“If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on it outlives me when I’m gone like the scripture says: ‘Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.’ I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree a moment alone in the shade at home in this nation we’ve made one last time.”
Lin Manuel Miranda wrote these words to describe George Washington’s resignation from president so as to avoid becoming king. These lyrics echo a similar sentiment expressed by both Joseph and Jacob at the end of their lives and, consequently the end of the book of Genesis.
Jacob spends his final breaths blessing each of his children, regaling them with his hopes and dreams for each of them, asking them to live up to their potential in all their ways. Subsequently, when Joseph is dying, he reminds his offspring that God will pakod yifkod—that God will surely be with you, a phrase that only appears one other time when Moses speaks to God at the burning bush.
Jacob and Joseph have given Israel, their children, a tremendous gift in that they have left nothing unsaid; their children know how they feel about them and that they will be cared for even in the wake of the pain and loss.
How we say goodbye is so important and we must remind ourselves to ask the difficult questions, have the difficult conversations, and to prepare for the unthinkable, yet inevitable. We must ask: What legacy will we leave? How will we be remembered? What is the lesson we want the world, our children, and our children’s children to learn when we say goodbye, one last time?