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, saying, "Please, forgive now your brothers' 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 brothers... Cursed be their wrath for it is mighty, and their anger because it is harsh... I will separate them throughout Jacob, and I will scatter them 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 secured his kingship over Israel, he waged war on every side against all his enemies, against the Moabites, Ammonites... and wherever he turned, he worsted them.

(Rashi, Bereishit, 49:27)

 

So they sent this message to Joseph, "Your father left this instruction before his death: So shall you say to Joseph, ‘Forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly.' Therefore, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept as they spoke to him. His brothers went to him themselves, flung themselves before him, and said, "We are prepared to be your slaves." 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 [ShaDaL] ad loc)

 

 

 

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