Parshas Vayigash is
the culmination of the narrative of Yoseph, but really it is the completion of
the story of the reunification of Bnei Yisrael. There is a beautiful verse in Perek
45 that does not seem to draw a tremendous amount of commentary, perhaps
because it is natural to the sequence of the narrative. This verse, however, is
one of tremendous importance for Jews today to remember: "And he [Yoseph] kissed
all his brothers and wept on them, and after, his brothers talked with him"
(45: 15).
Not to him, but
with him. Twelve sons, twelve different personalities, twelve different fathers
of tribes that were going to become a people, and they embraced and talked
together. Yes, this is one more call for unity among the many that we hear
after each tragedy, but are we listening? Perhaps we will know how well we are
doing when we can relate to the very next verse that describes the reaction to
the news that Yoseph’s brothers had come to Egypt: "It was good in the
eyes of pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants" (45:16).
There are some very
interesting things we can learn from the dynamics of Yoseph and his brothers in
Parshas Vayigash, perhaps things that weren’t even relevant until the post
World War II era, since this is the significance of the eternity of Torah. The parsha begins in the middle of perek 34,
which certainly makes one wonder why the sages didn’t choose to break the
parsha at the beginning or end of the perek. It also, perhaps, draws particular
significance to the verse that begins the parsha: “Then Yehuda went up to him
and said, ‘Please, my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient
with your servant, you who are like Pharaoh” (44:18).
In verse 44:18,
Yehuda told Yoseph that he is k’paro, like Pharaoh. Isn’t it odd how the
brothers did not recognize Yoseph at all? Of course, one can say that they did not
expect to find him in a position of authority, or, perhaps more honestly, they
did not expect to find him alive. But one would think that he stood out a
little from the Egyptians that surrounded him, after all the origin of the
Egyptians was from Ham and the origin of Yaakov’s family was Shem, and they
came from different regions. However, when the brothers were spoken to aggressively
in Egyptian and told to speak through a translator to respond to their Hebrew,
there was no reason to look closer, certainly not at the powerful man dressed
in regal Egyptian robes who was called Tzaphnas Paneha, as Joseph had been
renamed by Pharaoh. Generations later, the
Chatam Sofer would comment that the reason that Israelites were redeemed was
that they kept themselves separate from the Egyptians by maintaining their
clothes, their names, and their language, but for Yoseph, using a foreign name,
speaking Egyptian, and wearing the clothes gifted by Pharaoh were actually the
means by which he protected his neshama.
In the next 16
verses, Yehuda speaks to Yoseph completely from the heart, relaying everything
that has occurred between the two of them from his perspective and
demonstrating how important is their desire to protect both Binyamin and Yaakov.
This is significant because of more than
just the history of this specific family. Yehuda here represent klal Yisrael, and
his descendants will be the leaders of the people. Binyamin, according to the
Midrash, was a near perfect Tzadik, and he represents the righteous innocents.
Yaakov, the man of the tents, represents the sages of the Torah, our men of wisdom
and knowledge. When Yoseph, who could
perhaps represent those Jews who would become completely submerged in a foreign
culture, heard Yehuda – heard his honesty and his sincerity – he finally
cleared the room for what one could jokingly call the ultimate bagel.*
This past week,
Jews throughout the observant world turned their focus to the incredible
gathering of tens of thousands of Jews for the Siyum Hashas, the celebration of
the completion of learning a page of Talmud a day for the seven and a half
years it takes to complete the entire Talmud. The Talmud is studied by an
incredible range of Jews, and I believe that if one wished to one could find
representatives of every “denomination” and each kehilla whose life has been
touched by this program of study. There were Jews from across the spectrum of
observance, and that unity is palpable and energizing.
Now, however, we who
are connected, we who have dwelled in the tents of Yaakov, must show the world
our honesty, our sincerity, and the beauty of living a Jewish life by being
extra conscientious of how we speak and how we act, ready at all times to make
a kiddush Hashem. This is not so that we might appease the seemingly growing
number of those who hate us, but so that we might show our honest regret at our
separation from those members of our nation who have lost their names, their
dress, and their language, but who have not lost their neshamas. They are just
waiting for an opening to embrace their brethren.
Discussions of the
messianic era refer to a future world of peace and to a time when Hashem’s
glory will be revealed. It is also said that it will be a time when the nations
of the world will want to work for the shared goal of Hashem’s glory with the
Jewish people. This, however, can only occur when all twelve brothers kiss and
weep and talk together, for only then will klal Yisrael find the favor in the
eyes of the other nations to be a light unto the world. Until then, we remain
in a painful state of gulus.
*The bagel, in this case, is a newish term for moments when one Jew
drops Jewish terms into the conversation in order to let the other person know
that they too are a member of the Tribe.
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