Vayigash, וַיִּגַּשׁ "And He Approached" Genesis 44:18-47:27

Vayigash / The Wheel of Miracles

Poetic notes on the parashat Vayigash*

God is not a designer of many wool garments

The resurrected

are all clothed in fine linen

God did not make

many skin garments for Adam

The secret of the tachash skins is private,

together with the secret of the High Priest's wool

The meaning is hidden,

like the meaning of Joseph's dreams

It is the lesson

that we were born to learn

The angel said to Abraham

"Do not slay the boy!"

The ram was concealed in the thicket

The daughter of Asher

comes to Israel when his heart is dying

He gave himself over to his death bed

There she finds him

There he is revived with the words,

"Joseph is alive!"

This occurred on the wheel of miracles

Its axis is wool

Its rim is linen

There are no spokes

There is nothing in between

but the hand of God

Before the miracle

of Joseph's heart breaking

and breaking and breaking

and healing Israel,

there spun another miracle from the wheel

When Judah was still becoming Judah,

he stood face to face with Joseph

and did not know him

Joseph was concealed in a Pharaoh’s cloak

and Judah considered him a man

who was the equal of Pharaoh,

a man obsessed with Benjamin

Was this obsession for evil, or for good?

Judah would find out

This viceroy had shown himself

both treacherous and considerate

One face was a lie that served the other

Which one would it prove to be?

Did the kind face serve the treacherous?

Or did a ruthless face serve a hidden kind one?

Like a lawyer before a jury seeking truth,

Judah would forcefully state the facts of the case

He would lay them out before the world

And allow the conscience

of this viceroy to explain

Judah said to the unknown Joseph:

“You are the equal of Pharaoh”

What was his message between the lines?

Equal for good,

or equal in evil

Its up to you to say

If you treat Benjamin well,

my words will justify you

God will do good to you and Pharaoh

and Egypt will be saved

If your intention toward Benjamin is evil,

my words will be your prosecutor

The God of my father, Jacob,

will dispose of your Pharaoh and all his power,

as he disposes of all in the world who are evil

Understand this well,

God did not chose to be the God of Israel

out of hatred for the world,

but out of His love for the world,

out His desire to save the world

through judgment

Thus it was that the son of Leah

rose up and spoke with truth like a sword

on behalf of the son of Rachel

Before Judah had entered

the arena with Joseph,

he had assessed the situation well

How inscrutable

the unknown Joseph was to him

How arbitrary and aggravating

was the behaviour of this viceroy of Pharaoh

Entering the combatant ring,

Judah had been immediately

pinned to the ground by his opponent,

like his father was pinned by his,

when the dawn approached

And like his father, Jacob,

Judah took hold of his opponent

and would not let him win

Unless he would turn from being an enemy,

and confess the truth of God and become a friend...

Judah knew the truth

He knew that Benjamin was not a thief

Judah knew that, with the truth,

the viceroy could bless them with an act of mercy

And it was simply for mercy that Judah pleaded,

that he might be a substitute for Benjamin

If it was only to dominate Israel

that Egypt wanted,

then Judah himself,

Israel's strongest, would become their servant

In this way, Judah would state the truth

about the viceroy's contradictory behaviour,

even though truth was harsh and threatening

to one who exercised power without it

And because he did this,

the wheel of miracles turned

It turned out that

while Judah was set to let

the conscience of the viceroy speak,

it was the conscience of Joseph’s brothers

that was about to explode with truth

and to expose all the truth before all the world

For Joseph wept

and his tears and Hashem's tears

certainly went down with Joseph

and his brothers into Egypt

and into the conscience of their hearts

and just as certainly raised their hearts up again

revealing for all to see

the reason for the contradictory acts

of the hidden Joseph

Then being lifted up by the kindness of his face,

the conscience of his brothers could speak,

For Joseph became strong and private with them

He became mysterious like the tachash skin,

mysterious like ram's wool

at the hub of the wheel of miracles

He sent all the world away from them

It was a family matter

He spoke quietly to them again, saying,

"I am your brother,

whom you sold into Egypt"

Jacob and Joseph cut their nails

and corrected and healed

and sealed everything with a tender touch

There would be no embarrassment in Israel,

even until the end of days

This is what Jacob did

by doubling and dividing Joseph

into Ephraim and Manasseh,

so that the gentiles would wait

and humbly pray

and would not lust to much

for the gate of prayer in Israel

being kept for them by Dinah,

her gate in the Temple of Jerusalem,

their inheritance in the glorious House of God

For in the day that HaShem speaks

and the heavens and earth hear the truth,

every soul will know rebuke

in a moment of the greatest kindness,

in the opening of the floodgates

of eternal knowledge and love

And our exile from God will be over

*Being a meditation on a Torah class on parashah Vayigash delivered by Rabbi Baitelman of ChaBaD Richmond, B.C., and on materials from the series, Torah Studies for this parashah, by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute. Neither Rabbi Baitelman nor the JLI have reviewed or approved of the content of this post.