Parshat Vayeitzeh – The son whose name is a prayer to transform others
And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and He opened her womb.
And she conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my reproach.”
So she named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord grant me yet another son!”
(Vayeitzeh 30:23-24)
The above three verses describe how Rachel gave birth after a period of barrenness. She had witnessed her co-wife Leah give birth to 6 of the twelve tribes as well as a daughter (Dinah). Not only that but Rachel and Leah’s maidservants (Bilaah and Zilpah) had also given birth to 4 of the tribes (Dan, Naftali, Gad and Asher). One can only try to imagine the great pain and hollowness felt by Rachel who was after all the “loved wife” of Yaacov.
With this context we can appreciate how the very name of her first son Yosef is a plea for another son. It was known prophetically to the patriachs and matriachs that Israel would be made up of 12 tribes each with its own distinct pathway to Godliness. So Rachel knowing that only 2 tribes remained wanted to at least have the same number as the maidservants Bilaah and Zilpaah.
Chassidic thought explains that Rachel’s naming of Joseph is a prayer that encapsulates Joseph’s mission in life—to turn “another,” a seeming stranger, into a “son.” Joseph’s life consisted of taking the ultimate “other,” the mundane world (Egypt), which appears to be “another,” separate from God, into something that reveals its true Divine source (until a new Pharoah arose he achieved this and Eygpt began to recognise the One God)
In this, Joseph is our inspiration to reach out to those who seem estranged from God and reveal to them that they are in reality “sons,” i.e., children, of God, quite at home in fulfilling God’s will.
This transformation is alluded to by the fact that the literal “other son” whom God granted Rachel was first named Ben-Oni, meaning “the son of my sorrow,” but was afterward given the more optimistic name “the son of the south,” meaning “the son born in the Land of Israel.” (see note below)
Joseph’s name also alludes to the path of personal repentance, wherein one transforms oneself from an estranged “other” into a “son” who belongs.
Significantly, the name Joseph (meaning “addition”) does not apply to the transformed “other” but to the person who transforms this “other.” This is because by transforming others, we also gain additional holiness and connection with God.
Let us not feel inadequate and incapable of effecting such transformation; after all, we do not work unaided. The verse reads, “may God add for me another son”—we are merely God’s “hands,” and it is really He who welcomes His estranged sons home.
Joseph was successful in transforming others because he himself was perfectly righteous. The Torah describes Joseph as “beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance,” alluding to the fact that he fulfilled the Torah in its entirety. The lesson for us is that the closer we are to achieving spiritual perfection, the easier it is for us to positively affect the lives of others.
Note:
the name Binyamin has multiple meanings, we have chosen that of Rashi who explains Binyamin is a combination of Ben meaning son and Yamin meaning south. Yamin usually translates as “right” but can mean south as in Psalms 89:13
Shabbat Shalom!