Hafatara of Vayiggash

Hafatara of Vayiggash

January 2017

         This week, the reading from the Torah brought a resolution to the story of Joseph in Egypt that we have been reading for several weeks. Last week we were left with a cliffhanger. The parsha ended with the discovery of a silver goblet in Benjamin’s bags as B’nei Yisrael were returning to Canaan. All the brothers return to Egypt, wondering what they can do to save their youngest brother. We, the readers, know that Benjamin is not really a thief, but the victim of a plot of some sort devised by Joseph. It is clear to us that Joseph is punishing or testing his brothers in some way.

          What Joseph actually expected is not revealed to us – either last week or this. But as this week’s parsha begins, Judah steps forward and begs to exchange himself for Benjamin. And we hear that Judah’s words lead to Joseph finally revealing himself as the long lost brother that he is. A resolution that has often been imitated in soap operas and dime novels. With Joseph’s true identity revealed, the family can be united. The brothers and Jacob are re-united with Joseph, and it appears that they will survive the famine in Egypt, and perhaps even live happily ever after.

          What then would be a fitting haftarah to pair with this story of dramatic resolution and family reconciliation? Perhaps some other story of family reconciliation or dramatic resolution? Tellingly perhaps, there aren’t many stories in the Prophets of such family togetherness. We could find stories of victimized children, of fighting between parents and children or even of estranged spouses. But I have not found any stories comparable to the dramatic family resolution of this week’s Torah reading.

          Instead, the Sages chose to associate a passage from Ezekiel with this parsha. It is the second half of Chapter 37. It describes how Ezekiel was instructed to show the exiles in Babylonia two “sticks,” one labeled Judah and the other Ephraim. With a flair for the dramatic, Ezekiel presents the separate sticks, and then melds them into a single stick. When the people are baffled by this magic trick, Ezekiel explains that it represents the coming return from exile of a united Jewish people.

וּמֶ֧לֶךְ אֶחָ֛ד יִֽהְיֶ֥ה לְכֻלָּ֖ם לְמֶ֑לֶךְ וְלֹ֤א יִֽהְיוּ עוֹד֙ לִשְׁנֵ֣י גוֹיִ֔ם וְלֹ֨א יֵחָ֥צוּ ע֛וֹד לִשְׁתֵּ֥י מַמְלָכ֖וֹת עֽוֹד:

“One king shall be king of them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.” (v. 22)

With the return,

וְעַבְדִּ֤י דָוִד֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ עֲלֵיהֶ֔ם וְרוֹעֶ֥ה אֶחָ֖ד יִהְיֶ֣ה לְכֻלָּ֑ם

“My servant David shall be king over them; there shall be one shepherd for all of them.” (v. 24)

So the haftarah presents a story of national unity (or reconciliation) and return. Where the Torah narrates leaving Israel (Canaan) to go into exile in Egypt, the haftarah describes a return to Israel, from exile in Babylon.

          What is not included in this week’s reading is the first portion of Chapter 37 in Ezekiel – the better known image of the Valley of Dry Bones. Ezekiel conjures up a mass grave, and imagines the resurrection of the people interred there. The Sages left this portion out of the haftarah, but someone who knows the book of Ezekiel would recognize that the uniting of the sticks followed this image of rebirth. In our Torah portion similar themes occur in reverse order. After the re-uniting of the brothers, Jacob is informed that Joseph is alive. For Jacob the news that Joseph is living is equivalent for him to the resurrection of the dead.

          It is of interest, perhaps, that Ezekiel seems to be concerned with two things. One is the image of return and restoration. For a people in exile, his was the most prominent voice that could imagine a future beyond exile. Faced with despair or hopelessness, or perhaps merely with assimilation, Ezekiel wanted to dramatize as much as possible the image of a future return.

          But in doing his magic trick with the sticks, Ezekiel is also emphasizing the future unity of the Jewish people. We are inclined to overlook or forget the historic divisions of our people – divisions that go back at least as far as the succession after the death of King Solomon. For hundreds of years, we were not one nation, but two. Israel and Judah existed as rivals. The sense we have, or imagine, of the unity of the Jewish people is not supported by Biblical history. We have not only been a people that challenged or disregarded God’s wishes, but our history includes division and conflict between the different tribes, nation-states or factions of the Jewish people. Ezekiel is asserting not only that the people will return to the promised land, but also that we will do so as a united, not a divided people.

A visionary or messianic image, indeed. We like to imagine unity. In fact, many of our community leaders are willing to use the hope for unity as a reason for suppressing dissent. In truth, we are far more often a divided people than a people that speaks with one voice. This week, the sentencing of Elor Azaria has again provided evidence that unity is difficult for the people of Israel to attain. Anyone who notices anything about the politics of Israel must understand that unity and consensus is not the natural state of the Jewish people. Ezekiel understood this well, and spoke to internal divisions that must have been as real in his time as the divisions we live with today. His vision of a united Jewish people is in the future rather than a description of the present or the past.

          And as we also anticipate the end of one Presidency and the start of another, we might also notice that it is not only the Jewish people that is capable of sharp divisions. The United States is also divided after an election that chose a new leader, but did not resolve any differences. In this country as well, living with division and disagreement is our normal state. I hate adapting “religion” to serve political purposes – whether done by the Christian right, the settlers movement or even by me. But I am struck at this time with the idea that disagreement is a reality in our life, here and in Israel. It takes a prophet to imagine something else. It takes a visionary to imagine a time when we will be brought together as a single people with shared ideals and values. And even for a prophet such as Ezekiel, perhaps that image of unity is just a magic trick or an illusion. Can two separate sticks really become one?

          Or perhaps, we should look back to the Torah portion. What finally brings the children of Jacob together? What allows for reconciliation between the brothers is the initiative of Judah. Confronted with the threat to Benjamin, and knowing what that would mean to Jacob, Judah steps forward. Rather than threatening or arguing against the terrible reality of Benjamin as a captive, Judah offers to sacrifice himself on behalf of his victimized brother. The midrash understands that it was that action on Judah’s part that brought Joseph to tears, and convinced Joseph that reconciliation was possible, and even required. I don’t think that Ezekiel imagined the uniting of the Jewish people as an act that required great sacrifice. But Baalei haHaftara, the people who chose to associate Ezekiel’s image of national unity with this week’s parsha may have wanted to tell us that if we truly want to be one people, sacrifices will have to be made.

          Shabbat shalom.