VaYigash

When you’re in conversation and need to leave, do you ever say, “Let me go”—or hear someone say it to you?

It sounds casual, but it’s actually biblical language.

In this week’s parsha, Yosef gives his brothers permission to return to Canaan by “letting them go.” That phrase isn’t just logistical; it’s deeply relational.

Why do we ask permission to leave someone’s company at all?

Because being with another person creates an obligation. The Talmud even asks: Do we make our friends kings over us? When we share space and attention, we are bound to one another.

The Hebrew term for leaving someone’s company is patur—to become absolved from obligation. Until then, something is owed.

In a Western culture so focused on the self, this sounds almost foreign. What claim does anyone else have on me? And what claim do I have on them?

Yet our tradition insists that we are created b’tzelem Elokim—in the image of God. In some way, every human being can carry God’s light into the world.

It’s a tall calling. Maybe it doesn’t begin with everyone, but sometimes it’s fitting to place ourselves at the service of another human being, and remain in their service until we are granted permission to leave.