Vayachi 2009

It took me a long time to decide to apply to Rabbinical School. I considered it for many years. One of the things that held me back was that I wasn’t sure whether or not I was nice enough to be a rabbi. Another thing I wondered was whether I was enough of an optimist to be a rabbi. Because it seemed to me that to be a religious person, you kind of have to be an optimist.

I have always been distrustful of both optimism and pessimism. There is a story about an optimist and a pessimist who decide to go skydiving. Just before the pessimist jumped out of the plane, the instructor stopped him. “Wait a minute,” he said. “You’re not wearing a parachute!” The pessimist shrugged. “Ah, why bother? Those things never work anyway.”

Then  it was the optimist’s turn. The instructor stopped him too. “Hey, you’re not wearing a parachute either!” “Oh that’s okay,” said the optimist, “I’ll just borrow one on the way down.”

Does one need to be an optimist to be religious? Some of my friends who are not religious say that the world is a cold, hard place, without meaning or reason, and like our lives it will begin in darkness and will end in darkness. They say that religion was invented by people who were afraid to face the bitter truth, who wanted to fool themselves into thinking that everything was going to be okay. The idea that the world has meaning, they say, is misplaced optimism.

The book of Genesis ends this week with parasha Vayichi.The word Vayachi means ‘he lived.’ However, the parasha is mostly about death. The death of Jacob, the last patriarch, and then the death of his son Joseph. Is this a good ending? Or a bad ending?

The book of Kohelet (7:1) says the day of death is better than the day of birth. Now there’s an optimistic book for you. But it means that when a baby is born, one doesn’t know what will happen to her. Will she be rich? Poor? Happy? Miserable? Will she be born in a time of tragedy and upheaval? Will she go hungry? Will she have a loving home?

When a person dies, he has come safely to his rest. All of his worries and troubles are over. There will be no more pain. This is predicated on whether the death is a good death or a bad death. 

Jacob has a good death. He dies surrounded by his sons, even Simeon, whom he thought was lost to him, even Joseph, his favorite, whom he thought was dead. Surrounded by at least twelve of his children, Jacob gets one last chance to tell them what’s what. Part blessing, part prophecy, part piece of his mind, he talks to each of his twelve sons and then dies. He also has many grandchildren, his sons have become good people, and at least one of his sons has made it big in politics. Jacob dies at an extremely old age, and the entire nation of Egypt mourned him for almost as long as the Pharoah. Who could ask for anything more.?

Yet Jacob does ask for one thing more. He makes Joseph swear to take him back to the land of Canaan, to the Cave of Machpelah that Jacob’s grandfather Abraham bought in which to bury his wife Sarah. It is a long, hard trip, but all of the brothers go.

Joseph also has a good death. He lives long enough to see his great grandchildren, and, like his father, he sees his death approaching and it does not frighten him.

So perhaps the story is pessimistic because it ends with two deaths. Or perhaps it is optimistic because it ends with two good deaths. After all, every real story, if it can be said to end at all, ends with a death. 

But the book of Genesis actually finishes on an ominous note. The last verse is וַיָּמָת יוֹסֵף בֶּן־מֵאָה וָעֶשֶׂר שָׁנִים וַיַּחַנְטוּ אֹתוֹ וַיִּישֶׂם בָּאָרוֹן בְּמִצְרָיִם Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. 

The last word, in Egypt, seems unnecessary. We know he was in Egypt. Why is that word there? It is a connection to the next book, Exodus, but for Jews, that word בְּמִצְרָיִם has overtones of slavery and oppression. 

When Jacob died, the  Egyptians loved Joseph so much that they mourned his father as if he was a national hero. When Joseph himself died, we don’t hear about any mourning. Was the great love of the Egyptians for the Jews already fading? There is a hint of oppression and tragedy to come.

And yet. 

There a hint behind the hint. An optimism behind the pessimism. Before he dies, Joseph tells his brothers “Gd will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.”

Joseph makes his brothers swear to bring his bones back to the promised land when Gd takes notice of them. Why doesn’t he ask them to take his body when he dies, as his father did? One of two possible reasons: It could be that it has already become difficult for Jews to get permission to leave Egypt. 

The other possibility is that Joseph foresaw the slavery that would befall his people, but also their redemption. Perhaps he chose to remain in Egypt as a promise. As a sign of his certainty that Gd would someday rescue them. Perhaps it was a sign of his optimism.

The prophet ירמיה, Jeremiah, prophesied that the Babylonian Empire would conquer the Land of Judah, and destroy the Holy Temple. But he also prophesied that the Jews would return, and the Temple would be rebuilt. With the Babylonians on the march, Jeremiah bought a field from his cousin, and put aside the deed for when the land would be restored. ירמיה was an optimist.

And I do think that religion is optimistic. Because the story does not end with Genesis, it goes on to be a story of redemption. Joseph is right when he says that Gd will take notice of you. And the story goes beyond expectations to Mount Sinai. Not only will we be redeemed, but a new covenant will be written. That doesn’t mean that everything will go smoothly from that time on, but we will get to the promised land.

That is a message that we have to bring into our lives today. Because religion is optimistic. Yes, the country is in terrible shape financially. Yes, there is violence in the Middle East. Yes, we have personal illnesses and tragedies. But we say that it is not meaningless. What we do and what happens to us matters. We are part of a story, and the story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The hint behind the hint is that the ending is a happy one.

The book of Genesis ends, but it is not the end. The financial crisis will end, and so will the violence in Gaza. Our lives too will end, but that will not be the end. 

How do I know? Call me an optimist.