithfulness
to G-d. Now, outside of Jerusalem, he builds not one calf of gold, but two! Why would he think that the
people could possibly be led astray by this cheap imitation of holiness?

In order to understand this choice we must recall that the Ox, the mature calf, is the symbol of the tribe
of Yosef. The perfidious sale of Yosef is described by Ya'akov:

Shimon and Levi are brothers; instruments of cruelty are their swords. O my soul, do not come
into their council; to their assembly, let my honor not be united; for in their anger they slew a
man, and in their wanton will they lamed an ox.2

The Zohar describes Yosef's liberation from Egypt using a similar appellation:

Some say that Yosef's coffin had been in the river Nile and Moses removed it from there by the
power of the Holy Name; and that he also said: “Yosef, the time of the redemption of Israel
has arrived! Arise ox!” (Zohar Shmot 46a)3

Rashi, based on the Midrash Tanchuma, utilizes this tradition to explain the Golden Calf itself. Aharon
melted all the gold, and then someone threw in the magical formula with the words "Arise Ox"
inscribed. The result was this ox, the calf of gold.

We see why a calf would be associated with Yosef, but why would holiness and worship follow?
Various prophets have had visions of the Divine, the Talmud tells us that even though the description

2
See also 50:22, and Rashi's comments.
3
See Tanchuma Beshalach for the same Midrash with slight variations.
utilized by prophets may vary, often the objective revelation is the same, and the differences in their
descriptions stem from the subjective perspectives of the seers.

Rava said: 'All that Yehezkel saw, Yeshayahu saw. What does Yehezkel resemble? A villager
who saw the king. And what does Yeshayahu resemble? A townsman who saw the king.

This insight is intriguing: Yechezkel, who saw visions of G-d from the refugee camp on the River Kfar,
saw the same vision as Yeshayahu who stood in the sacred Temple4. Other prophets, including those
who left Egypt, saw the same vision and sensed the divinity as they crossed the sea. There, we are told,
all of the Children of Israel saw visions with even more clarity than the greatest of prophets. The
Michilta5 singles out Yechezkel as the prophet of comparison, and his visions of the Divine as the
benchmark:

And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I
was among the exiles by the Kfar River, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of G-
d… Also out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures. … And their feet were
straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like
the color of burnished bronze… As for the likeness of their faces, the four had the face of a
man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and the four had the face of an ox on the left
side; the four also had the face of an eagle. (Yechezkel 1,1)

The legs were of a calf and one of the faces was of an ox. We are beginning to understand the
temptation of the people to worship the ox, especially if this was part of the mass revelation which the
people witnessed as they crossed the sea. A second element of Yecheskel's vision completes the tragic
error.

Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the k'ruvim, appeared
over them something like a sapphire stone, in appearance like the shape of a throne… And
everyone had four faces; the first face was the face of a k'ruv, and the second face was the face
of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the k'ruvim
were raised. This is the living creature that I saw by the Kfar River. (Yechezkel 10:1-15)

Now we see that the k'ruv, has replaced the ox. We may therefore conclude that the k'ruvim which
Yechezkel saw had the appearance of an ox. The actions of Yerovam, and the enthusiastic response of
the people, become comprehensible in this light. The Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem had at
its epicenter two k'ruvim. Yerovam, from the tribe of Yosef, placed one calf in Beit El and a second one
in the portion of Dan. When one keeps in mind the geography of Israel we realize that he spanned the
Northern Kingdom with the calves/k'ruvim. Sh'chem, the place of his throne, was conveniently placed
in the center. The message seems clear: Jerusalem is unnecessary. The entire kingdom is rendered holy
with the k'ruvim/calves encompassing a far greater area than merely the City of Jerusalem. The entire
4
"And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by
the Kfar river, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of G-d." Yechezkel 1:1
5
Michilta Shira Chapter 3. See Rashi Shmot 15:2 for the more generic tradition.
city of Sh'chem, burial ground for Yosef, the Holy Ox himself 6, now supplants the very limited Holy of
Holies. Yerovam may stretch his arms out over the breadth of his entire kingdom and declare:

Behold (hinei) your gods, O Israel, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.

These words closely follow the words of Aharon7:

These (Eleh) are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

These words take us back to the text in our parsha. As we noted at the outset, upon seeing his
grandchildren, Ya'akov asks, "Who are these?"

"And Yisrael saw the sons of Yosef, and he said: 'Who are these?' "This verse seems to
contradict the statement a few verses later that “the eyes of Israel were dim from age, so that
he could not see”. What this verse really means, however, is that he saw through the Holy
Spirit those later descendants of Yosef, Yerovam and his fraternity. Yerovam made two golden
calves and said: “These are thy gods, O Israel” (I Melachim 12, 28).8 Hence Israel now said,
“Who are these?” That is, 'Who is he that will one day say “these” to idols?' From this
passage we learn that the righteous see into the distant future and G-d crowns them with His
own crown. (Zohar, Bereishit, 227b)9

Given the tragic conclusion of this episode, the exile of the Ten Tribes, it is difficult for us to fathom
why G-d created this situation where Yerovam would rule and lead all of Israel astray. In order to
understand this idea we must return to the other positive progeny of Yosef - Yehoshua. Fundamentally,
Yehoshua was a devoted student of Moshe. It is true that he did rule, but his leadership was a link
between his great teacher and the future Davidic monarchy which would emerge. One can imagine that
if he were asked what words to write on his tombstone, surely, "student of Moshe" would be seen by
Yehoshua as his primary role and legacy. Yehoshua was content to aid Moshe and would have preferred
that Moshe remain leader of the nation. Yehoshua is the quintessential student-- a great man who is
satisfied with an auxiliary position.

Perhaps this description sheds light on Yosef himself. We often see Yosef through the prism of the
6
The identification between Yosef and an ox or calf may also shed light on the "agalot" sent by Yosef to Ya'akov, to
assure his father that he was still alive.
7
This association with Aharon was surely intentional on Yerovam's part; he named his children Nadav and Aviya
8
The Zohar connects the words of Yerovam with the words of Aharon, even though Yerovam actually did not say "eleh",
rather "hinei".
9
A number of the ideas explained in this section have been previously explored in my shiur on Ki Tisa 5758. According
to the Zohar, the problem of the Golden Calf was man trying to understand that which is unfathomable - G-d. The
problem was in being definitive, in pointing to a representation and saying "this is your god". The Zohar stresses that the
question "who created the world" must retain an element of the unknown, and all that man can articulate is "Berishit
Bara Elo-him". The name Elohim links the eleh and the mi, which is part and parcel of the rhetorical question "Lift your
eyes heavenward and see who created all this"-- Mi Bara Ela. According to the Zohar the Mi and Eleh must be united.
Ya'akov therefore asks "Mi Ela" when he sees Yerovam.
dreams of his youth, "the man who would be king". On the other hand, in later life, Yosef is always the
assistant, the helper, and never the definitive leader. Yes, Yosef achieves greatness, but he becomes
Potifar's "right hand man". In prison, he rises to a position of power. Finally he becomes the second
most powerful man in Egypt.

Perhaps Yosef saw himself as Yehoshua was later to Moshe, second to his father, or even to Yehudah,
even though his brothers fail to see him this way. This was the role that Yerovam should have assumed:
content in the secondary ancillary role, the assistant. After all, his forebears were the younger brothers:
Ephraim, his father Yosef, and his father, Ya'akov, and his father Yitzchak, and his father Avraham.
There is an aspect of modesty involved with being younger which G-d finds very attractive:

"And Yosef took them both... and Yisrael stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon
Ephraim's head, who was the younger, etc." R. Huna observed: Do we not know from the birth
records that he was the younger? Younger (ZA'IR), however, means that he minimized (maz'ir)
his own importance, and therefore he attained the birthright. Now if the younger is thus
rewarded because he minimizes his importance, how much the more so when an older
minimizes his importance! Now if the younger is rewarded thus for minimizing his importance,
how much the more so when a great man minimizes his importance! (Midrash Rabbah -
Bereishit 97)

Yerovam's task was to help the Davidic dynasty relocate its greatness; instead he pathetically attempted
to guarantee his own position10. This is not what Yosef, or for that matter what Yehoshua would have
done. The Talmud shares with us an incredible teaching which encapsulates this entire concept:

"After this thing Yerovam turned not from his evil way." What is meant by "after this thing?"
R. Abba said: 'After the Holy One, blessed be He, had seized Yerovam by his garment and
urged him, ‘Repent. Then, I, you, and the son of Yishai will walk in the Garden of Eden.’ ‘And
who shall be at the head?’ inquired he. ‘The son of Yishai shall be at the head.’ ‘If so,’ [he
replied] ‘I do not desire [it].’ (Sanhedrin 102a)

G-d grabs Yerovam by his clothing, just as the wife of Potifar grabbed Yosef by his clothing. We noted
previously that the word for clothing used in this context is BEGED - betrayal- the first betrayal of man
which leads back to the rebellion of man in Eden. Yosef, Yerovam's ancestor, ran from sin. Now, G-d
reminds Yerovam of his illustrious precursor, offering paradise. All that Yerovam wishes is to know
who will capture the spotlight, who will lead. If is other than himself, even the Messiah son of David,
he is not prepared to capitulate. That was his tragedy. He was unwilling to live up to the legacy of the
role of Yosef, to aid from a secondary role.

Our sages tell us that one day a descendant of Yosef will emerge and prepare the way for the coming of
the son of David. In order to expedite this process we all must be willing to lead, but know when to
10
The Talmud has a particularly unflattering etymological connection with his
name: "Our Rabbis taught: [The name] Yerovam [denotes] that ‘he debased the
nation.’ (Sanhedrin 101b)
step aside. We must recognize the centrality of Jerusalem, and the Davidic dynasty. Jerusalem is
surrounded by mountains (Psalms 125:2); the ascent is arduous. Instead of aiding the people in their
climb, Yerovam created unholy imitations. All spiritual growth takes a difficult path. We must work to
help others climb these hills, rather than giving in to frustration and giving up the climb. For at the end
of the climb, a stroll in the Garden of Eden awaits, and we must prove our merit if we are to pass the
two sword-bearing K'ruvim who guard the gates.

CHAZAK CHAZAK V'NITCHAZEK!

© 1998 Rabbi Ari Kahn, All Rights Reserved