Vayechi: Past Tense

 The title of the parsha is in the past tense. Jacob is still alive, but he is dealing with actions that will occur after he dies: his funeral arrangements, final words to his sons and (some of his) grandsons. 

Jacob makes it clear to Joseph that he does not want to be buried in Egypt; and he very much wants to be buried in Canaan, near Abraham and Isaac. Jacob, the patriarch who does not have any rejected offspring - no Esau, no Ishmael - must be interred in the Promised Land.  He is asserting his link in the lineage associated with Gd of One. Were he buried in Egypt, his legacy would be subsumed into another heritage, not necessarily that of Egypt, but a story that  is dissociated from the literal meaning of Gd's promise. Jacob might have initiated a tradition of burial at the place of prosperity.

The parsha ends with Joseph’s request for re-internment in the Promised Land. Had Jacob not insisted on burial in Canaan, I doubt that Joseph would have made that request.  Joseph could not ask for immediate transfer to Canaan after his death. He did not leave behind a descendant or relative that could wield power equal to his own, able to organize a caravan across the Sinai desert. Joseph was a symbol for Egypt, and  his story had to be kept Egyptian.  The triumph over world hunger was an Egyptian victory  and the mummified body of the  leader of that effort , the V.I. Lenin of Egypt, had to stay there...until his clan claimed him back in the great slave rebellion; the liberation foretold to Abraham and trusted by Joseph. 

When Jacob declined, Joseph brought his sons to their grandfather. Jacob said that he wanted to bless Joseph's sons.  This was also a  bequest to  Joseph. Each of his sons was validated as a tribe onto itself; thus Joseph was given the double portion that is the birthright of the firstborn. Jacob's complex family dynamic is at work: was Rachel the true wife, making her first son, Joseph, the first born? Had the other 10 brothers forfeited their claim of equality to Joseph by their callous behavior to him? Did Joseph earn the right of the firstborn by feeding his brothers  in a manner analogous to Jacob's purchase from Esau for a meal of lentils?

Joseph brings his sons forward, and Jacob asks: Who are these?

וַיַּ֥רְא יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יוֹסֵ֑ף וַיֹּ֖אמֶר מִי־אֵֽלֶּה׃ 

Noticing Joseph’s sons, Israel asked, “Who are these?”

The youngsters he sees are not immediately recognizable as Joseph's Israelite sons, despite the context. Ephraim and Menashe probably looked and dressed and, perhaps behaved,  Egyptian. Joseph identifies them as the sons that Gd have given him "in this." They were Egyptian by culture, but there is a recognition of Gd's involvement in them. Jacob blesses them. He confers the greater blessing upon the younger, violating tradition and  the wishes of Joseph, but true to his form.

My parents are buried in Israel.  Their parents, my grandparents are  buried in unmarked mass graves in Poland. The previous generation is in Jewish graveyards in Poland where the tombstones have been repurposed as cobblestones for roads. I think that if my grandfather had been allowed to grow old, and I were brought before him as youth, he would asked: What is this? And he would have blessed me.

My wife and I have a burial plots in Israel.