"Torah Lights"
 
Video Insights on the Parsha
 
 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel: "And Israel said, 'There is much! My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die." (Genesis 45:28)

One of the most poignant scenes in the Bible is the heartfelt and tear-filled reunion – after 22 years of separation – between an old grieving father Jacob and his long-lost, beloved son Joseph. But almost equally emotional is the moment of revelation, when the brothers return from Egypt with the amazing, mind-boggling report that Joseph is still alive:
           
"And they told him, saying,
'Joseph is still alive; he is the ruler of the entire Land of Egypt.'
And (Jacob's) heart became numb, for he could not believe them. Then they spoke all the words that Joseph had told them. When he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob was revived." (Genesis 45:26 -27)

Permit me to raise a number of questions arising from this text. First of all, what was it about the wagons that revived aged Father Jacob's faint heart, and enabled him to accept the veracity of his sons' report? Secondly, the anonymous "arranger" of the seven sections or stops (aliyot) in the Biblical reading concludes the fourth section with verse 27 cited above, and begins the fifth section with verse 28, "And Israel said, 'there is much! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him before I die.'" This last verse is obviously the result of Jacob's renewed heart and his newly-found vigor. Doesn't this verse belong in the same section as the previous one? Why begin a new portion (aliyah) in the midst of Jacob's reaction?

Finally, why does Jacob make the difficult journey to Egypt? Would it not have been more logical – and filially proper – for the young son to visit his elderly father, and not the other way around?

I once heard in the name of the British Dayan Golditch a question which provides the key to answering all three questions. Imagine, he said, a situation in which your child leaves home for university, but fails to show up at the campus. You are at your wits end, not knowing what to think. After ten years in which no "tracing missing persons" office can come up with a clue as to his whereabouts, you would surely be in despair.
Suddenly, out of the blue, your son contacts you wishing to reestablish a relationship. Which would give you greater peace of mind, if he sent you airplane tickets to his home in Los Angeles (where he is now an Assistant Professor of Biology), or if he asked when would be best for him to come home for a Sabbath or Festival visit?

Dayan Golditch, z”l, of London suggested that the preferred option would be the airplane tickets since they would enable you to see the environment in which your child lives, and to assure yourself that he is at least keeping a kosher kitchen (or else he wouldn't have invited you). It would also allow you to check out his marital status or at least his prospective partners. If he came to you for the Sabbath or even Passover, you would learn very little about where he really is at; anyone can wear a kippah and rehearse childhood songs and customs for a day or even a week when they are trying to make a good impression. Hence, when Joseph sends wagons to bring his father to Egypt, Jacob is confident that his beloved son has not wandered too far from the covenantal mission of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, "and so the spirit of their father Jacob was revived."

But then, after Jacob's initial unbelievable joy at having discovered that his beloved Joseph is indeed alive, he begins to think the unthinkable and to question the unquestionable: how did his sons get the bloodied stained tunic to bring home, claiming that a wild animal had torn Joseph apart? And how did Joseph end up in Egypt? Slowly, but irrevocably, old father Jacob began to piece together the improbable tale of his sons' betrayal of their brother and deception towards their father, a story he can barely face but whose truth he recognizes.

Then his thoughts turn to Joseph: “Why should I travel to him?” he thinks. “For many years, he has held an exalted position in Egypt.  Why didn't he at least contact his old, grieving father and let him know of his good fortune? He is a mere ingrate, who doesn't deserve my undertaking such a difficult journey; he owes me the visit.”

But then Jacob continues to ponder. “So much has occurred in our family. Joseph’s brothers were overcome with jealousy because I showed blind, undue favoritism to my beloved wife's first-born son. I was at least partly responsible for whatever they did to him. Perhaps Joseph himself came to resent me and my favoritism as well, realizing that I had woefully mismanaged the family affairs.”

And even more to the point: “Maybe Joseph thought that I was in on the plot to get rid of him, nudging him in the direction of Egypt. The last thing he heard from me before I sent him on his dangerous errand to the city of Shekhem to check up on the welfare of his hate-filled siblings was my displeasure at his grandiose dream (Gen. 37:10). Still, he, the good son that he was, responded to my request with ‘hineni,’ just as Abraham had responded to G-d. After all, I sent him out on what turned into the ‘sacrifice of Joseph’ (as Leon Kass calls it). He must have figured that just as Abraham banished Ishmael, and Isaac rejected Esau leaving the blessing and birthright to Jacob, so too I, his father, may have cast him out. No, if I begin to blame anyone, I would only be deflecting blame from the one who deserves it most, myself. And I would risk losing my twelve tribes, and the distinction of starting our new nation, the House of Israel.”

The arranger of the portions (aliyot) therefore takes a pause for all of Jacob's complex thoughts and decisions, giving the listener the opportunity to reflect along with him. Finally, Jacob concludes, “There is much [at stake].” Jacob realizes that it is best that he remain silent, pretending not to have figured out the true villainy of the brothers. And turning a blind eye to Joseph's silence over the last years he decides: “My son Joseph is still alive; I must go and see him before I die.” After all is said and done, the bottom line is that Jacob loves Joseph, and he needs him as he needs all of his sons. They are his future, and for the sake of that future, he must now keep his peace and journey to Egypt.

Shabbat Shalom

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