Let Me Tell You How It Will Be...

We survived the end of the world last week, oddly enough Yaakov in this week's parsha says he will tell his children about the end of days.
 Chapter 49

1. Jacob called for his sons and said, "Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days.

א. וַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים:

Impressive thinking here by Yaakov. He is dying any day now and in order to get all of his children to visit he decides to lay the "I can see the future" line? Must be more to it than this, otherwise we would end up with all types of people saying the end is nigh.

Could it be Yaakov was trying to say that dying is not the end? Maybe he was trying to bring closure to some of the projects that got lost along the way? He brings up Simeon and Levi's problems with authority and anger management, he compares numerous kids to animals and shows his obvious liking for certain children.

All in all, not much different than most people's end of year reviews. You get the good, the bad and the ugly sometimes to come out. Contrary to how it seems, many people have a very long memory, especially when slighted however harmlessly it may have been meant at the time or circumstances.

If however we go through life always harping on the things people did wrong, one may never have any friends, or employees. Perhaps it is this inability to forgive and forget that prevents world peace or at least some peace. 

Sometimes in the "bad" reviewed items there is another side to the story and there are more possibilities to move along. Just because someone else has fewer items to dwell on does not make them better people or employees. 

You love your children, no matter what they do or say or how they act, even at the worst of times. They however truly never understand this until they themselves have children. This was part of what Yaakov was saying, as a parent to his kids and how employers should think about their employees.

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Parsha Vayechi in the book of Bereishit, 47:28-50:26 It is said that the Torah or Bible
could be interpreted in over 70 ways. More likely these days 100's of ways. In light of this idea, I am writing some posts that bring business sense to what we can learn on a weekly basis. Enjoy, Shabbat Shalom