page_title: Vaychi
section_title: Genesis Chapter 47
hierarchical_section_title: Vaychi / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Genesis Chapter 47
caption_attribution_description: English: Illustration by Owen Jones from "The History of Joseph and His Brethren" (Day &amp; Son, 1869). Scanned and archived at www.OldBookArt.com where it was marked as Public Domain. Text from Book: And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. And it was a very great company. Genesis, C. L. V. 9.
context_page_description: Vaychi, Vayechi or Vayhi is the twelfth weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the last in the Book of Genesis. It constitutes Genesis 47:28–50:26. The parashah tells of Jacob's request for burial in Canaan, Jacob's blessing of Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh, Jacob's blessing of his sons, Jacob's death and burial, and Joseph's death.
  It is the shortest weekly Torah portion in the Book of Genesis. It is made up of 4,448 Hebrew letters, 1,158 Hebrew words, 85 verses, and 148 lines in a Torah scroll. Jews read it the twelfth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in December or January.
context_section_description: Rabbi Joḥanan taught that trouble follows whenever Scripture employs the word וַיֵּשֶׁב, vayeishev, meaning "and he settled." Thus "Israel settled" in Genesis 47:27 presaged trouble in the report of Genesis 47:29 that Israel's death drew near.
  Reading the words of Genesis 47:29, "and he called his son Joseph," a Midrash asked why Jacob did not call Reuben or Judah, as Reuben was the firstborn and Judah was king. Yet Jacob disregarded them and called Joseph, because Joseph had the means of fulfilling Jacob's wishes.
  Rabbi Eliezer taught that in the hour of Jacob's death, he called to his son Joseph, and adjured him to swear to Jacob by the covenant of circumcision that Joseph would take Jacob up to the burial-place of his fathers in the Cave of Machpelah. Rabbi Eliezer explained that before the giving of the Torah, the ancients used to swear by the covenant of circumcision, as Jacob said in Genesis 47:29, "Put, I pray you, your hand under my thigh." And Rabbi Eliezer taught that Joseph kept the oath and did as he swore, as Genesis 50:7 reports.
  A Midrash asked why Jacob told Joseph in Genesis 47:29, "Bury me not, I pray, in Egypt." The Midrash suggested that it was because Egypt would eventually be smitten with vermin (in the Plagues of Egypt), which would swarm about Jacob's body. Alternatively, the Midrash suggested that it was so that Egyptians should not make Jacob an object of idolatrous worship. For just as idolaters will be punished, so will their idols too be punished, as Exodus 12:12 says, "And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments."
  Reading Genesis 47:29, "Bury me not, I pray, in Egypt", a Midrash explained that Jacob wanted his bones to be carried away from Egypt, lest Jacob's descendants remain there, arguing that Egypt must be a holy land, or Jacob would not have been buried there. The Midrash taught that Jacob also wanted his family quickly to rejoin him in the Land of Israel, as Jacob trusted God to fulfill God's promise in Malachi 3:24, "He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers." Alternatively, a Midrash taught that Jacob feared that when God afflicted the Egyptians with the Plagues, they would surround Jacob's sepulcher and beseech him to intercede for them. If he did intercede, he would be helping God's enemies. If he did not, he would cause God's Name to be profaned by the Egyptians, who would call Jacob's God inefficacious. Alternatively, a Midrash taught that God promised Jacob in Genesis 28:13, "The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed," (and this implied) that if Jacob lay in the land, it would be his, but if not, it would not be his.
  Alternatively, reading Genesis 47:29, "Bury me not, I pray, in Egypt", a Midrash explained that Psalm 26:9, "Gather not my soul with sinners," alludes to the Egyptians, with whom Jacob sought not to be buried. Similarly, the Gemara taught that Jews have a rule that a righteous person may not be buried near a wicked person.
  Reading Jacob's request in Genesis 47:30, "You shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying-place", the Jerusalem Talmud asked why Jacob went to such lengths, as Jacob would be Jacob wherever he was laid to rest. What would be lacking if he were buried elsewhere? Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish explained in the name of Bar Kappara that Israel is the land whose dead will be resurrected first in the Messianic era.
  Karna deduced from Genesis 47:30 that Jacob sought burial in Israel to ensure his resurrection. Karna reasoned that Jacob knew that he was an entirely righteous man, and that the dead outside Israel will also be resurrected, so Jacob must have troubled his sons to carry him to Canaan because he feared that he might be unworthy to travel through tunnels to the site of resurrection in Israel. Similarly, Rabbi Hanina explained that the same reason prompted Joseph to seek burial in Israel in Genesis 50:25.
  Rav Judah cited Genesis 47:30 to support the proposition that gravediggers must remove surrounding earth when they rebury a body. Rav Ju
caption: Jacob's funeral procession (illustration by Owen Jones from the 1869 The History of Joseph and His Brethren)
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