בראשית מו-נ: 'כל סוף הוא התחלה' - חתימת בראשית

The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man.

And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said: ‘Jacob, Jacob.’ And he said: ‘Here am I.’ And He said: ‘I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation.

And Joseph sustained his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to the want of their little ones. And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.

And the time drew near that Israel must die; and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him: ‘If now I have found favour in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. But when I sleep with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying-place.’ And he said: ‘I will do as thou hast said.’ And he said: ‘Swear unto me.’ And he swore unto him. And Israel bowed down upon the bed’s head.

Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph: ‘I had not thought to see thy face; and, lo, God hath let me see thy seed also.’

And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: ‘Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the end of days. Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, thou art my first-born, My might, and the first-fruits of my strength; The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, have not thou the excellency; Because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; Then defiledst thou it—he went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence their kinship. Let my soul not come into their council; Unto their assembly let my glory not be not united; For in their anger they slew men, And in their self-will they houghed oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce, And their wrath, for it was cruel; I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise; Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father’s sons shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, As long as men come to Shiloh; And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; He washeth his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes; His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, And he shall be a shore for ships, And his flank shall be upon Zidon. Issachar is a large-boned ass, Couching down between the sheep-folds. For he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under task-work Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, A horned snake in the path, That biteth the horse’s heels, So that his rider falleth backward. I wait for Thy salvation, O Lord. Gad, a troop shall troop upon him; But he shall troop upon their heel. As for Asher, his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose: He giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful vine, A fruitful vine by a fountain; Its branches run over the wall. . The archers have dealt bitterly with him, And shot at him, and hated him; But his bow abode firm, And the arms of his hands were made supple, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, From thence, from the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel, Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. The blessings of thy father Are mighty beyond the blessings of my progenitors Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of the prince among his brethren. Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth; In the morning he devoureth the prey, And at even he divideth the spoil.’ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is it that their father spoke unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them. And be charged them, and said unto them: ‘I am to be gathered unto my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.’ And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and expired, and was gathered unto his people.

96:3 "And Israel approached the time of dying" (Gen 47:29). It is written, "No one rules over the wind to restrain the wind, and there is no ruling over the day of death" (Eccles 8:8). Rabbi Yehoshua of Sichnin said in the name of Rabbi Levi: The trumpets which Moses made in the wilderness were hidden by the Holy One, who is blessed, when Moses neared death so that no one else would sound them while they were coming to him, as it is written, "Gather to me all the elders of your tribes" (Deut 31:28), in order to fulfill what is stated, "And there is no ruling over the day of death"....And so too when Jacob neared death he began to lower himself before Joseph and said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes" (Gen 47:29). When [did he say this]? As he was approaching death, as it is stated, "And Israel drew near to the time of dying" (ibid.).

And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said: ‘It may be that Joseph will hate us, and will fully requite us all the evil which we did unto him.’ And they sent a message unto Joseph, saying: ‘Thy father did command before he died, saying: So shall ye say unto Joseph: Forgive, I pray thee now, the transgression of thy brethren, and their sin, for that they did unto thee evil. And now, we pray thee, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of thy father.’ And Joseph wept when they spoke unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said: ‘Behold, we are thy bondmen.’ And Joseph said unto them: ‘Fear not; for am I in the place of God? And as for you, ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not; I will sustain you, and your little ones.’ And he comforted them, and spoke kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation; the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were born upon Joseph’s knees. And Joseph said unto his brethren: ‘I die; but God will surely remember you, and bring you up out of this land unto the land which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.’ And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying: ‘God will surely remember you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.’ So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Connected to the emphasis on the need to bolster one’s effort in prayer, the Gemara notes that the Sages taught in a baraita: Four things require bolstering, constant effort to improve, and they are: Torah, good deeds, prayer, and occupation.