Parashat V'Yeshev 5768/2007

Torah Gems - November 30

Friday evening services begin at 4:00 pm, 5 minutes following a 3:55 pm candle lighting (the latest appropriate time to light Shabbat candles - beginning 5 minutes following such a time, theoretically allows people 5 minutes to walk from home to shul for services) in our Rabb Chapel. Saturday morning services will begin at 8:45 am.

We're excited to be continuing a tradition we began last year of inviting members of our community to compose and share Torah Gems (insights from that week's Torah portion).

This week, Rabbinic Resident Jim Morgan shares with us a few words of wisdom on the story of Joseph.

Following a noontime Kiddush, Landers Playspace will be open. Talmud will convene at 4:00 pm. Mincha will be in our Rabb Chapel at 3:40 pm. My Mincha and Metaphysics topic will be "The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars." Havdallah takes place no earlier than 4:55 pm. --Rabbi Hamilton

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The story of Joseph, which begins in this week's parashah and continues through the end of Genesis, is very different from the preceding stories in that God withdraws from the scene. Unlike his forefathers, Joseph does not converse directly with God. There are no obvious theophanies, and no wrestling matches with angels. Our tradition, however, starting with the Torah itself, locates God just behind the scenes, like a director moving actors around the stage. Or, as Avivah Zornberg suggests in her discussion of Va-yeshev, like an author who manipulates the characters to fulfill the demands of the narrative, in this case, the "plot" that requires Israel to go down to Egypt (see her The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. 254-7).

All the seemingly free actions that characters perform, like the dreams that Joseph explains, all turn out to be "from God," a subtle way for God to communicate with people and effect God's will. As Joseph himself later tells his brothers "So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt" (Gen. 45:8). On one hand, this assurance is comforting, as it absolves the brothers of culpability for the crime of casting Joseph into the pit and selling him into slavery. Joseph instead focuses on the positive aspects of the journey down to Egypt: his power and his use of that power to save Egypt and his family from the worst effects of famine. On the other hand, this affirmation of God's active manipulation of people and events is disturbing: is there truly no human freedom? Are the brothers really not responsible for their crimes because it "all turned out okay?" And what is more, can we really see the migration down to Egypt as a positive development when a new Pharaoh will rise and enslave Israel?

The Rabbis see both sides of this argument and, characteristically, present both: "And Joseph was brought down (hurad) to Egypt." [Gen. 39:1] This means, he subdued it, as in the verse, "May he have dominion (we-yard) also from sea to sea" (Ps. 72: 8); he ruled over them [the Egyptians], as in the verse, "For he had dominion (rodeh) over all the region, etc." (I Kings 5: 4) [Another interpretation]: He brought Jacob down (horid) to Egypt. R. Berekiah said in the name of R. Judah b. Simon: This may be compared to a cow which was resisting being dragged to the abattoir. What did they do? They drew her young one before her, whereupon she followed, albeit unwillingly. In the same way, Jacob should have gone down to Egypt in chains (since this was the beginning of Israel's servitude in Egypt), but that God declared: "He is My firstborn son; shall I then bring him down in disgrace! Now, if I inspire Pharaoh [with the intention to bring him down], I will not bring him down with befitting honour. Therefore I will draw his son before him, and so he will follow despite himself." (Genesis Rabbah 86:2; Soncino Translation)

In the first interpretation, the midrash suggests that the passive verb "hurad" (was brought down) points, paradoxically, to Joseph's ascension to power in Egypt, echoing Joseph's own interpretation of the events of his life. The second, by contrast, presents a horrific scenario, in which a cow, standing in for Jacob/Israel, is manipulated into entering the abattoir (slavery in Egypt) by a slaughterer who "kidnaps" her calf. The midrash presents God as a kind of puppet master, moving people from Israel to Egypt in order to fulfill the prophecy offered to Abraham: "Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years..." (Gen. 15:13). God is concerned about Jacob's honor--he doesn't want him to be led down in chains--but the fact of Israel's enslavement remains. And given what Jacob endures in contemplating Joseph's apparent death (the terror that the cow experiences in the apparent loss of her calf), I for one am not convinced that the chains might not have been preferable. The rabbis, by not choosing a single reading of this verse, point to the very impossibility of these questions: do the events of our lives, the decisions we make, all conform to a God-given plan, or are we all free agents? The impulse to make narrative, to assign a plot to what happens to us, and, like Joseph, to assign God the rights of authorship to that narrative is very powerful. But it also carries significant tension. In order to act in the world we need to see ourselves as more or less autonomous agents. Beyond that, we need to contend with question of interpretation: whose narrative is correct? The rabbis live with this tension, and so do we. As Rabbi Akiva says in Ethics of the Fathers, "all is foreseen, but free-will is given" (Avot 3:15).

SHABBAT SHALOM