Then Israel saw Joseph's sons, and he said, "Who are these?"

Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons,

whom God gave me here." So he said, "Now bring them near to me, so that I

may bless them."

(Bereishit 48:8-9)

What Did Israel See?

Then Israel saw – The Hebrews' dress was different from the

Egyptians'. [Since] Joseph was close to the monarchy, as were his sons, they

dressed in the garb of Egyptian officials, just as it is written regarding the

House of Rabban Gamliel that they changed their manners out of respect for

royalty. That is why Jacob was puzzled and asked, Who are these?

Joseph

said to his father, "They are my sons –

They are righteous and God-fearing; you see them wearing unusual clothing

because of whom

God gave me here – they were born in this place, and the time

and the place requires it.

(Malbim

48:8-9)

Then Israel saw Joseph's

sons, and he said,

"From whom were these born to you?"

(Keter

Yonatan Bereishit 48:8)

Then

Israel saw Joseph's sons – He wanted to

bless them but the Shekhina departed from him, because in the future Jeroboam

and Ahab would descend from Ephraim, and Jehu and his sons from Mennashe.

(Rashi

Bereishit 48:8)

Let my soul not enter their counsel

Hanokh Ben Pazi

In

his book Memalei HaPekodot [The Follower of Orders], Yigal Ilam

brings up an historical moral question for discussion. He is concerned with

people who committed serious crimes but excused themselves with the claim that they

were only following orders, and that even though the orders were harsh or

immoral, they only acted in order to obey the orders they had received. There

are very famous stories and incidents of this sort, but the surprising thing

about the group of cases dealt with by Ilam is that, in fact, the orders in

whose names terrible acts had been perpetrated had never actually been given. History

offers many examples of such occurrences, including Zionist and Israeli history

as well as general European history. Ilam's suggested explanation is thought

provoking: there are situations in which orders are "in the air," in

which a certain public mood has been created in which restraint disappears. In

such situations, there is no need for the leader or commander to actually give

orders; it is enough that people feel they are executing orders.

Parashat

Vayehi seems to allow us to examine a case of the kind of conduct and moral

disintegration that permits people to commit crimes which they themselves

recognize to be morally impermissible. All of the closing parshiyot of

Bereishit involve an attempt to understand the systems of relationships within Jacob's

family, but this parasha offers a new viewpoint. Just before the departure we

can hear Jacob asking for the secret to be revealed, to hear once again the

conversation between Joseph and his brothers, perhaps to see Joseph asking

himself once more what brought his brothers to commit their cruel deed, an act

bordering between fratricide and selling a brother into slavery. Scripture

allows us to observe these relationships, to read beyond the words and between

the lines, allowing us to rethink the possible patterns of relationships

between leaders, the public, and the individual as regards questions of

responsibility.

The

question of whether Joseph forgave his brothers is one of the exegetical

windows through which we can rethink the question of responsibility. We might

also ask whether Joseph forgave Jacob; it is only now that the brothers send a delegation

to Joseph with the message: "Your father commanded before his death,

transgression and their sin, for they did evil to you (Bereishit 50:16). This is amazing: did Joseph and his

brothers never hold a serious discussion about all that had happened? Did they simply

make do with the statement Joseph made upon revealing his identity to them, You

did not send me here, but rather it was God (Bereishit 45:8)? The midrash offers a fascinating

explanation: "R. Yiyzhal said, 'He went and peeked into that very

pit'" (Bereishit

Rabbah 100). Perhaps the

brothers' concern was aroused by Joseph having visited the pit into which he

had been cast in Dotan after completing the journey to Jacob's burial. Before

returning to Egypt, Joseph took advantage of the funeral journey to return to

the moment which was foundational for his life and perhaps for the life of his

entire family – perhaps for the entire People Israel – the moment when his

brothers cast him into the pit. We can imagine him not talking with his

brothers about his feelings; we can, in a Kierkegaardian vein, even listen to

the silence that falls between Joseph and his brothers on their long trek back

to Egypt. Only then do the brothers come to Joseph and – speaking truth or

lies, practicing manipulation or authenticity – they ask his forgiveness. As

Rashi teaches, "They lied for the sake of peace," since before his

death Jacob never uttered an order that Joseph must forgive his brothers'

crime. Attend carefully to Joseph's answer: it is surprising. He does not hurry

to forgive his brothers or to erase their sin. On the contrary: Joseph

emphasizes their evil intention in selling him, but he also mentions that there

are broader and more significant contexts in which the processes springing from

his sale unfolded. Do not fear, for am I in place of God? (50:20).

The

discussion of forgiveness begins with the question of responsibility for the

crime that has been committed. This question was already raised in the previous

parasha when the midrash explained regarding the wagons [agalot] sent by

Joseph, "I was busy studying the issue of egla arufa ["the

decapitated calf" – a ritual performed in the case of an unsolved

murder]" (Bereishit

Rabbah 94). Mention of the egla

arufa raises the question of responsibility – the responsibility of the

elders of the law court for deeds committed in their vicinity. The elders are

required to announce, Our hands did not spill this blood because,

apparently, they failed to do all they could have to prevent the murder. The

midrash's bold call has Joseph directing this harsh and powerful comment

towards Jacob. Through this hint, Joseph assigns blame to Jacob as the head of

the family and grandfather of the entire tribe. The attribution of responsibility

to Jacob is not just a matter of settling scores; for Jacob it opens an

opportunity for tikkun [repair/rehabilitation].

Perhaps

this is also the significance of the separate meeting between Jacob and Joseph

in the beginning of the parasha. There is a secret Jacob wants to uncover, and

it seems none of his sons has helped him: what exactly happened when he sent

Joseph to his bothers, never to return? Where did the brothers actually find

the coat of many colors, covered in blood? What was the significance of his

silence or responsibility for these events? Perhaps Jacob even thought that the

secret of redemption lay hidden in these mysteries. Israel's redemption from

Egypt depended on their ability to confront their own past. Perhaps this is

also the reason why Jacob tells Joseph about the circumstances that led him to

bury Rachel outside the familial burial cave. That is to say – she, you, and

your children all belong to the family, but I had no alternative. That is to

say – I had no part in your removal from the family circle. Without saying so

explicitly, Jacob is trying to compensate Joseph by giving him Shechem. When we

read the words, I have given you a Shechem beyond [al] your brothers (48:22) – we can read the double and perhaps triple

meaning alluded to by these words: more than your brothers; with your

brothers; or because of your brothers. Thus the parting conversation

becomes a founding moment in which two things were made clear to Joseph: first,

that Jacob had no part in the scheme to sell him. That is why Jacob mistakenly

thought that the unknown events took place in Shechem – he did not know that

they actually took place in Dotan. Second, the circle of brothers remained

closed before Joseph, both from his side and from theirs.

Now

the solution to the question of responsibility raised by the parasha grows

increasingly clear, since the brothers have come to understand that they bear

all responsibility for the crime themselves: they stand alone before God as

Joseph's brothers, as servants of your father's God (50:17). For a certain time the brothers could see

themselves as having perpetrated the deed in partnership with Jacob or with

God. Perhaps they thought Jacob had actually sent Joseph so that they could

hurt him. Perhaps they understood that by telling Joseph to meet them, Jacob

granted them the opportunity and the right to decide Joseph's fate. Perhaps

they felt they were on a religious mission and in God's name they wanted to

kill Joseph or at least remove him from candidacy for family leadership. Following

the logic of orders that need not be spoken, the brothers could think of

themselves as carrying out a command, whether it be based on permission

seemingly granted to them by Jacob or whether they imagined themselves to be

carrying out a divine decree. They found themselves precisely in the position

of those asked to carry out immoral orders, yet now, with Jacob's death, it

becomes clear to them that no such order had ever been issued to them. Levinas

teaches us that banding together for evil occurs in a group which keeps secrets

and which does not see itself responsible to stand before humanity.

The

brothers made a pact amongst themselves in order to sell Joseph; it was concluded

with an oath and ban against publicly revealing the secret. The sale of Joseph

was not the act of a single person, but rather that of a group which turned

itself into a closed clique. The demarcation of the group's boundaries was an

essential part of the actions leading to the sale of Joseph. The brothers

defined the circle of significance for themselves by leaving Joseph out of it;

this allowed them to degenerate towards the possibility of fratricide or of

selling Joseph while thinking that their behavior was proper. The demarcation

of the social circle sometimes allows its members to believe that they possess

the truth, so much so that they lose the simple morality of relations between

human beings and between brothers.

The

question of the morality of the sale of Joseph is the demarcation of the circle

in which one believes that the forbidden has become permissible. The question

before whom do I stand and before whom am I destined to make an accounting of

myself is a moral question of the first order: will it be before my society,

before my family, or before the entire world? There is a deep truth in the

moral significance of standing before humanity. "Right from the beginning,

the society which aspires to intimacy between twelve tribes looking at one

another, this society of a community is already present to the whole of

humanity, or opens on to the whole of humanity" (E. Levinas, Beyond the

Verse, G.D. Mole, translator, p. 74).

Our

parasha teaches us that a society which operates as "tribes looking only at

one another" may become "a banding together for evil." There is

daily moral significance to the standing of members of the covenant before

humanity and the nations of the world, both as a link to moral and religious

truth and as an instrument for preserving the Divine image.

Dr. Hanokh Ben

Pazi teaches Jewish Philosophy at Bar Ilan University

Simeon and Levi are

throughout Israel.

Jacob – the Galut

aspect of the Jewish People, oppressed and persecuted.

Israel – the "God

won" victorious aspect of the Jewish People.

Accordingly: the danger to the general wealth by Shimon and

Levi's excessive impetuosity and choleric disposition is only present at a time

when the nation is flourishing, when it forms a powerful body of a people who

could easily be influenced by two compact tribes filled with glowing feelings

of strength and power and of the unity and brotherhood of the whole nation.

Therefore in Israel: I will scatter them. In a flourishing state

of Israel they are to be scattered. As actually happened. Levi received no

province at all when the land was divided up, and his existence was, through

tithes, made entirely dependent on the good-will of each individual. For the

Jewish tithe, in contrast to the later and present-day tithe of the Church and

landlord, was absolutely "property that no one could claim," a tax which

it was certainly the duty of the occupier of the land to pay, but to which no

particular Levite had any direct claim. The one who had to pay it could give

the tithe to any one of the tribe of Levi that he pleased and none had the

right to demand it from him…

But in Galut, where the pressure of our fate bows everything

down and the nation itself torn asunder, there the danger lies, that all

feelings of one's own importance becomes lost, and the sense of oppression

kills all spiritual force and energy. That even the wandering Jew, peddling

through Europe, still looked down on the street boys of the various countries

with proud feeling of his own value, and he, downtrodden and driven all over

the world still keeps the feelings of the importance of his own person and the

sense of belonging to his people, for that I shall divide them among Jacob,

it was of the greatest benefit that the tribes of Shimon and Levi were

scattered amongst the other tribes, which had the natural result that, when the

state collapsed and the nation scattered in all directions, in this dispersion,

Shimonites and Levites would be found everywhere, who, with their fiery and

proud dispositions would keep alive the energy and the courage, the fire and

the noble Jewish pride of the Jewish spirit, outliving the loss of the state.

(R. S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 49:7, Levi

translation)

Binyamin, a wolf that

tears-to-pieces – He prophesized that in the future they would be

snatchers. [For instance, it says] in the story of the concubine from Giv'ah

let each of you seize a wife

(Judges 21), and he prophesized about Saul who would be

victorious over all his surrounding enemies, as is written (I Samuel 14) After Saul had

them.

(Rashi, Bereishit, 49:27)

So they sent this message to Joseph, "Your father left this

But Joseph said to them, "Have no fear! Am I a substitute for God?

(Bereishit 50:15-19)

Am I a substitute for God? [Joseph is saying:]The Holy One blessed be He sees into hearts and

kidneys [also thought to be a seat of thought], and He judges a person not only

on the basis of his actions, but also according to his thoughts. However, a

human being only knows what his eyes see. Therefore, I cannot judge you for

your intentions, but only for your actions. If you had intended to do me evil,

your thoughts were not realized; instead, God's thoughts, which were good, were

realized. Now there is no reason for you to lower yourselves before me and ask

for my forgiveness and pardon because I only see you as the agents of

Providence acting for the good of a multitude of people. This is one of the

great benefits of belief in God and His providence; a person controls his

actions, but the consequences of his actions are not in his hands, but rather

in God's hands. If a wicked man schemes against a righteous man, wishing to

harm him, God will not relinquish him to his control. The wicked man's hate

will become a cause of the righteous man's success. One who believes this shall

never be angry at any person nor hate any person.

(R. Shmuel David Luzzato

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