Parshat Vayigash  9 Tevet 5763, 14 December 2002

Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayigash    Genesis 44:18-47:27

By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel -"And Joseph could not hold himself back in front of all who were standing around him; he called everyone to get out from his presence so that no one was with him when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. And he gave out his voice in tears, and Egypt heard and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph; Is my father still alive?' (Genesis 45:1,2,3)." Now Joseph had been separated from his family for at least 22 years, the last seven of which he served as the Grand Vizier of Pharaoh - a position from which he easily could have sent a welfare message to his aged father in Israel. Moreover, he was in contact with his brothers - albeit as the Grand Vizier and Mashbir (Grain Apportioner) -during this last period of world famine. Why does he now suddenly wake up to his familial ties and reveal himself as the long-lost and thought-dead son and brother? Apparently he was inspired by Yehuda's stirring speech which opens our Torah reading of Vayigash. What are the emotional "buttons" Yehudah pressed to have struck such a responsive chord in a Joseph whose heart had previously been so impervious to filial and sibling sensitivity? What secret word does Yehudah mention which unlocked the gates of emotion which had heretofore been so deeply buried in Joseph's psyche?

I believe that the crucial phase are the words, "because your servant guaranteed my father that I would serve as a surety for the youth" (Genesis 44:32); Yehudah informs Joseph that he is an arev, a co-signer, a stand-in for Benjamn, a concept which is quite radical for these warring siblings and which resonates in subsequent Jewish legal and ethical literature in the axiom that "all of Israel are co-signers (or sureties) for each other." A close reading of the text will elucidate the fundamental dysfunction in the family dynamic as experienced by Joseph and will explain at the same time the crucial lesson learned by the brothers which not only mollifies Joseph but moves the Grand Vizier to reveal himself, forgive his siblings and effectuate a rapprochement.

Joseph may have been the favorite son and first-born elect of Jacob "These are the children of Jacob, Joseph was seventeen years old" (Genesis 37:2) - but he was born into a family of jealousy and hatred. The six sons of Leah, the 'hated' wife who had been forced upon Jacob under false pretenses, refused to recognize the beloved wife Rachel's son as a legitimate brother; hence the seventeen-year-old Joseph had no recourse but to find his companionship with the younger and less significant brothers of the secondary wives Zilpah and Bilhah, and compensated by 'shepherding' his siblings the sons of Leah (acting the big-shot) and reporting all their foibles to his adoring father. (Genesis 37:2).

Even more to the point, Joseph always refers to his siblings as his brothers, but they never refer to him with the appellation of brother: "And he (Joseph) said, I am seeking my brothers & and Joseph went after his brothers&. And they saw him from afar. The men said, each one to his brother, behold, that master of dreams is coming, let us kill him and throw him in one of the pits and say that an evil animal devoured him" (Genesis 37:16-20).

The sad truth is that the young Joseph was desperately seeking a brotherly relationship with his siblings - but was constantly rebuffed. And when he tried to overcome their rejection of him by recounting his (perhaps compensatory) dreams of grandeur, it only caused them to hate him even more. Even Reuven, who attempts to rescue Joseph completely, never calls him 'brother' only referring to 'him' as a pronoun (Genesis 37: 21,22). It is only Yehudah who refers to him as a brother, but since he is desirous of making a profit by selling him as slave, the usage of the term may be ironic: "What profit have we in killing our brother? Let us sell him to the Ishmaelites& for he is our brother, our flesh" (Genesis 37:26,27).

As the story progresses, the lack of brotherliness towards the sons of Rachel is emphasized even more: "And the ten brothers of Joseph (they felt towards each other as brothers) went down to Egypt to purchase grain, but Jacob did not send Benjamin the brother of Joseph (but not the brother of the other ten) (Genesis 42:3,4). And when the sons of Jacob stand before the Grand Vizier the Bible stresses the inequality in their relationship with a ringing declaration, pregnant with a double meaning, 'Joseph recognized his brothers (their identity as well as a sibling relationship to them), but they did not recognize him"(Genesis 42:8).

Now the Hebrew word ah (brother) means to be tied together, the verb lahot meaning to sew or to stitch. It derives from a sense of unity, oneness (ehad, ahdut) which comes from the understanding of having emanated from one father. It goes without saying that since the common source of their unity is their common father, they should not want to cause pain to each other and certainly not to their father. Apparently the ten brothers' hatred for Joseph even overwhelmed their filial concern for their father's welfare - and so they seemingly had no difficulty in telling Jacob that his beloved Joseph had been torn apart by a wild animal!

When Yehudah declares to their father Jacob that he will stand as surety (as a co-signer) for Benjamin, he is expressing his new-found recognition that this youngest son of Rachel is truly an ah, a brother, an inextricable part of him. When he tells the Grand Vizier that he is willing to be the slave instead of Benjamin - so that this son of Rachel may be restored to his loving father in order to save Jacob further pain - he is demonstrating the bond of ultimate unity between siblings, as well as between siblings and their father. This is ahva (brotherliness) and ahdut (unity) which creates an indissoluble bond (hibur, haverut, profound attachment). The proof of such brotherhood is the willingness of one to act as co-signer for the other, to take upon himself the suffering and indignity of the other, because of his deep bond with his brother and especially because of his deep bond with his father! It is at this point of Yehuda's self-sacrifice for Rachels youngest son that Joseph realizes his brothers' repentance and is ready to forgive and reunite with them.

The prophet Ezekiel provides the ultimate vision of a united Israel when he is told by G-d to take one stick and write upon it "For Yehudah and the children of Israel his friends" (haver, hibbur, bond), to take another stick and write upon it, "for Joseph, the stick of Efraim and the entire house of Israel his friend," and to join both sticks so that they are united in his hand (Ezekiel 37). This is the Jewish goal, learned from Yehudah, when every Israelite sees himself / herself as a co-singer (surety) for every other Israelite for the greater glory of our common Parent-in-heaven.

Shabbat Shalom.

Return to Ohr Torah Stone