"I know, my son, I know."

Hebrew-

Service Prep:

1.     Rachok Karov (below)

2.    Ashrei Words

3.    Why are there words in grey on page 7?

4.    Interlude-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4k5YT2y64

5.    Krazy Kedusha-   

a.    https://images.shulcloud.com/4287/uploads/Ritual/ShabbatMinhah-Maariv-SiddurLevShalem-Vayikra-Final.pdf

 

 

 

c)    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3tXSX_ltDI

d)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOlUJ3yPdQI

e)    TEXT: GEN 48:  “I know my son, I know.” / Hamalach Hagoel Oti

g)    YELADIM:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X18n6c3C-Qs

 

h)   the blessings of Jacob.  CHAP 49:1-27

i)     THE CHIEF on VAyechi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dMILHy7x0Q

 

1.    This Thursday marks the 10^th of Tevet. What anniversary does the 10^th of Tevet mark?

a.    The birthday of Nebuchadnezzar, the tyrant who exiled the Jews after destroying Jerusalem 2,500 years ago.

b.   The beginning of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem  2,500 years ago.

c.    The day that the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Babylonians 2,500 years ago.

d.   The fall of the Babylonians to the Persian Empire 2,500 years ago.

e.    Dude’ it’s a modern holiday about the first meeting of Israel’s Kenesset in 1948.

 

 

2.    Okay, that’s a big deal. How is it NOT commemorated?

a.    With a Torah reading

b.   With fasting from sunrise to sunset 

c.    With saying Avinu Malkeinu

d.   We read a haftarah at Mincha.

e.    Dude, we do all of those. It’s a minor fast day.

 

 

3.    Okay, but what if I don’t care about The Temple or the past? What does  the 10^th of Tevet mean for a modern Jew today?

a.    It’s International Tikkun Olam Day.  Go help repair the world!

b.   It’s International Kaddish Day! We say kaddish for those who don’t have a known date of passing!

c.    It’s International Falafel Day.  Be sure to eat falafel in a pita!

d.   It’s International Bible Study day.  Jews and Christians come together to study Bible!

e.    It means nothing for a modern Jew, it’s just a day on the calendar.

 

 

4.    Which of these events happened, according to the Mishnah, on the minor fast of the 17th of Tammuz?

a.    An idol was built in the Temple before the Maccabean revolt

b.   The gates of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans

c.    Moses smashed the original Ten Commandments

d.   Cessation of daily sacrifices in the Temple

e.    All of these, dude- it was a tough day. 

 

5.    Which minor fast day is mentioned in the Torah?

a.    Seventeenth of Tammuz

b.   Tzom Gedaliah

c.    Tenth of Tevet

d.   All of these

e.    None of these

 

 

6.    Which of the following is a traditional custom associated with minor fast days?

a.    Giving an additional amount of tzedakah, or charity

b.   Not going to  work

c.    Staying up all night 

d.   Not wearing leather shoes

e. lighting a memorial candle

                              

     

 

 

7.    Which prophet was Gedaliah assigned to care for?

a.    Jeremiah

b.   Nebuchadnezzar

c.    Zedekiah

d.   Miriam

e.    Barry Cardenas of 8711 Kedvale St. in Skokie. 

 

 

 

8.    Most Conservative Jews don’t observe the minor fast days.  But that’s primarily because

a.    They don’t want to fast

b.   You can’t fast in the synagogue

c.    They don’t know about them

d.   The fasts are not egalitarian

e.    The Conservative movement made the fasts optional in 1977

 

 

9.    Which minor fast only applies to certain people?

a.    Tenth of Tevet

b.   Fast of the Firstborn

c.    Fast of Esther

d.   Yom Kippur

e.    Tisha B’av

 

 

10.                   How can a firstborn  get out of his obligation to fast on Erev Pesach?

a.    Attend a "siyyum," or conclusion, of a volume of Talmud being studied

b.   Sleep in past the time of Mincha

c.    Eat matzah for an extra day

d.   Give 10% of one’s monthly income to Tzedaka

e.    There is no getting out of it.

 

 

 

PARSHAT  VAYECHI:  BERESHEET/GENESIS CH. 48

 1 It happened after all these things, someone said to Yosef, "Come, your father is sick." He took with him his two sons, Menasheh and Efrayim. 2 Someone told Ya`akov, and said, "Behold, your son Yosef comes to you," and Yisrael strengthened himself, and sat up in the bed….

 8 Yisrael saw Yosef's sons, and said, "Who are these?" 9 Yosef said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them." 10 Now the eyes of Yisrael were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. 11 Yisrael said to Yosef, "I didn't think I would see your face again,  and look! God has let me see your children also." 12 Yosef brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the ground. 13 Yosef took them both, Efrayim in his right hand toward Yisrael's left hand, and Mena’sheh in his left hand toward Yisrael's right hand, and brought them near to him. 14 Yisrael stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Efrayim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Mena’sheh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Mena’sheh was the firstborn.

15 He blessed Yosef, saying, "The God before whom my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, 16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless these lads, and let my name be a part of them, and the name of my fathers Avraham and Yitzchak. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the land."

17 When Yosef saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Efrayim, it looked wrong to him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Efrayim's head to Mena’sheh's head. 18 Yosef said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." 19 His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a multitude of nations." 20 He blessed them that day, saying, "By you will Yisrael bless, saying, 'God make you as Efrayim and as Mena’sheh."

 

 

BERAYSHEET CH. 49 and 50

49

 

All these are the tribes of Israel, twelve,
and this is what their father spoke to them;
he blessed them,
according to what belonged to each as blessing, he blessed them.

And he charged them, saying to them:
“I am now about to be gathered to my kinspeople; bury me by my ancestors,
in the cave that is in the field of Efron the Hittite,

at the cave that is in the field of Makhpela,

 that faces Mamre, in the land of Canaan.
There they buried Avraham and Sara his wife,
there they buried Yitzhak and Rivka his wife,
there I buried Lea.”

Yaakov had finished charging his sons;
then he gathered up his feet onto the bed and expired,
and was gathered to his kinspeople.

 

Yosef flung himself on his father’s face;
he wept over him and kissed him.

Then Yosef charged his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father,
and the physicians embalmed Yisrael.

A full forty days were required for him,
for thus are fulfilled the days of embalming.
And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.

 

[When] the days of weeping for him had passed,
Yosef spoke to Pharaoh’s household, saying: 

“Pray, if I have found favor in your eyes:
My father had me swear, saying:
Here, I am dying—  in my burial-site which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan,  there you are to bury me!
So now, pray let me go up, bury my father, and return.”

Pharaoh said:
“Go up and bury your father, as he had you swear.”

So Yosef went up to bury his father;
and with him went up all of Pharaoh’s court-servants,
the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

all of Yosef’s household,
his brothers and his father’s household.
Only their little-ones, their sheep, and their oxen did they leave behind in the region of Goshen.

And along with him went up chariots as well, and horsemen as well—
the company was an exceedingly heavy one.

They came as far as Goren Ha-Atad/Bramble Threshing-Floor, which is in [the country] across the Jordan,  and he held mourning for his father, for seven days.

The settled-folk of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at Bramble Threshing-Floor,  and they said:
“This is such a heavy mourning/evel for Egypt!”
Therefore its name was called: Meadow/avel of Egypt,
which is in [the country] across the Jordan.

So his sons did thus for him, as he had charged them:

his sons carried him back to the land of Canaan
and buried him in the cave in the field of Makhpela.
 

Then Yosef returned to Egypt,
he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father,
after he had buried his father.

[When] Yosef’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said:
“What if Yosef holds-a-grudge against us and repays, yes, repays us for all the ill that we caused him!”

So they charged Yosef, saying:
“Your father charged before his death, saying:  Say this to Yosef:
Ah, pray forgive your brothers’ offense and their sin, that they caused you ill!
Now, pray forgive the offense of the servants of your father’s God!”
Yosef wept as they spoke to him.

And his brothers themselves came, they flung themselves down before him and said:
“Here we are, servants to you!”

But Yosef said to them:
“Do not be afraid! For am I in place of God?

Now you, you planned ill against me,
[but] God planned-it-over for good,
in order to do as [is] this day—
to keep many people alive.

So now, do not be afraid!
I myself will sustain you and your little-ones!”
And he comforted them and spoke to their hearts.

So Yosef stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household.
Yosef lived a hundred and ten years;

and Yosef saw from Efrayim sons of the third generation,
and also the sons of Makhir son of Menashe were born on Yosef’s knees.