The Words Left Unspoken

Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years. Jacob’s days, the years of his lifetime 147 years. [Genesis 47:28]

Sometimes, it pays to have a look at the original text.

In the Torah scroll, there are open and closed portions. The open portion begins with a separate line and the closed portion might start even on the same line as the previous portion.

But in the weekly portion of Vayechi, there is literally no separation between this and the previous portion Vayigash. In the Torah scroll, the last word of Vayigash is followed immediately and on the same line as Vayechi. This is as closed as it could get.

The Midrash addresses this, quoted by Rashi. “Why is this portion closed?” The first answer is that when Jacob died the eyes and ears of his children closed up, burdened by the bondage the Egyptians were imposing upon them.

The second reason is that Jacob wanted to reveal to his children the end of the exile and the arrival of the Messiah. But G-d did not let him. The patriarch simply could not recall.

Nearly 200 years after Rashi, Moses Ben Nachman, or the Ramban, addressed this same question. Writing in 13th Century Spain, called by some as the “Golden Era,” the Ramban says Jacob’s descent to Egypt marks the exile of today, the exile of “Rome, the causer of evil.” Jacob went to Egypt and did not return after the famine. Toward the end of the Second Temple nearly 1,000 years later, the Jewish kingdom invited Rome to the Land of Israel, and we have not gotten rid of them since. Most of the 100-year rule by the Hashmonaim, who controlled both the monarchy and the priesthood, was marked by division, corruption and oppression.

The Ramban’s words have reverberated throughout Jewish history. Nearly 400 years ago, the Jews of what is today Poland and Ukraine were stricken by poverty and hunger. Authorities denied the Jews rights and employment. One of the few available means of livelihood was to collect taxes from the peasants for the absentee Polish landlords. Others were given the option of lending money or operating taverns for their gentile neighbors. In 1648, the consequences of serving their gentile masters nearly annihilated the Jews. A former Polish cavalryman, Bogdan Chmielinski and his Cossacks led a revolt that ended up targeting the Jews even more than their Polish and Ukrainian oppressors.

Over the next five years, some 100,000 Jews were slaughtered, some of them skinned alive. The ally of the Cossacks, the Tartars, discovered that Jews equal money and sold tens of thousands as slaves to Turkey. When the Poles finally beat back the rebels, the Jews were accused of collaborating with Chmielinski This characterized the open-ended exile of Rome, when nobody is a friend of the Jews.

How does a minority survive in a hostile environment? Perhaps the best model has been the Amish, a splinter of the Mennonites who escaped persecution in Europe. Founded by Jakob Amman, the Amish arrived in the United States more than 300 years ago. The community was built on honesty, simplicity and separation from the outside world. The men wore beards and everybody covered their hair. Their faith was repeatedly challenged throughout American history when the Amish refused to send their children to war, public schools or even contribute or benefit from Social Security.

Still, despite numerous splits, the Amish community grew and today number more than 400,000, their population doubling every 20 years. While some young people chafed under the restrictive lifestyle the great majority remained loyal to the insular doctrine of the Amish faith. Amid the ultra-modern world, the Amish continue to reject electricity, telephones, automobiles and even the English language. They have suffered the indignities of being different but are largely left alone.

In America, as in Egypt thousands of years earlier, most of the Jews chose the path of assimilation. Their leadership rejected Jewish schools for those operated by the state. American values and tradition became their new religion, and universities their new temple. In the short run, this resulted in a prosperous community. By the 20th Century, such families as the Schiffs, Warburgs and Goldmans were among the richest in the United States. By 1950, there were nearly six million Jews in America.

That was the high point. From then, rampant intermarriage and a low birth rate resulted in shrinkage. Today, the number of committed Jews with a Jewish mother has dropped to as few as two million. That hasn’t lowered the community’s profile. As the last few years have shown, it is more dangerous than ever to be a Jew in the Land of the Free.

And that brings us back to Vayechi. When Jacob died his sons and grandchildren were sucked into Egyptian society and culture. Most of them didn’t know it, but their servitude to Pharoah and his empire had begun. The greater the assimilation the worse it became. This was the exile that Jacob wanted to warn his progeny against, but like this week’s Torah portion, their comprehension was blocked. It would take more than 200 years until somebody understood.