B"H
Thursday, Tevet 12, 5782 / December 16, 2021
In this week’s Parsha, Vayechi, we read about Yaakov’s (Jacob) blessings to his children and grandchildren, before his passing.
Yaakov requests that he not be buried in Egypt. He makes his son, Yosef (Joseph), swear that he will bury him in the Me’arat Hamachpeila, in Hebron, alongside his parents, grandparents and his wife Leah. The Torah describes the great honor and royalty extended to Yaakov after his passing.
The Parsha ends with the passing of Joseph. Like his father, Joseph also requested to be buried in Israel. But contrary to his father, whose body was carried back to Israel soon after his death, Joseph's body stayed in Egypt until the Exodus when the entire Jewish people left Egypt. Moshe himself attended to bringing Joseph’s bones out of Egypt. He was later buried in Shchem.
Q. At what age did Yaakov pass away? At what age did Yosef pass away?
A. Yaakov was 147. Yosef was 110.
Q. Which of the patriarchs lived the shortest?
A. Yaakov. Abraham lived to 175. Yitzchak (Isaac) to 180. Yaakov passed away at the age of 147.
Q. Why wasn’t Yosef buried in Israel right after his passing just like Yaakov?
A. Yosef was the ruler of Egypt, thus he had the power to fulfill his father’s wish. But when Yosef died, Pharaoh didn’t allow his body to be taken out of Egypt.
Q. How many years passed from Yaakov's coming to Egypt until the Exodus?
A. Two hundred and ten years.
Q. How many years from Joseph's death to the Exodus?
A. One hundred and thirty nine years.
Q. Of Yaakov’s children who lived the longest and who lived the shortest?
A. Yaakov’s third son, Levi, lived the longest, 137 years. Yosef, lived the shortest. He passed away, before his brothers, at the age of 110 years. Joseph's life span was the shortest of all his brothers, yet he overcame many adversities and achieved much more during his lifetime. One's life is not necessarily measured in quantity, but rather in quality.
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY