Vayigash / “and he drew near”
B’reishit / Genesis 44:18 – 47:27
This is one of the most intriguing portions of Scripture
from me, be it in the Tanakh or the B’rit Chadashah. When one looks at captivating in this
portion, there are various episodes that lend themselves to that
description. Among the fascinating
options are the following: Judah’s willingness to take Benjamin’s punishment
upon himself, Joseph revealing himself to his brothers, and Jacob’s exodus to
Egypt with his family.
My choice for enthrallment is an episode that is not
mentioned in this parashah. Because it
is not mentioned, pure speculation may abound, but it still captivates me. Who would not want to have been “flea on the
donkeys” as the brothers went back to Canaan to tell their father that Joseph
was still alive?
Several times the brothers have already mentioned that the
situations they found themselves in in Egypt were as a direct result of what
they had done to Joseph twenty-two years earlier. However, those admissions were made before
Benjamin joined the party heading for Egypt.
I can imagine Benjamin looking around at his brothers upon Joseph’s
revelation and saying in his best Ricky Ricardo, “You got a lot of ‘splainin’
to do.”
How do the ten get themselves out of this mess with their
youngest brother? They better tell him
straight out, no softening of the events can be given, for Joseph is right
there. Furthermore, their admission of
guilt is also being told directly to Joseph.
“Well, Ben, it was a long time ago, and you are probably too young to
remember, but…” Actually, I figure that Benjamin is in his
early thirties now, for when they make their final trek to Egypt it is revealed
that he has ten sons. So, maybe he
wasn’t too young to remember.
Surely Joseph then reveals the details of his twenty-two
year sojourn concluding “Hey, guys, remember
that dream about your sheaves gathering around mine and bowing down to
mine? Here we are in Egypt, the center
of the earth, so to speak. Who would’ve
thought? Well, I guess we all did, huh?”
What about the trip home?
I imagine there was quite a long spell of silence as they were all
thinking not only of the events of the past day or so, but how does this change
our relationship with Benjamin, from whom we have kept this hidden? Oh yeah, the other thing had to have been
rolling around in their craniums – who is going to tell Dad? Here we go again, “we’ve got a lot of
‘splainin’ to do”.
Based on my estimates of distance and moving along the main
highway along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, I figure it would have taken
these eleven around four to seven days to get back home. That is a significant amount of time to
figure out who is going to tell Jacob, and how will the story be presented. Again, they cannot whitewash their parts in
the events of more than two decades previously, for not only does Benjamin know
the whole story, but soon we will all be with Joseph, and the truth will
certainly come out then.
Personally I think there are a couple good options for who
told Jacob, but the one I am going to choose (until a better one comes along)
is that Benjamin was the one who told the tale.
After all, he had no participation in the ugly deeds of yore. Also, what if he was sent on ahead with the
good news? Jacob would know sooner that
he was not bereaved of his youngest, and it would give Benjamin some time to
calm their father down.
Regardless, I would not want to be one of the other ten when
they arrived. What is Dad going to say
to them? How awkward will their arrival
be? How long are they going to be
recipients of the “silent treatment”? At
least on the trip back down they can each be with their families – staying out
of Jacob’s sight, so to speak.
Judah probably was the fortunate one on the way back, for he
was sent ahead to let Joseph know they were on the way. Judah, at least in the last several months,
has shown himself to have the leadership qualities necessary for a patriarch,
so it is no wonder that he was the one sent ahead.
I realize that there is nothing in what I have written this
week that is directly from the Torah portion, but that does not mean that these
thoughts should not be considered. it
seems very appropriate to me that we consider what we would have said or done
in each of these situations. Shalom to
all of you.
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