This week's Torah Gems were prepared by
Jodi Hecht
PARASHAT Beshallach
This week in Parshat Beshallach we read that Pharaoh finally agrees to let the Jews out of Egypt. The Jews leave quickly and begin a path to an uncertain but hopefully better future in the Promised Land. However, Pharaoh's mind is changed and he sends his Egyptian army to pursue the Jews. Trapped by the oncoming Egyptian army and the powerful Red Sea, Moses raises his staff and Hashem miraculously the sea splits and the Jews cross safely. In an equally spectacular but now sobering act, Moses lowers his staff and Hashem allows the wall of water to come crashing down destroying the Egyptian army. Deeply grateful to Hashem, Moses and Miriam lead the men and women respectfully in a song of praise.
The Jews have much to praise and be thankful for in this Parshat. In one Chasidic online source Parshat Beshallach is considered Shabbat Shira or the "Song Sabbath". In this Parshat it says that Miriam takes a timbrel (or tambourine) and leads the women in song. There is good reason to be thankful as Hashem is certainly present and active in the lives of these Jews. I am struck however as to why Miriam brought a tambourine with her in the first place. One would have thought this would not be an essential item to bring on this perilous journey. The Parshat describes the Jews distress on the long and arduous voyage through the desert. Within three days they are thirsty and hungry and extremely disheartened. And yet in a succession of miracles, Hashem provides enough "fresh" water, meat and bread in the form of manna and instructs the Jews to rest on the seventh day. Even in the midst of the attacks by Amalek, Hashem protects the Jews.
Perhaps Miriam had some insight that praising Hashem for life itself was necessary. Perhaps Miriam knew that song and particularly voices raised together would lift the spirits of the wandering Jews. Both music and dance can transcend the physical discomforts.
This Shabbat may you take a moment to sing a thanks for your own Jewish lives.
Shabbat Shalom
Friday, April 24, 2009
PARASHAT Bo
This week's Torah Gems were prepared by
Adam Solomon
PARASHAT Bo
Parashat Bo is our source of laws of Passover. The parasha also recounts the first Passover celebration, even as it was happening. What does it mean that the first Passover festival was celebrated before Exodus actually happened? Why would our ancestors in slavery have to have eaten the symbolic foods of slavery, matza and bitter herbs, while still slaves?
Perhaps the answer lies in the Torah's anticipation of 'the wicked child's' question, "what does this mean to you?" Even before the actual Exodus takes place the foundation was laid for the Passover Seder. The Exodus is a liminal moment - I was going to say that it divided Jewish history, but perhaps it would be better to say that it started Jewish history. Prior to the Exodus we were a family, in Egypt we became a nation, but with the Exodus the Jewish people became independent actors in history.
The vigil of the original Exodus night is to be reenacted - in the era of the Temple in Jerusalem this would also have involved the paschal sacrifice. As Rashi, the prolific French medieval rabbi notes, details regarding this are expanded upon in BT Pesachim. Just as we left Egypt as a group, in Jerusalem the sacrifices were offered in large groups. Three different shifts were admitted to the Temple to do the sacrifice (the only one that non-Cohanim performed). In tractate Pesachim there is an extensive description of the ceremony.
The sacrifices were then roasted whole and eaten by families or groups of people who had signed up to participate together. Additional sacrifices were also prepared so that not only would there be plenty of food, but that the last bite people would eat would be from the paschal offering and that it would be that particular course which satisfied them.
Typically today the Passover Seder is a family affair - even with guests it doesn't seem to have the national flavor that Temple-era Passovers must have had and that the original Exodus certainly did. Of course with KI's community-wide second Seder on Thursday, April 9th, we will have an opportunity to come together in a manner similar to the gatherings described in Pesachim (if you would like to help with this year's second Seder contact the office).
Perhaps by creating the beginnings of the Seder and commanding the eating of symbolic foods, Hashem was giving the Jewish people the tools they would need to educate future generations even before Exodus! These tools anticipated and encouraged the questioning that children raised in freedom would ask.
Adam Solomon
PARASHAT Bo
Parashat Bo is our source of laws of Passover. The parasha also recounts the first Passover celebration, even as it was happening. What does it mean that the first Passover festival was celebrated before Exodus actually happened? Why would our ancestors in slavery have to have eaten the symbolic foods of slavery, matza and bitter herbs, while still slaves?
Perhaps the answer lies in the Torah's anticipation of 'the wicked child's' question, "what does this mean to you?" Even before the actual Exodus takes place the foundation was laid for the Passover Seder. The Exodus is a liminal moment - I was going to say that it divided Jewish history, but perhaps it would be better to say that it started Jewish history. Prior to the Exodus we were a family, in Egypt we became a nation, but with the Exodus the Jewish people became independent actors in history.
The vigil of the original Exodus night is to be reenacted - in the era of the Temple in Jerusalem this would also have involved the paschal sacrifice. As Rashi, the prolific French medieval rabbi notes, details regarding this are expanded upon in BT Pesachim. Just as we left Egypt as a group, in Jerusalem the sacrifices were offered in large groups. Three different shifts were admitted to the Temple to do the sacrifice (the only one that non-Cohanim performed). In tractate Pesachim there is an extensive description of the ceremony.
The sacrifices were then roasted whole and eaten by families or groups of people who had signed up to participate together. Additional sacrifices were also prepared so that not only would there be plenty of food, but that the last bite people would eat would be from the paschal offering and that it would be that particular course which satisfied them.
Typically today the Passover Seder is a family affair - even with guests it doesn't seem to have the national flavor that Temple-era Passovers must have had and that the original Exodus certainly did. Of course with KI's community-wide second Seder on Thursday, April 9th, we will have an opportunity to come together in a manner similar to the gatherings described in Pesachim (if you would like to help with this year's second Seder contact the office).
Perhaps by creating the beginnings of the Seder and commanding the eating of symbolic foods, Hashem was giving the Jewish people the tools they would need to educate future generations even before Exodus! These tools anticipated and encouraged the questioning that children raised in freedom would ask.
PARASHAT Va'era
This week's Torah Gems were prepared by
Anochi Atoncha
PARASHAT Va'era
"I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob with [the name] El-Shaddai, but [with] My name YHWH, I did not become known to them (Shmot 6:2)"
Can the Everlasting change? Or is it that Hashem remains the same; it is we who change?
Rabbi Hamilton taught us this week that Hashem's words to Moses in our pasuk indicate an evolution in Hashem's relationship to Am Yisroel. This is a liberating event, according to Rabbi Hamilton: Just as Hashem's relationship to us evolves, so can we grow and evolve in our relationship to Hashem. In other words, we needn't feel we ought to 'know' Hashem by the same name now as we did when we were children.
But a change in the relationship between Hashem and Am Yisroel doesn't mean that Hashem changes over time: WE DO.
Our relationship with Hashem may be thought of as a rotating orange. As the orange rotates, it maintains a superficial sameness. On closer inspection, however, we may notice subtle changes at the surface.
As an orange in the hand of the philosopher, so are we in Hashem's Hand. We change, rotate, or evolve, but Hashem remains changeless. As we rotate, our relation with respect to the Unmoving necessitates different perspective, even different names.
In Sefer Shmot, when Am Yisroel emerges as a people, Hashem reveals the attribute of mercy, previously unknown to Am Yisroel, who had until recently lived on the other side of the orange.
Anochi Atoncha
PARASHAT Va'era
"I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob with [the name] El-Shaddai, but [with] My name YHWH, I did not become known to them (Shmot 6:2)"
Can the Everlasting change? Or is it that Hashem remains the same; it is we who change?
Rabbi Hamilton taught us this week that Hashem's words to Moses in our pasuk indicate an evolution in Hashem's relationship to Am Yisroel. This is a liberating event, according to Rabbi Hamilton: Just as Hashem's relationship to us evolves, so can we grow and evolve in our relationship to Hashem. In other words, we needn't feel we ought to 'know' Hashem by the same name now as we did when we were children.
But a change in the relationship between Hashem and Am Yisroel doesn't mean that Hashem changes over time: WE DO.
Our relationship with Hashem may be thought of as a rotating orange. As the orange rotates, it maintains a superficial sameness. On closer inspection, however, we may notice subtle changes at the surface.
As an orange in the hand of the philosopher, so are we in Hashem's Hand. We change, rotate, or evolve, but Hashem remains changeless. As we rotate, our relation with respect to the Unmoving necessitates different perspective, even different names.
In Sefer Shmot, when Am Yisroel emerges as a people, Hashem reveals the attribute of mercy, previously unknown to Am Yisroel, who had until recently lived on the other side of the orange.
Parsha Tetzaveh
This week's Torah Gems were prepared by
Larry Sochrin
Parsha Tetzaveh
Children who have little patience for textbooks will happily sit in front of a computer reviewing the same lessons, and that's often true for others who prefer looking at news on a computer screen or iPhone rather than reading a newspaper. There are several interpretations of part of this week's Parsha, Tetzaveh, one of which appeals to the same technologically fascinated people among us, but raises some issues.
In Tetzaveh, G-d gives Moshe directions to create garments for Aaron to wear when officiating as the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). Among those quite colorful but somewhat strange sounding garments is something called a Choshen or Breastplate of Judgment. This has twelve stones mounted on it, each inscribed with the name of one of the tribes.
"Ruby, chrysolithe, beryl... turquoise, sapphire, diamond... ligure, agate, jasper.... emerald, shoham, jade." (28:17-20)
As reported at aish.com, this English rendition is but one of several possible translations of the Hebrew "odem, pitedah, bareket, nofech, sapir, yahalom, leshem, shvo, achlamah, tarshish, shoham, yashpei." It notes that a comprehensive anthology of renditions is presented in "The Living Torah" by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (Moznaim 1985).
According to a Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:7), in addition to the names of the tribes, the stones also contained the words, "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Shivtei Yeshurun (righteous tribes)," so the Breastplate contained all 22 letters of the Holy Tongue (Talmud).
When in use, the Breastplate held something extra. "And you shall put in the Breastplate of Judgment the Urim and the Tumim." (28:30)
As confusing as this all is, it seemed to have captured the imagination of many. There are homemade and antique versions of the Breastplate of Judgment being sold these days on eBay, at flea markets, by church sisterhoods, and elsewhere.
Commentators have at least three different views of how this worked.
According to Etz Chaim's commentary, the Urim and Tumim may have been the actual mechanism that Aaron used to make decisions, lots he drew or something similar. This may have been the equivalent in biblical times of Aaron reaching into the breastplate and seeing whether he'd drawn the short straw. Many feel that the rocks on the Breastplate were there just to remind Aaron of all the people, and to keep that reminder close to his heart.
One translation has G-d telling Moses that after he puts in the Urim and Tumim, when Aaron goes in before the Lord, he "will hear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart continually." So in this case, it appears to be a mechanism to allow Aaron to hear G-d's judgment.
But many others saw the entire setup as a visual display communication device for G-d to use to communicate his decisions to Aaron, possibly the computer of those days.
The Urim and Tumim ("illuminator and verifier") was an inscription of the Name of G-d. Inserted in the folds of the Breastplate, it caused the letters inscribed on its stones to light up in response to queries posed by the community leaders, as it is written (Number 27:21): "And [Joshua] shall stand before Elazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of the Urim before G-d: by this word shall they go out, and by this word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him." This is why it was called the "Breastplate of Judgment," since it decided and determined things for the people. (Rashi; Talmud)
When Aaron needed to judge a situation, some stones would light up on the Breastplate and then he would have to decide how to assemble the letters on those stones. The Urim, parchment with G-d's ineffable name written on it and inserted by Moses each time Aaron needed to judge, would cause the stones to light up, and the Tumim would help Aaron to decide which way to assemble those letters to get the correct judgment. Amazingly, the light bulb was actually not invented until thousands of years later, first by Humphry Davy in 1860, then improved upon by several people including the best known in 1879, Thomas Alva Edison. So if the Breastplate truly worked by having letters on stones light up, the people must have marveled at seeing such a phenomenon, as miraculous as other G-d created miracles in the Torah. But just as many of G-d's other miracles, such as the plagues, relate back to G-d's work at Creation, perhaps we can relate this one to the first day of Creation, when G-d said "Let there be light."
So anyone who might consider the Torah anachronistic should think again. At least one respected interpretation of this week's Parsha makes it truly ahead of its time, with G-d providing a computer or communications aid for Aaron to use thousands of years before such technology would be discovered. Just as computers and cell phone texting devices manage to hold the attention of today's people, especially children, it appears that G-d may have had his own way of capturing the attention of his people, B'nai Yisrael, the children of Israel. Or maybe Parsha Tetzaveh presents a time when G-d just wanted to give everyone a preview of things to come.
Larry Sochrin
Parsha Tetzaveh
Children who have little patience for textbooks will happily sit in front of a computer reviewing the same lessons, and that's often true for others who prefer looking at news on a computer screen or iPhone rather than reading a newspaper. There are several interpretations of part of this week's Parsha, Tetzaveh, one of which appeals to the same technologically fascinated people among us, but raises some issues.
In Tetzaveh, G-d gives Moshe directions to create garments for Aaron to wear when officiating as the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). Among those quite colorful but somewhat strange sounding garments is something called a Choshen or Breastplate of Judgment. This has twelve stones mounted on it, each inscribed with the name of one of the tribes.
"Ruby, chrysolithe, beryl... turquoise, sapphire, diamond... ligure, agate, jasper.... emerald, shoham, jade." (28:17-20)
As reported at aish.com, this English rendition is but one of several possible translations of the Hebrew "odem, pitedah, bareket, nofech, sapir, yahalom, leshem, shvo, achlamah, tarshish, shoham, yashpei." It notes that a comprehensive anthology of renditions is presented in "The Living Torah" by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (Moznaim 1985).
According to a Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 2:7), in addition to the names of the tribes, the stones also contained the words, "Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Shivtei Yeshurun (righteous tribes)," so the Breastplate contained all 22 letters of the Holy Tongue (Talmud).
When in use, the Breastplate held something extra. "And you shall put in the Breastplate of Judgment the Urim and the Tumim." (28:30)
As confusing as this all is, it seemed to have captured the imagination of many. There are homemade and antique versions of the Breastplate of Judgment being sold these days on eBay, at flea markets, by church sisterhoods, and elsewhere.
Commentators have at least three different views of how this worked.
According to Etz Chaim's commentary, the Urim and Tumim may have been the actual mechanism that Aaron used to make decisions, lots he drew or something similar. This may have been the equivalent in biblical times of Aaron reaching into the breastplate and seeing whether he'd drawn the short straw. Many feel that the rocks on the Breastplate were there just to remind Aaron of all the people, and to keep that reminder close to his heart.
One translation has G-d telling Moses that after he puts in the Urim and Tumim, when Aaron goes in before the Lord, he "will hear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart continually." So in this case, it appears to be a mechanism to allow Aaron to hear G-d's judgment.
But many others saw the entire setup as a visual display communication device for G-d to use to communicate his decisions to Aaron, possibly the computer of those days.
The Urim and Tumim ("illuminator and verifier") was an inscription of the Name of G-d. Inserted in the folds of the Breastplate, it caused the letters inscribed on its stones to light up in response to queries posed by the community leaders, as it is written (Number 27:21): "And [Joshua] shall stand before Elazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of the Urim before G-d: by this word shall they go out, and by this word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him." This is why it was called the "Breastplate of Judgment," since it decided and determined things for the people. (Rashi; Talmud)
When Aaron needed to judge a situation, some stones would light up on the Breastplate and then he would have to decide how to assemble the letters on those stones. The Urim, parchment with G-d's ineffable name written on it and inserted by Moses each time Aaron needed to judge, would cause the stones to light up, and the Tumim would help Aaron to decide which way to assemble those letters to get the correct judgment. Amazingly, the light bulb was actually not invented until thousands of years later, first by Humphry Davy in 1860, then improved upon by several people including the best known in 1879, Thomas Alva Edison. So if the Breastplate truly worked by having letters on stones light up, the people must have marveled at seeing such a phenomenon, as miraculous as other G-d created miracles in the Torah. But just as many of G-d's other miracles, such as the plagues, relate back to G-d's work at Creation, perhaps we can relate this one to the first day of Creation, when G-d said "Let there be light."
So anyone who might consider the Torah anachronistic should think again. At least one respected interpretation of this week's Parsha makes it truly ahead of its time, with G-d providing a computer or communications aid for Aaron to use thousands of years before such technology would be discovered. Just as computers and cell phone texting devices manage to hold the attention of today's people, especially children, it appears that G-d may have had his own way of capturing the attention of his people, B'nai Yisrael, the children of Israel. Or maybe Parsha Tetzaveh presents a time when G-d just wanted to give everyone a preview of things to come.
PARASHAT Shemot
PARASHAT Shemot
One of the themes in Parashat Shemot that I find compelling is the role of women in the beginning of the parasha. Pharaoh's underestimation of women leads to Moses' survival and thus to Pharaoh's eventual downfall/the liberation from slavery.
From the start Pharaoh decrees against Jewish men only, seeing the Jewish people in Egypt as a potential military threat/fifth column. Rashi, the prolific French medieval commentator, however says that Pharaoh decreed against the males only because of a prediction by his astrologers predicting Moses' birth. I'm not sure how to square this with the text of the parasha which explicitly states that the Egyptians felt threatened by the possibility of the Israelites allying themselves with foreign attackers.
This decree is subverted by the two midwives, Shifra and Puach. It is interesting that in a section of the parasha with no names given, Shifra and Puach are called out by name. All the major characters go without names at this point (and some will continue to remain nameless, though our Midrashic tradition fills in the gaps). Is it possible that remembering Shifra and Puach by name is a reward itself, aside from the households (i.e., children) given to them by G
-d? Shifra and Puach may not have been Israelite. Were they the first instance of Righteous Gentiles protecting Jews from persecution?
Rashi notes that the Israelite women are compared to animals which do not need midwives to deliver babies. The Israelite women are less than human in Pharaoh's eyes.
Midrash famously has Miriam convincing her father Amram to decide for the Jewish people to continue having children despite Pharaoh's decree. Amram hadn't wanted to bring boys into the world only to have the Egyptians kill them. Miriam protests that Amram has decreed against all children while Pharaoh only decreed against the males.
When Moses is placed in his basket - really an ark, the same word as used for Noach's ark - he's watched over by his sister Miriam. This liminal event - the risky travel of the baby who will bring liberation to the Israelites - is guarded by her.
Closer to home for Pharaoh, he is deceived by his daughter, unnamed in the text, traditionally known as Batya - daughter of HaShem. Batya goes down to the river to bathe. Why? Surely there were baths in her palace. As was noted in my daughter's class at KI Religious School, midrash holds that Batya was rebelling against her father's decree. In protest, was she converting to Judaism and the river was serving as her mikvah? Could it be that Batya was going down to the river to try to rescue a Jewish baby?
Batya then arranges with Miriam to have Yocheved be Moses' wet nurse. Yocheved then raises Moses and doesn't bring him back to Batya until "he matures" (two years old in the midrash).
The infant Moses is protected every step of the way by women. Shifra and Puach protect him and every other Jewish child. Miriam follows him from the riverbank while he is in his ark/basket. Pharaoh's daughter, Batya, adopts him, names him, and gives him back to his biological mother so she can raise him under the guise of being his nurse.
Sometimes finding non
-patriarchal angles on our tradition can be difficult. As the father of two daughters, it is something that I try to bring to the fore when we discuss Torah. It's particularly gratifying to find it so close to the surface in so important a parasha as Shemot.
One of the themes in Parashat Shemot that I find compelling is the role of women in the beginning of the parasha. Pharaoh's underestimation of women leads to Moses' survival and thus to Pharaoh's eventual downfall/the liberation from slavery.
From the start Pharaoh decrees against Jewish men only, seeing the Jewish people in Egypt as a potential military threat/fifth column. Rashi, the prolific French medieval commentator, however says that Pharaoh decreed against the males only because of a prediction by his astrologers predicting Moses' birth. I'm not sure how to square this with the text of the parasha which explicitly states that the Egyptians felt threatened by the possibility of the Israelites allying themselves with foreign attackers.
This decree is subverted by the two midwives, Shifra and Puach. It is interesting that in a section of the parasha with no names given, Shifra and Puach are called out by name. All the major characters go without names at this point (and some will continue to remain nameless, though our Midrashic tradition fills in the gaps). Is it possible that remembering Shifra and Puach by name is a reward itself, aside from the households (i.e., children) given to them by G
-d? Shifra and Puach may not have been Israelite. Were they the first instance of Righteous Gentiles protecting Jews from persecution?
Rashi notes that the Israelite women are compared to animals which do not need midwives to deliver babies. The Israelite women are less than human in Pharaoh's eyes.
Midrash famously has Miriam convincing her father Amram to decide for the Jewish people to continue having children despite Pharaoh's decree. Amram hadn't wanted to bring boys into the world only to have the Egyptians kill them. Miriam protests that Amram has decreed against all children while Pharaoh only decreed against the males.
When Moses is placed in his basket - really an ark, the same word as used for Noach's ark - he's watched over by his sister Miriam. This liminal event - the risky travel of the baby who will bring liberation to the Israelites - is guarded by her.
Closer to home for Pharaoh, he is deceived by his daughter, unnamed in the text, traditionally known as Batya - daughter of HaShem. Batya goes down to the river to bathe. Why? Surely there were baths in her palace. As was noted in my daughter's class at KI Religious School, midrash holds that Batya was rebelling against her father's decree. In protest, was she converting to Judaism and the river was serving as her mikvah? Could it be that Batya was going down to the river to try to rescue a Jewish baby?
Batya then arranges with Miriam to have Yocheved be Moses' wet nurse. Yocheved then raises Moses and doesn't bring him back to Batya until "he matures" (two years old in the midrash).
The infant Moses is protected every step of the way by women. Shifra and Puach protect him and every other Jewish child. Miriam follows him from the riverbank while he is in his ark/basket. Pharaoh's daughter, Batya, adopts him, names him, and gives him back to his biological mother so she can raise him under the guise of being his nurse.
Sometimes finding non
-patriarchal angles on our tradition can be difficult. As the father of two daughters, it is something that I try to bring to the fore when we discuss Torah. It's particularly gratifying to find it so close to the surface in so important a parasha as Shemot.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
PARASHAT Vayeshev
Torah Gems - December 19th
2008 / 22 Kislev
This week's Torah Gems were prepared by
Anochi Atoncha
Angelology - Part III
A man found [Joseph], and behold! -- he was blundering in the field; the man asked him, saying, "What do you seek?" (Beresheit 37:15)
Yonaton ben Uziel Gavriel, in the form of a man, found Joseph...
Oznaim LaTorah Why was Gavriel sent from Heaven to show Joseph the way to his brothers? After all, his brothers were planning to kill Joseph, or at best, to sell him into slavery! Could it be that God sent the angel in order to relieve Jacob's burden of guilt, inasmuch as he knew his sons hated and were jealous of Joseph?
Rather, the angel came to show Joseph the way to Egypt, to teach us that the entire episode comes from Hashem. The time had come for Jacob and his sons to descend to Egypt. The matter was hidden from Jacob's wisdom and intellect, and he sent the son of his old age, whom he loved as much as life itself, to his brothers, who were planning to kill him. Therefore the Holy One, Blessed be He, sent an angel to protect Joseph on the way to Egypt.
Yonaton ben Uziel and Oznaim LaTorah address a problem with our text: who is this unnamed man and what is he doing in the field? The tradition teaches that Torah does not waste words. Every seemingly trivial detail must convey meaning. So it must be with a seemingly chance encounter between Joseph and an unnamed man.
The traditional interpretation holds that the man is an angel. The text provides several clues as to his identity: first, the man finds Joseph, rather than the other way around, as though the man had been looking for Joseph; second, the Torah states 'the man asked [Joseph], saying... (Va'y'shalayhu ha-ish laymor).' In Sefer Beresheit, the combination of verbs derived from the roots shin-alef-lamed + alef-mem-resh usually refers to communication with a malakh, human or Divine (e.g. 24:47, 32:18, 32:30). Finally there is the curious exchange between Joseph and the man:
And [Joseph] said, "My brothers do I seek; tell me, please, where they are pasturing." The man said: "They have journeyed on from here, for I heard them saying, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" (37:16-17)
The man's answer begins with a seemingly superfluous comment: 'they have journeyed on from here.' This is obvious! Rather, the man is conveying a secret to Joseph that only a Divine being could know: that they had 'moved on from brotherhood with Joseph [for] they sought a legal basis to kill him' (Rashi to 37:17.) Furthermore, the man knows exactly where the brothers are, even recounting a supposedly overheard conversation, without first asking Joseph for any further information as to the boys' identity!
Oznaim LaTorah explains why Hashem sent an angel to Joseph. If He hadn't done so, the narrative would have ground to a screeching halt right here in Chapter 37 of Beresheit. There would be no descent into Egypt, no enslavement, no redemption, and no Sinai! Instead, the Torah teaches that Hashem guides Israel to Sinai and beyond.
One more phrase in our text deserves comment. It is the angel's wonderfully-phrased question to Joseph 'what do you seek?' (ma t'vakesh:) If we accept that the angel already knows that Joseph is seeking his brothers, why doesn't he ask 'whom do you seek?' Perhaps the angel is actually asking Joseph a philosophical question. Perhaps he is asking the boy Joseph to tell us what he has planned for his life. Will he carry on lording it over his brothers like a spoiled child, or will he grow up and respect them as equals like a grown man ought to? Though the question is surely rhetorical, it must have sounded harsh to Joseph's ears. Perhaps this is why the tradition identifies this angel as Gavriel, the angel of severity.PARASHAT Vayishlach
Torah Gems - December 12th
2008 / 15 Kislev
This week's Torah Gems were prepared by
Rabbi Nechama Goldberg
PARASHAT Vayishlach
The Last Kiss
A kiss is so commonplace that we take it for granted - a kiss hello or goodbye, or perhaps as a sign of affection. It is something we do every day. So, it is somewhat surprising that kissing is mentioned a mere 11 times in Torah. Eight of those times it involves Jacob and does not stem from affection or sincerity.
The first instance occurs while Jacob is in the process of deceiving his father. Isaac asks that Jacob lean over and kiss him so that he may smell the scent of his son to identify him. Jacob leans over to kiss Isaac in the hopes that Isaac will believe that Jacob is really Esau. The kiss is not an expression of love, but a gesture of deception. (Gen. 27:26-27.)
The next kiss is an impulsive act of a self-centered youth when Jacob first spies Rachel and kisses her. (Gen. 29:11.)When Rachel brings Jacob home to her father Lavan, Lavan kisses Jacob. (Gen. 29:13.) As the story develops, we know that there is no love lost between Jacob and Lavan. Their relationship is built on deception and lies.
At the end of 20 years of service to Lavan, Jacob is fleeing with his wives, his children and his flocks. Lavan pursues him and upon not finding the
household idols that were stolen, he uses the excuse that he did not have the opportunity to kiss his daughters and grandsons goodbye. (Gen. 31:28.) We don't associate warmth or demonstrative emotion with Lavan, so when he kisses the family goodbye, we are not moved. (Gen. 32:1.)
We arrive at the kiss in our parashah, Vayishlach. Jacob is sleep deprived. He has just wrestled with an angel. He has been injured. He is afraid of the coming reunion with Esau. Esau, on the other hand, has had 20 years to heal, to forgive, to grow and to prosper. He approaches the reunion with great enthusiasm. Esau runs to greet Jacob, embracing him, falling on his neck and kissing him. (Gen. 33:4.) Here is the one sincere kiss offered to Jacob and Jacob does not know how to accept it. Jacob is cowering and addresses Esau in an ingratiating manner referring to himself as "your servant" and to Esau as "my lord." When Esau urges Jacob to travel home with him, Jacob declines, saying that he will follow shortly thereafter. Instead of following, Jacob heads in the opposite direction.
It takes Jacob a long time before he can give or receive a kiss with emotional engagement and sincerity. It only happens after Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, forgives them and kisses them. (Gen. 45:15.) As Jacob's life is coming to an end, he asks Joseph to bring his sons so that Jacob can bless them. Jacob's last kiss is for his grandsons, Ephraim and Menashe, before he offers his last will and testament to his sons. (Gen. 48:10.) As Jacob concludes this testament, he draws his last breath and is gathered to his people.
Joseph weeps over his father and lovingly places one final kiss on his lips. (Gen. 50:1.)
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