Israel At War 5785: Vayigash – When Trust Is Destroyed

In Vayigash, we learn the answer to the test devised by Joseph: could his brothers be trusted?

This was an important question for Joseph to resolve. Torah commentators use this week’s Torah portion as an example of what constitutes true repentance: given the opportunity to repeat the same sin, the penitent does not do so but acts righteously.

But for Joseph, it wasn’t only a matter of finding out if his brothers had truly repented. They hadn’t just sold him into slavery; when he was crying for help in a waterless pit, they sat down to eat a meal. This was gratuitous cruelty, and it left a scar. When Joseph’s first son was born in Egypt, from an Egyptian wife, Joseph named him Manasseh, “for G-d has made me forget all my hardship and all the household of my father.” (Genesis 41:51)

It would seem that Joseph intentionally broke with his past life. The hurt of his brothers’ treatment was so great, he wanted to cut off all memory of them, as if they had never existed. Joseph thought he had made a clean break with his past and started a new life in Egypt, with a new family. But years later, unexpectedly, his birth family re-entered his life. Could he reveal himself to them? Before he made himself vulnerable to more possible pain, Joseph needed to determine: would they hurt him again?

We already know from Israel’s released hostages of gratuitous cruelty. In echoes of Joseph’s treatment by his brothers, Mia Schem said that her captor ate in front of her while she went hungry; his son would taunt her by waving sweets before her but not giving her any. And a new Health Ministry report details more cruelty inflicted on hostages in Gaza: branding, whipping, hair pulled out; sexual abuse; and deliberate starvation. As with Joseph, it was not enough for Gazans to deprive the captives of their freedom; they tormented them as well. The brothers’ cruelty served no purpose other than to assuage their hurt pride when Joseph dreamed that they, his older brothers, would bow down to him.

It is not known what psychological need torturing Israeli captives meets. It does bespeak a deep emotional and spiritual twistedness in the perpetrators, one that they purposely pass on to their innocent children, in a sick manifestation of l’dor v’dor, from generation to generation.

Joseph’s story ended happily. Judah offered himself as a slave in place of Benjamin, crying out that to lose Benjamin as well as Joseph would kill their father. He showed not only true repentance, but such sensitivity to the feelings of others that he was willing to sacrifice his freedom. Joseph then revealed himself, wept, and invited his brothers to bring their families to Egypt, where he would make sure the famine sweeping the land did not touch them. The family overcame its past divisions and reunited.

It is highly unlikely such a healing will take place with the “cousins” of Gaza and the West Bank. Unlike Judah and his brothers, and Joseph as well, they have not grown from their suffering. As another Pharaoh did hundreds of years after Joseph, they have hardened their hearts, excusing their murder, rape, and terror. While recent polls show that a slim majority of Gazans now think the October 7th attack was “incorrect,” down from the three in four who supported it a year ago, this does not show regret for their victims, only for themselves in the living hell their home has become.

And even if, by some unimaginable and unlikely miracle, they were to repent, who would give them a chance to show they had changed? Joseph’s brothers did not betray his gift of trust. Gazans trusted with paid employment on southern kibbutzim repaid Israeli trust with detailed blueprints and information to aid the October 7th invaders.

More recently, a Shin Bet informant from the West Bank, his cover blown, was brought to Israel to save him from torture and a probable death penalty. He repaid this kindness by murdering an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor in Herzliya on 26 Kislev.

Even after October 7^th, many continue to promote a two-state solution. But trust after betrayal, after multiple betrayals, is a gift that must be earned. It is not an unlimited bank account on which the evil can continue to draw.

And yet. Nazis committed cruelties on a par with those of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Today, Germany is a staunch ally of Israel. They have proven they are trustworthy. But today’s Germans are not the generation that committed the Shoah.

The repentance of Joseph’s brothers saved them from famine. Similarly, Palestinians would benefit materially from ties with Israel, as well as spiritually, were they able to overcome their hatred and show themselves worthy of being trusted.

Perhaps future generations of Palestinians will be able to regain Israeli trust. But it will be a long journey, and the path to that destination is difficult to see.