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Vayechi

12/27/2014

1 Comment

 
SUMMARY: 
  • Jacob blesses his grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh. (48:1-20)
  • Jacob's twelve sons gather around his deathbed, and each receives an evaluation and a prediction of his future. (49:1-33)
  • Joseph mourns his father's death and has Jacob embalmed. Jacob is buried in Hebron in the cave of the field of the Machpelah in the land of Canaan. (50:1-14)
  • Joseph assures his concerned brothers that he has forgiven them and promises to care for them and their families. (50:15-21)
  • Just before he dies, Joseph tells his brothers that God will return them to the Land that God promised to the patriarchs. The Children of Israel promise Joseph that they will take his bones with them when they leave Egypt. (50:22-26)
D'var Torah
Ronnie Nathan

Jacob is 147 years old.  He is on his deathbed.  While we have had hints of his gift of prophesy in previous parshat, in this parsha it is front and center.  After extracting an oath from Joseph that he be buried in the tomb of Machpelah in Eretz Yisrael with his forebears, Jacob essentially adopts Joseph’s 2 sons as his own and blesses them.  He then proceeds to bless his 11 other sons individually.  These are mixed blessings to say the least.  In fact, in several cases, they read more like admonitions than blessings!   They include cryptic prophesies regarding the roles and struggles of the tribes, each tribe sired by a different son, long into the future.  He predicts his descendants will grow from a family into a collection of related tribes and finally, after a long and trying exile, into a unified nation.  He predicts the end of days, the most direct reference to a messianic era thus far in Torah, but his power of prophesy fails him when he attempts to reveal when it will actually occur.

Jacob is unique among our patriarchs.  We first meet father Abraham at age 75 and of his 175 years the Torah chronicles only approximately 1/3 of his life.  Isaac is the least known, but Torah focuses closely on Jacob from his unique birth until his death in this, the final and shortest Genesis parsha.  Of the 12 parshat in Genesis, Jacob is a main protagonist in 7 of the 10 that are concerned with our patriarchs.  He is the only patriarch to father only Jews and of the 3, his life is the most troubled and filled with personal tragedy.  In fact his happiest most trouble free days were the last 17 years of his life spent in exile in Egypt.

The birthright of the 1st son is an important motif throughout Tanakh.  In Vayechi, more in the breach than its observance, it becomes a consuming theme.  In earlier parshat Jacob famously tricked Esau out of his birthright and unique blessing.  On his deathbed he denies both Reuben and Manasseh their 1st born status and variously confers it on Ephraim, Joseph and Judah.  Jacob’s own life & his deathbed blessings personify this ironic biblical pattern.  Despite the institutionalized primacy of the 1st born, neither Abel, nor any of the patriarchs, nor Jacob’s favored off springs, nor Moses, nor Solomon were 1st  borns.  Right up to the end, by crossing his hands to bless Joseph’s sons, Jacob displays the guile he used to achieve his own 1st born status at Esau’s expense, confirming perhaps that he is the most complex personality among our Torah heroes.

In many ways his life is a metaphor and microcosm of the entire historic experience of the Jewish people, especially for American Jews.  This too is dramatized in Vayechi.  Certainly, the most poignant and puzzling moment in the parsha, perhaps in all of Genesis, is when Jacob apparently fails to recognize Ephraim & Manasseh.  He declares to Joseph, “And now your 2 sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before [emphasis mine] my coming to you in Egypt shall be mine!” (Genesis 48:5).  Only a few lines later “Israel saw Joseph’s sons and said, ‘Who are these?’” (Genesis 48:8)  What is the reader to make of this?  The image conjured up in our minds’ eye is of an old man on his deathbed blessing 2 small boys.  In fact, this is exactly how most of the great Renaissance paintings of this drama depict it.  But these are not 2 small boys.  They are grown men!  In dress and appearance they look exactly like Egyptian aristocracy!  Based on the chronology of earlier parshat, Manasseh is at least in his 30s and Jacob has been interacting with them for the last 17 years!  For me this is more like a Chasidic zaida seeing his adult grandsons in muscle shirts with fresh tattoos decorating their forearms.  He knows who they are, but he cannot believe this is what they have become.  For Jacob, his adoption of these men as his own and his special blessings represent his dying struggle against the assimilation of his descendants, as does his demand to be buried in Eretz Yisrael.

Jacob’s entire life has been 1 long unmitigated struggle in a hostile world until he settles in the wealthiest, most advanced and most decadent society of his age.  Here he finally finds peace, acceptance, recognition, happiness and prosperity.  But there is a price to pay as he also acknowledges the threat of assimilation and his final acts, as he is dying, is to reinforce the unique holy mission of the nation he fathered and its eternal connection to its homeland, Eretz Yisrael.
1 Comment

Vayigash

12/24/2014

1 Comment

 

SUMMARY: 

  • Judah pleads with Joseph to free Benjamin and offers himself as a replacement. (44:18-34)
  • Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and forgives them for selling him into slavery. (45:1-15)
  • Although the famine still rages, Pharaoh invites Joseph's family to "live off the fat of the land." (45:16-24)
  • Jacob learns that Joseph is still alive and, with God's blessing, goes to Egypt. (45:25-46:33)
  • Pharaoh permits Joseph's family to settle in Goshen. Pharaoh then meets with Jacob. (47:1-12)
  • With the famine increasing, Joseph designs a plan for the Egyptians to trade their livestock and land for food. The Israelites thrive in Egypt. (47:13-27)

D'var Torah
Brian Block

Last week, weather.com posted an interactive map with California rainfall since the year 2000 and challenged the reader to find the pattern.  A quick glance showed an approximate seven-year cycle, two years of above average rainfall followed by about five years of near drought.  If this cycle holds, our reservoirs could refill by 2016.

But will we have a Joseph for the five years likely to follow?

With no term limits, a two-year election cycle, and the routine of making decisions on a calendar year, seven year cycles are often neglected.  Without a Joseph to direct us to re-open a costly desalination plant in Santa Barbara, or create new means of harvesting water, during times of plenty, we will be unprepared for the five dry years to come. One doesn’t need to dream to see the future: one just needs to keep his eyes open, and have the courage to be honest.  Future planning often carries as much credibility as listening to the youngest child.  And no one wants to listen to either.

I can identify with Joseph, as a youngest child married to a youngest child. My wife has it much worse than I, with five of her six older brothers living locally.  We have had to accept the fact, in their eyes; we were never quite as wise, competent and experienced as the more brothers who came before us. While always given a voice and a vote, they never seemed to carry the same weight as those closer in age with more shared experiences.  My own personal experiences as a teacher also support the belief that one’s position in the family has as much, or more to do with shaping a personality than any other factor.

So, my impression of Joseph in this week’s Torah portion differs greatly from those of the great rabbis (who traditionally are the oldest sibling): Joseph wanted to gloat.

Last week’s Torah portion showed Joseph to be the original Wall Street commodity trader.  To fill the storehouse with grain during the years of plenty, a one-fifth tax would be imposed on all citizens.  Could you imagine any ruler today imposing a 20% in times of plenty (Actually, this IS the exact rationale of Keynesian Economics.)  Pharaoh knew it had to be done, so he did what any shrewd ruler would do… he made someone else collect it: Joseph!  If it worked, Pharaoh would be a genius; if it didn’t, Pharaoh would have Joseph’s head.  When the famine came, those in need of Pharaoh’s stores first gave up their livestock, and then their lands in exchange for food to eat.  Joseph had made Pharaoh rich, largely due to his ability to increase the gap between the wealthy and the working class, and Joseph got a percentage of the proceeds.  So, when Joseph’s brothers return, it was easy to forgive because he achieved far greater success without their guidance and wisdom. It’s easy to forgive when you’ve already been proven right.  In fact, he sets them up in Goshen, a pleasant area of Egypt to tend their flocks, which not so coincidentally will afford them a view of their brother in the palace, a nice daily reminder of his superior position and ability.  Not surprisingly, for the rest of their lives they feel uncomfortable in his presence based on their past actions.

Yeah, I can relate.

Today, Debra and I are considered pretty successful parents.  In the past two years, both of our children were admitted to a top 20 University in the nation.  One was valedictorian at Hart, the other salutatorian. One is considering running for Berkeley University Senate and maintains strong ties with the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles, the other has written four articles for the Daily Pennsylvanian in her first semester and given a news beat for her second.  And of course, both have maintained excellent grades.  I didn’t happen by chance, but there is no instant formula. The work we did to help them reach this state was performed many years before, much like Joseph’s storehouses, or our present need to stockpile water.

But the 18 ½ years it took to get there often felt like Joseph’s 20 years in prison, due to the advice of our older brothers. Based on limited observations at large family functions, several of them honestly believed that almost everything we were doing to raise our children was absolutely wrong.  Suggestions that we use harsher discipline, send them to special schools, medicate them were frequently offered, and when ignored, we were seen as pompous and obstinate, much like Joseph.   I (usually) patiently waited through the nearly two decades of dreading family gatherings watching my children’s behavior being constantly examined under a microscope.

Now, at family gatherings, I feel like Joseph in the palace. It IS good to be the king, or even the king’s right hand man.  Our brothers who were most vocal about our lack of parenting skills now speak to me with the same emotions Joseph’s brothers used when set up in Goshen, always afraid of having their past actions and words pointed out to them.  Vindication feels really good, and it should, since it is often the result of hard work in the face of opposition. (I imagine many of our own temple members feel the same every time someone says the words “Albert Einstein Academy”). And can you imagine how good we would all feel if we actually DID spend money to have more reservoirs for the next drought?  We would feel intelligent, successful, vindicated for all we gave up.

Just like Joseph.

1 Comment

Vayeshev

12/7/2014

0 Comments

 
SUMMARY:
  • Jacob is shown to favor his son Joseph, whom the other brothers resent. Joseph has dreams of grandeur. (Genesis 37:1-11)
  • After Joseph's brothers had gone to tend the flocks in Shechem, Jacob sends Joseph to report on them. The brothers decide against murdering Joseph but instead sell him into slavery. After he is shown Joseph's coat of many colors, which had been dipped in the blood of a kid, Jacob is led to believe that Joseph has been killed by a beast. (Genesis 37:12-35)
  • Tamar successively marries two of Judah's sons, each of whom dies. Judah does not permit her levirate marriage to his youngest son. She deceives Judah into impregnating her. (Genesis 38:1-30)
  • God is with Joseph in Egypt until the wife of his master, Potiphar, accuses him of rape, whereupon Joseph is imprisoned. (Genesis 39:1-40:23)
Dvar Torah
Dr. Carol Ochs

This portion can be read as the first of the Joseph stories or the culmination of the sibling rivalry that has plagued the families of Genesis. But taking a perspective that joins the dreams of Joseph to the story of Tamar, we can read this as a portion about free will, foreknowledge, and responsibility.

We first meet Joseph not as one who interprets dreams of others, but as one who has dreams of his own. The question that the story raises for us—and to some extent for his father, Jacob—is whether Joseph’s dreams represent his personal ambitions or should be seen as a thin parting of the veil that hides most of us from the greater drama of which we are a part.

Sigmund Freud was fascinated with the biblical Joseph. “It will be noticed that the name Joseph plays a great part in my dreams. My own ego finds it very easy to hide itself behind people of that name, since Joseph was the name of a man famous in the Bible as an interpreter of dreams” (Sigmund Freud, Standard Edition , vol. V, p. 484n). Freud expanded our understanding of dreams, yet he was restricted to viewing dreams only within the context of the empirical world and the world of emotions. He rejected the view that dreams were chiefly concerned with the future and an ability to fortell it—something he dismisses as “a remnant of the old prophetic significance of dreams” (ibid., vol. IV, p. 97). His metaphysics, while enriching our view of our own minds, has constricted our view of reality. He does not consider that we may have access to a larger vision transcending our personal wishes and desires.

Jewish tradition informed Freud in his eagerness to preserve our sense of responsibility and free will. In biblical times, divination of any sort already was frowned upon. However, there is a third concept that lies between the concepts of free will and determinism—that of destiny. Free will suggests that we and the other forces in this world are the sole determinants of both the meaning and the value of our actions. Determinism suggests that what “is” could not have been otherwise, that is, we are simply living in a prescripted drama. Destiny functions very differently: it neither controls us nor ignores us. Rather, it invites us to live a life beyond the narrow concept of self-interest.


A cell in your bloodstream could live out its life span delivering oxygen and taking away waste. But if it could become conscious, it could become aware of the larger whole, your body, of which it is a part. Similarly, we can live our lives doing what we do, never reflecting on any larger whole in which we might be participating. But if the veil were lifted, as it was for Joseph and Tamar, our lives would be imbued with meaning and dignity. We are not coerced or tricked into reflecting on our destiny, rather, we are invited. And with this invitation comes the possibility of moving from an “accidental” life to one that is in harmony with the goodness of the original creation.

In this portion, we meet Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah and exemplary foremother of Reform Judaism. With clarity of moral vision and at great personal risk, she seduces Judah and becomes the foremother of the line of David (and the Messiah). She, too, had a dream, and she performed the action that made it a reality.

The story of Judah and Tamar is inserted at this point in the narrative to justify our becoming the Jewish people instead of Reubenites. Judah, shown identifying signet-seal, staff, and cord by his daughter-in-law, recognizes his error, changes course, and thereby becomes a fit leader for the Jewish people. We are not asked to be perfect, but to fulfill our destiny; we must be able to admit our mistakes and change course.

Potiphar’s wife is introduced not merely to tempt and thereby test Joseph nor to be the proximate cause of his being thrown into the dungeon. She also serves to exemplify a person who cannot see beyond her own immediate desires. Joseph is not a moral exemplar for her but a temptation. Once Joseph has recognized his own destiny, he easily could have said to Potiphar’s wife what he later says to his brothers, “Though you intended me harm, God intended it for good, in order to accomplish what is now the case, to keep alive a numerous people” (Genesis 50:20).

As Reform Jews we are taught to take responsibility for our choices and actions. We are guided by tradition, but not excused by it. We must perform the right action even when there is no precedent for our choice.
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    A d'var Torah is an essay based on the parashah.

    Divrei Torah (plural of d'var Torah) are sometimes offered instead of a sermon during a worship service, to set a tone and a context at the opening of a synagogue board or committee meeting, or to place personal reflection within a Jewish context.

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