And he Lived. Va’Yechi.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  For those of us living in a reality that ties itself to the Gregorian calendar, time to celebrate. Hurray 2020, the year that completely interrupted life's unconscious movement on this planet, and continues her disruption process. This is great news for anyone that has ever felt anxiety about where to go, what to do, or who to be with on New Year’s Eve, as the global response to the pandemic releases you from all unconscious social patterns.  It also gives everyone who would otherwise be at a fabulous party or perfect event, a year off too. If ever there was a clear message from the universe , it is this: go within, take stock, stay quiet, stay local, love the people in your household, love yourself, and mostly, take this time to pray and focus on the year, life, and world you want.

And if a global pandemic, or national lockdowns are not going to hinder your freedom of movement, at the very least invite yourself into the awareness of the stillness around and available to you, if only for a few moments of inner contemplation. 

I

Totally aligned with this week's Torah omens, this is a favorable time for closure, clarification and blessing. As fate would have it, the end of the year 2020 coincides with the ending of Bereshit (Genesis),  the origin story that takes us from the world's creation through three generations of fathers that pass on the blessing of absolute connection with all source energy to a single chosen heir. This week marks the death of Jacob, the third father, and his favorite son, Joseph. Their deaths, and the closure of this book, signify the transition from a dynasty carried by a single chosen son, to the consciousness of a chosen people. And if being 'chosen' is anything like the fate of Joseph, or the life of his father Jacob, (or the history of the 'chosen' people), we know being 'chosen' or blessed does not mean easy. This is an excellent time to consider what you feel 'chosen' for, and to better prepare for the challenges to come. 

This week's cycle, called Va'Yechi, meaning 'and he lived,'  offers a timely meditation for 2020's close, a year that brought with it a consciousness of death that we continue to feel as a global community, and a pause to our modern human way of life. The pandemic brought many repressed fears, angers, and feelings to the surface, and made us question, once again, our language, assumptions and place in the world.  Like Jacob at the end of his life cycle, who gathers his sons and blesses them in specific/mysterious ways that seem to correspond with their life choices, try gathering all your internal voices, everything quarantine brought up and find a unique blessing for each of those parts. Notice which parts correspond to which sons - Judah and Joseph get especially good blessings, while others like Reuven, Shimon, Levi, and the others get either modest or harsh adjustments.

Perhaps this is the inner message of “and he lived” - unless we are willing to reconcile the many parts and bless them, we have not truly lived. 

Questions to consider: 

Are there parts of yourself you love more than others? 

What does Jacob’s seeming favoritism bring up in you? 

Are there people in your family you love or respect more than others? 

How do you work with those preferences? 

Are there siblings in your family that are loved more than you? 

How do you manage those (often complicated) feelings?

Jacob himself experienced favoritism (by his mother) and simultaneously being second to his own father's love. Jacob in turn has a favorite wife and a favorite son. The former dies in childbirth, while the latter is sold into slavery.  ‘Chosen’ isn’t easy - and torah consciousness teaches us that ‘favorite’ can be a hard option- so why do we crave that special status so desperately? 

II

As you do this work, pull in another layer to your awareness that emerges in this week’s torah narrative - the re-emergence of the brotherhood wound. As soon as Joseph (and the brothers) follow through on the promise to bury their father in the resting place their great grandfather Abraham bought for his wife Sarah in Canaan, the brothers return with Joseph to Egypt and immediately fear Joseph's generosity will end. Even though peace was made - the perpetrators of the original crime (the brothers) can't let it go, they don't trust the peace, and they worry (once again) that Joseph will kill them, throwing themselves at his feet and begging for mercy.

This is an excellent time to go within and notice what parts in yourself can’t accept forgiveness or peace. 

Is there any personal or familial reconciliation that you are unable (consciously or not)  to allow to take root?

What will it take to be reassured of the healing?

When his brothers beg for mercy, Joseph emotes, as he did when he first tried to reassure them of his utter surrender to a divine unfolding. Is that a reassurance you can offer to those doubts within yourself or people in your world?

Is there any part of you that doesn't trust the peace? That can't believe it is forgiven? That is still waiting for the other shoe to drop? 

III

The chapters and the entire book close with Joseph's death- leaving the brothers in Egypt with the blessing to find their way back to their land and instructions to take their brother’s bones with them. 

Do you know the place where you want to find your ultimate rest? 

Are you on that land? 

Do you know where it is? 

Is it a physical place or is it a psychic place? Do you value and connect spiritually to the land upon which you live?

IV

This final contemplation was added by the unshakable feminist part of myself that can’t notice an utter absence of women without feeling left out. And so I ask, where was Dina, Jacob’s only daughter’s blessing? And how does that absence appear in our own lives?

Just a few questions to start you off… feel free to email for more — or share your New Year/ Va’Yechi insights in the comments below.

Wishing everyone Happy New Year!

and a Shabbat Shalom!