פָּרָשַׁת וַיְחִי

Parshat Vayechi closes Sefer Bereishit with the deaths of Yaakov and Yosef. Yaakov lives seventeen years in Mitzrayim, to the age of 147, and makes Yosef swear to bury him with his fathers in the land of Kenaan. When he falls ill, Yosef brings his sons, and Yaakov adopts Efrayim and Menashe as his own tribes, crosses his hands to put the younger Efrayim first, and blesses them with the blessing every Jewish father still gives his sons: may G-d make you like Efrayim and Menashe. He then gathers his twelve sons and blesses each according to who he is — Yehudah the lion from whom kingship will not depart, Yosef the fruitful bough, and the rest — and commands them to bury him in the cave of Machpelah. He is gathered to his people.

Yosef has his father embalmed, and Mitzrayim mourns him seventy days. With Pharaoh's leave, a great procession carries Yaakov up to Kenaan and buries him in Machpelah beside Avraham, Sarah, Yitzchak, Rivkah and Leah. The brothers, afraid of Yosef now that their father is gone, beg his forgiveness; he tells them not to fear, for what they meant for evil G-d meant for good, to keep many people alive. Yosef lives to 110 and makes the children of Yisrael swear to carry his bones up when G-d remembers them and brings them to the land He promised. He dies and is placed in a coffin in Mitzrayim. The book that began with the creation of the world ends with the family of Yisrael in exile, holding a promise. Chazak, chazak, venitchazek.