Menachem Mirski
Thoughts on Parashat Vayigash
This week’s Torah portion covers a rich variety of aspects. A psychological one – Joseph puts his brothers to a final trial, after which he lets them recognize him, which has important “emotional consequences”. Theologically – a wicked, human plan (selling Joseph) turns out to be an element of a superior, Divine plan, which brings salvation to the entire people of Israel; and politically – the Torah describes among others the process through which people sell their freedom in a time of crisis. Besides that, our Torah portion also contains certain biographical themes and here in my opinion two main figures are at the forefront: Jacob and Joseph – who meet for the first time after many years; a meeting which is something unexpected for both of them.
In my thoughts for this week I’d like to focus precisely on these two figures and their role in the context of the survival and prosperity of the people of Israel. So let us start with Jacob:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob greeted Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How many are the years of your life?” And Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourn [on earth] are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans of my ancestors during their sojourns.” (Gen 47:7-9)[/perfectpullquote]
Here Jacob is lamenting over his life, comparing himself to his father Yitzchak and his grandfather Abraham. But this was his fate and what he himself, partially, chose. We know that his life was hard, especially since the time of the birthright scheme and the conflict with Esau. But let’s look at it from a different perspective – he is actually the father of the people of Israel, he begot 12 sons and one daughter with two wives and two concubines. Life is not easy when you have such a large family and such a responsibility, especially considering what he went through earlier – he had to escape from his father’s home, he started from scratch while completely impoverished and then he worked for his uncle Laban for over 20 years – for a man who was a liar, a cheater and who exploited him. Looking at it from this perspective, what Jacob achieved is absolutely great and truly admirable. In my opinion through all of this Jacob has absolutely redeemed all of his faults. Jacob complains that his life was hard, but at the same time he is a great figure.
For the sake of comparison, let us focus here on one very important theme from Joseph’s life. As I mentioned in my previous Dvar Torah, Joseph’s success in Egypt was not a goal in itself; the ultimate goal of Joseph’s success was the survival of his family, and thereby the nation of Israel, which also amounted to fulfilling the promise given to Abraham and Yitzchak by the Eternal. Joseph could focus solely on his own children; but his actions do not lead solely to the survival and prosperity of his progeny. Joseph absolutely understands that he is a tool in God’s hands and his mission is to help his brothers, their wives and children – in total 70 persons who came from Canaan to Egypt.
The story about Joseph and his brothers teaches us that our Jewish community, its survival and prosperity are equally important to us as our own families. Joseph’s children – Ephraim and Menashe – were born just before his brothers came to Egypt. But let’s ask ourselves if a different order of these events would have essentially changed anything in Joseph’s behavior towards his brothers? I don’t think so. From this story we can also infer that in certain cases our extended Jewish family comes to the forefront and becomes our “proper family”: I’m talking here about people who don’t have their own families or children. These people do not cease to be important for Jewish communities; on the contrary, if they only want to, they can become especially significant for their “extended family” and thereby fulfill themselves in their lives just as if they had their own family. This is a great blessing of living in a Jewish community; noticing this is very important for us as individuals and also for us as a community, especially if we live in a diaspora, where we are always a minority.
Shabbat shalom!
Translated from Polish by: Marzena Szymańska-Błotnicka
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