Vayechi: Openings and Closings Open closed open. Before we are born, everything is open in the universe without us. For as long as we live, everything is closed within us. And when we die, everything is open again. Open closed open. That’s all we are. – Yehuda Amichai
I.
The Beginning of the Closing
When we started Genesis, we started with ein sof (without end), the everything-ness, the “birth” of life from the soup of all that is and ever was. Now, as we move from Genesis to Exodus, we move from that birth (the epitome of openness) into exile, slavery and closed-ness. The text is very clear about this ominous direction, beginning with the graphic layout of the words in this section of Torah. As Vayechi begins, absolutely no lines separate it from the parsha before it – not even a minimum of nine spaces. Rashi therefore calls it “the most closed of all parshiot in the Torah.” (cited in Avivah Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire, 355). We are headed for a very narrow, blocked place.
II.
The Un-dissolved Bones
Jacob himself has a very striking moment around being “closed” in the parsha. With all his dying energy, he makes Joseph dramatically swear not to bury Jacob in Egypt – the land of exile. He wants to be buried with his father and grandfather in the land of Israel/Canaan.
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