By Rabbi Yonina Andrea Foster, Ph.D.

Vayechi Hannalah. Hannah, my mother Anita lived.

I was turning away to leave the hospital room where she lay in her bed. While able to talk, with some humor, alert, she was smaller, I saw, contracting into herself as do those closing in on transitioning from body to spirit. We had conversed pleasantly, she no longer knowing me as her daughter. It was okay. My mother thought her husband, my father, was an old boyfriend. My son, his Bar Mitzvah six months into the future, stood next to me. I knew my mother was dying, though I couldn’t at that time put words to those thoughts. It was the natural process of life.

We began to say “Goodbye,” and my son turned away to precede me toward the hospital door. It was then my mother sat up straight, buoyed by something otherworldly I sensed, and started talking. I realized she was addressing my son and told him so. “Your Grandmother is speaking to you.” We stopped and turned back towards her.

Something I couldn’t explain had come over my mother, something had taken hold of her, and she said, “You are the next generation, and I’m proud of you.” I’m not sure if my son understood, nor which one of us then said, “Thank you.” We spoke a few more words and departed from Boston back home to Maryland. I returned to gather with family the next week and my mother made her final exhale. When I shared the story with a rabbi friend as I prepared for my mother’s funeral, he said “Vayechi,” Jacob lived, was the week’s Torah portion. In it Jacob blessed his children before he died, before being gathered to his people. Had Jacob’s spirit come through to lift my mother’s and pass along the message to my son?

It is a puzzle I will live with until I take my last breath. It felt profound in that moment and it continues to return for me to ponder. Maybe I remembered the story when I chose to write “My Jewish Thought.” Maybe it chose me. The puzzle of life, just as Jacob spoke in riddles when he gathered his children and blessed them each. Maybe they benefited as he spoke their truth, to give them a legacy for them to continue to discern their way. Each of his children would need to unravel the mystery their father left them with to find meaning and purpose in their own lives.

I consider my life purpose from inner guidance and that of the one I call on, the Shekhina, the Feminine Indwelling of the One. Together we unravel the riddles of who I am as I discern my path forward.

May you discern your path, also. As you and I turn the pages of our birth story from Bereishit, Genesis, I offer you the blessing of Hazak. Let us forgive one another for our misdeeds and know that Shekhina is in this place for each of us. May we give each other strength. We don’t know the exact origin or when the minhag began, but we end each book of Torah with the exclamation, “Hazak, Hazak, v’nithazek.” “Be strong! Be Strong! And may we be strengthened.” As we move into 2025, may we remember to be a supportive presence as we witness one another’s unique life purpose unfold and be revealed. Hazak, Hazak, v’nithazek. Let us be strong and strengthen one another.

Yonina Andrea K. Foster, Ph.D. is a community rabbi and staff member of Jewish Family Services of WNY. Her Jewish Thought is dedicated to the memory of her mother, Anita G Foster, “Hannalah bat Abe v’Harriet,” on her 17th Yahrzeit.