JOSEPH ORDERED HIS

CHARIOT AND WENT TO GOSHEN TO MEET HIS FATHER ISRAEL; HE PRESENTED HIMSELF TO

HIM AND, EMBRACING HIM AROUND THE NECK, HE WEPT ON HIS NECK A GOOD WHILE. THEN

ISRAEL SAID TO JOSEPH, "NOW I CAN DIE, HAVING SEEN FOR MYSELF THAT YOU ARE

STILL ALIVE."

 (Bereishit 46:29-30)

Joseph wept, Jacob did

not weep. Joseph could still weep, Jacob was finished with weeping, he had wept enough in his life. Joseph was still weeping

even after Jacob had already spoken to him – in such small points the actual

truth is mirrored. Since he had missed Joseph, Jacob had had a dull monotonous

life, had not ceased from weeping, his whole life of feelings had been spent in

grief over Joseph. In the mean-time Joseph had lived a life full of changes,

had had no time to give himself up so much to the pain of separation, he was

kept fully occupied with each of his different posts. Now when he fell round

his father's neck again, he felt all the more what the separation had really

meant to him, and lived once again through the past twenty years. Jacob had

already become Israel, Joseph still wept.

(R. S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit

46:29 Levi translation)

Economic

Reform and the Law of Priests

Avner Roei

Joseph,

omnipotent in Egypt, enacts revolutionary economic reforms. He transfers the

farmers to the cities, buys up all the land in Egypt and supplies each person

with set food-rations. However, he is confronted by a "taboo" – the

priests' special status. Despite Egypt's national emergency, Joseph could not

take temporary measures that might insult the priests' divine privilege.

Why

did the Torah find it necessary to describe the special arrangements made for

Egypt's priests? The question may be broadened to include the Torah's entire

account of Joseph's economic program. In her book, Nehama

Leibowitz cites the author of Akedat

Yitzhak: "Why is all of this mentioned here,

the law of the fifth-part (47:24) the transfer of the population to the cities (47:21)

and Pharaoh's law regarding the priests (47:22)? It would be appropriate

to write all of this in Egypt's law-book, but not in the Divine Torah!" Nehama continues and writes: "Perhaps the answer lies

in a single verse that relates to the status and organization of the priests in

Egypt:

Only

the land of the priests he did not take over, for the priests had an allotment

from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh had made to them;

therefore they did not sell their land (Bereishit

47:22)

Don't

we hear the Torah scoffing here at that "justice and honesty" which

leaves private lands only in the hands of those few whose nourishment is

already guaranteed, who eat at Pharaoh's table, in the spirit of "the rich

get richer?" Perhaps this entire section was written in such detail in

order to inform us that He who took us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage

prohibits us from establishing such arrangements, and is totally opposed to

them. Pharaoh does not own the land; the Lord of the earth does" (Iyyunim Be-Sefer Bereishit pg. 378). That is why the Torah gives

the Israelite priests no inherited lands of their own:

But

they shall have no territorial share among the Israelites; for it is the tithes

set aside by the Israelites as a gift to the Lord that I give to the Levites as

their share. Therefore I have said concerning them: They shall have no

territorial share among the Israelites (Bamidbar 18:

23-24)

The

Torah's laws did not permanently prevent corruption amongst the priests. Perhaps

the law of hereditary priesthood (which apparently existed amongst the

Egyptians as well) is partially to blame; we read of Eli's sons, worthless

men who did not know the Lord (I Samuel 2:12-18, 22) who took advantage of their

positions to rob and sexually extort the people. There were also priests who

were granted responsibilities in the Second Temple period, establishing privileges

for themselves:

And

these for condemnation: Those of the house of Garmu –

who refused to teach others how to make the incense, of the house of Avtinus – who knew a singing technique which they did not

want to teach,. Ben Kamtzer

– did not want to teach his writing method… of these it is written, the

name of the wicked shall rot (Proverbs 10:7). (Mishnah Yoma 3:11)

There

were also families of high priests in the days of Herod and the Roman governors

who bought their posts and used force to exploit their privileges:

Woe

is me because of the house of Bitus, woe is me because of their lance. Woe is me because of the

house of Hanin, woe is me because of their talk. Woe is me because of the

house of Katros, woe is me because of their pen. Woe is me because of the

house of Yishmael, woe is me because of their fist;

for they are high priests and their sons treasurers and their sons-in-law

trustees, and their servants beat the people with sticks. (Tosefta Menahot 13:21(

The

economic doctrine that justifies strengthening the owners of capital in order

that they "pull the wagon up the mountain" is very dangerous, because

they are likely to think only of their own profit and of the profit of those

close to them, while remaining blind to the needs of the broader public. They

will employ foreign workers in order to keep wages at a minimum and move their

factories to foreign lands where labor is cheap.

On

the other hand, the proletariat which gave rise to the workers' committees – the

"workers' priests" – in order to improve the lot of wage-earning

employees have claimed special privileges for themselves. Any attempt to limit

those privileges is met by strikes which inflict serious damage to the nation's

economy.

The

Torah does not dictate an "economic doctrine" but it does contain

commandments whose economic and social consequences are far-reaching. First of

all there is the fallowing of land in the Shemittah

year, the freeing of slaves, the absolution of debts, and the Jubilee year – all

of which prevent the owners of capital from gaining complete control over the

land and resources. The Torah further includes a series of commandments that

demand concern for others: gifts to the poor – leket,

shikheha, and pe'ah,

the obligation to loan money and the prohibition of usury, the prohibition

against the withholding of wages and the unlimited possession of collateral,

honest weights and measures, etc.

Those

who devote themselves to Torah can also develop economic dependency and become

a burden upon society. They enjoy no "divine privileges," but are,

instead, subject to special duties. The RaMBaM warns

of this in Hilkhot Talmud Torah 3:10:

One,

however, who makes up his mind to study Torah and not to work but to live on

charity, profanes the name of God, brings the Torah into contempt, extinguishes

the light of religion, brings evil upon himself, and deprives himself of life

hereafter… They have further charged us, "Make not of them a crown

wherewith to aggrandize yourself, nor a spade wherewith to dig" (Avot 4:7). They likewise exhorted us, "Love

work, hate lordship" (Avot 1:10).

Laws

can restrict the opportunities for corruption – the abuse of power for personal

gain – but they cannot stomp them out completely. A public climate favoring

reform, constant study of spiritual and educational values (which requires no

less an allocation of funding and manpower than does vocational education) – these

can help bring us nearer to the ideal of you shall be for me a kingdom of

priests and a holy people (Shemot 19:6).

Avner Roei, a member of Kibbutz Sa'ad,

is writing his doctorate on Jewsih history in the

period of the Second Temple and the Mishnah.

A Moral Leader takes Communal Needs into Account and Distributes

Resources Justly

Bread, according to the number of infants (Bereishit 47:12): Even

though he could have given them a lot of food, he gave them only what they

needed. As the Sages said: "When the public is suffering, one should not

say: 'I shall go, I shall eat and drink, and all will be well with me'" (Ta'anit 11a).

(Seforno on Bereishit 47:12)

For all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians

When Pharaoh summons

you (Bereishit

46:33): It may be assumed that he called you in order to choose warriors

from amongst you. So, when he asks you "What is your occupation?"

answer him "your servants are breeders of livestock." It is

not proper to speak of something that is abhorrent in the eyes of the king. God forbid you should explicitly mention

something prohibited by his religion! If this were not so, why did Joseph

not mention another explanation of his own words, but rather he said [all

shepherds] are abhorrent to Egyptians… that is precisely the reason why

he told them not to say that they were shepherds. Of course, the king must

understand that since you are breeders of livestock, you certainly must all be

shepherds.

(Keli Yakar

on Bereishit 46:33)

Social and

Ethical Initiatives for Israel –

the Dream, its

Rupture and its Repair

Michael Melchior

In

the opening section of parashat Vayeishev,

we find Joseph dreaming two dreams pertaining to himself and his mastery over

his brothers. He tells them to his brothers and father. These dreams awaken the

brothers' hatred and jealousy, leading Joseph to the pit from which he is

brought to Potiphar's house in Egypt. He was brought

down to Egypt after having been lifted out of the pit and placed in charge

of Potiphar's house, from which he moved to prison

following the accusations of Potiphar's wife. In

prison he found himself in the company of the Minister of drinks and the

Minister of bakers. By that stage he already knew how to listen to their dreams

and interpret them. His skill at listening to other people's dreams lifts him

once more out of the pit, and in parashat Mikeitz he again utilizes this skill: He listens to Pharaoh's

dreams and interprets them. In the light of their interpretation, he presents

Pharaoh with a long-term social-economic plan to weather the coming days of famine

in Egypt.

Joseph

matures from being a self-centered adolescent into an adult who knows how to

listen to others. Judah's own parallel process of maturation sets the scene for

the dramatic encounter between the brothers in the beginning of parashat Vayigash.

The

favorite son who had been rejected by his own brothers meets, "at

eye-level," the very brothers who had rejected him. He had undergone a

transformation (they did not recognize him) and, through their meeting

with him, they also change and develop.

From

the perspective of "the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children,"

Joseph's story may be read as a story of acceptance and the tearing down of

walls between people. There is a stage in which the dreams of one person, one

group, or one nation conflict with the dreams of others and are fulfilled at

their expense. That stage creates a wall of hatred between dreams, between

individuals and groups.

There

is no need for long-winded descriptions of the walls that divide Israeli

society; walls of blood, sweat, and tears. Israeli society has indeed adopted

the "Separation Plan" – separation from compassion, from social

justice and social solidarity. In this sense, it is difficult to describe it

today as a society which draws its values from the Torah of Israel. There are "us"

and the "other." Naturally, the marginalized "others"

belong to needy groups: the handicapped, endangered children, single-parent

families, minorities, foreign workers who have no rights, and so forth.

Many

people are disillusioned by Israeli society and feel that it has not realized

our hopes and dreams. We feel that a polarized society whose social gaps grow

ever wider is a sick society, which cannot survive in the long term as a Jewish

and democratic state.

Instead

of the existing walls, we need a fence of social-security to protect us from

fragmentation and which will help us to realize our dreams while remaining

attentive to the dreams of others. The fence shall encompass all elements of

Israeli society – no one shall be left outside it.

Based

upon our entrenched Jewish world-view, we believe that dreams can be made into

realities and that Israeli society may be founded upon justice, social

solidarity, and empathy. We are excited by the thousands of people who came

from all sectors of society to identify with us at the founding conference of

the Tenufah Movement. We are full of hope that this

renewed drive will bring many to act towards the formation of a more attractive

and more just Israeli society.

M.K. Rabbi Michael Melchior is the founder of

the Tenufah movement.

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