Vayigash 2010 / 5770 9 Tevet 5770 / 26 December 2009
When we see
each other, we know that God sees us.
0. Over my desk in my office, I like to put up quotes that inspire me in my work. One of them comes from Mishpachah magazine. There, I recently read an inspiring article about Dr. David Pelcovitz, a psychologist at Yeshiva University and a frequent speaker. Dr. Pelcovitz recalls that his rebbe, Rav Avrohom Pam, used to say that there is a special mitzvah of ותהעלמת מהם, “not ignoring [lost articles], that applies to Jewish children in pain. If you see a Jewish child in pain and you help the child, you can thereby return him or her to his parents.
Please keep this thought in my mind as we explore a theme from our parashah, Vayigash.
1.
In the book of Psalms, we read:
תהלים י:א לָמָה יְ־הֹוָה תַּֽעֲמֹד בְּרָחוֹק תַּעְלִים לְעִתּוֹת בַּצָּֽרָה:
Why O Lord, do you stand aloof, [why] are you hidden in time of trouble? Ps. 10:1
Yaakov Avinu felt this way (see בראשית רבה ]וילנא[ צד:ג):
ישעיה מ:כז
לָמָּה תֹאמַר יַעֲקֹב וּתְדַבֵּר יִשְׂרָאֵל נִסְתְּרָה דַרְכִּי מֵיְקֹוָק וּמֵאֱ־לֹהַי מִשְׁפָּטִי יַעֲבוֹר:
“Why do you say, O Jacob, why declare, O Israel, “My way is hid from Hashem, my cause is ignored by my God”? (NJPS)
According to the Rabbis, Yaakov [=Jacob] spent years after Yosef’s [=Joseph's] departure in a prophetic dry spell. This period ended only when Yaakov accepted that his son was still alive.
בראשית מה:כז
וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֵלָיו אֵת כָּל־דִּבְרֵי יוֹסֵף אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֲלֵהֶם וַיַּרְא אֶת־הָעֲגָלוֹת אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַח יוֹסֵף לָשֵׂאת אֹתוֹ וַתְּחִי רוּחַ יַֽעֲקֹב אֲבִיהֶֽם:
Rashi comments:
ותחי רוח יעקב - שרתה עליו שכינה שפירשה ממנו:
Then (Gen 46:2-4), Hashem appears again במראות הלילה to Yaakov for the first time in years with a promise, אָֽנֹכִי אֵרֵד עִמְּךָ מִצְרַיְמָה וְאָֽנֹכִי אַֽעַלְךָ גַם־עָלֹה --Hashem will go down with Yaakov to Egypt and bring him up thence to Eretz Yisrael.
Let us explore what happened that made it possible for Yaakov to feel that, indeed, his way was not hidden from Hashem.
We will focus on the dramatic reunion of Yosef and his brothers. We will concentrate on the role of the sense of sight in this reunion. To understand what is implied by seeing in Yosef’s relationship with his brothers, we will consider two mitzvot that, at first blush, appear unrelated. We will suggest a connection between human seeing and divine seeing. Finally, we will think about what this has to do with our own lives.
When Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he gives them a message to share with their father, Yaakov:
בראשית מה
יא וְכִלְכַּלְתִּי אֹֽתְךָ שָׁם כִּי־עוֹד חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים רָעָב פֶּן־תִּוָּרֵשׁ אַתָּה וּבֵֽיתְךָ וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר־לָֽךְ:
I will provide for you [in Goshen]...so that you and your household and all that is yours may not suffer want.
Yosef goes on,
יב וְהִנֵּה עֵֽינֵיכֶם רֹאוֹת וְעֵינֵי אָחִי בִנְיָמִין כִּי־פִי הַֽמְדַבֵּר אֲלֵיכֶֽם:
You can see for yourselves, and my brother Binyamin for himself, that it is indeed I who am speaking to you.
Yosef is not so much describing what is happening. He is asking his brothers to see him. In fact, he is asking them to see him and take note of him. In last week’s parashah, they, by their own admission in Yosef’s own presence, had refused to take note of Yosef when they threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery:
בראשית מב:כא וַיֹּֽאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו אֲבָל אֲשֵׁמִים | אֲנַחְנוּ עַל־אָחִינוּ אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ צָרַת נַפְשׁוֹ בְּהִתְחַֽנְנוֹ אֵלֵינוּ וְלֹא שָׁמָעְנוּ עַל־כֵּן בָּאָה אֵלֵינוּ הַצָּרָה הַזֹּֽאת:
... Alas, we are being punished on account of our brother, because we looked on at his anguish, yet paid no heed as he pleaded with us. ...
3.
Yosef wants his brothers to see him and to take note of him. He likewise wants his father to see him (in a sense) and to take note of him even before Yaakov leaves for Egypt. According to the Midrash and Rashi, the wagons that Yosef sends to transport Yaakov are also a visual reminder of him:
בראשית מה:כז ... וַיַּרְא אֶת־הָעֲגָלוֹת אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַח יוֹסֵף לָשֵׂאת אֹתוֹ וַתְּחִי רוּחַ יַֽעֲקֹב אֲבִיהֶֽם:
...when he saw the wagons that Yosef had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Yaakov revived.
Rashi comments that...
רש"י בראשית מה:כז ... סימן מסר להם במה היה עוסק כשפירש ממנו ,בפרשת עגלה ערופה ,זהו שאמר וירא את העגלות אשר שלח יוסף ולא אמר אשר שלח פרעה:
“Joseph had provided a reminder (siman) of the subject which he and Jacob had been studying when he was separated from [his father], the passage of eglah arufah, the broken heifer…”
At first glance, the reference to the portion of עגלה ערופה, ‘the broken heifer,’ is just a clever play on words. Yosef has sent עגלות, wagons. The singular of wagons, עֲגָלָה, calls to mind עֶגְלָה, heifer. On closer inspection, however, the visual pun is a key that unlocks the story of Yosef and his family.
Parashat Shoftim (in the book of Deuteronomy) concludes with the discussion of a corpse found in the open, between towns. The elders of the closest town must take a heifer which has never been worked to a נחל, a wadi. After killing the heifer in the wadi, the elders must declare:
דברים כא:ז
וְעָנוּ וְאָֽמְרוּ יָדֵינוּ לֹא שָֽׁפְכֻה ]שָֽׁפְכוּ[ אֶת־הַדָּם הַזֶּה וְעֵינֵינוּ לֹא רָאֽוּ:
Our hands did not shed this blood, notr did our eyes see. (DR)
In his commentary, Rashi shares the comment of the sages in Tractate Sotah:
ידינו לא שפכֻה: וכי עלתה על לב שזקני בית דין שופכי דמים הם? אלא, לא ראינוהו ופטרנוהו בלא מזונות ובלא לויה (סוטה מה:).
“Now, would it occur to one that the elders of the court were blood-spillers? Rather, they meant that they had not seen the victim [leave their town] and let him go without provisions and escort.”
The mitzvah of עגלה ערופה is a kind of תיקון , a reparation, for the possibility that a traveler was allowed to leave a community without being shown compassion, care-- חסד.
According to Midrash Rabbah, when Yaakov Avinu sees the wagons, he understands the message and is deeply moved.
]בראשית רבה ]וילנא[ צד:ג[ ויאמר ישראל רב ,רב כחו של יוסף בני שכמה צרות הגיעוהו ועדיין הוא עומד בצדקו הרבה ממני שחטאתי שאמרתי]ישעיה מ[ נסתרה דרכי מה ,'ובטוח אני שיש לי במה רב טובך.
Yisrael said “rav” -- it is great. Great is the strength of my son Yosef. Throughout the travails that came his way, he stood much firmer in his righteousness that I did. For I sinned when I said, “my way is hidden from Hashem” (Isa. 40:27), and I am certain that I have share in “[Hashem’s] great goodness” (see Ps. 31:20).
4.
We began by considering another verse which describes a crisis of faith in Hashem’s abiding care:
תהלים י:א
לָמָה יְ־הֹוָה תַּֽעֲמֹד בְּרָחוֹק תַּעְלִים לְעִתּוֹת בַּצָּֽרָה:
I translated this verse
Why Hashem, do you stand aloof, [why] are you hidden in time of trouble? Ps. 10:1
I would like to suggest another way to understand this verse:
“Why Hashem, do you stand aloof, why do you hide your eyes?”
The verb תַּעְלִים is understood by Rashi and ibn Ezra to be shorthand for תעלים עיניך, to hide one’s eyes, that is, to see but to pretend not to see.
In parashat Ki Tetzei [Deuteronomy 22:1], the Torah includes a mitzvah based on the same verbal root, ע.ל.ם., dedicated to making sure that we do not pretend not to see:
דברים פרק כב א לֹֽא־תִרְאֶה אֶת־שׁוֹר אָחִיךָ אוֹ אֶת־שֵׂיוֹ נִדָּחִים וְהִתְעַלַּמְתָּ מֵהֶם הָשֵׁב תְּשִׁיבֵם לְאָחִֽיךָ:
If you see your fellow’s ox or sheep gone astray, והתעלמת מהם, do not ignore it; you must take it back to your fellow.
Rashi comments that והתעלמת מהם means that one must not avert his eyes in the pretense that he does not see the lost ox.
And who is the lost ox? The one who is described as
דברים לג:יז בְּכוֹר שׁוֹרוֹ הדר לו...
A firstling bull in his majesty. [Deuteronomyt 33:17]
5.
Yosef was, in effect, left for lost. His brothers averted their eyes and ears from his pain. We could understand it if he harbored deep resentment and hatred, and a desire to take revenge at the opportune time. Indeed, till after their father’s death, Yosef’s brothers assume that Yosef harbors hatred for them. Instead, Yosef spends his years in Egypt yearning to be reunited with his family. He requites brotherly disregard with brotherly love. He may be the victim of disregard--like the corpse in the mitzvah of עגלה ערופה and the wandering ox in the mitzvah to return lost articles.
Nevertheless, when he is reunited with his brothers, he sees and takes regard for them and his father. And he reminds his father that my way is not hidden from Hashem.
Indeed, he teaches, that when we see and take notice of others’ pain, when we show חסד to our fellow--whether a child or an adult--we can know that Hashem sees us and takes notice of our pain as well.
Afterthought:
We might understand Psalms 10:1 as follows:
Why Hashem, do you stand aloof?
Because you, [the questioner], hide [your eyes from others] in their time of trouble.