Periodically, when drinking from a paper cup, I catch myself lifting the cup up and down. I see my hand, my fingers grasping the cup's base. I hear the sound of the cup as it's set back upon the table. A simple act, a habit, and a forgotten image of my Papa comes blowing over me like a soft summer's breeze blowing in the nights long ago. I recall at this moment that my Papa, my maternal grandfather, used to do this same thing. While we sat in his apartment he would often drink from a paper cup and he would lift his cup up and down, over and over again.
My Papa and I had always been close but our relationship changed with my Nana's death. During Shiva I stayed with him. Each night during that summer week, we would go out onto the patio of his fourth story apartment. The apartment overlooked a large grassy area and faced east. The stars were bright, the moon was strong and night air was refreshing. It was particularly quiet out on the patio. We would sit outside until 1 or 2 in the morning.
The quiet of the patio was the most welcomed guest during the shiva period, for in it my Papa passed on to me a great inheritance. Amidst the quiet my Papa walked again through his life, he told me stories of his boyhood on the Westside of Denver, his days as a star athlete, his work in the city's sewage system during the Depression, from the early years of marriage to the hard work of caring for my Nana during her illness. He shared his feelings and concerns, hopes and regrets, all through the lens of life's experience. My Papa drew me close and I listened, like Jacob calling his sons toward him, in the Torah Portion, Vayechi. Jacob states, "Assemble yourselves and I will tell you what will befall you in the End of Days. Gather yourselves and listen, O sons of Jacob, and listen to Israel your father." (Genesis 49:1-2).
As a concerned father, Jacob gathers his sons together to reveal to them the details of their future. Would Jacob's sons survive the temptations within Egypt? Would later generations live in relationship with the God of Israel? Would his sons repeat the mistakes of their father and grandfather - mistakes of partiality, of sibling rivalry and of an unwillingness to accept through faith that someday all may be known?
Although Jacob tells his sons that he will reveal all that will befall them in the End of Days, we find in the Torah portion that in fact Jacob does not reveal the future. Bereshit Raba 98:2 teaches that the Shechina, the Immanent Presence of God, departs from Jacob so that he no longer knows the future. This text teaches us that not all knowledge can be imparted. While experiences can be shared and much can be told, ultimate knowledge must be achieved through one's own decisions and mistakes. We inherit many things from our loved ones; possessions, thoughts, beliefs, habits, character traits. Bereshit Raba further tells us that, according to Rabbi Pinchus, Jacob was as a god and thus our father's are like gods: as God creates worlds, so does your father create worlds; as God distributes worlds so does your father distribute worlds. The Midrash teaches through this interpretation that a parent, a respected elder, or a teacher, has the ability to create new worlds, to form new realities in the minds of younger generations. It is a great responsibility, a great honor, but it is not a final task. Knowledge must also be embraced and assimilated by the recipient of the teaching.
I refer to the Torah portion of Vayechi because I see it as a book end to our own Torah reading for this week, Parashat Masei. In Vayechi, Jacob's family is becoming a nation, as they separate into tribes. In Masei, we see Israel as a nation - an assembly of tribes - having lived as a nation through its wanderings toward freedom. Israel has fought through loss of faith, through doubt in its leadership and it has survived rebellion among its ranks. This nation has buried a generation of doubters while rearing up a new generation, prepared to enter into the land of its forefathers.
And yet I am struck by the conclusion of this reading. The Torah portion first recalls the 42 waypoints in Israel's wanderings. It then delineates the borders of the land promised it, provides details pertaining to the 48 cities set aside for the Levites, including the Cities of Refuge and concludes with the subject of tribal intermarriage and the concern that the inheritance of land by one tribe might pass to another tribe (see Numbers, chapter 36). These are the pragmatics of building a nation in a reclaimed land. Cities must be established and courts must be built. Structured life must begin.
But what cannot be forgotten, and seems to be in this Parasha, is the role of the individual, the role of each of us in building a nation, a community and a home. As in Vayechi, Jacob calls upon his sons to "assemble." But assembling is as a result of decisions made by individuals who agree to convene with one another for a specific purpose. And assembling in the instance of Jacob and his sons, or of me and my Papa, was to hear the wisdom of a life lived.
In our Torah reading, the fate of Israel resides in the behaviors and decisions of its citizens and leaders. Inheritance pertains not only to the physical possessions of one generation passed onto the next but, in regards to Israel as a nation of people, must also include the moral fiber that binds one to another. As Israel crosses over the Jordan River and begins to lay the foundation for a new society, Israel must not forget the lessons learned by generations long gone, or those taught by the mothers and fathers who died in exile.
Shabbat shalom.