By Nathan Wojcik

This parsha follows our favorite Am as they live in Egypt. At the onset of the parsha, Jacob asks Joseph to come to his bedside as he is near death. Jacob tells Joseph that when he dies, he wants to be buried in the Land of Canaan, before blessing Joseph’s sons and elevating their status to “tribes”. Before he dies, Jacob blesses each of his twelve sons individually, and upon Jacob’s death, the sons travel to Canaan together to sit Shiva and bury their father next to Leah, his wife.

The story gets more interesting to me when they return to Egypt, however, as the rest of Jacob’s sons fear that with their father gone, Joseph will take revenge on them for selling him into slavery so many years ago. Word gets around and Joseph hears of his brothers’ concern, but instead of showing anger or spite toward them, he weeps and says he does not bear any grudge against them for their actions, and that he will support them and their families because they are his brothers.

This parsha ends over 50 years later, when Joseph dies. As he dies, Joseph makes the other sons of Israel promise that they will take his bones when God breaks them out of Egypt, setting up the epic clash of Pesach. Joseph’s parting message is pafkod yifkod elohim etkhem, God will surely remember you.

There is one part of this parsha that really stands out to me: Joseph’s ability to forgive his brothers. The ability to forgive is one that we don’t utilize enough, despite the fact that it is always at our disposal. To forgive is to move on, and oftentimes the line of moving on and forgetting is blurry. We don’t have to forget in order to move forward, but we do need to embrace the future, as well as reconcile our role in the past. Anyone who has lost someone, to death, distance, bickering, or any challenge that life brings, knows how difficult it is to reconcile. But, as Jacob did with his brothers, we all may do with one another. In their scary new world without their father, the aspects of family, togetherness, and unity trump all of the other feelings. Joseph cries because of his love for his family, and

of their collective hurt. This is not all that different from our own lives now. In whatever unknown our future presents, and there are certainly no shortages of unknowns, we must do our best work to come together as kvutzot, as a movement, and, above all, as people. To reconcile, to love unconditionally, and to support are three of the hardest acts to do. But, they are far easier to do together than to do alone. And, as Joseph knew in saying that God will surely remember, surely then we can remember too. Love and forgiveness are always an option, and, sometimes, they lead us to the greatest miracles we can dream of. In the coming weeks, reevaluate any relationships you may have lost, and question yourself as to why that happened. In my experience, it is far more fulfilling to rebuild a burnt bridge than it is to watch the ashes fade.