Vayigash Essay – Jewish Fusion

Vayigash Essay – Jewish Fusion the long read (for the shortened version skip to the Blue font at the bottom)

The Theme of Parshat Vayigash is the reconciliation of the brothers with Yosef who is now ‘prime minister’ of Egypt.
Ironically it is outside of the land of Israel that this reunification takes place.

The schism between the the brothers (in particular the sons of Leah) and Yosef is not a one off  story in the Torah. This division plays out throughout Jewish history. In fact the sages understand the special He-goat offering of Yom Kippur to be an ongoing  atonement for the sin of the sale of Joseph.
In the liturgical section that relates the story of the 10 Martyrs in the period post the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, the sages depict the Roman Emperor as using the Sale of Yosef as a pretext to the torture and brutal murder of the sages: The Emperor asked the sages what is the law if a man is found guilty of kidnap of a member of his Jewish brethren and subsequently sells them to slavery? The rabbis are forced to answer “The Kidnapper must be put to death!?” And of course the Emperor cites the example of Yosef and the bloodshed begins.

Earlier during the First Temple the Kingdom of Israel splits into two parts (after the death of King Solomon). His son Rechovam takes over, the kingdom splits into the Southern Kingdom (the tribe Yehuda joined by Binyamin) and the Northern Kingdom led by Yerovam Ben Nevat (descended from Yosef).
The Northern kingdom falls spiritually into the deep abyss  of idol worship and the immorality associated with it. They are eventually  exiled by the king of Assyria some 120 years prior to the destruction of Jerusalem (which occurred in 586B.C.E) in the South by the Babylonians. But what is the essential spiritual reason for this division?

Two Visions
This division within the Jewish people reflects the essential division between the brothers and Yosef. A division predicated on two competing visions for Judaism. The brothers believed that the legacy of Jacob must be preserved through the purity of holiness. The Torah depicts them as shepherds who primarily live away from people. This was the occupation of all of the Patriarchs that had preceded them and was not by chance. A Shepherd can spend many days even weeks out in nature living in shelters and huts as he tends to his flock nurturing and protecting them from sun, rain and wild animals.  In the fields and mountains away from society man can  pursue an intimate relationship with God inspired by nature and solitude. The brothers viewed society as a threat  to this vision of holiness. Society is symbolised by the marketplace, an arena not only of the exchange of goods , but of the exchange of ideas. It is a place where there is potential for evil, desires, lust, heretical ideas, social tensions that lead to social breakdown even chaos the very opposite of holiness. For the brothers Society was a place filled with all forms of darkness that can lead man astray from his Divine mission.

Yosef on the other had a grander vision for Judaism. As the “Ben Zekunim” (literally son of his (father’s) old age but really a reference to the fact that Yaacov dedicated himself to transmitting Torah/Prophecy to Yosef) he dreamed of a Judaism that was outward facing, that does not retreat inward. He passionately believed that the arena for Judaism is within Society.
God is to be discovered and revealed every dimension of human existence. As much as God is experienced in the majesty of nature he is also found in interpersonal relationships based on Justice and Righteousness. Human interactions whilst vulnerable to corruption contain infinite potential for revealing Godliness through love, human warmth, empathy and acts of loving-kindness. God’s presence dwells in the business transactions of everyday life conducted morally according to the laws of the Torah. We see this in Yosef’s life story; as he overcomes the seductive advances of the immoral wife of his master Potifar, as he looks out for the welfare of the Butler and Baker caring for the stranger no matter their criminal history, in his utter rejection of self glorification in being the only one to interpret Pharaohs dreams, instead sanctifying God’s name by the immortal words “It was not me but God” etc.
At every turn the forces of darkness both internally and externally threaten his spiritual self but he overcomes thus revealing an even greater light!

There is no coincidence that the symbol in the first of Yosef’s dream was of sheaves. Sheaves of grain are central to an agricultural society where people come together to exchange goods as mentioned.
To the brothers Yosef’s (prophetic) dreams were an anathema which they utterly rejected.

We usually think that the story concludes with the vindication of Yosef. After all the dreams come true and Yosef rises to power and the brothers bow to him.
But the sages saw deeper into the story. The brothers viewpoint was still valid. The risks associated with Yosef’s dream are not to be understated.
On the phrase “Here comes the master of dreams” just prior to his sale into slavery the sages see alluded in the word for master (Baal) another meaning: That Yosef descendants would eventually turn to the pagan idol known as Baal! The brothers intuited that Yosef’s way was filled with treacherous risk and their premonitions came true:
The same Yosef who took on the world on the front foot, transforming the spiritual darkness of pagan Egypt towards the light of Monotheism, his descendants became idol worshippers in the days of Yerovam ben Nevat who reintroduced the worship of the golden calf!
“Yosef”  the beautiful, graceful handsome man who infuses holiness into the darkest corners can also succumb to the wide-eyed unbridled self expression that leads to immorality and corruption of the self which is the essence of all idolatry (the idol is the external symbol of man creating God in his own image).

Fast forward to the story of Chanukah and we see the schism between Yosef and the brothers played out again.
As much as the Hasmoneans/Maccabees fought a physical battle against the Syrian-Greeks, there was also major division within the Jewish people. The Mityavnim- Hellenists were a large group who for decades prior to the events of Chanukah had enthusiastically embraced the Greek Pagan culture that had been introduced into the Land of Israel. The Mityavnim abandoned Torah true Judaism. It was only the small group of Hasmoneans – Kohanim of the tribe of Levi- who remained attached to their faith in God, Torah and its Mitzvot.
The Hellenists were taken in by the beauty represented by Greece but without infusing it with the light of holiness. Without the discipline of Torah law/Halacha man becomes the measure of all things and is led astray. Torah demands our submission to a higher transcendent calling . This was always the risk that Yosef’s vision of integration could lead to assimilation.

So whose vision of Judaism is true? that of Yosef or the brothers? The answer lies in this weeks Haftorah …

Fusion -The ultimate reconciliation.

The Hafotrah taken from the book of Ezekiel reflects this essential theme of reconciliation between Yosef and the brothers in the future Messianic era:

“And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write upon it, ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions’; and take one stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions. And bring them close, one to the other into one stick, and they shall be one in your hand.
And when the children of your people say to you, saying, ‘Will you not tell us what these are to you?’
Say to them, So says the Lord God: Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel his companions, and I will place them with him with the stick of Judah, and I will make them into one stick, and they shall become one in My hand. ” Ezekiel 37: 16-19

Here we see the prophet (around the destruction of the First Temple) speaking of a Messianic future where Yosef and Yehudah are fused into one. This means to say that BOTH visions are valid WHEN they work together. Yehudah and Yosef are two sides of the same coin, opposite yet essential approaches that compliment one another.

There are Jews whose soul is naturally inclined to either the more separatist and purist vision of the brothers or to the integrationist and transformational view of Yosef. For millennia both groups have fought each other. In the days of teh Hasmoneans it even led to civil war and bloodshed (1st Cent BCE). Each side entrenched in a viewpoint unable to understand the others point of view. Yet according to Ezekiel both visions of Yosef and Yehudah are authentic.
Even within the individual there is sometimes a dialectic between the Yosef and the Yehudah approach. If we don’t maintain the purity of Judaism through the prism of Halacha then we risk assimilation and yet equally true if our perspective is too parochial we can miss the opportunities for sanctifying God’s name in public.

The very ritual of lighting Menorah seems to symbolise the fusion approach. The Menorah (in Israel) is to be placed at the entrance of the doorway on the left side with the Mezuzah on the right side. The light shines outwards to the street, illuminating the darkness in society with the light of the Divine presence and yet at the same time the Mezuzah with the scroll of the Shema represents our dedication to build Jewish homes based on pure unadulterated love of God – with all our heart soul and might.

Post script. A fascinating comment by the Bnei Yissaschar (Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Spira of Dinov (c. 1783 – 1841) known for his intensely cryptic and highly creative Torah conceptualisations ) brings this all together: 

We all know that the custom to play Dreidel on Chanukah is based on the story that during the Chanukah period the Greeks forbade (amongst numerous decrees) the study of Torah on pain of death. Without the transmission Torah to the next generation the flame of Judaism will be extinguished. And so the children learnt in caves pouring over the Torah scrolls and when the Greek soldiers came to inspect they managed to hide the scrolls and brought out spinning tops to play with!.

The Bnei Yissaschar provides another fascinating reason for the custom.  The letters of the Dreidle (at least outside Israel) are usually understood as the acronym: Nes Gadol Hayan Sham – A great miracle occurred there. However the letters are also an acronym for the word GoShaNaH meaning “to Goshen” as in the verse in Vayigash 
וְאֶת־יְהוּדָ֞ה שָׁלַ֤ח לְפָנָיו֙ אֶל־יוֹסֵ֔ף לְהוֹרֹ֥ת לְפָנָ֖יו גּ֑שְׁנָה וַיָּבֹ֖אוּ אַ֥רְצָה גּֽשֶׁן:
“He (Jacob) sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to direct him to Goshen, and they came to the land of Goshen.

Jacob is sending Yehudah -who represents the brothers vision of Judaism, who was the main actor in selling Yosef into slavery – to reconcile with Yosef!!!

Says the Bnei Yissaschar: This is the custom of the dreidel. We take two pieces of wood to make the dreidel which represents Yosef and Yehudah (like in Ezekiel’s prophecy above) and then we twirl it so that it blurs into one entity, representing the fusion and unification of the Yosef and Yehudah!!

The Jewish people are today are still fragmented with so many competing visions. Traditional Judaism, progressive movements, religious Zionism, Secular/Cultural Jews, debates over who is a Jew, in fighting amongst different Chassidic sects and so on. The tensions associated with the different visions are playing out mostly in Israel today (where everyone is brought together) and is most intensely expressed in the fight over how to share/or not the Kottel Plaza. The answers to these divisions are not simple. Yosef and Yehuda at least share the common belief in God and the binding nature of the Torah which cannot be said of every Jewish group today.

But if we are too learn anything from our history we know that hatred between Jews was the ultimate cause of the loss of Jerusalem and destruction of the Second Temple. And hatred continues to prevent the realisation of the Messianic dream.

But we can begin the fusion process of the Jewish people by building more bridges of love. By holding back from harsh judgement of other Jews who don’t live like us. By finding opportunities to celebrate as Jews together.
We need to start playing more dreidel with Jews unlike us, where despite our different perspectives which may even contradict we nevertheless reach out joining hands spin and whirl around and become a blur of love and unity.

This is not fantastical thinking. It is the only way and hope we have of bringing Jews together to mutually understand and respect each other. 
And it is surely the only way that God will finally reveal the Moshiach which deep down we all yearn for!

Shabbat Shalom