• Yaakov asks for burial in the Land of Israel (47:28-31)
  Yaacov lived 147 years—the last seventeen in Mitzaim.
  He called for Yosef to promise that he would be taken back to the Land of Israel for burial at Machpelah.
  Yosef swears he will do this.

• Yaakov blesses Ephraim and Menashe (48:1-22)
  Yosef brings Ephraim and Menashe to Yaakov to bless.
  Yaakov does not recognize them at first.
  Yaakov crosses his hands, putting his right hand on Ephraim and left on Menashe.
  When Yosef tries to correct him, he says the younger will be greater.

• Yaakov blesses his sons (49:1-27)

  Blessing of Yaakov	Blessing of Moshe
  Reuven, you are my first-born, my strength and the first of my acquisitions, privileged in rank and privileged in power. But instability like water does not permit this privilege, for you have mounted your father's couch; thus you prfaned the one who mounted my couch. --Bereshith 49:3-4	So Reuven, too, will live; he shall not go under, and let his common ones always be numbered. --Dvarim 33:6
  Shimon and Levi are brothers, instruments of violence are their means of acquiring gain. My will must not enter into their council, my glory must not join in their assembly, for in their anger they murdered men, and they had previously lamed their ox-like strength with their friendliness. A curse, therefore, upon their anger, for it is too fierce, and their outrage, because it was too cruel. I will divide them in Yaakov and scatter them in Yisrael. --Bereshith 49:5-7
  Shimon and Levi are brothers, instruments of violence are their means of acquiring gain. My will must not enter into their council, my glory must not join in their assembly, for in their anger they murdered men, and they had previously lamed their ox-like strength with their friendliness. A curse, therefore, upon their anger, for it is too fierce, and their outrage, because it was too cruel. I will divide them in Yaakov and scatter them in Yisrael. --Bereshith 49:5-7	Thy Thummim and Thy Urim go to the man who devotes himself to Thee, whom Thou hast tested repeatedly, and with whom Thou didst dispute at the water of contention; he who says of his father and mother: "I have not seen him," who did not recognize his brothers, who was not conscious of his children; for they have guarded Thy promise, and they now watch over Thy ordinances of Yaakov and Thy Teaching to Israel; they place incense for Thy perception and whole offerings upon Thy altar. Bless, O Gd, his substance and accept with favor the achievement of his hands; smash Thou the loins of those that rise up against him, so that those that hate him may not rise in opposition. --Dvarim 33:8-11
  Yehudah, you are the one; to you will your brothers do homage! Your hand will sit upon the neck of your enemies. To you the sons of your father will bow. Yehudah is a young, old lion; you are above base plunder, my son. He kneels down, he also rests like a lion, and who would rouse him to become a lion in full fury? The scepter will not depart from Yehudah nor the law-inscribing stylus from between his feet, until his sprout, seemingly the last, and weak, will come, and then it will be to him, the one of manly strength, that the nations, dulled with age, will fall. He ties his foal to the grapevine, the son of his she-donkey to the choice vine-branch; he has bathed his garment in wine and his mantle in the blood of grapes. Eyes more sparkling than wine, teeth whiter than milk-- --Bereshith 49:8-13	Hear, O Gd, the voice of Yehudah and bring him to his people, for with His might does he fight for them. Mayest Thou be a help against his enemies. --Dvarim 33:7
  Zevulun will dwell at a bay of seas; he himself will become a harbor for ships, and his outermost border shall reach Tzidon. --Bereshith 49:13	Rejoice, O Zevulun, when you go out, and Yissakhar, you in your tents! They summon peoples to the mountain; there they will learn to make offerings of righteousness. For they suck the abundance of the seas and what is hidden in the secret treasures of the sand. --Dvarim 33:18-19
  Yissakhar, a nimble beast of burden, rests between the rows of household vessels. He has seen that leisure is the good thing and the land is suited for it; he has therefore bent his shoulder to bear and has given himself to the tribute of the tiller of the soil. --Bereshith 49:14-15	Rejoice, O Zevulun, when you go out, and Yissakhar, you in your tents! They summon peoples to the mountain; there they will learn to make offerings of righteousness. For they suck the abundance of the seas and what is hidden in the secret treasures of the sand. --Dvarim 33:18-19
  Dan will champion the right of his people, as only one of the tribes of Yisrael. Dan will become a serpent on the highway, a viper on the path, which bits the charger's heel so that the rider falls backward. For Thy help do I hope, O Gd! --Bereshith 49:16-18	Dan a young lion, leaping far afield from Bashan. --Dvarim 33:22
  Gad, many a troop will drive into him like a wedge, but he will drive like a wedge into their heel. --Bereshith 49:19	Blessed be He Who granted space to Gad! Now he reposes there like a lion and has already overpowered the arm and the crown of the head. He saw a beginning for himself, for there lies also the portion of the lawgiver, of him who remains concealed. He came to the head of the people, accomplished the beneficence of Gd and His righteous decrees with Yisrael. --Dvarim 33:20-21
  Through Asher his food will become rich, and he will yield royal delights. --Bereshith 49:20	Blessed of sons Asher; He shall be the desired of his brother and dip his foot in oil. Iron and copper will be your closure and your loss of strength will accord with your days. --Dvarim 33:24-25
  Naphtali, a gazelle-like messenger, delivers eloquent speeches. --Bereshith 49:21	But as for Naphtali--his wishes well satisfied and full of Gd's blessing--he inherits the west and the south. --Dvarim 33:23
  Yosef was a noble, outstanding son, already at the source. Daughters! She, too, strode over the wall! When, therefore, heaped bitter abuse upon him and plotted enmity, when, with deep hatred, the masters of the arrows chose him as their target, his bow, nevertheless, remained serenely at rest, even when the arms of his hands were already gold-bedecked by the hands of the Power that uplifts Yaakov, which from thence shepherds the rock of Yisrael. This was from the Gd of your father, Who will continue to help you; you will remain with the All-Sufficing, Who will continue to bless you, with blessings of heaven from above, with blessings of the flood that lies below; with blessings of breasts and of the womb. These are the blessings of your father, which themselves attained strength only by reason of the blessings of my progenitors, up to that goal toward which the hills of the ages strive; they will fall upon the head of Yosef, fall upon the crown of the head of the most restrained among his brothers. --Bereshith 49:22-26	Blessed by Gd be his land, with the fruit of the heaven, with dew and with floods that rest far below; with fruit dispensed by the sun and with the fruit driven forth by the months; with the summit of the primeval mountains and with the fruit of the hills eternal; with the fruit of the earth and its abundance and, at the same time, with the favor of the One Who took up abode in the thornbush for me--O that it may thus come to rest upon Yosef's head, upon the crown of the most abstinent of his brothers. Glory will come to the firstling of his bull, and the horns of re'em are his horns; with them will he push the peoples together unto the end of the earth; and these, the ten thousands of Ephraim; and these, the thousands of Menashe. --Dvarim 33:13-17
  Binyamin will tear the wolf to pieces; he will eat a portion in the morning, but in the evening he will divide it as spoil. --Bereshith 49:27	Beloved of Gd, he rests securely with Him. He caused His covering to rest upon him at all times and takes up His abode between his high places. --Dvarim 33:12

• Yaakov’s last words to his sons (49:28-33)
  Yaakov says to his sons that he wants to be buried at Machpelah, recounting the buying of the field and cave by Avraham.

• Yaakov’s death and burial (50:1-14)
  Yosef throws himself over Yaakov and kisses him when he dies.
  Yosef commands that Yaakov be embalmed, which takes forty days.
  The brothers and Egyptians go up to bury Yaakov.

• The brother’s message to Yosef (50:15-21)
  The brothers worry that after Yaakov’s death Yosef will seek revenge, so they send him a message that Yaakov had instructed that he forgive them for selling him.
  Yosef assures them that he does not hold hard feelings toward them.

• Yosef’s death (50:22-26)
  Yosef is the first of the brothers to die, at age 110, and requires a vow from the brothers that they will take his bones back to the Land of Israel.

Shabbat shalom,
Miriam Ben-Yaacov

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