Vayechi—The End of Days—R’ Dovid Rhodes

Two reasons we say “baruch shem kavod malchuso l’olam vaed” Yakov wanted to reveal when the end of days
was, but the Shekhinah departed from him. “Maybe one of my children is impure?” “Listen, Israel…” There’s
one Hashem in your heart and in ours. Yakov responded with Baruch Shem. How can we say this? It’s a break.
How can we not say it? Yakov said it. So we say it quietly.

Why didn’t Yakov say “Baruch Hashem! My kids are tzaddikim!”? It still is break in pasukim. Finally, why do we
say it out loud on Yom Kippur.

2nd: Moshe went to heaven to get the Torah. He heard the angels saying it and brought it down to the world.
Someone stole an expensive piece of jewelry and only wore it around the house. But don’t we say things they
say every day? Kedusha? Additionally, why put it in shema according to this?

Chazal: Why is Vayechi “closed”? No spaces between it and the previous parsha. Yakov wanted to reveal the
end, but the shekhinah left him. If it were the end of the Egyptian galus, we already knew. 210 – 400 years! If it
was about the mashiach, it would have been more than 4000 years after the event! What end did he want to
reveal?

The coming of the messiah is not about us but about the fulfillment of the purpose of this world. Aleinu is so
important that we need to say it with great joy and happiness. Yehoshua wrote it after the destruction of
Jericho. It expressed the goal that everyone would recognize Him and become His servants. This world would
be fixed through His Kingship. He would be One, and His Name would be One. “Hashem’s One” = intellectual
knowing. “Hashem’s Name being One” = all people, despite language/culture, would be one.

When he wanted to tell the “end,” he wanted to tell them what they needed to do to become the priests of
the world. They needed to reach a certain level. However, maybe one of my kids is impure and the 12 tribes
would have been lacking! Nope. Yakov was devoted, AND his kids were too. Part one complete.

2nd step: The Name and Honor of His Kingship needs to come before any personal desires. To be a total slave
requires personal enslavement. The tribes weren’t here yet. It would have been a mockery if he had said it out
loud. Only when Moshe went to heaven and saw the true meaning of His Kingship and how the angels
behaved, he was able to bring it down and sneak it into the shema. On Yom Kippur, we can say it out loud and
long to absorb its true meaning. However, it ends, and we go down a level; we need to say it silently.

We received a glimpse of the truth, and one day, we will see the Oneness of Hashem.