Vayechi

So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. - Gen 50:26

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe. - Carl Sagan

As we complete the Book of Genesis, a new narrative emerges; we exchange cosmology and biography for racial history. With the death of Joseph, the Bible's last cosmopolitan protagonist, the story ceases to be about the creation of the Universe, and the interplay of a few select men and their tribes with the neighbouring tribes of Bronze Age Judea. The story is now about the Jews.

For the remaining four books of the Pentateuch, we will follow one man - Moses - as he leads a single nation - Israel - from the bonds of servitude in Egypt to bloody conquest in the Promised Land, with a lot of nomadic wandering thrown in for good measure.

The commentators distinguish between two phrasings of the same essential blessing, "Blessed art thou, Lord our God, who created the Universe" and "Blessed art thou, Lord our God, who took us from Egypt". This distinction seems to demonstrate a sensitivity not just between two different kinds of god - the Deistic watchmaker, and the Theistic interferer - but between two different kinds of idea: the Big Idea, and the Small Idea.

Big Ideas are questions of philosophy. Who are we? Where did we come from? What is the Universe for? Why is - well, any question beginning with "why" is probably a Big One.

Small Ideas are questions of practicality. Did I leave the iron on? Will bad traffic cause me to miss this appointment? Does that special someone feel the same way?

Life is, and ought always to be, a delicate interplay of the two. We must live with a constant awareness of Big and Small, and strive to understand which of the two should take precedence in each moment. This is no easy task. But the literary end of Genesis, and the mortal end of Joseph, both remind us of the task's importance - not just its necessity, but its urgency.

For the ultimate fate of Joseph is the fate of us all - indeed, the fate of the Universe itself. We must make the best of what we can - right now - for time is short. Go tell someone you love them, hug a stranger, and try something crazy you've always been too scared to do. Above all else, dedicate yourself to that which is truly important.

You will never be as young as you are today.