Rabbi's Sermons

Shabbat Shalom,

This week's Parashah Vayechi, is the Parasha that seals the Book of Genesis. This is a Parasha of endings, summaries, and completions of paths. It completes the personal and family story in the Book of Genesis, in preparation for the sharp transition, next week, from this family extension, to a national and historical sphere.

During this first week of 2025, I received all kinds of commentaries regarding mystical predictions to take place this year, for the people of Israel, for this country and on an international level, especially regarding Iran, which, despite dubious agreements and sanctions, clearly continues on its path to develop nuclear power, according to them, for peaceful purposes. I am not sure if we shall believe them for the time being. “Rabbi! the war of Og and Magog is coming! What do you think?”. I don’t feel ready yet for the end of the world or “the end of days”, perhaps the coming of the Messiah, so I decided to explain how our faith relates to those, mystical topics, which are for many difficult to understand. How us, in a progressive movement can explain our approach to this complex issue, which in the end, I estimate no one is able to give a clear and satisfactory answer. First of all, God reminds us through every rainbow after rain, that the world will not be destroyed again, at least by a flood, although, this was a very specific promise, I wish God could have been more general, because if the world shall not be destroyed by a flood, perhaps Bore Olam, the Creator of the Universe, has some other ideas?. I really hope not, and in the end no one really knows God's will.

In this week's Parasha Vayechi, there are hints that seemingly reinforce the views of the mystics, because we find Yaacov’s blessings with which he blessed the children of Israel. At the beginning of chapter 49, it is written: "¹ And Yaacov called his sons and said, ‘Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in Acharit hayamim – the days to come’". The second hint is in the blessing that Yehudah received: "¹⁰ The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet; Ad she yavo Shilo - until he comes to Shiloh, and the homage of peoples be his". These two concepts, "Acharit hayamim – the days to come" and "Ad she yavo Shilo - until he comes to Shiloh", have created dozens of interpretations, many of them of mystical nature.

"Ad she yavo Shilo - until he comes to Shiloh", can be also read as “until Shiloh comes”. There are two ways to understand the structure of the verse: First the literal meaning: Rashi's commentary in Midrash Rava indicates: "No ruler’s staff will depart from Yehudah, meaning from King David onward… until Shiloh comes, meaning until the Messiah King whose kingdom is his". For Rashi, the word "Shiloh" refers to a "messiah", meaning that the leadership will never depart from the children of Yehudah, even during the destruction by the leaders of the exiles, until the coming of the Messiah, who is also from the children of King David. This is the most common interpretation. However, historically there is a conflict. We can understand that the leaders of the exiles were in fact, a continuation of a “government” or leadership directly from the house of King David, and thus Yaacov was not a false prophet, after all, tradition mentions that Hillel and Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi were descendants of King David!

But that would be consistent only for that period in the history of our people. After Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi’s death approximately 217ec, the institution of the “leaders of the exiles” did not continue to exist from a lineage of King David, so the leadership was separated from Yehuda and the Messiah, as we know, has not come yet... If so, this interpretation makes Yaacov as a false prophet, God forbid! So to clarify this, we must read another interpretation. The sages in the Midrash say: "Until Shiloh comes - this was Ahijah the Shilonite, who took the kingdom from the house of David and gave it to Jeroboam". According to this midrash, the verse indeed limited the period of the leadership of Yehuda, until the day when Ahijah the Shilonite, created a division into two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Yehuda and the Kingdom of Israel with ten tribes and Jeroboam, as the leader in Mount Ephraim, who established two centers: Bet El and Dan as direct competition for the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and even created a new holiday on the 15^th of Cheshvan. From here we understand that the concept "until Shiloh comes" does not necessarily refer to the time of the Messiah or the prophecies for the future, but to the person coming from Shiloh, events related to the past for us, but relative to Yaacov - it was in his future!

Regarding "Acharit hayamim – the days to come": The “end of days” is a collective name for prophecies about the end of humanity in various religions. Among Christians, this concept can be found in the book of the Apocalypse. In Judaism: in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, in the verses of the Bible about the war of Gog and Magog, or in the words of the sages about the coming of The Messiah.

The words “Acharit hayamim” actually appear in the Torah in several sources:

• In the book of Deuteronomy 4:30 (Moses to the people): "when you are in distress because all these things have befallen you and, BeAcharit hayamim – at the end of days, and return to and obey your God Adonai”.

• In the book of Deuteronomy 1:19 (Moses to the people): "For I know that, when I am dead, you will act wickedly and turn away from the path that I enjoined upon you, and that on BeAcharit hayamim end of days, misfortune will befall you for having done evil in the sight of Adonai".

• In the Book of Numbers 24:14 - “And now, as I go back to my people, let me inform you of what this people will do to your people BeAcharit hayamim in the end of days”.

Acharit hayamim seems to be a process that includes several stages: the war of Gog and Magog, the revelation of Elijah the prophet, the resurrection of the dead, the coming of the Messiah, and the world to come. Not necessarily in this order, as Maimonides explains: Kings Ch. 12 Halacha 4: “And in any case, the order of the occurrence of these things, nor their grammar, is the essence in religion”. In our verse, Rashi, following Chazal (the sages), explains about Yaacov: "He sought to reveal the end, and the Divine Presence departed from him, and he began to speak other things". Also in the Talmud Babel Pesachim 56a, Shimon ben Lakish said: "Yaacov sought to reveal to his sons the end of days, and the Divine Presence departed from him". In the Midrash Genesis Rava 98, it is told a story of "a parable about a person who loved the king, who was turning away from the world, and his sons were surrounding his bed. He said To them: ‘come and let me tell you a secret about the king’. He raised his eyes and looked at the king (above), and said to them: Be careful with the glory of a king’. Thus happened to our father Yaacov who raised his eyes and saw the Shchina – the Divine Presence standing over him, and said to them: ‘Be careful with the glory of God’".

Judaism does not believe in fortune telling. The prophets, unlike stargazers and coffee readers, prophesied so that those who heard them would turn from their actions, and the calamity they foretold would be avoided, which would not actually happen! Prophecies do not predict a specific future, but rather suggest a possibility, one possible option. For example, in the 2^nd Book of Kings Ch. 20, when Isaiah foretold to King Hezekiah that he would die, this was not "fortune telling". Indeed, when Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed, God answered his prayer and added fifteen years to his days. The prophecy from the prophet Jonah regarding the destruction of the city of Nineveh, was never fulfilled. Its inhabitants turned from their evil deeds and made Teshuva. Here too, with Yaacov's blessing about the "end of days", he did not necessarily predicted the future, but rather gave them a key to a good behavior that promised a better future.

The details of future events depend mainly on the behavior of the people. If we remember Yaacov's words: "Be careful of the glory of God" and we shall be rewarded with a happier future. All prophecies foreign to the Jewish people, start with the assumption that there is no other way except for the prophecy itself, and that we have no alternative but to wait for a certain date and pray for goodness. On the other hand, the message that the Bible brings on prophecies is clear, the text explains what MAY happen but not necessarily what WILL happen. The words of prophet Isaiah Ch. 4: "² And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation, they shall never again know war", will not be the exclusive work of the Messiah, when may eventually come, it is a call for us to action, it is a plan for the good of all humanity.

As progressive Jews, prophecies unequivocally a call to action. How shall we create a moment when "in that day there will be one God, and his name will be One"? Perhaps by passively waiting without a date or a target? Or perhaps by setting mystical dates by Kabbalah? or should we wait for the revelation from another people's calendar? I don't believe so.

This Kabalat Shabbat, the fast of the Tenth of Tevet just ended, a date when we remember the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem back on year 985bce. Let us remember prophet Zechariah’s words Ch. 8: “¹⁹ Thus said GOD of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth month, the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Yehudah; but you must love honesty and integrity”. “וְהָאֱמֶ֥ת וְהַשָּׁל֖וֹם אֱהָֽבוּ - We must love honesty and integrity”. Each of us is able to actively contribute, within our congregation and beyond, to be an active part of that plan, that prophecy, or that vision for a better era for the people of Israel and the entire world. May we turn the prophecy of the “end of days”, or the era of the Messiah, into a reality, because our future is not a mystery, it is in our hands, we just need to act for it.

Shabat Shalom!

Rabbi David Laor

January 10^th, 2025