(1) Over the past several weeks there has been heavy news from Israel, so sermons have been focused on public issues. Today, I will provide several unconnected insights and commentaries on the Sidra. (2) We read of Joseph’s tears four times – after Reuben’s speech, after Judah’s speech, during the meeting with Jacob, and by the death of Jacob. Interestingly, not once do we read of him crying for himself. He appears to have no self-pity.

We can understand why Joseph cried upon meeting Jacob and when Jacob died. What explains his behavior after the speeches by Judah and Reuben?

The crying of Joseph following Judah’s speech was obviously one of joy at Judah’s full repentance. Judah was the leader of the brothers who sinned against a weaker brother, son of Rachel, and was now willing to lay his life on the line for the other son of Rachel, the youngest brother. But why did Joseph cry after Reuben’s talk? An answer is offered by Rabbi Zadok haCohen of Lublin. When Joseph demanded they bring Benjamin, we read:

ויאמר איש אל אחיו, אבל אשמים אנחנו אשר ראינו צרת נפשו בהתחננו אלינו ולא שמענו, על כן באה הצרה הזאת,

the brothers thought that they were being punished for the sale of Joseph.

Hence, it was only a partial repentance, תשובה מיראה, a repentance of fear, out of concern for the evil consequences to themselves. So does Reuben conclude: והנה דמו נדרש, that Joseph’s blood demanded payment – thus it was only תשובה מיראה.

1. In Judah’s speech he refers to Benjamin as ויותר הוא לבדו לאמו, that he was the only one left to his mother. But wasn’t his mother dead, having died at childbirth? The mention of Rachel points to an ancient tradition that Benjamin looked just like his mother, וכל שראהו אומר זה בן רחל. Rabbi Benzion Firer said that one can thus understand why Joseph insisted that they bring down Benjamin, despite the anguish it would cause to Jacob, and why he used strange language, ואשימה עיני עליו, “that I may lay my eyes on him” (not ואראנו, “and I shall see him”). Rabbi Firer calculates that Benjamin was then exactly 29 years old – the exact age that Rachel was when she died in childbirth, bearing Benjamin. Joseph was then eight years old. In other words, he wanted to see Benjamin, because the striking similarity of Benjamin to Rachel would revive in Joseph’s memory the picture of his mother as she looked before she passed away at that early age.
2. Again in Judah’s speech he said “Do not get angry with me, כי כמוך כפרעה, for like you [Joseph] is like Pharaoh.” Rabbi Zvi Elimelekh Shapira of Dinov notes that Joseph was superior to Pharaoh in two ways – according to the latter's own admission. In חכמה, wisdom, this Pharaoh says: אין נבון וחכם כמוך, there is no man of discernment or wisdom like you [Joseph]. The second way is נבואה, prophecy, the spiritual dimension. Thus Pharaoh says: הנמצא כזה איש אשר רוח אלקים בו, can a man like this be found that has the spirit of G-d in him. So, Judah tells Joseph, “don’t lose your temper,” because the Sages said: כל הכועס אם חכם הוא חכמתו מסתלקת ממנו, ואם נביא הוא נבואתו מסתלקת ממנו – anyone who is angered… if he is wise, his wisdom will depart from him, and if he is a prophet, his prophecy will depart from him. Therefore, said Judah to Joseph, if you become angry, you will lose both your חכמה, wisdom, and your נבואה, prophecy, and therefore will be superior in no way to Pharaoh: כי כמוך כפרעה.
3. Joseph gave gifts of clothing to the brothers, חליפות שמלות. Notice that he gave these gifts to all the brothers, but not to Jacob. Why? Because clothing symbolizes adjustment, adaptation, and acculturation. He knew the brothers would Egyptianize, even while remaining Hebrews within, but that Jacob could not, cannot, and would not so adapt.

Benno Jacob sees in the gift of clothing to the brothers a sign of Joseph’s magnanimous and aristocratic spirit. The brothers sinned against him because of clothing – the כתונת פסים; and so his gift of clothing, חליפות שמלות, was the synonym of a full pardon and utter reconciliation.

1. Next week we will read about how all the brothers, including Joseph, leave to bury Jacob in Canaan. One distinguished member of this congregation, a young lady of nine years old, asked me last week: Why did they not stay there, and thus avoid the entire גלות מצרים, exile in Egypt? Why did they come back?

The answer is that Joseph and his brothers, even at the height of their friendship with Egypt and the height of Joseph’s career, were always conscious of the fact that they were Jews, and therefore suspected. Here is the familiar theme of dual loyalty. We American Jews may be in a similar position, or even worse. This week I received a letter with a red printed swastika and the words, “We’re back.”

והקל נשמע בית פרעה לאמר באו אחי יוסף וייטב בעיני פרעה ובעיני עבדיו,

And the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Yosef’s brethren are come: and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

Why did Pharaoh and his household react this way? The Sforno answers that heretofore, they suspected that Joseph was not totally loyal to Egypt, but rather to his family and tribe in Canaan. So now if all of them emigrate to Egypt, he will have his full loyalty to Pharaoh.

Therefore, Pharaoh not only permitted Jacob and his sons to come to Egypt, but commanded Joseph to arrange that: ואתה צוית…

Thus, in next week’s Sidra, Joseph and the brothers leave to bury Jacob, we read: רק טפם וצאנם עזבו בארץ גשן, they had to leave their children as hostages!

Now we can appreciate what the Meshech Chochmah says on the words in today’s Sidra: כי פי המדבר אליכם, about which the Rabbis comment: בלשון הקודש, that Joseph spoke to the brothers in Hebrew. So what? Every diplomat must speak some foreign language of the neighboring country?

However, Joseph suspected that they were wondering at his actions: Why bother their old father to come to Egypt? Why not send food and provisions to him for the rest of his life in Canaan? Why does he not go to visit him there? Hence, Joseph’s answer was given in a hint: Were I an Egyptian, I could do it with impunity. But you note כי פי המדבר אליכם, בלשון הקודש – I am a Jew, a Hebrew. And a Jew who rises in government often must be more careful, less generous to Jews, and bend over backwards…

1. Finally let us analyze the dialogue between Pharaoh and Jacob. When Rabbi Aryeh Cohen, known as the Shaagas Aryeh, was accepted as a Rabbi in Metz, everyone was delighted because he was such a great scholar and a distinguished spiritual figure. But one thing bothered them: he was 70 years old when he accepted this rabbinical position, and he looked even older. When the Rabbi noticed what was happening, he told them the following: Why does Pharaoh ask Jacob how old he is? Is that not a question that one uses for a child, not an adult? Moreover, why did not Jacob answer simply: 130 years old. Why did he refer to them as the days of his wandering, as מעטים ורעים, few and evil, and to the fact that his father was older when the latter died?

The answer is that according to the Sages, as soon as Jacob came to Egypt, the famine was suspended, and by virtue of Jacob’s presence the entire land of Egypt was blessed. This pleased Pharaoh to no end. However, when he met Jacob and saw how old and feeble he looked, he was worried that Jacob would not survive long, and therefore the blessing would be diminished and disappear. That is why he asked him how old he was. Jacob, wisely, understood the question, and answered with equal wisdom: Don’t worry about my appearance. If I look old and wrinkled, it is because I have spent a life in wandering, in difficulty, in suffering. However, my father was 180 when he died, so I assume I have a good number of years left.

Similarly, said Rabbi Aryeh Cohen to his people, “If I look even older than my years, it is because I have suffered a great deal because of wandering and poverty and ill health. But I hope to give you at least 20 years, G-d willing.” And so it was.

Jacob is the symbol of the People of Israel, called after him. Especially at this critical juncture in history, we may seem weary, confused, despondent, worried. But don’t worry: we shall survive, we shall live, we shall make it. As G-d told Jacob: אל תירא עבדי יעקב, do not fear Jacob, my servant.