This Shabbat Vayeshev - וישב - (Jacob) lived (in the land of his father's sojourning, Eretz Canaan\ארץ כנען), the weekly Torah reading is from Bereishit 37:1-40:23. It is said: "Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was his son born in the old age and he made him a striped tunic (k’tonet pasim\כתונת פסים).
Joseph was talented and did not really pay attention to the evil gossip his brothers had to their father. The weekly portion is dedicated to Joseph special biography: a seventeen years old shepherd pasturing the sheep; a dreamer : "vayyachalam chalom - ויחלם יעקב חלום - Joseph had a (leading ahead) dream". Joseph had dreams that were to mature along an long-term extended period of time and somehow still unaccomplished at the present.
He was sold by his brothers who were so jealous that they could not get to killing him. Division may at times save the lives of some people endangered by enemies that would not agree on such a simple issue as a murder and thus choose a distorted solution.
This is why it became a mitzva and real duty to pay the ransoms in order to free and save the prisoners; it has been a major mitzvah in all Jewish communities until now. In Israel, this obliges making every possible efforts to redeem and obtain the liberation of Israeli soldiers captured by other armies.
It is the kind of mitzvah that is a basic one, and remains an indisputable sign of "love towards our fellow people". Indeed, Jews that observe the Mitzvot and develope a loving and caring spirit of love toward God and any human being cannot betray any single Jew the way Joseph was sold by his embezzled brothers. Ransoming is a must as it has always been in force throughout the history of Christianity. It steadfastly supports and immensely helped the Jews in the process of ascending to Israel.
The prophetic portion is the reading from the Book of the Prophet Amos (2:6-3:8). The main problem consists on considering how we accept or not the realm of the Mitzvot as a true way to freedom. "For four (transgressions of Israel), I will not pardon them (ashivenu - אשיבנו : we shall not give any positive response or change of penance) for their selling of a righteous man for money (michram bekesef tzadik - מכרם בכסף צדיק) and a destitute/poor man for shoes (veevyon baavur na'alayim - ועבעון בעבור נעליים) ... And a man and his father go to a betrothed young girl (naarah - נערה) to profane My Holy Name (cf. Tamar) (Amos 2:7).
These are real and pending issues that we have to face this week with regards to history. They allow us to fathom how to apprehend Joseph's fate and destiny, Judah's affair with Tamar, Potifar's wife harassing Joseph. This shows the development of what is wrong and can be corrected and lead to freedom after false possession or desires and treason.
Once upon a time, we had a woman who was the only man of the Israeli government, Golda Meir aka Golda Mabovitz/Meyerson (1898-1978). Born in Kiev/ Kyiv (Ukraine), she joined her father who had left for Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and worked as a carpenter. She went up to Rome to visit Pope John XXIII who welcomed her: "I am your brother Joseph (you hardly can recognize)". At least her father had a Vatican-valued profession: thus, Jesus' father, Joseph, as hers was carpenter.Things can be clear or question: if Pope John XXIII was comparing himself to Joseph who is the symbol of the typical Jewish attitude, it can be considered as a superseding and "condescending": some would opine that he was comparing himself to the sweet and handsome son of Jacob/Israel, jealously betrayed and sold (twice because the tunic "had envelopped him") by his brotehrs that could be likened to the Tribes of Israel. it is always problematic when the Christians "kindly" intend to compare their links to the Jewish Community. Silence would always be "better or more adequately suitable".
When she went on mission in Russia (somehow her home country), she had asked an apparent friend to free from jail some of the most valuable Jewish fighters who could help creating the State of Israel. She was promised they would be released. They were all murdered overnight or so.
On the one hand, this shows how this persistently but honestly confessed substitution declared with much bonhomie - good-nature expressed by the good old Pope who actively did save thousands of Jews during the war.
The mistake that empoisons the relationships
between Judaism and the Christian Churches is precisely present in this
statement. The wonderful and rare pope was a Gentile and not the son of
the first Twelve (sons of Jacob). The second so-called "Twelve" were
Jesus’ disciples according to the Christian tradition. Indeed, Pope John
XVIII asked a meaningful question to Golda Meir, the daughter of the
Jewish carpenter. Just as Joseph’s brothers could not recognize their
brother they had sold, Golda Meir – in the name of the Jewish people
portraying the State of Israel – could hardly imagine or even accept
that the Pope could be her brother sold by Jewish brothers who would
save her and her new-old State rescued from history and permanent
substitution.
This anecdote shows that goodness can be too
evident and though remain a disfigured usurpation. This is the first
spiritual aspect that we must consider from the prophetic haftarah read
in Amos: it is clear that the dialogue between Golda Meir and the Pope
was very heartfelt and nice. The anecdote shows a
substitution/superseding process.
The real problem, that could turn to some vitz-וויץ
(joke, a kidding and kind one), is that the Pope might did not confirm
that he had recognized Golda Meir as being the real daughter of Benjamin
and Jacob. This continues at the present, in most cases, about who is
the Verus Israel (true Israel of God) whose substance and nature
cannot be changed by vestments or attitudes foreign to the world of the
Mitzvot.
Similarly, Judah and Tamar came wrongly
together by some dramatic mistake and trick. The concern is that
blindness does not mean falsification. Blindness means that we do not
accept to see what is extant because reality is too much for what we can
stand and what the others can accept.
The Talmud has it about the roots machar-מכר – to sell, mecher – sale, makkar-מכר – be acquainted, friends, mecherut-מכרות – sales/neighboring friends.
Thus, “the seller is presumed to sell liberally, i.e. all except what
is excluded (and ought to be defined)” (Bava Bathra 64b). Or, “a man can
be sold for his theft, not a woman” (Sota 1c). On the other hand,
Joseph had not usurped, captured or, worse, bought his father’s love.
Jealousy remains a spiritual disease or discomfort that was ravaging
Joseph’s brothers. Then, Joseph and his brothers could not anticipate
the far-reaching spiritual significance of their mutual attitudes and
decisions. When Prophet Amos accounted the events, he envisioned
something of what history had brought from the limping of Israel and its
survival that still stuns or even stupefies the Nations and the Jews
alike.
The State of Israel turned to 65 years old in two major steps. The first one is amazingly occurring just before this Shabbat Vayeshev
on November 29 (kaftet - כ"ט), 1947) and corresponds to six decades
after the UN historic vote accepting the partition of Palestine, on
Kislev 16 (tetzayn - ט"ז), 5708).
Nobody really cares about the Hebrew date of
the UN vote that fell on Monday. Good enough. The partition vote is
still a decision taken by the Nations and this has always been
meaningful for the coherence of Israel spiritual history.
The question is whether one can seriously
consider that the State of Israel is only a consequence of the World War
II with a Western UN vote of false good conscience: the Jews will sink
in the hour following their independence. It was both a Gentile and
Jewish reflection and our sinking is still en vogue. Is it the consequence of the Holocaust?
Joseph’s sale to the merchants is definitely
the prelude to a will of extermination. The Shoah ("Churban Yid.
Chirb'n/חורבן = destruction of the Temples" is more appropriate) is, at
the present, a major European concern and a Western Church interrogation
whilst the Eastern Churches and Orthodoxy keep silent on the matter for
the moment. Jews cannot abstract themselves from community
responsibilities in such a devastation/abomination that tracks back
their experience to the Churban (destructions of the Temple).
The State of Israel emerged and develops as
the impossible challenge allowing a rescued nation born to bless to be
overflowing with unexpected pardon. Things are simple and crude: who
is/are my brother/s? Disguised or rescued from flames of passions,
ignorance and hatred? We are thus the descendants of Cain who had dared
say to God: “…hashomer achi anochi השומר אחי אנכי – am I my brother’s
keeper?” God said: “What have you done! The voice of your brother’s
blood cries out to Me from the ground.” (Gen. 4:9-10). The same blood
continues to cry out. Then, the miracle means something else.
This 66th anniversary of the UN partition vote falls on the 215th
anniversary of the “Alter Rebbe” Zalman Schneur of Lyadi’s release from
prison where he had spent 52 days in Saint Petersburg upon the
denunciation of some Lithuanian Jews (mitnagdim, opponents to
Hassidism). He was freed on Kislev 19, 5559.
It became the Rosh Hashanah-New Year of the
Hassidic movement'ראש השנה החסידות as a spiritual envisioning movement,
in particular the Chabad-Lyubavitch. The point is that two modern
hassidic rabbis have been sent to jail because they were denunciated by
“brothers”.
They were men of charity and pity. How can we
build anything if we are not responsible for others, even those who
would eventually attack or harm us? On this November 29th/Kislev 19th,
many elements track us back to Joseph being sold and still pardoning,
as Cain had killed his brother; God put a sign of protection on his
forehead. The Hassidut celebrates the day on which specific men have
been released in order to get to soul freedom. In 1947, the partition
vote somehow opened a tiny way to Israel’s freedom and existence. .
The real question we face on this day is that God made something, a dealing – ‘alila - עלילה (“He
is terrible in his dealings with man, Tehillim 66:5”). Whatever faith,
philosophical, doubtful attitude, humans seem to miss the chance of
really getting to know if God accepts goodwill or exerts a strict
determination. Suddenly, Nov.29th/19th events
show; they are beyond any human control. We forgot about this. We think
that we are strong when we are simply looking for some way-out. Freedom
is not a way-out. It is life to the fullest.
This is why let’s cool down about Annapolis,
Iran nuking projects… God’s dealings include the hurricanes in the US,
the tsunamis in Asia (the Philippines, Viet Nam, Japan and other
regions) , hunger, AIDS and war in Africa, Gaza human hell.
This date is like a Passover Seder Dayenu verse: it would have sufficed
- דינו. We only got a tiny irrational partition, just as the betrayed
Master of Hassidut was released from jail. All the disciples of Jesus,
to begin with the first one, had abandoned or betrayed him. Israel and
Palestine are not juicy scoops. It shows how faith can be twisted and
thus leads to redemption.
Av Aleksandr (Winogradsky Frenkel)
