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This final portion of sefer Bereshit (the book of Genesis) begins 17 years after Jacob's arrival in Egypt, when he was 147 years old:

And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So
the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years. (Gen. 47:28)

Knowing that he was nearing his last days on earth, Jacob sent for Joseph and asked him take an oath that he would bury him in the cave of Machpelah (the burial place of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Leah) rather than in Egypt.

Sometime later, Joseph was told that Jacob was ill and went to visit him, bringing his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him.  Jacob then declared that the two boys would be counted as his own sons, as "Reuben and Simeon they shall be to me" (i.e., as Jacob's first two sons). By so doing, Joseph was given a "double portion" of blessing which effectively removed the status of the bechor (first-born) from Reuben.

Joseph thought that his father did not realize that the elder son was to his right, but Jacob reassured him that he knew what he was doing, and prophesied that though both sons would be great, Ephraim would be greater, and said v'zaro yihyeh melo-hagoyim ("his seed shall become a multitude of nations"). So he blessed them saying, "By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, yesimkha elohim k'efrayim v'khimnaseh ("God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh"), and thus put Ephraim before Manasseh.

Moreover, as the bechor of Israel, Joseph was given an extra portion in the Promised Land, namely, Jacob's hometown area of Shechem near Hebron (where Joseph's bones were eventually buried [see Joshua 24:32]).

Sensing his impending death, Jacob next called his sons to his bedside, and blessed each one (see Gen. 49:28). He also prophesied about each shevet (tribe) in acharit hayamim (the end of days).

Birchat Ya'akov (the blessings of Jacob) of the Shevatim (tribes)

After giving these parting words to his sons, Jacob then said he was about to die, and (again) commanded them that he was to be buried in the land of Canaan, in the cave of Machpelah that his grandfather Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite, and where he had buried Leah. When he finished with these final instructions, he died.

Joseph fell upon Jacob's face and wept, and then ordered the Egyptian physicians to embalm his father. The Egyptians mourned for Jacob for 70 days (Rashi states that upon Jacob's arrival in Egypt, the famine in Egypt ceased because of his merit, and this was the reason the Egyptians mourned his death).

With Pharaoh's permission, Joseph, along with his brothers and various dignitaries of Egypt, formed a funeral procession and returned to Canaan to bury Jacob in the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron. After the funeral, they returned to Egypt, but Joseph's brothers feared that he would now punish them for their former betrayal, and threw themselves on his mercy. Joseph reassured them, however, and promised to support them and their families in the days to come.

The parashah (and the book of Bereshit (Genesis)) ends with the account of the death of Joseph, who made the sons of Israel promise to take his bones with them when the LORD would bring them back to the land of Canaan (alluding to the great exodus to come).  Joseph's faith in the Jewish people's return to the Promised Land is summarized by his statement: pakod yifkod elohim etkhem (God will surely remember you).  He died at age 110, was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt, full of faith that he would be raised from the dead in the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Yasher Koach and Chazak! (said upon completing a book of the Torah)

Haftarah Reading Snapshot:

The Haftarah for parashat Vayechi is taken from the first book of Kings (chapter 2:1-12), which (according to Jewish tradition) was written by the prophet Jeremiah, who later witnessed the destruction the First Temple by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

The portion begins with the deathbed scene of King David, who at age 70 is aged beyond his years; his fire is nearly extinguished and nothing can warm him (1 Kings 1:1-4). King David then gave his son Solomon his final instructions (a blend of religious admonition with real politik) before he died.

First of all, Solomon was instructed to be strong in faith and keep the Torah of the LORD. The success of the throne of Israel depended upon this!  Then David proceeded to give Solomon specific instructions about various unfinished business, such as the execution of his nephew Joab (who had betrayed David by supporting Adonijah to be the next king of Israel); the pledge of care given to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite (who had supported David during the time of his persecution), and the execution of Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite relative of King Saul, who had cursed David for Saul's demise.

The Haftarah portion ends with the account of David's death and Solomon's ascension to the throne.

Brit Chadashah Snapshot:

The Brit Chadashah reading comes from 1 Peter 1:3-9, where the apostle encouraged us to walk in "living hope," that is, in the full assurance that God is going to ultimately do good to us in the future.  This is not an empty wish for good things to come, but is based on the resurrection life of Yeshua the Mashiach from the dead.

By God's power we are being "guarded through faith" for a salvation ready to be revealed in the acharit hayamim, even if at the present time we suffer afflictions on account of various trials and testings. Like a refiner's fire that is used to separate the impurities from precious metal, the purpose of such trials is to test our faith in order to purify our praise and yield honor and glory to the LORD. It takes the merciful fire of God to destroy the sin nature within our hearts.  For the believer in Yeshua the Mashiach, the furnace of affliction is always for refinement, never for destruction. "I the Lord do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob!"

Addendum:

Ephraim and Manasseh - אֶפְרַיִם וּמְנַשֶּׁה

When Joseph brought his two sons Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה) and Ephraim (אֶפְרָיִם) to his father for a blessing, Jacob told his grandchildren, "You will be counted just as my own children" (Jacob's "adoption" of these boys explains why Ephraim and Manasseh are counted among the twelve tribes of Israel).  Joseph then placed Manasseh, his firstborn, opposite Jacob's right hand, and Ephraim opposite his left, but Jacob deliberately crossed his arms and put his right hand on the younger boy's head and his left hand on the older. He then proceded to bless his adopted sons: "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my Shepherd (הָרעֶה) all my life long to this day, the Angel (הַמַּלְאָךְ) who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be recalled, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth..." (Gen. 48:15-16).

When Joseph saw this he was "displeased" and thought his father was perhaps confused. When he tried to forcibly switch his father's hands, Jacob said, "I know, my son, I know" (יָדַעְתִּי בְנִי יָדַעְתִּי). The younger brother shall become greater than the older one - zaro yeyeh melo hagoyim (זַרְעוֹ יִהְיֶה מְלֹא־הַגּוֹיִם) - "his seed shall become a multitude of nations." This statement has become foundational for the "Two House" theology that claims that Christians literally (rather than figuratively) are the ten lost tribes of Israel, though according to Jewish tradition, the greater blessing given to Ephraim was on behalf of Joshua, Moses' successor, who was a descendant of Ephraim that led the children of Israel into the Promised Land after the the Exodus from Egypt.  Joshua's command of the tribes of Israel initially made the tribe of Ephraim the centralized power in the land of Canaan.

The tribe of Ephraim is later identified with the "House of Joseph" in the Scriptures, and later geographically controlled the earliest centers of worship in the Promised Land: Shechem and Shiloh.  When the Ark was removed from Shiloh to Jerusalem during the time of King David, seeds of animosity were sown and Ephraim grew "jealous" of Judah's growing influence (2 Chron. 15:8-11). After the death of King Solomon, civil war caused the United Kingdom to be split into two main groups: the ten northern tribes (led by Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, who established rule at Shechem (1 Kings 12:25)), and the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin (led by Rehoboam, who ruled from Jerusalem).

Later on, the tribe of Ephraim so dominated the other northern tribes that it became synonymous with the Northern Kingdom of Israel itself, especially in the writings of the prophets.  Eventually, after repeated prophetic warnings about the prevalence of "Baal worship," the Northern Kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians (c 722 BC), and the tribes were exiled.  This has led to the idea of the "ten lost tribes" of Israel and the rise of various groups that have claimed that since Joseph's wife (Asenath) was an Egyptian (i.e., a Gentile), Ephraim metaphorically represents the "Gentile children of Israel." This viewpoint is now sometimes taught as the "Two House" movement, which uses the allegorical method of interpretation to (ironically) create a new form of "Replacement Theology"-- but this time in reverse (i.e., Israel replaces the Church). 

Note: On Shabbat (and during a Brit Milah ceremony) it's customary to bless our sons with the blessing: יְשִׂמְךָ אֱלהִים כְּאֶפְרַיִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה - ye'simcha Elohim ke'Efrayim ve'khe-Menasheh - "May God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh." This comes from Moses' comment regarding Jacob's blessing imparted to his adopted sons: "By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh'" (Gen. 48:20). Some of the sages have said that since these boys were born away from the Promised Land (and therefore never directly knew their grandfather Jacob), they represent Israel in exile, and the blessing is one of preservation for the Jewish people.  Figuratively, as "adopted sons of Israel" and partakers of the covenants given to the Jewish people (Eph. 3:6), Christians can take comfort using this blessing, too

Addendum:

No One Knows the Day or Hour...

When the time came for Jacob (Israel) to die, he called all his sons together. According to midrash, Jacob wanted to tell them about the "End of Days" (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים) when the Messiah would come, but was prevented by the Holy Spirit.  According to the Jewish sages, God prevented Jacob because He does not want anyone to know the "day or the hour" when the great King of Israel would appear...

Why not? Why wouldn't God want to tell his children the hour of the promised Messiah's appearance?  According to tradition, if people knew how long they would have to wait, they might despair of life altogether, or, if they knew the exact time, they might "repent" just for that reason, and not because it came from the heart...

On the other hand, as I mentioned yesterday, Jacob's prophecy regarding the coming of the Messiah as a future ruler from the tribe of Judah alluded to the timing of the Messiah's appearance.  To review, Jacob prophesied that "the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until 'Shiloh' (שִׁילוֹ) comes..." (Gen. 49:10). If the regency of Judah was established in the Jewish Sanhedrin, the scepter (rod of authority) would have departed from Judah in AD 6-7 after the Romans installed a procurator as the authority in Judea.  This prophecy, then, would have failed.   However, since the Messiah had indeed come and was in their midst as Yeshua mi-netzeret (Jesus of Nazareth) during this time, Jacob's prophecy didn't fail.

Nonetheless, like most prophecies in Scripture, this one has a "dual aspect" or "double fulfillment."  The "King of the Jews" (a synonym for the Messiah, called "Christ" by Gentile Christendom) had indeed come "before the scepter departed from Judah," but he went unrecognized since he came to fulfill the role of the Suffering Servant (Mashiach ben Yosef).  The second part of the prophecy, "and to him shall be the obedience of the people," is yet to be fulfilled. It will become a visible reality only after his Second Coming, at the end of olam ha-zeh (this present age), when Jesus comes to judge the nations (the "sheep and the goats") and establish the Kingdom of God from David's throne in Jerusalem.

Note: Jacob's prophecy that "the scepter will not depart from Judah... until Shiloh comes" includes all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet except for the letter Zayin, which is the Hebrew word for weapons, suggesting that when the Messiah comes, it will not be by means of arms or weapons, but rather by the ruach ha-kodesh.

There is an old story of the Magid of Brisk who each year would bring proof from the Torah that the Messiah would come that year. Once a certain Torah student asked him, "Rabbi, every year you bring proof from the Torah that the Messiah must come that year, and yet he does not come. Why bother doing this every year, if you see that Heaven ignores you?" The Magid replied, "The law states that if a son sees his father doing something improper, he is not permitted to humiliate him but must say to him, 'Father, the Torah states thus and so.' Therefore we must tell God, who is our Father, that by keeping us in long exile, he is, in a sense, causing injustice to us, and we must point out, "thus and so it is written in the Torah," in hope that this year he might redeem us." This same principle, of course, applies to those of us who are living in exile and who eagerly await the second coming of the Messiah Yeshua. We should continue asking God to send Him speedily, and in our day, chaverim...

Regarding the Messiah's Second Coming, we therefore find ourselves in the same position of expectation as Israel's sons who heard the original prophecy.  Though Jesus told us about the "signs" of the time (and the "fig tree has brought forth its leaves," see Matt. 24:32-33), we do not know the exact "day or the hour" and therefore must be ready for his return at any time (Matt. 24:36-25:13). The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." Maran ata, Yeshua!

Blessing:

based on the Torah portion

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