How the dream will end – Vayyechi
Jacob blesses his sons on his deathbed (Figures de la Bible, 1728)
Jacob yearns to use his last breath to give them tell them what will happen in the future but God intervenes and stops him.
Should we be angry with God for preventing Jacob from revealing the future?
There are two opinions.
One says God was unfair and should have let the prophetic vision unroll.
We are entitled to know how things will work out. If the end will be good and joyful, what happens in the meantime will be tolerable and we will be able to bear any sacrifice or privation in the meantime.
On the other hand if we don’t know how things will work out we have no guarantee of eventual safety but will be constantly upheld by faith, hope and dreams.
Maybe that’s why Rav Moshe Feinstein comments at the end of Vayyetzei that protection by God’s angels is not just up to God. We have a share in the task.
If we serve God and man, our deeds become our protecting angels.
