By Rabbi Gregory Marx
Parashat Vayigash
When faced with tough choices, we reveal our character. One such pivotal moment occurs in this week’s Torah portion. It opens in the middle of an impassioned dialogue between Joseph, still unknown to his own brothers, and Judah, who represents the family in his father’s absence. Joseph has threatened to imprison young Benjamin for the apparent crime of stealing Joseph’s goblet. Judah knows that Jacob still mourns the loss of Joseph and that he would never recover from the loss of Rachel’s second son. Joseph’s trap is now ready to spring on the brothers.
Those same brothers had been willing to sell Joseph into slavery many years before. They had been ready to lie to their father, Jacob, and to let him believe that his beloved boy, Joseph, was dead. In putting them in an almost identical place, Joseph gives them the opportunity to get it right this time, to prove that their teshuvah, their repentance, is real.
The reader of the Torah is left wondering, not how would Judah react; we know that from reading the text — the real question is, how would we react? Would we take the “easy” way out by allowing the brother to remain a captive in an Egyptian dungeon? Or will he risk his own neck on behalf of this brother and his father?
Imagine Joseph’s relief to hear Judah say: “If I do not bring [Benjamin] back, I shall stand guilty before my father forever. Therefore, please let me remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!”
In those powerful lines, Judah reveals the tremendous inner growth that has transformed his character. As a young man, his jealously of Joseph and his own self-centeredness blinded him to the tragedy he inflicted on Joseph and on the anguish he imposed on his poor father. Lacking experience in life, he couldn’t know the depths of a parent’s grief. So consumed by his own ambitions, he chose not to empathize with his equally ambitious brother.
Now, Judah does have a lifetime of experience through which he could filter this latest challenge. He knows a parent’s pain, having lost two sons of his own. His own ambitions have been largely realized; he has become the spokesman for his brothers. Drawing on his experiences of pain, loss and fulfillment, Judah is now able to be the “captain of his soul,” to commit himself to a more difficult but morally proper path.
Joseph also grows throughout the Torah. We first see him as self-absorbed, thinking mostly of himself, and by the end of Genesis, he’s quite the mensch. He respects character, justice and truth. He yearns for his family and to connect with loved ones.
His teshuvah — repentance — is what defines him. Maybe that is why our faith is named after this reborn man. He teaches us “Judah-ism,” the power of character, self reflection, growth and atonement. To identify with Judaism requires character growth, to be better people and to right the wrongs we have done in life. When looking for the founders of our faith, it is facile to think of Abraham and Sarah or even Moses, but don’t forget Judah. It’s no accident that our faith is named after him.
One last observation: This is the only story in the Torah where God plays no role at all. This story stands apart from the epic scenes at Mount Sinai or Egypt and the plagues. Joseph and Judah don’t turn to God to fix their problems. They fix their own. Then through their own teshuvah, through their reconciliation, through love, they connect with God. What a powerful message: We don’t look for God to change our lives. We yearn to discover God through the righteous deeds we perform.
Gregory Marx is the rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen.
