The Blogs: Is Anybody Going to Take Responsibility?

Joseph was no saint. He was vain, preening, a braggart who used virtually every opportunity to demonstrate his superiority over his brothers. He came to his father with false tales that the brothers were committing grievous sins, including playing with the local women and eating animals without ritual slaughter.

The brothers, expert in Jewish law, judged Joseph an informer and sentenced him to death. Thanks to Judah, the sentence was reduced to slavery and that was the last time the brothers saw their tattle-tale sibling.

But G-d was with Joseph, whom the Torah dubs “a successful man,” able to thrive in any environment. And in our Torah portion, Miketz, the first-born of Rachel was taken out of prison on orders of Pharaoh and made viceroy of the Egyptian empire. A few years later, his brothers arrive and it was payback time.

Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Joseph recalled the dreams that he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where the land is vulnerable.” They said to him, “No, my lord! We, your servants, have come just to buy food.” [Genesis 42:8-10]

And so began the tribulations of 10 brothers who discovered what it’s like when the shoe is on the other foot. Now a mature adult, Joseph calls the shots, and the brothers are powerless and clueless. Joseph first imprisons Shimon, the one who most wanted him dead some 13 years earlier. The much younger Joseph is always one step ahead.

Is this about revenge? Has Joseph the dreamer turned into Joseph the schemer? No, there is something bigger here — much bigger. Joseph is preparing a family to become a nation in exile. But before that, there are loose ends to tie up.

A century ago, Jacob de Haan played a role similar to the young Joseph. De Haan, who called himself the greatest poet in the Netherlands, was a gadfly in the British mandate of Palestine. He could always attract attention. In Europe, he had published homoerotic novels that shocked conventional early 20th Century society. In the 1920s, as a journalist, jurist and publicist he exposed the corruption of the Zionist establishment led by Haim Weizmann. He also asked the simple but threatening question: By what right did the British make the Zionists, a clear minority in the Land of Israel, rulers of the Jews?

The Zionist establishment first mocked and then threatened de Haan, who represented Agudat Israel, one of the most powerful Jewish groups in Europe and the United States. Agudah and its Orthodox constituency were enraged by how London allowed the secular Zionists to disrupt Jewish life, including restricting the rabbinate and even charging tax on matzot for Passover.

On June 30, 1924, De Haan, preparing to travel to London to lobby for the Orthodox community, was shot three times outside a Jerusalem synagogue. He was 42 years old, and the killing was deemed the first political assassination in the Yishuv. Years later, a Haganah agent acknowledged that he had killed de Haan with the knowledge of the Zionist leadership. They included Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who became the second president of the State of Israel. [“Jacob Israel de Haan in Mandate Palestine was the victim of the first Zionist political assassination a ‘Jewish Lawrence of Arabia.'” Ludy Giebels. Jewish Historical Studies. Vo. 46. 2014]

That was not what Joseph wanted. As distasteful as it was, Joseph wanted the brothers to take responsibility for what they did to him. And soon they understood that G-d was repaying them for the cruelty they had shown their younger brother. The 17-year-old Joseph had pleaded with them, but the brothers showed no mercy even though they knew he was a harmless kid with silly dreams.

They said to one another, “We are indeed guilty regarding our brother, for we saw his anguish when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this misfortune has come upon us.” Reuben responded to them and said, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy?’ But you would not listen. And now we are being called to account for spilling his blood.” [Genesis 42:21-22]

Moses Ben Nachman, known as the Ramban, asserts that the brothers knew that Joseph was probably alive somewhere in Egypt. But they realized that G-d considered the sale of Joseph an act of bloodshed. Without a miracle, Joseph would remain a slave for the rest of his life. But there was a miracle, and now, the fate of the brothers would be decided by all-powerful viceroy of Egypt. Their once-cynical voices had been silenced.

The Torah’s axiom of measure for measure became the epilogue of De Haan. One man was arrested on suspicion of being the gunman and was soon released by the British. Nobody else was detained let alone prosecuted. Only one Zionist figure, Moshe Beilinson, condemned the killing, saying it constituted the moral breakdown of the Yishuv. But his colleagues blamed the Arabs, perhaps a father of one of de Haan’s lovers, and soon the episode seemed forgotten. It wasn’t. Five years later, the Arabs massacred nearly 150 Jews as the same British officials looked on with amusement.

Responsibility is the hallmark of an honest man — whether in a family, group or nation. When a person shirks responsibility, he is no longer an adult. He is at best a child, but more likely a rogue. Today, the refusal of the military, government and intelligence community to be held accountable for Oct. 7, 2023 marks the collapse of the State of Israel. A state that supports such norms replaces governance with dictatorship, judges for kangaroos, authority with occupation. The so-called leaders, backed by their foreign sponsors, might believe that they have escaped justice, but with time they will see how futile their efforts were.

In Miketz, the sons of Jacob would begin the road to repentance and reconciliation. It would not be peaches and cream. Nothing would be forgotten, but eventually Joseph would forgive. His story demands serious examination by those claiming the mantle of leadership today.