Parshat Vayigash  8 Tevet 5762, 22 December 2001

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - The magnificent Torah reading recounts the denouement of the drama of Joseph and his brothers, with the Grand Vizier of Egypt revealing his true identity in a manner totally devoid of blame or rancor: "And now do not be saddened or angry that you sold me (into slavery)... It was G-d who sent me before you... to enable you... to remain alive for a great salvation" (Genesis 45:5-8). And Joseph immediately bids his brothers "make haste and go up to my father.. to come down to me, not to remain (in Canaan) ... lest you and your household perish since there is another five years for the famine" (ibid 10,11).

But this seems like a rather strange request. Joseph certainly heard at the knee of his father the importance of the Land of Israel in the lives of the Patriachs: "aliyah" was the very first commandment the Almighty gave to Abraham, and Jacob himself had risked physical danger at the hands of Esau as well as financial ruin when he left Laban's employ to return to his ancestral homeland. Moreover, Father Jacob is now 130 years old, and he looks and feels even older than his age because of the many tragedies he suffered in his lifetime (Genesis 47:9). Would it not have been far more logical and sensitive for the Grand Vizier of Egypt to have made a "state visit" to his old father, to have brought with him a large supply of provisions and to have guaranteed his family regular monthly stipends of grain? In true keeping to the tradition of filial respect, the young vibrant Joseph should have certainly have made the arduous journey to see his ailing father, and could easily have continued to support the "Israeli family" from Egypt!

I believe there are three main responses to this question. First of all, we must always view the stories of the Book of Genesis from two perspectives: on one plane we are held spellbound by a riveting human drama of parents and children, unfolding in accordance with the freely committed actions of the personalities involved, and on the other plane we are allowed to glimpse a Divinely directed march towards salvation developing in accordance with the predestined plan of the Author of History. The "covenant between the pieces" which G-d entered into with Abraham foretold the necessity for the children of Israel to experience Egyptian servitude and eventual redemption. Joseph must therefore bring his family to Egypt.

The late Dayan Golditch of London suggested another explanation. He presented the analogy of a son who leaves his parents' religious home in a burst of desired independence, going off to university in another state (or even another country) and establishing his own residence. Indeed, the son distances himself to such an extent that there is no contact between him and his parents. What kind of rapprochement would suit the parents better, a visit by the son to his family home for a Sabbath or Festival, or an invitation (with plane or train tickets included) for the parents to come to his home? Dayan Golditch insists that the latter invitation would gladden the parents' hearts immeasurably more. After all, knowing the deep religiosity of his parents, the son would hardly invite them to his home if it weren't kosher, or if he were living with a non-Jewish woman! Hence Joseph sends his father "tickets"; he apparently wishes to impress his father with the fact that he had retained his religious commitments even as Grand Vizier of Egypt. That is why, explained Dayan Golditch, the Torah-text explains that when "(Jacob) saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to transport him (to the Grand Vizier's house in Egypt), the spirit of Jacob their father was revived" (Genesis 45:27).

The third and in many ways most convincing explanation is provided by the Ramban (Nahmanides) who suggests that Joseph is not able to send to the Land of Canaan a great deal of food from Pharoah's storehouses because he (Joseph) would then be suspected of preparing treasures of gold and silver for himself when he returns to his ancestral homeland! (Ramban on Genesis 45:10). In other words, Joseph could not allow himself to be vulnerable to the charge of "dual loyalty"of preparing the way for his eventual return to an economically sound Israel.

Rav Meier Simkha of Dvinsk, in his Biblical commentary known as the Meshekh Hakma goes one step further, maintaining that specifically because Joseph still retained his familial religious practises in Egypt, he had to "bend over backwards" and not send large supplies of food outside of Egypt into the land of Canaan; Joseph had to take special precautions not to seem to be too generous to Israel lest he be accused of sacrificing the best interests of Egypt.

Added weight is given to this third explanation by the later Biblical description of Joseph's discomfiture in seeking to gain permission to bury his father Jacob in Israel: "And Joseph spoke to the household of Pharoah saying, 'If I have found favor in your eyes please speak to the ears of Pharoah'.." (Genesis 50:4, 5) Joseph was the Grand Vizier of Egypt! He certainly could walk into Pharoah's office at any time, without the intermediary of a servant or a family member to whisper into Pharoah's ear! Apparently Joseph realized that the fact of his father's desired burial in Israel would anger the despotic Pharoah, would raise in his mind vexing questions of Jewish dual loyalty! Perhaps it is this realization more than anything else which brings home to the Grand Vizier the message that even Egypt is Exile, and inspires him to request of his brethren that he too must be buried in Israel. In the final analysis, only Israel is the Jewish eternal homeland!

Shabbat Shalom.

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