What We Missed:

- A contrite Judah passionately defends Benjamin

- Joseph breaks down and reveals his identity to the brothers

- Joseph urges his brothers to bring Jacob and family down to Egypt

- Pharaoh authorizes Joseph and family to live comfortably in the area of Goshen

What We Read:

·         Joseph’s brothers tell their father that Joseph is alive. The text suggests that Jacob was startled by the news; but regains his composure and resolves to see Joseph before he (Jacob) dies. When reading a Torah text, we sometimes need to determine what is missing from the narrative. Clearly, Jacob is shocked by the news. His shock and subsequent elation are overwhelming; Jacob therefore, never interrogates his sons about the lie they perpetuated for decades. Reading between the lines, we can imagine how on the journey from Canaan to Egypt, Jacob spoke to his sons about their cruelty and deceit.

The Torah however, is not primarily interested in the sons’ behavior. Such details are important to us but contribute little to the Torah’s ultimate intent: Setting the stage for the Hebrew enslavement. For the Torah to fulfill such an objective, Jacob must remain alive to reconcile with his beloved Joseph; and then to leave his descendants to suffer oppression and indignation in Egypt.

·         En route to Egypt, Jacob has another significant dream. God reassures Jacob that the sojourn into Egypt will be temporary. In Egypt, the Hebrews will develop into a great nation; God will eventually lead them back to Canaan/Israel.

This latest Jacob dream leads me to two observations: One concerns what is missing from the text; the other concerns an aspect of the dream often bypassed in our conversation.

In the dream, God reassures Jacob: I Myself will go down with you to Egypt; and I Myself will also bring you back…Any recipient of such a dream would be comforted in knowing that God will be at their side. However, in this dream God never discusses the trauma which the Hebrews will suffer while in Egypt. As the Torah is not a book of theology; there is no discussion about how this God will accompany the Hebrews but stand by and watch as they endure generations of oppression. Evidently, enslavement, the eventual triumph over Pharaoh, and the long process of establishing b’nai yisrael are all essential to God’s plan. Before there can be a nation of Israel, the people must experience the cruelty of an oppressor. Only then can b’nai yisrael establish a country grounded in loftier ideas and values. God could have revealed that dark times lay ahead; but perhaps such a revelation would have discouraged Jacob and family from completing their journey to Egypt. God’s objective (as it were) was not to detail future history but to share the basic headlines: Jacob and family will descend into Egypt but will eventually be liberated at God’s command. We, the contemporary readers, can debate the justification of God’s objectives. The Torah however only presents the essentials. Many of us have heard the following summation of Jewish life and practice: They persecuted us. We beat them. Let's eat.

God’s revelation in Jacob’s dream is something similar; intended to be brief and concise: You will be slaves. I will free you. Enjoy your new/old homeland…Why God is silent about the enslavement; and why God would even permit Hebrew suffering is for our debate and is not the Torah’s principle concern.

·         Recording for posterity, the primary names of Jacob’s clan headed for the long sojourn in Goshen, Egypt.

Well, to be honest, the Torah will record the male characters in our story. Again, we can (and should) debate the references to males only. The women are basically ignored, no matter how essential they were to the formation of b’nai yisrael. We read the Torah as an historical and spiritual history of our past, knowing that it is as flawed as the eras from which it developed. We cannot make any general observations here, without at least recognizing that women are often excluded from the text. Even if some of us moderns (along with commentators past and present) find justification for the exclusion of women; we must at least acknowledge such a reality. As for the Torah’s general purpose in recording the genealogy, there are several reasons. Here are just a couple of my thoughts: 

#1.   Just as our names are recorded in town documents, voting ledgers etc., the Torah serves as a historical documentation center to account for all members of the Hebrew clan. On more global levels, we know there are Jewish organizations, historical societies and the like which document our past. Establishing a Jewish continuum is central to Jewish history and culture.

#2.   Today, many of us are interested in genealogies. We are not just curious about our family history, but want to preserve as much of our past as we can. The Torah preserves our histories so that we can best appreciate our origins.

**As we have previously discussed, the entire book of B’reishit (Genesis) sets the stage for slavery in Egypt and, more importantly, for the eventual Exodus which establishes both a Jewish nation and an eternal covenant with our God.

 Haftorah Reading — Ezekiel 37:15-28 (p. 291-292)

Ezekiel was a prophet who was exiled to Babylonia along with the rest of his people. In Babylonia, Ezekiel became a prophet envisioning a day when the Jewish people would return to their homeland. His central message to the people is that they will be held accountable only for their own behavior, not for the behaviors of those who came before. Their fate will be determined by how they live in the present. They must not consider their present exile as the fault of a previous generation. If the nation lives according to the Torah’s ideals it will once again return to Israel. As Haftorahs share a common theme with the designated Torah reading, this Haftorah does likewise. The Torah portion of Vayiggash details the reconciliation between Joseph and his family. Likewise, the Haftorah details Ezekiel’s vision about a future Israel, in which there will no longer be two, separate kingdoms of North (Israel/Ephraim) and South (Judah). Characteristically, Ezekiel speaks allegorically and visually (our ancients loved props to emphasize their message) to his exiled compatriots. He takes two sticks and puts them together. One stick represents the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim while the other stick represents the Kingdom of Judah. As seemingly irreconcilable tensions existed between Joseph and his brothers; similar tensions existed between the two kingdoms descending from them. Ezekiel envisions the day when the people descending from Joseph and his brothers will reconcile; just as Joseph and his brothers reconciled centuries earlier.