Vayigash 2008

This week’s Torah portion is Vayigash. In it, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. Pharaoh is pleased, and tells Joseph to bring his whole family down to Egypt. Well, why wouldn’t the whole family come down? Doesn’t that go without saying?

The stories in the Torah are very familiar to us. We don’t often stop and ask why things are the way they are. Why doesn’t Joseph reveal himself to his brothers right away? And what is it about Judah’s speech that convinces Joseph to stop concealing his identity?

Judah, in his speech, mostly recapitulates what has already occurred, events that Joseph knows well. Our commentators note that the word “father” appears over and over again in Judah’s speech. In sixteen verses, the word is mentioned fourteen times. This not only reminds Joseph of the love that his father Jacob had for him, it adds a poignancy. Judah himself lost two of his three children. The emotion in Judah’s plea, that there should be an end to loss, is real.

To my mind though, the thing that won Joseph over was that first word, the word that begins our parasha. Vayigash. The word “nagash,” a key word that appears many times in this parasha, means to approach, or to draw near. Until this moment, the brothers had been distant from Joseph. An interpreter had stood between them. They had eaten separately. Even in the old days, when they lived together, the brothers were not close. They were separated by hatred on one side, and dreams of glory on the other. But our parasha begins with the words וידש אליו יהודה. And Judah drew close.

Judah did not know if this drawing close would solve any of his problems, but he did it because it was the only tactic left to him. There was no apparent solution, so he drew close. Gd brought about an opportunity for reconciliation, but it would not have happened had the brothers not drawn close.

The long term enmity between the children of Israel was nothing compared to the long term enmity between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael.

Over the past few weeks, in Israel and in Gaza, this enmity has once more erupted into violence. After three weeks of intensive rocket attacks by Hamas, the Israeli army has retaliated with devastating force.

It would be naive to think that we need only draw close to Hamas for all of our problems to be solved. After all, Hamas is a terrorist organization sworn to kill Jews, and to destroy the land of Israel. The military action Israel is currently undertaking is a direct result of the failure of the cease-fire undertaken cynically six months ago by Hamas, in order to give themselves time to rebuild their stockpiles of weaponry.

This does not mean that there is no space for us to draw closer to the Palestinian people. We should acknowledge that innocent people in Gaza are dying as well, and that is a tragedy. This is despite the extraordinary lengths to which the Israeli Army is going to avoid civilian deaths. This past week the Islamic Center of Baton Rouge held a vigil for those who have died in the violence. One man there, an Arab resident of Baton Rouge, told the reporters that he was there to commemorate the dead on both sides, the Palestinian and the Israeli. He took a step closer. Closer to seeing the other as human, closer to understanding someone else’s point of view, a step closer to peace. וידש. 

The power of moving closer is effective in all areas of our lives. We can all move closer to a spouse, a parent, a child, a friend, a co-worker. Not necessarily physically, but try to understand the other’s point of view. Joseph has been pushing his brothers away with harsh words and accusations. Judah takes a chance and draws near. This allows Joseph to ask all of his brothers to draw near. They do, and he hugs them and kisses them and weeps.

The ultimate solution to the problem between the Israelis and the Palestinians is not a military solution, nor a solution that will involve destruction. There will never be a solution until both sides are able to draw near. In our own lives, too, we may find that this is a necessary part of every solution. Shabbat shalom.