ר"ע תיתד תונויצל ינויערה גוחה ,םולשו זוע

Yehuda's Pacifying Toughness

"My lord asked his servant saying" –Know that you libel us; how many nations came here to purchase food – did you interrogate them as you did us? Were we seeking your daughter, are you requesting our sister? "And we said to my lord etc." – Can it be that a person like Yehuda should assert something which is not clear to him – "And his brother is dead"? But this is what Yehuda said: If I tell him that Yosef is alive, he will order me "Bring him to me" as he did regarding Benyamin so therefore he said "And his brother is dead." Said Rav Hiyyah bar Abba: All that you read from Yehuda's speech until "Yosef could no longer restrain himself" contains words of pacification for Yosef, pacification for Benyamin, pacification for his brothers.

Pacification for Yosef: Note how he sacrificed himself for Rachel's children. Pacification for his brothers: See how he sacrificed himself for his brothers. Pacification for Benyamin; just as I offered my life for your brothers, so do I offer it for yours. (Yalkut Shimoni, Bereishit 44, 151)

Most parshiot in the Book of Bereishit begin with a new story. The curtain goes down, and then comes up . . . on another time, another place and, as a rule, with new personae – characters who did not appear in the previous parasha at all, or played secondary roles. But Parashat "Vayigash" not only opens in the middle of the story of the brothers' descent into Egypt; it opens in the middle of a scene which began in the preceding parasha, "Miketz". One gets the impression that the narrator interrupted the flow of the narrative to announce: "Pay attention! Something very important is about to occur!"

A palace in the Land of Egypt, a stern nobleman sits in council, surrounded by his servants and advisers. Before him, eleven trembling nomads, who came from the Land of Canaan to purchase food in Egypt, but got embroiled in a conflict with the master of the house. He does not covet their money. He sends away and recalls, befriends and abruptly alienates - and now he accuses the youngest of theft. The nobleman is Yosef, the shepherds, his brothers. The shepherds are unaware that the nobleman is their brother, they are bewildered by what is happening. They scrutinize their past, seeking a reason for the calamity which has befallen them. Thus do we react in times of adversity. In Parashat "Miketz" we heard them say: "Truly we are guilty concerning our brother! -- that we saw his heart's distress when he implored us, and we did not listen" (Bereishit 42:21) Yosef hears everything and understands everything, yet he is not satisfied, and therefore he continues. Throughout the generations, commentators sought and suggested explanations for Yosef's behavior. Those commentators who lived in Galut were very fond of Yosef, calling him "Yosef HaTzaddik" "Yosef the Righteous," and included him among the ushpizin – the guests – invited to our sukkah. But it is very important to examine another character which develops in the Yosef stories, reaching full realization in Parashat "VaYigash".

A new type of founding father appears.

The Book of Bereishit presents Yehuda gradually. In the beginning, we meet him as one of the brothers, his position somewhat elevated by the fact of his being born to Leah and not to one of the maidservants. Yehuda's roll in the selling of Yosef is subject to controversy. The idea of selling Yosef to the Yishmaelites was his; unlike his brother Reuven, he had no intention of saving Yosef from the hands of his ruffian brothers. On the other hand, he did not agree to leave Yosef in the pit – Reuven's misbegotten idea – for it seemed to him to be a death sentence. The selling of Yosef to seemed to be a logical solution which would satisfy Shimon and Levi, yet save Yosef's life. Be it as it may, Yehuda spoke and his brothers acted accordingly.

The selling of Yosef is followed immediately by the story of Tamar, wife of Er. Yehuda marries a Canaanite woman, and two of their three offspring die. Yehuda tries to put off his twice-widowed daughter-in-law, who waits to marry his third son. He visits a 'prostitute' during working hours, but when the affair comes to light, he does not react a la Shimon and Levi; he accepts pregnant Tamar into his household. He may have been a schemer; he may have succumbed to strong sexual urges; God did not speak to him, nor did he address God. But he was a decent person, a "mentsch".

In Parashat "Miketz" Yaakov is asked to send his youngest son to the capricious nobleman in Egypt. Again Reuven demonstrates his combination of weakness and foolishness when he suggests "My two sons shall you kill if I do not return him to you." Indeed! This would be exactly what Yaakov would need to console him over the loss of Benyamin – two dead grandsons! The famine intensifies, the storerooms empty out, and Yehuda decides he must act. He speaks to his father in language which is stern, but which holds out hope: "Send the lad with me and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, so, so you, so our little-ones! I will act as his pledge, at my hand you may seek him! If I do not bring him back to you and set him in your presence, I will be culpable- for- sin against you all the days (to come)." Yehuda is offering Yaakov not only hope, but partnership in responsibility for Benyamin's future. Yaakov accedes, and the caravan sets out on its journey. Upon reaching Egypt, Yaakov's dark premonition is realized: the capricious nobleman 'frames' Benyamin, plotting to keep him by his side. . . him alone, without his brothers. Yehuda, now the recognized leader of the brothers, tries to plead, to persuade, to implore. "At least do not separate between us," he begs of the nobleman. The nobleman is adamant.

A rabbinical midrash portrays Yehuda as a fire-breathing lion, capable of devastating Egypt; only Yosef's words of ethical reprimand prevent him for doing so (in another midrash, Yosef's revelation to his brothers averts the catastrophe). But the plain reading of the text presents a different picture – one horribly clear. Yosef is all-powerful . . . the brothers are hungry and weak like migrant workers in America of the Great Depression. Like young Henry Fonda in John Ford's "Grapes of Wrath", Yehuda moves into the foreground and says, "This far. No further." Thus opens Parashat "Vayigash".

Yehuda begins with words of deference and courtesy; he then describes the terrible misfortune of his aged father. He lost one son, and now he is asked to give up his 'baby' – a loss which will hasten his death. If you want to kill my father, says Yehuda, you'll have to do it without me. Yehuda is prepared to pay a personal price: "So now, pray let your servant stay instead f the lad, as servant to my lord, but let the lad go up with his brothers!" (Bereishit 44:33) We are only too familiar with these speeches. They can be heard daily in the welfare offices, in the police stations, in demonstrations in front of the Knesset. Nine times out of ten they end with no consequences. We can assume that in Egypt of the Pharaohs, nine out of ten ministers would have sentenced the impudent nomad to death. The brothers were lucky; they happened upon the tenth. His hard heart softens, and he bursts into tears. (Bereishit 45:1)

An imprudent darshan might portray Yehuda as a resourceful, smooth-talking salesman who knows how to suit the speech to the listener, to cause everyone to react according to his demands. . . first the brothers, then Yaakov, then Yosef. But such a midrash would be ignoring the fact that Yehuda did not know what we, the readers, know. He could not know that inside the harsh and capricious official hides a rejected child who devised for himself a corrective experience of international propor. Neither wizard with words nor a fire-breathing lion, Yehuda was an aging nomad shepherd, himself a father who lost sons, who, in an extremely difficult moment, did the right thing.

The following scene, with its embraces, kisses, and tears, has been much subjected to 'symposiums' in Sunday morning 'She'at mechanech" – home room teacher's hour. "If Yehuda and Yosef reconciled, the Tribes of Yehuda and Efrayim can behave similarly, for the sake of national unity and other miscellany". But we, Zionists of the end of the sixth millenium, we will remember the beginning of Parashat "Vayigash" – the moment in which our father Yehuda steps forward, alone, and takes upon his shoulders the responsibility for the welfare of his father and his brothers.

"His heart failed" His heart stopped beating and his breathing ceased, for cardiac activity stopped and he was as dead. This is a known phenomenon resulting from sudden joy. Medical texts state that the aged and weak may not be able to withstand this; many faint at the sudden reception of good tidings; the heart suddenly expands and opens, and the warmed blood goes out and spreads throughout the external portions of the body, and as a result of its cooling, the heart ceases. The old man fell as if dead, and he said that he believed them not, informing us that he stood a good part of the day, and he lies in silence because he did not believe them, for he knew that this fainting would lead to their shouting at him , normalizing him with this joy until it is absorbed in calm. This is the reason that "they spoke to him all of Yosef's words which he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons etc." – they were shouting Yosef's words into his ears, and bringing the wagons before him, and then his spirit returned to him, and his breathing was restored, and he lived, and this is the meaning of "their father Yaakov's spirit came to life."

In a land such as Egypt, where a person is judged only on the basis of his labor, where a person is born not as a person but as an artisan, a farmer, soldier, etc. – the question regarding occupation would naturally be the first question. But they will fearlessly declare the unpleasant truth; the Egyptians' abhorrence of their occupation, and the nations' general loathing of the of Jews, are the primary means of survival for this tribe which is destined to pass the days in isolation. As long as the light of morality has not dawned upon the nations, the barriers which the nations raised against Yisrael protects him from contamination by the corruption of the peoples among whom he will walk for centuries.

"Acquire us and our lands"

Yosef, however, hated slavery, that a person should rule over another to his detriment. Therefore it is written, "And Yosef acquired all the lands of Egypt for Pharaoh" but he did not purchase them as slaves; the land alone became Pharaoh's property, whereas the were temporarily drafted to work for their bread, becoming day laborers in field work. Therefore Yosef said "Now that I have acquired you . . . today" – This is to say: (You) temporarily, and your lands forever for Pharaoh. Therefore he transferred them to the cities, lest they continue to hold their land, for how can one discern that he acquired their lands if they (the sellers) were not sold and they continue to live on their land. (Meshekh Hochma, Bereishit 47:19)

"Let the poor be members of your household" – and not that he purchase servants to serve him." (Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartinura, Avot 1:5)

"Let the poor be members of your household" Said the Tur (Yoreh Deah 251): "It is a mitzvah that his household include indigents and orphans, and better that he take of them into his service than that he take many servants – and this will be considered as a charitable act." But he should speak with them kindly, and when mealtime approaches, he should treat them respectfully, feeding them at his table, and with good cheer. And when takes them to serve him, he should think: 'Master of the Universe, I take these and not others in order to fulfill you command "And let your brother live with you." And so in all matters, even when a person does something in his own interest, if he can elevate his action to the level of 'in honor of His Name' he should bear this in mind, and be stimulated, and do it in joy.

Home	The Movement Objectives and Principles You can Help!	What's New Activities and Current Events	Articles and Position Papers Peace Judaism and Israel

Weekly Parsha (Hebrew) Weekly Parsha (English)	Search Our Site	Links To Peace Movements

Contact Us
OZ veSHALOM - NETIVOT SHALOM
P.O. Box 4433, Jerusalem, 91043 Israel
Tel: 02-5664218, for Shabbat Shalom only call 053-920206
ozshalom@netvision.net.il
© Copyright 1997-2003 by Oz Veshalom. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.