Wagonloads of Tears: Parshat Vayigash

In last week’s Parshat Miketz, we were left with a cliffhanger. The goblet was found in Benjamin’s bag and Joseph said: Only the one in whose possession the goblet was found shall be my slave; the rest of you go back in peace to your father.” We had to wait a whole week wondering what would happen next. And then in this week’s Parshat Vayigash, we have this astonishing speech that Judah makes which concludes with:

“Therefore, please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers.  For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!” (Genesis 44)

And then we see Joseph’s reaction to Judah’s speech is to cry out very loudly:

Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So, there was no one else about when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.  His sobs were so loud that the Egyptians could hear, and so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace.  Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still well?” …And you must tell my father everything about my high station in Egypt and all that you have seen; and bring my father here with all speed.”  With that he embraced his brother Benjamin around the neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.  He kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; only then were his brothers able to talk to him.

THE SEVEN SCENES OF TEARS:

The expression “crocodile tears” refers to insincere sorrow or remorse. The phrase “crocodile tears” stems from the belief that crocodiles shed tears when attacking and eating their victims. Folklore has it that crocs cry to lure their prey, or to express remorse for their violent actions. Joseph cries a lot in this week’s parsha and in next week’s parsha. He cries before and after he tells his brother who he is and he cries when his father dies. And finally, he cries when his brothers lie to him about his father’s telling them to tell Joseph not to take revenge on them after his death. How sincere are his tears? Why does he cry so easily? Is he possibly reliving his trauma and being brought back to the scene of the original crime committed against him on seeing his brothers? Is he just emotional? In two previous blogs, I suggested that perhaps the tears on the surface have to do with his latent femininity.

BIBLICAL MENTIONS OF JOSEPH’S TEARS

1. 1. They said to one another, “Surely, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us” … They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter. He turned away from them and began to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again (Genesis 42: 21-24).
   2. Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there (Genesis 43: 29-30).
   3. Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So, there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it (Genesis 45: 1-2).
   4. Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them (Genesis 45: 14-15).
   5. Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time (Genesis 46: 29).
   6. Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him (Genesis 50: 1).
   7. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept (Genesis 50: 15-17).

My gut feeling is that Joseph does not really forgive them despite all the traditional commentaries that accept his statement at face value. I wonder about his tears. Traditionally it is understood that he is in tears because, despite all of his reassurances to them, his brothers are still afraid of him. But I feel that he is reliving his own traumatic experience and that it is he, who does not trust them. They have forced him to confront the once frightened child in himself who was thrown into a pit and left to die by his brothers. One never gets over such a trauma.

PHAROAH’S WAGONS

Pharaoh was pleased when he heard about the brothers and makes a generous offer:

The news reached Pharaoh’s palace: “Joseph’s brothers have come.” Pharaoh and his courtiers were pleased. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do as follows: load up your beasts and go at once to the land of Canaan. Take your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall live off the fat of the land.’ And you are bidden [to add], ‘Do as follows: take from the land of Egypt wagons for your children and your wives, and bring your father here. And never mind your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt shall be yours.’” The sons of Israel did so; Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had commanded, and he supplied them with provisions for the journey (Genesis 45:16-21).

And so Joseph sent his brothers to get Jacob:

They went up from Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.  And they told him, “Joseph is still alive; yes, he is ruler over the whole land of Egypt.” His heart went numb, [va-yafag libo] for he did not believe them.  But when they recounted all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived [va-tehi ruah]. “Enough!” said Israel. “My son Joseph is still alive! I must go and see him before I die” (Genesis 45:25-28).

What convinced Jacob to leave Canaan? There is an amazing midrash, in which Rashi refers to, on Jacob’s change of heart. It concerns the wagons. Let’s start by looking at the Hebrew and we will see two key words:

וַיְדַבְּר֣וּ אֵלָ֗יו אֵ֣ת כָּל־דִּבְרֵ֤י יוֹסֵף֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר דִּבֶּ֣ר אֲלֵהֶ֔ם וַיַּרְא֙ אֶת־הָ֣עֲגָל֔וֹת אֲשֶׁר־שָׁלַ֥ח יוֹסֵ֖ף לָשֵׂ֣את אֹת֑וֹ וַתְּחִ֕י ר֖וּחַ יַעֲקֹ֥ב אֲבִיהֶֽם

But when they recounted all that Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the wagons (agalot) that Joseph had sent (shalach) to transport him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

Rashi writes as follows:

את כל דברי יוסף. סִימָן מָסַר לָהֶם בַּמֶּה הָיָה עוֹסֵק כְּשֶׁפֵּרֵשׁ מִמֶּנּוּ – בְּפָרָשַׁת עֶגְלָה עֲרוּפָה, זֶהוּ שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר וירא את העגלות אשר שלח יוסף, וְלֹא נֶאֱמַר אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַח פַּרְעֹה

Rashi writes on “all that Joseph said” that it is a sign that he gave concerning what he and his father were studying before he sent שלח him to check on his brothers, namely, the law of the eglah arufah.  This law is found in Deuteronomy 21:

If, in the land that your God יהוה is assigning you to possess, someone slain is found lying in the open, the identity of the slayer not being known, your elders and magistrates shall go out and measure the distances from the corpse to the nearby towns.  The elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall then take a heifer which has never been worked, which has never pulled in a yoke; and the elders of that town shall bring the heifer down to an ever-flowing wadi, which is not tilled or sown. There, in the wadi, they shall break the heifer’s neck.  The priests, sons of Levi, shall come forward; for your God יהוה has chosen them for divine service and to pronounce blessing in the name of יהוה, and every lawsuit and case of assault is subject to their ruling.  Then all the elders of the town nearest to the corpse shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken הָעֶגְלָ֖ה הָעֲרוּפָ֥ה in the wadi.  And they shall make this declaration: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.  Absolve, יהוה, Your people Israel whom You redeemed, and do not let guilt for the blood of the innocent remain among Your people Israel.” And they will be absolved of bloodguilt.  Thus you will remove from your midst guilt for the blood of the innocent, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of יהוה (Deuteronomy 21: 1-9).

Although Rashi did not make explicit the connection between the story of someone slain in the open, the declaration of innocence by the people, is similar to the brothers attempt to avoid responsibility for what happened initially to Joseph. And I think this can be made clear if we look at the other interesting word, that of the other sending (shalach). I think that Jacob has a sudden insight into the brothers’ previous way of letting him know that Joseph was killed. If we go back to this terrifying scene, we see that the brothers did not directly tell him. It was through a messenger:

Then they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood. They had the ornamented tunic taken וַֽיְשַׁלְּח֞וּ  to their father, and they said, “We found this. Please examine it; is it your son’s tunic or not?” He recognized it, and said, “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn by a beast!” (Genesis 37:31-33).

Bechor Shor, a Tosafist from the twelfth century, writes on va-yeshalhu that the brother had it sent by others, because if they had told him, they would suspect them, because Jacob knew they hated Joseph. One can argue that rabbinic literature, and even the biblical narrative itself is implicitly critical of those who avoid responsibility by sending others to do their dirty deeds. A case in hand is that of the story of David and Batsheba (2 Samuel 11) in which the word vayishlach appears over and over, starting with David’s sending for Batsheba and ending with his sending Uriah to his death. In Jacob’s case, it starts with his sending off Joseph to check up on his brothers. After the reunion, Joseph reassures his brothers that it was God who sent him:

Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me וַיִּשְׁלָחֵ֤נִי ahead of you….God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So, it was not you who sent me שְׁלַחְתֶּ֤ם here, but God—who has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

And the circle is completed with Joseph via Pharaoh sending the wagons for his father׃

And to his father he sent שָׁלַ֤ח the following: ten he-asses laden with the best things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with grain, bread, and provisions for his father on the journey׃ As he sent וַיְשַׁלַּ֥ח his brothers off on their way, he told them, “Do not be quarrelsome on the way.”

There is a problem when orders are given from above and not carried through by the person giving them. It is a way of distancing oneself from what is to take place. People in power often delegate and thus can claim that “I did not know”. Or that the ones carrying out the orders misunderstood or went too far. Lately, we have seen too many of our leaders not taking responsibility for the dirty deeds taking place. Like the people in ancient Israel, they say “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.”  But our leaders will NOT be absolved of bloodguilt. The guilt for their sins and the blood shed will not be removed. Crocodile atonement is not enough.

Shabbat shalom