With parashat Vayiechi we close the book of Bereshit.
With, it we close the formative stage of the Jewish story: the cosmogony- genesis of the world, and the ethnogony- genesis of the People who will become Bnei Israel-the children of Yaakov.
And just like for Chaye sarah (the lives of sarah), Parashat Vayiechi (‘and he lives’) starts by recapping the numbers of the years of life of Yaakov as his life, precisely, comes to an end.
Once again, the biblical narrative reminds us that the time of death is an opportunity to reflect on our lives.
This is something that we get reminded of too often in the past year and a half, in the land where Yaakov and his fathers lived, over two thousand years later.
The Mei Ha Shiloach opens his commentary of the opening line of the parasha on a very beautiful reflection about the interconnection between the two symmetric sefirot at the top of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life: bina (understanding), and Chochma (Wisdom).
ויחי יעקב.
“And Yaakov lived ….” (Bereshit, 47:28)
Reminding us that in a kabbalistic perspective, Yaakov represents Da’at (awareness), the middle point between chochma and Binah, the Mei Ha Shiloach refers us to the wisdom of the Pirkei Avot (3.17): “if there is no understanding [Binah], then there is no knowledge [Da’at].”
אם אין בינה אין דעת
Binah, he says, represents the general principles. And Da’at represents the details.
Here he reminds us, with the Pirkei Avot, that one doesnt go without the other: we won’t understand something if we don’t go into the details.
But knowing the details without understanding the general principle makes no more sense.
Yaakov, he says, according to Kabbalah, represents Da’at, the hidden point in between chochmah and binah- just like he represents, in a more manifest point, tiferet/emet (harmony/truth), the middle point between Chessed and Gevurah.
With Yaakov having become Israel, having attained his point of Truth, we can close the book of Bereshit, and descend, with him, into Egypt.
We are already into Egypt.
We are too deep into Egypt.
At the beginning of this week, social networks and newspapers headlined the face of one of the young women hostages, Liri Albag, less than twenty years old, held captive for 461 days now.
I understand that I know nothing.
But I understand that I have to keep living, that we have to keep living, in this world as it is. And in order to do that, I need to raise my awarenes, and to be precise about the details.
This is what spiritual practice is about.
If the world is burning right now, symbolically and literally, because of war in Israel or because of nature in California, perhaps all that is left to us is to keep bringing awareness and precision to what we do.
To keep clarity about the principles we want to live by, and about how we want to apply them.
And most of all, as we are being blessed before our descent into Egypt, the symbolic place which the Meor Einayim called a realm of ‘exile of awareness”, this is the time, more than ever, to cultivate self awareness, and to live consciously. It might feel like nothing, but if everyone started there, the world could look like a different place sooner than we know.
It starts with each of us.
And if not now, then when?
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