Friday January 10, 2025/10 Tevet 5785
Parashat Vayechi
Hevre/Friends,
In this week’s final portion of the Book of Genesis, as Jacob nears death, he blesses his twelve sons together with two of his grandchildren, Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Menashe. The scene comes to life each Friday night as parents bless their children at the Shabbat table (or by Facetime for those of us who live at a distance from our kids) and when rabbis bless their students.
“May you be like Ephraim and Menashe” we say to males; “May you be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah”, we say to females. In addition to these two brothers and the matriarchs, there is another name invoked by some parents, including me, when blessing our children. After naming our ancestors, I bless my children with these words elegantly crafted by Marcia Falk: “Be whomever you will be, and may you be blessed in all you become.”
When Moses was tending his flock in Midian where he fled after killing an Egyptian, he noticed a bush burning continuously but not being consumed. What ensued was a conversation between Moses and God wherein Moses was charged with leading the Jews out of Egypt.
You may recall that he balked at the task, was not at all interested in the job, claiming not only his speech impediment but a lack of faith that the people would actually follow him to freedom. Eventually he relented and took the position. But before letting God go, Moses inquired: If the people ask who sent me, what should I say? In other words, what is your name, God?
And then comes one of the most fascinating lines in all of our sacred literature: God replied: ehyeh asher ehyeh. A totally enigmatic answer, filled with strange grammar and masked meaning. This is the first time God introduced godself to a person, and by extension to a people and to the world, and when asked for the divine name, God said (as it’s commonly translated) “I am what I am”. Seems a little less than inspiring or comforting. Even a bit aloof. Truth is, it’s not an accurate translation. Formulated as it is in future tense, a more loyal rendering is “I will be whom I will be”. Or, as Rabbi Larry Kushner translated it: I am not yet. I am becoming. I have the ability to imagine I might become other than what I am now. I am not yet.
The uniqueness of being human is our ability to grow, to develop, to be responsive to what happens to us and to those around us. To be changed by what and whom it is we encounter in life. To be alive is to be in a constant state of becoming. God, the ultimate Source of Life, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, is to be known as this very process.
The name “I will be whom I will be” is not just a name for God’s essence which we try to emulate as images of the Divine, but it is also a critical name by which we are known to one another. We join our lives together – as lovers, friends, relatives, even as communities, and especially as parents and children – not by promising to forever be exactly who we are at any specific moment in time. A relationship between two unchanging entities is lifeless. We come together in covenantal love, as did God and Moses and the people, promising exactly the opposite: to grow and evolve as a result of continued and loving engagement with one another.
We make the same pledge to our inner selves. Righteousness, being our best selves, is not finding the right answer to how and who to be and sticking with it come what may. Righteousness means having the wisdom to grow and change when life calls us to. Such is the blessing of the name ehyeh asher ehyeh, I will be whom I will be – a name, a relationship, a potential, a destiny we inherited as individuals and as a people; one that becomes our children’s each time we bless them with this powerful formula and summon them to balance the sacred task of honoring our collective past with living their personal truths as we together build our future.
As Shabbat approaches, consider sharing this beautiful blessing with those you love - be it a child of any age, a relative or friend. In our world filled with danger, darkness and disasters both natural and of our own making, we could all use a blessing, and we could use a reminder of our own capacity to be a source of blessing to others.
With ongoing prayers for the hostages and their families, the bereaved and the injured, for a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, and for the safety of those facing the raging wildfires in and around Los Angeles, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.
Dini
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