Parshat Vayigash
6 Tevet 5768
December 15, 2007
Daf Yomi: Kesovos 105
Guest
Rabbi:
Rabbi Chaim Frazer
Associate Member
Young Israel Council of Rabbis
This week's
Parashah interweaves endings of crucial themes and beginnings of
new perspectives. As such, it sets the stage for concluding
Sefer Bereishit and opens new vistas which continue to the
present day and beyond.
Immediately, we enter the suspenseful scene in which Yehudah
approaches Yosef, offers himself as a substitute for Binyamin,
and shows convincingly that he, and the other brothers, have
abandoned the rivalries which led to Yosef's descent into Egypt.
In turn, Yosef reveals his true identity, and offers a
reconciliation.
But as we pause and reflect, shifting our gaze backwards
uncovers still more culminations, and reveals new conundrums for
the future. Since Parashat Noach, when HaShem's attempt to
relate to humanity as a whole died with the Flood, we have been
waiting to see who will initiate and sustain a new approach, one
that singles out those who will forge a special relationship
with HaShem, one whose means will be particularistic but whose
ultimate goal will be to bring knowledge of and devotion to
HaShem to all mankind.
Avram and Sarai were so chosen, but at best they personally
could serve only for one generation. So the question
continuously arose, with the same response: some would inherit,
and some would be excluded, sloughed off into the seeming
dustbin of true religious history. First to go were his chief
servant (identified by ChaZaL as Eliezer) and “HaNefesh asher
asu b'Charan.”
Ideological identification with Avraham would not suffice, a
true descendant was needed. But a collateral descendant, Lot,
also would not do. Only a direct descendant, one brought up from
birth in Avraham's home could continue his mission.
But again the exclusion process, not just a child from Avraham,
but one from both Avraham and Sarah. And in the next generation,
not just a child from Yitzchak and Rivka, but only Yaakov. And
for Yaakov and his sons, the early question: who will inherit
and who will fade into oblivion?
Perhaps this anxiety spurred the original conflict, especially
as the past seemed to indicate that younger or youngest son
would take all, leaving nothing for the others, a risk
apparently confirmed by Yaakov's own preference for honoring
Yosef.
In Vayyigash three answers appear: HaShem's answer-His Will is
that the selection has ended, the brothers' answer (including
Yosef's)-they all want each and every one of themselves to share
in the inheritance, and that they have transformed themselves to
achieve that status. And Yaakov's answer-he confirms all the
brothers as inheritors, while adding Efraim and Menashe as full
shevatim in their own right, not merely as Yosef's sons.
And yet two key issues remain: how firm is the commitment that
Yosef and his brothers have to each other, and who will play the
key leadership roles in the family's growth into a nation?
We note a curious asymmetry. Yehudah, speaking for himself and
the other brothers of Yosef's youth, both admits error and
details their transformation into a caring and protective
relationship for Binyanim, the son for whom they know Yaakov
cares for more. Yosef, on the other hand, reassures his brothers
concerning their guilty feelings, embraces Binyamin (his only
full brother), and begins a whirlwind of activity to gain
Pharaoh's assent to admit his father's entire family to Egypt,
and to settle them in a part of the country where they can live
virtually alone-uncontaminated by Egyptian influences.
These are all sound decisions, but Yosef alone makes them,
consulting no one else. More importantly, there is no hint in
anything that Yosef says that perhaps he himself erred in his
youth, such as the Lashon HaRa noted by Rashi at the beginning
of Vayeishev. Yosef combines supreme political judgment and
skill, devoted to genuinely good ends, with no need to consult
others and an inability to voice his own errors.
Not only does Yehudah admit error, but so does Yaakov. He
retains an emotional closeness to Yosef and Binyamin far deeper
than his feelings for the other brothers. But it is Yehudah that
Yaakov chooses to establish the settlement in Goshen, to govern
the family as it begins its transition from extended household
to clan to nation-a choice confirmed for eternity in next week's
Parashah. And ChaZaL tell us that it is Levi who will found the
Battei Midrash in Goshen-institutions essential to Am Yisrael's
survival in all generations, and eventually will be entrusted
with the Korbanot that bring people closer to G-d.
Today, we should ponder carefully the significance of Yaakov's
designation of Yehudah. Leadership requires not simply deep
insight and sound judgment, but consultation and the ability to
admit error-thereby becoming a unifier, drawing people closer to
each other and to G-d.
David HaMelekh fights wars, but he also writes Tehillim, sets
aside the location for bringing the Shekinah to the Beit
HaMikdash, brings Lot's descendants back into the household of
Avraham Avinu (through his grandmother Ruth and his grandson's
wife Naama), and admits error before G-d and His prophets.
A key result: even when the Kingdom is split, Malkhut Yehudah
maintains an inner cohesiveness among its tribes (Yehudah, Levi,
and Binyamin) totally lacking in Malkhut Yisrael.
Our days teem with great conflict within Am Yisrael, conflict
which threatens to return us to the poisonous rivalries of Yosef
and his brothers' early days. To overcome it, indeed to reverse
it, each of us should strive to become another Yehudah-holding
firm to our principles and commitments to be Shomrei Torah
Umitzvot, but willing to admit errors when they occur, and
always sensitive to others, looking to bring them closer to each
other and to G-d.
Shabbat Shalom.
NCYI's Weekly Divrei Torah Bulletin is
sponsored by
the Henry, Bertha and Edward Rothman Foundation -
Rochester, New York; Cleveland, Ohio; Circleville, Ohio
