Vayechi Yaakov - Vayechi Yosef

The title of our parasha would seem to introduce a summary of Yaakov's life, but in fact this parasha - which concludes Sefer Bereishit - closes three different circles.

All of the last few parashot (starting from Vayeshev) have followed a single continuum, dealing with the same story - that of Yosef and his brothers. The story as a whole has three principal heroes who take center stage in turns: Yaakov, the brothers (and, as we have seen in Parashat Vayeshev, Yehuda sometimes serves to represent all the brothers), and Yosef. Our parasha closes three separate circles related to these three heroes. By closely examining the parsha, we notice how all three circles relate to each other, and how they serve as a summary of the different (but interrelated) stories.