"Together Again" 13L26 (Parsha V'Yigash)

Together Again" (Parsha: 11- "V'Yigash") 13L26

I have always been a ‘sucker’ for re-union stories. To me there are few other situations which tug more heavily on my heart-strings. When I watch a movie in which two characters are estranged for some reason, and then come back together, making their peace and being re-united, I become very emotional. Now you may say this is because I get attached to the characters as the story unfolds, and in some ways you would be correct, but there’s more to it than that.

For instance, you may remember a string of advertisements put out a while back by a certain phone company – (I’m sure their name would ‘ring a bell’ with you). You will also recall that the pattern was pretty much the same in all of them, and of course they always involved a phone call. One in particular I recall showed a young man touring Europe, and coming across the war memorial and Vimy Ridge. (The ad was circulated in November of that year.) After reflecting on the tremendous costs of war, and realizing what the man’s grandfather had been through during his career as a soldier, he picks up his cell phone and calls his grand-father simply to say “Thank You”. (I get all weepy just writing about it).

Reunions touch our heart for some reason. Perhaps it’s because we are created to be members of a community in some way – whether it’s our family, our compatriots with whom we work, (just think of fire-fighters or police officers or teachers, for instance) These are people who each have something in common, something which “binds” them together. I suspect that, in many cases, even those who feel strongly about this bonding might not be able to put into words what it is about ‘their’ group that makes it that way. Perhaps it’s something deeper than we expect….

Recently in our Parsha studies, we read the story of Esau and Ya’acov being re-united at Peniel. It’s a reasonable example of what I am thinking about, and yet maybe not as strong as it could be. I suspect that it’s weak in some areas because deep down inside, we realize that the two brothers are just being ‘polite’ with each other, and a true reunion isn’t really happening. In this week’s Parsha, however, there is an excellent example of reconciliation.

This week’s (Dec 7-13, 2013) Parsha is entitled “V’Yigash”, which means “And He [i.e.: Yehudah/ Judah] approached”. It comes at the end of the second trip of Yosef’s brothers to Egypt to get grain. They still have not recognized that the Viceroy of Egypt, the second most powerful man in the nation, is actually their brother Yosef, whom they had - some twenty years earlier - sold into slavery back in their homeland of Cana’an.
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AN ASIDE: For years, it bothered me that the brothers could not recognize Yosef. This is likely because as youths in Sunday school, we were never given the details of the story. Even as adults, the whole story was never told, even in the most enlightening messages from the pulpit. It wasn’t until I saw (Sir) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit show “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat” that it fell into place for me, and since then I have examined the story with, as Sha’ul would say, the eyes of an adult.

First of all, the bothers certainly were not expecting to see Yosef ever again when they sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelite traders. Lack of expectation often clouds our vision / recognition, and this is a huge factor in the situation.

Second, the last time the brothers saw Yosef, he was just 17 years old. Now, as they encounter him again, he is somewhere around 39-40 years old. I suspect he would not look the same at all.

Third, by now Yosef will have mastered the Egyptian language, and all conversing would have been done through an interpreter. The text says at one point that Yosef is listening to the brothers, but "they did not realize that he spoke Hebrew".

Fourth, Egyptians at the time, could not abide body hair. They commonly shaved not just their beard, but their heads and bodies as well. (Some may have a had a long “pony-tail”.)
Fifth, they also wore extensive jewellery, and seldom wore shirts, showing off their hairless chests. (Just think of Yul Brynner in the movie “The Ten Commandments” as compared to Moshé with his long grey beard and hair.) and…

Finally, Egyptian men adorned themselves with heavy make-up, such as eye-shadow and other colourful accents, which would have masked Yosef’s true identity.

When I think about all these factors, it’s really no wonder at all how they missed recognizing Yosef.

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By the time we come to chapter 45 of Breisheet / Genesis, the brothers have been forced to return to the residence of Yosef, and they have been accused of thievery. The golden chalice of the Viceroy was ‘discovered’ in the pack of Binyamin, Yosef’s younger brother. As the Parsha ‘opens’, Yehudah is stepping up to plead on behalf of (the innocent) Binyamin, Yehudah is about to offer himself as prisoner and slave to Yosef in place of Binyamin.

This offer is seen by Yosef as a reversal of Yehudah’s behaviour back more than 20 years earlier when Yehudah betrayed his brotherly duty and suggested the sale of Yosef to the Midianites. This reversal in Yehudah’s behaviour, (which is clearly the result of more than 2 decades of guilt and remorse) along with the close-at-hand presence of his only ‘full’ brother, is more emotional than Yosef can bear.

Yosef looks upon his younger brother Binyamin and can no longer contain his love for him and the others. Chapter 45:14,15 says: “Then [Yosef] embraced his brother Binyamin and wept, and Binyamin wept on his neck, and he [Yosef] kissed all his brothers and wept on them. After that, his brothers talked with him.”

As a result of this reconciliation, Yosef has the brothers return to their father Ya’acov back home in Cana’an, and he extends an invitation to him to come to Egypt, with all his family, his slaves and workers, and all his livestock, and settle there in the choicest of areas, Goshen. Ya’acov accepts the invitation and comes to Yosef, and so begins the last 210 years of the prophecy given to Abraham in Breisheet / Genesis 15:13ff, which, in case you’ve forgotten reads “Adonai said to Avram [in a dream] ‘Know this for certain: your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves and held in oppression there four hundred years. But I will also judge that nation, the one that makes them slaves. Afterwards, they will leave with many possessions. As for you, you will join your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. Only in the fourth generation will your descendants come back here, because only then will the Emori [Amorites] be ripe for punishment.’”

The embrace of Yosef and Binyamin is a key segment of this Parsha. It illustrates a number of Biblical principles, not the least of which is that we are called as people of God to clear away those sins and behaviours which stand between us and those from whom we may be estranged, and to come together to live in community and harmony.

But the story of this reunion is also prophetic. Down the road a few centuries, the people Israel (that is, the descendants of the 12 tribes) will be estranged again, and Elohim will indeed separate them for a time. It takes place just before, and during what we know as the Babylonian Exile.

The Hahftorah reading for this week is found in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, just after the passage about the revival of the dry bones.   In this passage, Ezekiel receives a vision which is made up of instructions which he is to convey “dramatically” to the people of his time. The key passage comes in verses 15 and following, which reads: “The word of Adonai came to me: ‘You, human being, take one stick and write on it: “For Y’hudah and those joined with him [among] the people Isra’el.”. Next, take another stick and write on it: “For Yosef, the stick of Efrayim, and all the house of Isra’el who are joined with him.” Finally, bring them together into a single stick, so that they become one in your hand.””

The ancient sages of Jewish scholarly studies declare that they don’t know just how the two sticks become one, but I like to imagine that God miraculously braids them together before the eyes of the listeners, perhaps in the market-place, where Ezekiel is proclaiming the prophecy.

The passage continues: “When your people ask you what all this means, tell them that Adonai Elohim says this: ‘I will take the stick of Yosef, which is in the hand of Efrayim, together with the tribes of Isra’el who are joined with him, and put them together with the stick of Y’hudah and make them a single stick, so that they become one in my hand.’ The sticks on which you write are to be in your hand as they watch. Then say to them that Adonai Elohim says: I will take the people of Isra’el from among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back to their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Isra’el; and one king will be king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms.”

Now one might argue that this prophecy has been fulfilled when the tribes of Isra’el returned from Babylon, but not all the tribes returned at that point in history, nor have they all come together even yet, so at best, we can say that this prophecy is only partially fulfilled. I believe, on the other hand, that the prophecy still looks to a time in our future, when the nation of Isra’el, as we know it today, will be the place of re-union between what we commonly refer to as the ‘Ten Lost Tribes” of Ephraim and those tribes that were with him, and those who are descended from Yehudah and those tribes that were “with him”. This will be a time of great celebration, a time of over-whelming Joy and “weeping on the necks” of those “who were ‘long lost’ but now are found”.

Sha’ul / Paul however, in a full examination of this process, sees something even more amazing. He writes in his letter to the Ephesians of something extra which (I believe) will be concurrent with this event of reunion. He writes,

“Therefore, remember your former state, you Gentiles [read ‘non-Jews’] by birth – called the ‘Uncircumcised’ by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the ‘Circumcised’ – at that time had no Messiah. You were
-         estranged from the national life of Isra’el.
-         You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise,
-         You were in this world without hope and without God.

But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood. For He Himself is our shalom – He has made us both one, and has broken down the m’chitzah [wall or barrier] which divided us, by destroying in His own body, the enmity occasioned by the Torah with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances.

He did this in order to:

-         [first] create, in union with himself – from the two groups
– a single new humanity -
and thus make shalom, and
-         [second] in order to reconcile to God both [groups] in a single body
by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus in Himself,
killing that enmity….

So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. On the contrary, you are fellow citizens with God’s people and [thus] members of God’s family…. Built on the foundation of…Y’shua the Messiah Himself.”  [Ephesians 2:11-20, re-blocking for clarity, and other emphases are my own].

All of this makes me ponder the concepts of community and reconciliation in a different light.

At the outset of this ‘lesson’, I noted that “reunions touch our heart for some reason.” I don’t believe for even a moment that I am the only one who is touched by reunions amongst people. If you think you are immune yourself, go spend an hour or so at the arrivals gate of any large airport. The hugs and kisses that are expended there are certain to make you feel differently. Or here’s another example: watch the movie “Hanoi Hilton”. While I can’t recommend the whole movie as family entertainment, there is a scene where the ‘hero’ is cast into his prison cell by the Vietnamese guards. [Note: the Hanoi Hilton is actually a prison.]   Almost instantly, the prisoner next door begins sending Morse Code messages to him. They can’t talk, but the sound travels through walls etc. and they are eventually able to communicate and maintain their sanity while incarcerated. Basically, the need for community is satisfied by their communications. A third example deals with our search for life beyond our planet home, Earth. What possible difference could it make if there is life ‘somewhere out there’ except to satisfy the desire of ‘not wanting to be alone’.

In my opening thoughts, I also hinted that our response to reunions and reconciliations may come from a much deeper level. Perhaps, it’s almost an ingrained and natural need, the need for a connection of wholeness, a means to fill an empty space within, which is placed there by God. In the opening words of Breisheet we read the creation story. Let me offer a translation suggested by our Old Testament professor : “In beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (I like this opening because, as Dr. Harrison pointed out it makes it clear that God existed before creation began and that God was starting something totally new.) We read on and discover that God eventually made mankind – in the image of God.

If we are thus created “in the image of God”, then the characteristics we display are also characteristics of God – and here I am specifically referring to the need for community. Does God have that characteristic? Let us extrapolate from that possibility. If God longs for community, is it possible to say that there was something within God’s makeup, a need for companionship, for community, that motivated Him to create mankind as a companion for Himself ?

We know that God, while being One, has revealed Himself to us in the three persons of the Trinity, we know also that He spoke with the other members of the Godhead (basically speaking to Himself, I can only suppose). I refer the reader to Breisheet / Genesis 1:26 where we read “And God said, ‘Let us make Man in Our image, after our likeness.” (This interpretation is taken from my Jewish Stone Edition Art Scroll Chumash).

We also know that at some time in the process of creating, God brought about - from nothing - the Heavenly Host, that is Angels. God also communicated with them. Perhaps he even conferred with them. Take for instance the passage in Breisheet 18:17. HaShem appears to Abram at Mamre along with two others. Many claim these were simply three angels, and I grant that possibility.   At some point in the story, however the Lord makes His appearance. Is it therefore possible that the three could be the three persons of the Trinity? In verse 17, we read: “And HaShem said, ‘Shall I conceal from Abraham what I do.’” (referring to the up-coming destruction of Sodom.) If the initial three were angels, God is speaking with them as if seeking advice from them. If they comprise the Trinity, then we see a second example of what took place in Chapter two. Either way, we see that God has some form of community within which He communicates. And yet, this community seems to have earlier been less fulfilling in terms of companionship.

We return to the story of Adam and Havah [Eve]. There is a distinct connection between Adam and God in these opening verses. One can almost imagine Adam stating, (in the words of the old hymn) “And He walked with me and He talked with me…” all through the garden. Maybe these walks did occur, for in Chapter 3, verses 8 and 9 we read: “They heard the sound of HaShem God manifesting itself in the garden toward evening; and the man and his wife hid from HaShem God among the trees of the garden. HaShem God called out to the man and said to him, ‘where are you?’”

Whatever the case, we see that God has compassion for Adam, his companion in the stewardship of creation, and eventually co-creator. God says, (once again speaking to ‘someone’) “It is not good that man be alone, I will make him a helper.”  Out of this, God brings about Havah. With just a little Divinely inspired imagination, then, we can see that God created Man as a companion for Himself, and then gave Woman to Man also as a companion, a help-mate and as ‘fellow’ co-creator.

The need for community seems, therefore, to be a characteristic built into our genetic make-up. That’s why we, in most situations, yearn to have the company of others, someone with whom we can be ‘bonded’. That’s why we love to greet long lost friends at the airport, or at high-school reunions for that matter. That’s why we need to communicate with fellow prisoners, or why we seem to have grasped the concept of social-networking so readily and rounded-up so many FB ‘friends’. That’s why we have extended our search into space, where “no one has gone before”, supposedly. And that’s why, in my humble opinion, we get all weepy when we see stories of reconciliation and renewing (repairing?) old relationships. That’s why this story of Yosef and Binyamin touches our heart, and frankly, that’s why we can accept that it is prophetic of the future re-union between the tribes of Ephraim and friends with Yehudah and friends and, at the same time – with ourselves as Messianic believers with our Jewish brothers and sisters in a new and wondrous Eternity…. But most importantly, it’s why we crave the restoration (atonement) of ourselves with our creator God, just as He craves it with us.

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