Vayigash - Has Joseph Found Complete Belief

Vayigash: Has Joseph Found Complete Belief? By: Jeffrey Dweck Rare for the Bible text, the perasha opens in the midst of a suspended and unfolding narrative, indeed a drama with all its modern-day elements – the framing of Binyamin, his hopeless situation, his helpless brothers, fear, emotion, and a story that continues to build. Yehuda is already singled out as the spokesperson in the end of last week’s reading, as he and his brothers, silenced by the red hand of their brother Binyamin, approach the house of Yosef yet speechless (“What can we say?” Miqes, 44:16). And to no avail. Yosef shows no desire to negotiate, using a phrase he borrows from Abraham’s plea to G-d for Sodom (“Far be it from you[, Hashem] … to kill righteous ones with evil ones … Will you, the Judge … not do justice?!” (18:24)): “Far be it from me to do such a thing [to keep you all as slaves when only one has wronged me] … the rest of you go up in peace to your father.” There is a break in the perasha and the issue is momentarily put to rest. As an aside, Yosef would later tell Binyamin, “Do not fear…,” another phrase used until now in the Book of Bereshit by G-d only (with one exception during the birth of Binyamin), to Abraham, Hagar, Yishaq, and to Yaacob. In the opening of this week’s reading, which most commentators agree is the Bible’s longest and most persuasive speech, Yehuda reappears, now with words in his mouth, in a desperate attempt to impress upon Yosef the predicament he finds himself in. The Torah’s rest, as it were, preceding Yehuda’s plea is no doubt symbolic of the distance drawn between justice and judgment on the one side, and human error, emotion, faith and the power to forgive on the other. That distance is paved by the passing of time, by contemplation, and by introspection. Only when Yosef’s brothers realize that it’s fate that might be dealing them their situation, and that they really have no case and no negotiating strength, are they quieted and forced to make their appeal. The message, suggested by the Peshat and confirmed by late commentators, is that the brothers have seen their error, more or less. They see retribution in their current situation, and they now see the pain they had caused their father and are resolved not to let it happen a second time. Yosef is more of a mystery. To begin with, his whole plan is never really clear. Remember, his act is cut short because “he could no longer contain himself,” and we never know what he really had in mind and how his act was supposed to pan out. The lack of detail suggests he really had no plan other than to see Binyamin and his father unharmed and, perhaps, to pride his father with what had come to pass – the fulfillment of his original dreams. Note that Yosef restates his position of power at least three times and in no less than four different ways (“Elokim sent me here to preserve life,” “to see that you survive in this land,” “to keep you alive for a great deliverance,” “tell my father of all my honor in Egypt”). He uses phrases reserved for G-d. Despite the emotional reunion, he distantly commands his brothers to bring “my” father to Egypt, and his brothers aren’t even sure Yosef won’t exact revenge on them after their father passes on. At many points he seems more an Egyptian than an Israelite, invoking G-d in his words, but deferring to himself or to Pharaoh in action. A final piece of evidence—G-d takes no position in confirming or denying anything Yosef says.

The question is: Has Yosef really found G-d after so much that he had been through, or are his remarks to his brothers only his first steps. The fact is that Yosef, too, has a transformation to undergo, and it is much more significant than that of his brothers. It will take him the remainder of his lifetime to truly forgive his brothers and to truly see G-d in his life. It will take him that lifetime to derail the train that his dreams sent riding and that he would forever be chasing. While Yosef did credit G-d from the earliest days of his success, he never understood, as did his father, how to relinquish his sense of power in favor of a sense of dependence. Where normally G-d “teaches the humble their way” (Tehillim), G-d never appears to Yosef the way he does to Yaacob. Yosef never brings the sacrifices and Yosef never seeks a dialogue with G-d. In the years following his revelation, Yosef would be reunited with his father – who has a dramatically different and personal relationship with G-d – and come to better understand his role in G-d’s plan and, more important, just how to properly invoke G-d in life’s unfolding events. G-d paid special attention to Abraham “because he commands his children, and his household after him, and they will preserve the way of G-d, doing charity and justice….” So, too, Yaacob would come down to Egypt to teach Yosef the solemn and committed mindset a pure Jew needs to really find G-d. It is only at the very end of Bereshit (Perashat Vayehi) that an older Yosef, weeping before his prostrating brothers after his father has passed on, re-declares his belief, now complete, that G-d meant their actions towards Yosef for good so that the survival of his great people could have been so.