Vayechi - ויחי : "And he lived"
Torah : Genesis 47:28-50:26
Haftarah : 1 Kings 2:1-12
Gospel : Matthew 26-28

Thought for the Week:

"But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." (Mark 12:26-27, quoting Exodus 3:6)

Commentary:

Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. (Genesis 47:29-30)

Jacob made his son Joseph swear that he would not bury him in Egypt, but that he would be carried to the land of Israel and buried with his fathers Abraham and Isaac in the Machpelah cave. Jacob's insistence on being buried in the family tomb back in the land of Canaan indicates that, even in death, he still believed in the Abrahamic promises. He believed the land of Canaan would one day belong to his children, a...