AND JOSEPH SAID TO HIS BROTHERS, "I AM JOSEPH. IS MY FATHER STILL ALIVE?"... HASTEN AND GO UP TO MY FATHER, AND SAY TO HIM, 'SO SAID YOUR SON, JOSEPH: "GOD HAS MADE ME A LORD OVER ALL THE EGYPTIANS. COME DOWN TO ME, DO NOT TARRY. AND YOU SHALL DWELL IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN... AND I WILL SUSTAIN YOU THERE FOR THERE ARE STILL FIVE YEARS OF FAMINE LEST YOU BECOME IMPOVERISHED, YOU AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD AND ALL THAT IS YOURS."

(Bereishit 45)

 

Exile as a Contingent Constraint or a Formative Factor?

lest you become impoverished, you and your household and all that is yours - Joseph said this by way of respect for his father. To his brothers he said, For God did send me before you to preserve life, and to give you a remnant, but to his father he did not want to say so. Instead, he said that, "if you will delay in the land of Canaan you will be impoverished for I could not send you much food from the royal storehouse as they will suspect me of selling it there in order to accumulate treasures of money and then return to my birthplace. But when you come here, and they will know that you are my father and brothers, the king will give me permission to sustain you."

(RaMBaN Bereishit 45:11, Chavel translation)

 

"By the two selaim of silk" - as our Sages put it (Shabbat 10b) - that Jacob spent on the embroidery of Joseph's coat the brit ben habetarim came to be fulfilled. In Canaan the family of Jacob could hardly have developed into a nation. As they grew in numbers they would have been scattered among the inhabitants. To become a nation without intermingling, they had to come in the midst of a nation, whose members, in principle as a nation, were opposed to the whole nature of the Jews, and this was Egypt. In the same way the fanatic bigotry which built the ghettos was the most active means in God's hands to keep us far from the lack of culture of the Middle Ages, and in confined circles to nurse the sense of family life and family happiness and the sense of communal life in us...And finally, the first as well as the last Galut arose out of jealousy and causeless hatred which was the reason for the fate of the harsh melting-pot which they all had to endure, and become purified in the school of the bitterest suffering to feelings of equality and brotherhood.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 45:11, following Levi translation)

 

Al tiragzu baderekh

Pinchas Leiser

After Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers and asked them to bring their father he equipped them with wagon loads of food and clothing and sent them off, telling them, Do not become quarrelsome[al tirgzu] on the way.

The biblical commentators of various generations have attempted to explain the meaning of this send off.

Following the RaMBaM, Rabbi Yitzhak Shemuel Reggio, a 19^th century Italian exegete writes:

al tirgzu - this refers to fear, and it says that the fact that they are carrying grain, bread, and food during a draught should not lead them to be afraid of bandits on the road, and similarly during their return [to Egypt] when they will be taking all of their possessions with them. They should remember that he is the governor of all the land of Egypt and he holds the life of all those lands in his hands. All will be in dread of his fearfulness, and therefore they [Joseph's family] will come and go in peace.

RaShBaM interprets the word tiragzu similarly, but gives a different explanation of why they need not fear:

al tirgzu - do not be afraid at all of bandits on the road, because I am at peace from every direction.

Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch takes a similar approach:

Go on your way in good spirit and do not worry about the future.

What can assuage fear? Joseph's fearfulness? Peaceful relations? Faith and hope?

Perhaps each commentator chose the calming factor with which he was acquainted. In contrast to these, Ibn Ezra writes:

The meaning of al tirgzu - lest each one be angry with his brothers because of his [Joseph's] having been sold.

Rashi and others think that this is the plain meaning of the text, but Rashi mentions two midrashic explanations found in the tractate Ta'anit (10b) before explaining the plain meaning:

Do not quarrel on the way - Do not engage in a halakhic discussion lest the way cause you to stray.

Another explanation: Do not walk with large steps, and enter the city while the sun is shining.

According to the simple meaning of the verse, we can say that since they were ashamed, he (Joseph) was concerned that they would perhaps quarrel on the way about his being sold, debating with one another, and saying, "Because of you he was sold. You slandered him and caused us to hate him." (Judaica Press translation)

ShaDaL (Italy, 19^th century) surveys the uses of the root ragaz throughout Scripture and chooses Rashi's plain reading of the verse.

If we consider the Joseph's words in their broader context, we can find that the emotions aroused in the brothers when Joseph made himself known to his brothers fall into a certain sequence. First:

...but his brothers could not answer him because they were startled by his presence. (45:3)

The initial shock and panic arose, perhaps, from a combination of anxiety, confusion, and guilt feelings. Joseph feels the need to address these feelings of guilt and calms them:

But now do not be sad, and let it not trouble you that you sold me here, for it was to preserve life that God sent me before you.

For already two years of famine [have passed] in the midst of the land, and [for] another five years, there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

And God sent me before you to make for you a remnant in the land, and to preserve [it] for you for a great deliverance.

And now, you did not send me here, but God, and He made me a father to Pharaoh, a lord over all his household, and a ruler over the entire land of Egypt. (45:5-7)

Joseph is telling his brothers: In fact, my sale was organized "from Above"

Perhaps we may therefore perceive the shock and panic that develop into feelings of guilt. The feeling of guilt can certainly arouse fear of punishment, and the need to ward off strong feelings of guilt over the sale of Joseph might generate reciprocal accusations amongst the brothers. Therefore it is possible to view the various interpretations, beyond their philological content, as relating to different points upon a continuum of emotions.

It is interesting to note that Rashi chose the midrashic gloss, "Do not engage in a halakhic discussion" as his first and preferred interpretation.

True, Rashi (on Bereishit 37:17) states that "a Biblical verse never loses its plain sense, but sometimes - here, for example - he mentions a midrashic interpretation before giving the plain interpretation of a verse. Apparently, he does so because he believes that here the Sages' midrash has something of great importance to teach us.

On the one hand, we are left with the task of understanding Rabbi Elazar's dictum (from Ta'anit 10b) that Rashi cites; on the other hand, we must think about the significance of the exegetical choices Rashi made in connection with our verse.

What is the connection between engagement in halakhic conversation and rogzat ha'aretz ["the way leading you to stray"]?

In their commentaries on the Talmud, Rashi and others (e.g., the Meiri) point out the need to pay attention to the route of one's journey and warn that engagement in halakhic conversation might cause one to lose one's way. The authors of the Tosafot mention an opposing derasha which points out the dangers of ceasing to engage in halakhic discourse, and they write: "Do not desist from halakhic discourse." The Gemara itself first brings a statement in the name of Rabbi Elai that appears to contradict Rabbi Elazar's dictum and then attempts to strike a compromise between the two opposing positions.

The MaHaRaShA, and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in his wake, point out the possible danger of halakhic disagreements leading to quarrels. Indeed, one should not discount the possibility of a halakhic controversy coming to take on a personal dimension; it may be affected by irrelevant factors and influence the relationship between the parties to the disagreement. The Talmud offers us explicit literary descriptions of this phenomenon, telling us how the lives of Rabbi Yohanan and Resh Lakish ended in tragedy and how the great Rabbi Eliezer was placed under a ban in the story of Tanuro shel Achnai'i.

True, we are all familiar with the braita that is employed as a prayer and introduction to the Kaddish DeRabbanan, which proclaims that "Torah scholars increase peace in the world," but it may be assumed that this describes an ideal that is not always realized. That is why Rabbi Elazar (perhaps the same Rabbi Elazar [ben Pedat?] who set up the ideal of "Torah scholars increase peace in the world" and who tried unsuccessfully to reconcile and calm Rabbi Yohanan after the death of his beloved student-colleague, Resh Lakish) said: while on the way - do not engage in halakhic discussion. Journeying requires that people walk together, and the unnecessary tension that halakhic discourse can generate should be avoided. The tensions could harm the possibility of walking together and accomplishment of the shared goal.

If so, what is the connection between this midrashic dictum and the instruction Joseph gives his brothers? Did the Sages really think that Joseph's brothers were yeshiva students who wrangled over a difficult passage of Tosafot?

I think that Rabbi Elazar understood that in every generation the greatest dangers arise from debates over "matters of halakha," that is to say, a discussion in which each side is convinced that its position is correct and is unable to listen to and accept any other position, especially when the issue involved is thought of as a matter of principle that is beyond compromise.

That is why Rashi gave a midrashic explanation that, while apparently removing Joseph's instructions to his brothers from its "concrete" historical context, converts the possible quarrel between the brothers into a calculus of ascribed guilt "in accordance with Torah law."

We know that "Jerusalem was destroyed only because they settled court cases according to [the strict letter] of Torah law." People who debate over "justice" cannot walk together or solve a shared problem when each party to the conflict is certain of the absolute justice of his cause, especially when the conflict involves religious aspects.

As the poet Yehuda Amichai put it (in his poem, "In the Place Where We are Right")

From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.

(Chana Bloch & Stephen Mitchell, translators)

Pinchas Leiser, Editor of Shabbat Shalom, is a psychologist

 

And he fell on his neck, and he wept on his neck for a long time - Tears of Joy, of Pain, or of Regret?

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.abbi S.R. Hirsch on Bereishit 46:29, Levi translation)

 

For all shepherds are an abomination to Egyptians

Rabbi Yeshua [a Karaite exegete] said: [as for] the meaning of abhorrent to Egyptians, Moses wrote this in order to deprecate idolatry, for instead of just saying to Pharaoh "the gods of Egypt" he said abomination to Egypt, because their gods took the form of a lamb, because they thought the constellation of the lamb [Aries] controlled their land, and for that reason they would not eat meat. However, if that were true, why wouldn't they eat the flesh of cattle and goats? In my opinion, the people of Egypt in Moses' day followed the opinion of the Indian people, who constitute more than half the world's population. All of them are Hamites and they do not eat meat to this day. They also find shepherding disgusting, and so it is written, for all shepherds are an abomination to Egyptians (Bereishit 46:34). And unto this day they do not allow any person to eat meat in their land and if one of them comes to a foreign country he will flee from any place where meat is eaten and will not eat anything touched by a meat-eater, and they consider his vessels to be unclean, and so it is written, the Egyptians could not feed the Hebrews bread (Bereishit 43:32). And Joseph was put in charge of everything when he was in Potiphar's house except for the food he ate since being a Hebrew he could not touch it. And there is no point asking why they had animal stock, since the people of India also have animal stock, for the horses, donkeys, and camels are used as draught animals and for riding, and the cattle are used for plowing, and the sheep for wool...

(Ibn Ezra Shemot 8:22)

 

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)

 

"On Prophecy"

The haftarah (reading from the prophets) which goes with the portion of Vayigash is a prophecy of the future: the unification of Judah and Joseph and the political and spiritual rehabilitation of the united people after it had split into two separate nations. This prophecy was never fulfilled. We therefore need to study and discuss the significance of prophecies of the future, of what appears in the words of the prophets as foretelling what will happen. Ezekiel said these things after the ten tribes and Judah had gone into exile... Hosea and Amos too, who prophesied the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, went on to prophesy that Israel would return. This didn't happen. And in this instance, it is also impossible to accept the Midrashic view of prophecies that have not been fulfilled to this day - that they are prophecies concerning the end of days, and are destined to be fulfilled. The ten tribes, including those of the sons of Joseph, were wiped off the face of the earth, apparently not through being physically exterminated but through spiritual extermination; they completely assimilated into the peoples among whom they were exiled, and there is no trace of them in historical reality. In the Talmudic period, R. Akiva, who knew the prophecies about the return of the ten tribes as well as we do, said: "The ten tribes are not destined to return." He knew they were lost. His faith in the true and righteous prophets was not undermined by this, because we understand that their words do not tell us what will happen, but present the purpose and the point of what will happen, and what should happen, which we ought to look forward to and strive towards, even if no guarantee is given that it will come about... it says in the Tosafot: "A prophet only prophesies about what ought to happen, if there is no sin." The false prophets down the generations have preached belief in the certainty of an unconditional redemption - a redemption that comes even if man does not redeem himself from sin.

(From Professor Yeshyahu Leibovitz z"l's He'arot le'Parshsiyot ha'Shavu'a, pp. 35-36)

 

 

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