summary

Parashat Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27) opens by concluding the drama left hanging at the end of last week’s parashat Miketz. Joseph has accused Benjamin of being a thief, in a scenario that Joseph himself has engineered. The brothers now led by Judah and still unaware of Joseph’s true identity, offer to be taken as slaves in place of Benjamin. Judah’s plea was described by Sir Walter Scott as “the most complete pattern of genuine natural eloquence,” and finally provokes Joseph to reveal his identity and be reunited with his brothers. As Joseph reveals himself, the role of God in bringing about these events is emphasised. This passage introduces the story of refugees status, slavery and ultimate deliverance that is to follow.

Jacob now hears that Joseph lives and prepares to journey to join him. A genealogy of the immediate family who travelled with him is provided. On the journey, Jacob has a vision, the last to be recounted in Genesis. God assures Jacob that God will go down with him and also return his descendants to their land.

Jacob is now reunited with Joseph and is guided by him as to how to speak to Pharoah to insure that the land of Goshen which was fertile, was given to Jacob and his sons to dwell on. The parasha concludes by recounting that the famine affected a region outside of Pharoah’s control and that those people in desperation turned to Joseph for survival from the provisions that he had stored. With a policy that seems morally questionable, Joseph takes their land for Pharoah in return for food. He also gives them seed to redevelop their lands but insists that a fifth of any produce would be Pharoah’s. Thus the parasha concludes with a brief note to say that Jacob/Israel, settled and lay roots in Goshen and were “fruitful and multiplied greatly.”

commentary

“Jacob then made this vow: “If God is with me and watches over me on this path that I am taking and gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear, and if I return safely to my father’s house, then the Eternal One will be my God; and this stone that I have set up as a monument shall be a house of God. And of all that You give me, I will dedicate a tenth to You. (Gen 28:20-22)””

This formal promise or vow (neder) is conditional. Indeed, the seeming chutzpah and bargaining employed by Jacob so stunned one ancient commentator, Rabbi Yochanan, that he concluded that the text must somehow be in disarray!

However, this is a young Jacob with many more stages of maturity to come. His prayer to God is therefore not a “proper prayer,” but, as Rabbi Gunther Plaut observes, “He prays realistically, from the heart.” How many times have we prayed in this, most human of ways? A midrash suggests that, “Praying at any place is like standing at the very foot of God’s throne of glory, for the gate of heaven is there and the door is open for prayer to be heard (Pirke d’Rabi Eliezer 35).”

This place though, is Beth El. The place where Abraham (described in God’s previous blessing as Jacob’s father, rather than Isaac) built an altar (Gen 12:8; 13:3-4). And it is here that Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Prayer may come naturally and validly from our hearts in any place, most often in times of need as illustrated by Jacob, Leah and Rachel in this portion.

Interestingly, we often find that in those times of need we return to specific places, Ha’makom, to places familiar to us, to our past experiences, either known or intuited. Ha’makom, one of the words that the Ancient Rabbis understood of places in the Torah, that stood for a name of God.

Shabbat Shalom

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