Pilgrim or progress – Vayyiggash
Jacob blesses Pharaoh, by Owen Jones, 1869
One man speaks of age, the other of pilgrimage. Two words, two outlooks.
The king is a materialist. His concern is numbers and quantities. Jacob is a philosopher. To him, life has to be going somewhere.
Judaism (Talmud Shabbat 31a) measures things the Jacob way, not “Where have I got to?” but “Where am I going?” The criterion is not static but dynamic.
