Parashat Vayigash

Parashat Vayigash
Tevet 5, 5772 ~ December 31, 2011
by Steve Astrachan

Vayigash and the Unity of the Family

Parsha Vayigash concludes the confrontation between Joseph and his brothers that dominates the previous two parshot. Not that family conflict is a particularly new theme in the Torah with Sarah and Hagar, Yitzchak and Ishmael, and Yaacov and Esau. The parsha begins with Yehuda’s passionate and principled appeal to Joseph, offering himself as Joseph’s bondman in place of Benjamin. Joseph then reveals himself and begins the reconciliation.

“Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him…and said unto his brethren: I am Joseph: doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him for they were affrighted at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren: “’Come near to me, I pray you.” And they came near, and he said: “I am Joseph your brother, who ye sold into Egypt. And now be not grieved not angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for G-d did send me before you to preserve life…”

After the shock wore off the brothers began the process of reconciliation.

In a tradition that emphasizes the primacy of the family this reconciliation is reflected in Haftorah Vayyiggash, Ezekiel XXXVII, 15-28. It begins with a promise to bring back the disparate and dispersed tribes and people of Israel, “Behold, I will take the Children of Israel and from among the nations whither they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, and they shall be no more two nations….” It then goes far beyond the theme of familial reconciliation and introduces, I think for the first time in the year’s haftorot, the concept of Moshiach. “And My servant David shall be king over them…and David My servant shall be their prince forever.”

Thus the coming of moshiach is critically linked to family cohesion, reconciliation, and shalom baayit.

But how well did the family actually reconcile. A closer look at Joseph’s statement to the brothers is not reassuring. Don’t worry about what you did to me because it was part of the divine plan. Hmmm. The brothers always remained skeptical. After the death of Yaacov many prosperous years later they were still afraid that Joseph, with their father gone, would take his revenge. Rahsi’s attempts to explain the verses after the death of Yaacov (Ch 50, 15, 19, 20, and 21) are not reassuring. After their father’s death the brothers no longer dine at Joseph’s table. Joseph explains that as they being ten could not kill him, Ha Shem would not allow for him as one to harm them. And finally his killing the brothers would only further a rumor among the Egyptians that Joseph had been a slave even before he came to Egypt. Very interesting arguments, these are. A heartfelt family reunion and reconciliation, this is not.

So how then does our tradition make this family reconciliation so fraught with ambivalence and underlying fears a basis for the coming of Moschiach? Perhaps this apparent contradiction is actually the very point of the story. Families can have tensions and problems; but they are still families. So the real lesson may be that we must remember, honor, and love our families and those close to us even, or especially, when there are underlying tensions in the relationships.

Shabbat Shalom.