{"id":45702,"date":"2018-12-14T15:40:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T13:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45702"},"modified":"2022-04-05T17:27:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T14:27:03","slug":"few-and-evil-have-my-days-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/few-and-evil-have-my-days-been\/","title":{"rendered":"Few and Evil Have My Days Been"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[490,368],"acf":{"old_id":"45702","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":36663,"related_cahpter":"1022","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Jacob lacks the clarity to see past the pain he has endured in his short and difficult life","content":"<p>Everything has been resolved. The son thought to be dead so many years lives.\u00a0He doesn\u2019t blame the brothers who sold him into servitude, assuring them \u201cdon\u2019t be sad or angry in your own sight\u201d (Genesis 45:5).\u00a0He has risen to power and tells his fearful brethren\u00a0that it is \u201cnot you who sent me here but God\u201d (45:8).<\/p>\n<p>But resolution is non-existent for the father who has been in mourning, his soul plunged into grief because of his missing son.\u00a0For him, the prophecy he could access easily in happier times has been unobtainable all those years for him, his anguish keeping him distant from understanding the God he had once been close to.<\/p>\n<p>Jacob lives, true. The verse tells us \u201cand the spirit of Jacob their father lived\u201c (45:27).\u00a0 A part of his life prior to the disappearance of Joseph returns to him when he resumes his glimpses of God in\u00a0\u201cvisions of the night\u201d (Genesis 46: 2) in Beersheva and is then called twice by God, \u201cJacob, Jacob\u201d a mark of divine affection accorded to Abraham, also, at the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22:11).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There seems to be a restoration at work to bring Jacob\u2019s life back to what it had been, with the resumption of Jacob\u2019s connection to the \u201c<em>ruach hakodesh<\/em>,\u201d divine spirit, that enabled him to prophesy according to the Torah Temimah (on 45:27) and the Shechina, the indwelling divine spirit herself, according to Rashi.\u00a0However, Jacob\u2019s life never resumes\u00a0the contours of the lives of his ancestors. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For Isaac and\u00a0Abraham, the difficult aspects of their existence become nullified by the passing of time.\u00a0Abraham is blessed by God with \u201ceverything\u201d in Genesis 24:1; at the end of his life, he is described as having \u201ca good old age, ripe and full of years\u201d (25:8).\u00a0Abraham\u2019s sons bury him together, united; the expulsion of one from the household and near sacrifice of the other deleted from the ultimate accounting.\u00a0Isaac\u00a0is described as \u201cold and full of years\u201d\u00a0at his death\u00a0(35:29); together finally, his sons Jacob and Esau lay him to rest.\u00a0The truncated blessing\u00a0of one and the years of absence from Canaan of the other, do not mar the fullness of the end of his life.<\/p>\n<p>Jacob is different, the bitterness of the years he believed his beloved Joseph dead remain.\u00a0When meeting Pharaoh and asked\u00a0about his life, Jacob\u2019s response is \u201cThe days of the years of my living are 130 years, few and evil have the days of the years of my life been and they did not attain the days of the years of the life of my fathers\u201d (Genesis 47:9). Based on this verse and others, the rabbis of the Talmud in Megillah 17a calculate that Jacob was 63 when he left his father\u2019s house, almost exactly half of his life was spent in that home environment rather than with Laban or in Egypt.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike his father Isaac who ended his life blind, Jacob has vision, even night vision, toward the end of his life.\u00a0Jacob lets Pharaoh know that he still lacks the clarity to see past the pain he has endured in his short and difficult life.\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":102798,"id":102798,"title":"-6228d5ef944ca--6228d5ef944ccgen25-age old elderly poor.jpg","filename":"6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-poverty-of-the-fathers\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":102797,"date":"2022-03-09 16:29:35","modified":"2023-07-19 05:24:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":834,"height":855,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-293x300.jpg","medium-width":293,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-768x787.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":787,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","large-width":834,"large-height":855,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":834,"1536x1536-height":855,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":834,"2048x2048-height":855,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":834,"post_full_size-height":855,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-410x420.jpg","home_baner-width":410,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Parashat Vayigash 5779","main_caption":"Few and Evil Have My Days Been","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Jacob lacks the clarity to see past the pain he has endured in his short and difficult life","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":102798,"id":102798,"title":"-6228d5ef944ca--6228d5ef944ccgen25-age old elderly poor.jpg","filename":"6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-poverty-of-the-fathers\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":102797,"date":"2022-03-09 16:29:35","modified":"2023-07-19 05:24:38","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":834,"height":855,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-293x300.jpg","medium-width":293,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-768x787.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":787,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","large-width":834,"large-height":855,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":834,"1536x1536-height":855,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":834,"2048x2048-height":855,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":834,"post_full_size-height":855,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/03\/6228d5ef944ca-6228d5ef944ccgen25-age-old-elderly-poor.jpg-410x420.jpg","home_baner-width":410,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45702"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45702"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103749,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45702\/revisions\/103749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}