page_title: Vaychi
section_title: Modern
hierarchical_section_title: Vaychi / Further reading / Modern
caption_attribution_description: English: en:Samuel David Luzzatto ("Shadal"), d.1865
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: Isaac Abarbanel. Commentary on the Torah. Italy, between 1492–1509. In, e.g., Abarbanel: Selected Commentaries on the Torah: Volume 1: Bereishis/Genesis. Translated and annotated by Israel Lazar, pages 397–421. Brooklyn: CreateSpace, 2015. ISBN 978-1507686164.
  Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno. Commentary on the Torah. Venice, 1567. In, e.g., Sforno: Commentary on the Torah. Translation and explanatory notes by Raphael Pelcovitz, pages 256–77. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. ISBN 0-89906-268-7.
  Moshe Alshich. Commentary on the Torah. Safed, circa 1593. In, e.g., Moshe Alshich. Midrash of Rabbi Moshe Alshich on the Torah. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 312–35. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2000. ISBN 965-7108-13-6.
  Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Commentaries on the Torah. Cracow, Poland, mid 17th century. Compiled as Chanukat HaTorah. Edited by Chanoch Henoch Erzohn. Piotrkow, Poland, 1900. In Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Chanukas HaTorah: Mystical Insights of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel on Chumash. Translated by Avraham Peretz Friedman, pages 106–13. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1-56871-303-7.
  Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, 3:42. England, 1651. Reprint edited by C. B. Macpherson, page 572. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Classics, 1982. ISBN 0-14-043195-0.
  Chaim ibn Attar. Ohr ha-Chaim. Venice, 1742. In Chayim ben Attar. Or Hachayim: Commentary on the Torah. Translated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 383–440. Brooklyn: Lambda Publishers, 1999. ISBN 965-7108-12-8.
  George Eliot. Adam Bede, chapters 3, 8, 30. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859. Reprinted, e.g., edited by Carol A. Martin, pages 33, 84, 296. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (Dinah calls Seth Bede's home country “this land of Goshen you’ve been used to.” Dinah says: “Adam [Bede] is like the patriarch Joseph, for his great skill and knowledge, and the kindness he shows to his brother and his parents.” And again Dinah writes Seth about Adam: “God has given him great gifts, and he uses them as the patriarch Joseph did, who, when he was exalted to a place of power and trust, yet yearned with tenderness towards his parent and his younger brother.”).
  Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). Commentary on the Torah. Padua, 1871. In, e.g., Samuel David Luzzatto. Torah Commentary. Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 2, pages 451–504. New York: Lambda Publishers, 2012. ISBN 978-965-524-067-2.
  Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter. Sefat Emet. Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, before 1906. Excerpted in The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet. Translated and interpreted by Arthur Green, pages 73–78. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. ISBN 0-8276-0650-8. Reprinted 2012. ISBN 0-8276-0946-9.
  Hermann Cohen. Religion of Reason: Out of the Sources of Judaism. Translated with an introduction by Simon Kaplan; introductory essays by Leo Strauss, page 405. New York: Ungar, 1972. Reprinted Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. ISBN 0-7885-0102-X. Originally published as Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums. Leipzig: Gustav Fock, 1919.
  Abraham Isaac Kook. The Lights of Penitence, 16:1. 1925. In Abraham Isaac Kook: the Lights of Penitence, the Moral Principles, Lights of Holiness, Essays, Letters, and Poems. Translated by Ben-Zion Bokser, page 119. Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press 1978. ISBN 0-8091-2159-X.
  Alexander Alan Steinbach. Sabbath Queen: Fifty-four Bible Talks to the Young Based on Each Portion of the Pentateuch, pages 36–38. New York: Behrman's Jewish Book House, 1936.
  Irving Fineman. Jacob, An Autobiographical Novel. New York: Random House, 1941.
  Thomas Mann. Joseph and His Brothers. Translated by John E. Woods, pages 53, 102–03, 257, 306, 314, 396, 401, 407, 448–49, 456, 458, 463, 485, 493, 503, 541–42, 547, 568–69, 663, 668, 672, 717–18, 722, 758, 788, 792–94, 796–97, 803–04, 852–53, 859, 878, 881, 886, 923, 1447–92. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1-4000-4001-9. Originally published as Joseph und seine Brüder. Stockholm: Bermann-Fischer Verlag, 1943.
  John M. Allegro. "A 
caption: Samuel David Luzzatto
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