Saying Goodbye to Family

My daughter is driving across the country to sample life in San Francisco. She joins her brother in California who is enjoying Los Angeles. Each is excited to be working remotely, an opportunity made possible by the pandemic. Yet, when they left, I felt a sense of dread each time. Saying goodbye to family in a time of covid-19 is fraught with heightened anxiety and gloom.

Saying goodbye to children is central to the final chapters of Genesis. Jacob came to Egypt to be reunited with his long-lost son Joseph. He even met Pharaoh. In that conversation, he describes his life as hard and his years as short. Later on, speaking to Joseph, he acknowledged that he was protected from great harm by an angel. Jacob both grieved his struggles and appreciated the protection provided by Divinity.

As he neared death, Jacob offered farewell messages to all twelve sons. Jacob’s goodbye speech was full of disappointment and mixed with admonitions. Sadly, Jacob has witnessed the worst of his sons’ behaviors and anticipates their failures to come.

Moreover, Jacob intuits that this sojourn in Egypt will become a time of sequestration and dispossession for the Jewish people. Yet there is hope, as Jacob said to Joseph, “God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.”

What do we wish for our wandering children in the days to come? In a time of pandemic, every goodbye is fraught with angst. Will God bring them through this time of pandemic? And the next looming crises – environmental ruin? Financial downturns?

My generation has endured many troubling times: war, recessions and now a pandemic. Like Jacob, I both lament the struggles and recognize that angels have kept us from harm. We have benefitted from the technological revolution, medical advances, and increasing prosperity. And among the angels who keep us from harm are the health care workers and the scientists who developed the Covid-19 vaccine, and the philanthropic souls who share so others can thrive.

In saying goodbye, Jacob’s balances his grief and his appreciation. We learn from Jacob to both remain vigilant regarding the challenges of our human existence and bless the angels that save us from harm. To my children, and to all generations to come, as you travel your life’s journeys, may angels bring progress, healing and hope. And may God always bring you safely home.

Rabbi Evan J. Krame