Vayechi Mix

Jacob  spent 17 years with Joseph in Egypt.  Joseph was 17 when he was sold into servitude in Egypt. Symmetry! For 17 years Jacob treated Joseph like a prince  - and made him the target of his brothers' wrath. They sold him into slavery. For 17 years Jacob and family lived under Prince Joseph - as they descended into slavery, 

  Jacob realized that he was the instrument for the long exile prophesied to Abraham.  

יָדֹ֨עַ תֵּדַ֜ע כִּי־גֵ֣ר ׀ יִהְיֶ֣ה זַרְעֲךָ֗ בְּאֶ֙רֶץ֙ לֹ֣א לָהֶ֔ם וַעֲבָד֖וּם וְעִנּ֣וּ אֹתָ֑ם אַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָֽה׃

“Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years;

 The exile was starting.  The strange land would be Egypt.  It all fit.  Nothing could be done. 

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By the end of the parsha, it is clear that the move to Egypt is the fulfillment of the  exile prophecy of Abraham. Joseph's pleading final instructions, for reburial in Canaan reflect that he, and presumably his brothers , knew that they would be in Egypt for a long time; and that it would not all be pleasant. 

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יוֹסֵף֙ אֶל־אֶחָ֔יו אָנֹכִ֖י מֵ֑ת וֵֽא  פָּקֹ֧ד יִפְקֹ֣ד אֶתְכֶ֗ם וְהֶעֱלָ֤ה אֶתְכֶם֙ מִן־הָאָ֣רֶץ הַזֹּ֔את אֶל־הָאָ֕רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר נִשְׁבַּ֛ע לְאַבְרָהָ֥ם לְיִצְחָ֖ק וּֽלְיַעֲקֹֽב׃

At length, Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. Gd will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”

 This ironic adventure: The envy, the dreams, the search for his brothers, the pit, the sale, the service, the attempted seduction, the prison, the dreams, the ascent, the dependency of the brothers on Joseph - it had all been the grand plan.  The immediate result would be servitude and suffering; merely another step toward the redemption of the great nation.  All of these events are part of a Grand Plan. It is best to be born  during the peaks of this sinusoidal plot. 

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There are (at least) two mysterious words  in Vayechi: asaf, and mitah.  Asaf  means to gather . It also has an  flavor of completion and contains the phoneme sof, the end.   When Jacob gathers his sons  to tell them what will occur at the end of days the verse uses that word:

וַיִּקְרָ֥א יַעֲקֹ֖ב אֶל־בָּנָ֑יו וַיֹּ֗אמֶר הֵאָֽסְפוּ֙ וְאַגִּ֣ידָה לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִקְרָ֥א אֶתְכֶ֖ם בְּאַחֲרִ֥ית הַיָּמִֽים׃ 

And Jacob called his sons and said, “Come together that I may tell you what is to befall you in days to come. ( the end of days).

  Here, the gathering means something shared with the gathering in  that is the harvest, another common use of the word; Jacob was reaping his investment in the family and replanting most of it

When the blessing is completed, the word is used again.. twice in the context of Jacob's death: 

וַיְכַ֤ל יַעֲקֹב֙ לְצַוֺּ֣ת אֶת־בָּנָ֔יו וַיֶּאֱסֹ֥ף רַגְלָ֖יו אֶל־הַמִּטָּ֑ה וַיִּגְוַ֖ע וַיֵּאָ֥סֶף אֶל־עַמָּֽיו׃ 

When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into (vayesof) the bed and, breathing his last, he was gathered (vayeoseif)  to his people.

 Jacob gathered his feet into the bed. That bed had made an appearance at the beginning of the parsha. 

 וַיִּשְׁתַּ֥חוּ יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עַל־רֹ֥אשׁ הַמִּטָּֽה׃

Then Israel bowed at the head of the bed.

When Joseph swore that Jacob would be buried in Canaan,  Jacob bowed in that bed. That bed was the symbol of his offspring. Jacob bowed to his legacy, to the living who can act to carry out theses deathbed wishes.  Rahi quotes Megillah 16b :

  תַּעֲלָא בְּעִידָּנֵיהּ סְגִיד לֵיהּ,  

when the fox has his time, bow to him.”  

 There is a time when majesty honors power.  When this oath is fulfilled, Jacob will no longer have the power to act in the present.  This is the bed unto which Jacob's feet are gathered. All of his children accompany Jacob to his burial, and all of them claim his legacy. 

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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.