Joseph and Judah: A Tale Of Two Brothers, One Religion
D’var Torah for Parashat Vayigash
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
December 25, 2020
This week’s Torah portion, Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27), contains the tearful climax of the story of Joseph and his brothers. It also presents us with the dual aspects of the Jewish religion, faith and action, and has us consider the role that each plays in our life.
The story line is famous. Joseph, as we remember, was Jacob’s favorite son, first born of his beloved wife Rachel. Jacob’s preferential treatment, however, works (as expected) in a divisive manner, causing jealousy and hatred. Sent by Jacob to inquire about his brothers’ welfare, Joseph heads for Shechem, only to find them gone. Lost in the fields, he encounters a stranger who tells him that his brothers have moved on to Dothan along with their flocks. Joseph proceeds to find them there.
But upon seeing him from a distance, the brothers come up with their own ideas—first to murder him, and then, on rethinking, to sell him as a slave to a caravan of Ishmaelite traders.
Joseph finds himself in Egypt, where his knack for interpreting dreams lands him in Pharaoh’s palace—and with a job he could only dream of, overlord over the entire Egyptian population, second in power only to Pharaoh himself.
One of those famines of Biblical scale ensues, forcing all those affected to go to Egypt and purchase food at the hands of Joseph. Among them is Joseph’s family. The brothers do not recognize him. Years have passed; the boy he once was has grown up and now appears before them in full royal regalia. Joseph, however, immediately recognizes them. We can only imagine what goes on in his mind at that moment.
Faced with the two options of revenge or reconciliation, Joseph sets his brothers up for all sorts of misadventures. He secretly returns their money, forces them to bring Benjamin—his younger brother, also born of Rachel—to him, then accuses Benjamin of theft and the rest of them of espionage and treason. The calamity forces Judah—who, years earlier, had come up with the idea of selling Joseph into slavery in the first place—to confess. But rather than asking for mercy for himself and his brothers, Judah asks Joseph to show pity for Jacob, who now stands to lose the second of his most beloved children. The realization that Judah’s remorse is sincere leads Joseph to tearfully reveal his true identity to his brothers. Comforting them, he says, “Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you” (Gen. 45:5, NIV).
While reminding his brothers of their wrongdoing, Joseph also invokes his deep belief that it was all God’s doing. Every step of the journey was pre-determined, programmed by Providence to save the life of the family—and thus also of the entire Jewish People.
The belief in Providence (hashgacha in Hebrew) is deeply embedded within every religion. God’s power over all life is complete and pre-determined. Yes, we still have choice, but it is limited to two possibilities: we can give ourselves freely to God’s will, or rebel against it. Joseph comforts his brothers, yet his message contains a troubling thought: that our choices do not matter. God has set everything up, and willy-nilly we end up doing exactly what God had meant us to do all along.
Judah, however, has a different viewpoint. Over the course of his life, from that first moment when he chose to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites through the shameful incident with his daughter-in-law Tamar, Judah has finally reached a different kind of wisdom. Remorse has led him to understand that our actions carry consequences. At this point of the story, he isn’t so much concerned with pre-determination. It’s Jacob’s grief, caused by his—Judah’s—wrongdoings, that he cannot bear any longer.
As this Torah portion begins, Judah steps forward (the meaning of the Hebrew word vayigash). He realizes that the only way out of the predicament is to make public confession and offer reparation. Judah’s series of actions—stepping up, owning his mistakes and trying to make amends—is essential to Jewish belief, perhaps even more so than Joseph’s belief in an all-controlling and manipulating God.
To be sure, Joseph’s belief does offer hope to humanity. All that suffering, all that sadness and pain that fill our life, all have a place in God’s inscrutable plan.
But Judaism—the belief of Judah—goes beyond this simplistic view. It places much of the responsibility on our shoulders. Yes, there is suffering and great misery, and only God knows why; however, relief and consolation are in our power. We can bring solace and comfort. We can alleviate some of that pain. Hope and Redemption are not only in God’s hands; they are equally within our own, human, abilities.
These two philosophies are at the wellspring of every religion. Some faiths focus more on one or the other. Judaism, however, combines them into one. Judaism’s understanding of causality leads us to the awareness of God’s power not only to create but also to set up a multitude of possibilities, each with its own set of consequences. But simultaneously, Judaism places the responsibility for our choices squarely upon our shoulders. While Joseph’s beliefs lead to a more messianic approach to life—that all is in God’s hands—Judah’s insight is more practical and hands-on. His perspective gives us human beings a far greater role in what happens to us.
In some ways, the story of Joseph and Judah is the story of religion itself. Throughout human history, the two ways of believing have given rise to conflicts, war and terror. The invaluable lesson that Vayigash would have us learn, however, is that the two are not mutually exclusive. Faith does not stand alone; it should lead us to acts of love, reconciliation and responsibility. And while righteous behavior does not necessarily have to come from faith, invariably it leads to it.
There are factual and historical reasons behind the name that we Jews give our religion. But there is also another reason. Joseph may have saved the Jewish People, but it was Judah who instilled within us the seeds of our religion, a combination of faith and action that has proven its success and truth throughout our history.
© 2020 by Boaz D. Heilman
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