Prophecy is only given to those with “broken heart”. And Jacob had all those years in Egypt lived “with a broken heart.” Thus says Rabbi Richman in the current commentary, watch below. In the Parasha of last week we read about the “Broken Hearts” of father and son. Since one (the church) once had tried to kill me in this way, I have – but only today – something to contribute to the theme about the killing by “not seeing the son“: “And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father: for if he should leave his father, his father would die (Genesis 44,22). ”

But last week it was not so much considering the father Jacob, but more the feelings of his son Joseph (or my Son’s Patric Steven). After Joseph had made himself known unto his brethren, he (45,2) “wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.” So I will now only be able to cry, 14 years after the church took me my son. For only a year ago, a Jew had the courage to call me from Israel and to call me ultimately to leave the church and to be a Jew. What a prophet! He has given me life again. Today I’m going to cry so terrible like Joseph, but out of gratitude for my salvation by a Jew, and probably will not even go to the synagogue.

Then Josef had anxiously asked his brothers: “Does my father yet live?” Although he knew that his father was still – physically – alive. But the question was rather whether he was still the same, or a broken man?

“And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” … What for, see in next verse >

It is vitally important that every believer in the ONE God knows the prophecy, he actually has “been blessed” in! To this blessing of the family of Israel, every brother, all 12 tribes, is now referring the Parasha Vayechi:

In this manner I can now bless my son – from the very distance into the width of God’s prophecies!

Shabbat Shalom
Eric Martienssen

Commentary by Michael Schneider,
israel today, Jerusalem:
Jacob begins his walk with God which was not so easy at the beginning, thus the emphasis is on “And he departed.” He left for a foreign country and place called Haran – far away from his father’s house. It was important that God reassured him of the promise: “…Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go…” (28:13-15). This time it was revealed personally to Jacob through a dream of a ladder connecting heaven and earth and angels of God ascending and descending. It was Jacob’s first personal prayer with the God of his fathers. He said: “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Jacob called the place “House of God,” in Hebrew Beth-El, from here the gates of Heaven were open. At this place, Jacob made a covenant with God: “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey…” he will give Him a tenth of his riches. This became the secret of Jacob’s success!

Again we find in chapter 29 the first meeting of a future wife at a well. He fell in love with his cousin, Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban, a shepherd just as he was! This time it was one of Abraham’s clan (Jacob) who watered the animals of Laban’s flock, as Rebekah had done for Abraham’s servant before. We read that “Laban ran toward Jacob” (29:13) – was he expecting more gifts like Eliezer did?

The ways of the LORD are indescribably wonderful. What was Laban’s deceit? He gave him his older daughter to marry after he had promised the younger, Rachel. That should have reminded Jacob of how he deceived his half-blind father Isaac. The older sister and his first wife, Leah, had “weak eyes” (29:17). As Jacob, enraged and disappointed, reacted to the deceit, Laban said: “…It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn.” (29:25-26) Immediately Jacob found himself on the other side of deceit, as he had done to his father, reaping what he sowed! That’s how God work.

Jacob worked another seven years for Rachel. We read: “…and they (the years) seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.” (29:20) Now Jacob had two wives and he loved one and hated the other. That’s why the New Testament later recommends, like in 1 Tim. 3:2, to take one wife. God saw the discrimination of man and decided to close Rachel’s womb, the loved one, and open the womb of Leah, the hated one. It was the same with the two wives of Elkanah in 1 Samuel. God is just and merciful.

With her first three sons, Leah tried to win Jacob’s heart (29:32). Rachel adopted the solution of Sarah, Abraham’s wife who gave her handmaid Hagar to her husband. She gave her maid to Jacob so that “she may bear on her knees” (30:3). Eventually “God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb.” Yes, God remembers, hear and act! After the birth of Joseph, Jacob wanted to return to “his place.” And Laban realized “that the LORD has blessed him on Jacob’s account.” (30:27) May it be a clue for gentiles toward the Jews!

Shabbat Shalom