Chassidic Insights for Parshah Vayigash

Chapter 44

18 I will kill both you and your Pharaoh: Judah and his brothers, despite their extraordinary strength, were no match for all of Egypt. In fact, the Midrash relates that at one point during this face-off Joseph demonstrated his own might to Judah, prompting Judah to remark to his brothers, "This one is stronger than me."1 Yet, because Judah had taken responsibility for Benjamin, he was willing to risk his life, despite any rational considerations.

This demonstrates the sort of self-sacrifice we must be willing to evince to protect the spiritual lives of our children, for whom God has made us responsible.2

Judah did not only not shy away from speaking harshly with Joseph, he began his appeal with harsh words. He knew that when it comes to mundane matters, it is appropriate to bend to rational considerations and conventional diplomacy, by beginning with words of appeasement and resorting to a harsher tone only if appeasement fails. But when someone's life is at stake, we must speak boldly—as in the adage, "When it hurts, one screams."

In fact, when we disregard diplomatic protocol and speak boldly, our listeners can sense that our involvement is not tainted by ulterior motivations, such as political or financial interests. It is clear that the cause for which we are fighting is one that cuts to the core of our being, and this evokes an honorable and kind response.

Today's "Benjamins," today's Jewish children, are threatened by a different sort of Egypt—that of Jewish ignorance and assimilation. To save these Benjamins, we cannot wait for someone to appoint committees that will deliberately research the matter and then vote on what should be done and how much it will cost, etc. When spiritual lives are at stake, we must immediately and with the greatest alacrity do whatever we can to save our children and bring them back safely to full Jewish consciousness and observance.

Judah's efforts proved unexpectedly fruitful: his presumed adversary proved to be his brother and greatest ally, and even Pharaoh himself provided the greatest possible means for securing the uncompromised continuity of Jewish tradition. So it will be when we follow Judah's example, selflessly and vigorously exerting ourselves on behalf of our children.3

Chapter 45

5-8 Do not be distressed…for having sold me…since it was in order to provide for your needs that God sent me ahead of you…. It was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me…ruler over all Egypt: This apparent repetition expresses two different aspects of Joseph's achievement in Egypt:

(a) As we have seen, Joseph was the "exilic Jew" par excellence. He, unlike his brothers and forefathers, was capable of maintaining Divine consciousness even within exile. By maintaining his holiness in Egypt, Joseph paved the way for the Jewish people to do the same. He therefore said, "it was in order to provide for your needs that God sent me ahead of you." He was not just speaking of their physical needs, but of their spiritual needs as well, i.e., to enable them to resist the pernicious influences of Egypt.

(b) Joseph's primary achievement, however, was that he not only maintained the status quo of holiness—he increased it: He not only remained immune from the negative influences of Egypt, he became a ruler over Egypt, teaching the Egyptians about the God of heaven and earth, influencing them to adhere to Noahide law, and even having them circumcise themselves.

Thus, Joseph first emphasized what his sojourn in Egypt had achieved for his brothers: "it was in order to provide for your needs…to ensure that you survive in the land, and to sustain you in an act of great deliverance." He then alluded to his second achievement, his effect on Egypt: "[God] has made me Pharaoh's counselor, lord over all his household, and ruler over all Egypt."

Joseph gave us the strength to follow in his footsteps, by remaining immune from exile and transforming it into holiness, in two ways:

(a) As has been mentioned,4 the Jewish people are collectively referred to as "Joseph," even though we are not all descended from him, because Joseph provided for us during the beginning of our sojourn in Egypt, enabling us to grow from a family into a populous nation. But providing for us physically during the Egyptian famine was actually just a physical manifestation of how he was enabling us to survive the spiritual Egyptian "famine," as well. Just as we internalized the physical food he provided for us, so did we internalize the spiritual "nutrients" he imparted to us: the immunity to the effects of exile became part of our very being.

(b) In contrast, the ability to positively affect the exile is something that we do not internalize. Only "Joseph," the spiritual leaders of the generation,5 are truly able to rule over exile—just as only Joseph was ruler over Egypt. Our ability to somewhat approximate Joseph's behavior in this regard stems not from a quality we possess but from the fact that we act as Joseph's "emissaries," inspired and empowered by him.

In alluding to his second achievement, Joseph therefore made it clear that he was acting not as his brothers' emissaries, but as God's: "So now…it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me…ruler over all Egypt." As Joseph's emissaries, we, too, have the power to not only remain unaffected by exile—even one as dark as Egypt—but to affect it positively as well, by encouraging all humanity to embrace the seven Noahide laws as God's will conveyed in the Torah.6

9 God has made me master of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry: As we have seen,7 one of the primary purposes of the Egyptian exile was for the Jewish people to elevate the sparks of holiness trapped in Egypt. By serving the Egyptians and thereby earning as remuneration the vast wealth of the storehouses of Egypt, the Jewish people were able to liberate these spark embedded in this wealth and restore them to the realm of holiness.

Because the famine extended beyond Egypt's borders, Joseph was able to gather wealth not only from Egypt, but from other countries, as well. Since Egypt was the economic superpower of that era, the wealth of the whole civilized world was tied to that of Egypt.8 Thus, when the Jewish people left Egypt with its wealth, they were not only elevating the wealth of Egypt but that of all the nations of the world.

Joseph thus said to his father, "God has made me master of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry," meaning: Now that I have become ruler over Egypt, the Egyptian exile can begin, since the fulfillment of its purpose is now possible.

In today's exile, there are those that wish to immerse themselves solely in study and meditation and remain aloof from communal affairs. However, this mode of living, while commendable, misses the true point of our exile, which is to reveal the Godliness inherent to the physical world.9

Every additional moment my father spends mourning could prove fatal….For this reason, you should make haste and go up to my father: When Joseph realized that he and his father had been separated from one another for exactly twenty-two years, it became clear to him that this was Divine providence's way of rectifying Jacob's failure to honor his parents during the twenty-two years he was in Charan.10 Now that the twenty-two years was up, Joseph urged his brothers to bring his father to Egypt quickly, so that his punishment of separation could end without even one unnecessary moment's delay. This explains why Joseph referred to Jacob here as "my father," not "our father," since the urgency of bringing Jacob to Egypt related to the fact that he was Joseph's father and that the time for their separation had ended.

This teaches us that although discipline and punishment are at times necessary,11 we must limit our use of such measures to the absolutely minimum. The very moment that they become unnecessary, we must immediately and urgently revert to the ways of kindness and affection.12

13 Tell him that when we last parted, we were in the middle of studying the laws concerning the calf that must be killed when a corpse is found between two cities. This will convince him conclusively that it is really I: The fact that Joseph remembered the exact topic he had been studying with Jacob twenty-two years earlier indicated to Jacob that Joseph was not only physically alive but that he was still spiritually alive—the moral teachings of his father had remained with him. He thus said: "…my son Joseph is still alive"—i.e., he is still my true son, carrying on my legacy. In fact, it was the inner message of their parting study session that enabled Joseph to remain righteous in Egypt:

When a corpse is found in the field outside the city, the leaders and judges of the closest city must come out and perform a specific ritual, after which they are to declare, "Our hands did not spill this blood," meaning that that they did not knowingly fail to provide this person with food and an escort prior to leaving their city.13

Spiritually, as we have seen, the "field" is the realm of Esau.14 Going out into the "field," then, means leaving the environment of Torah and Judaism. One who does so becomes susceptible to spiritual death, i.e., disconnection from God, the source of all life. The leaders and judges have the responsibility to prevent such an eventuality. They must fortify those venturing out into the "field" with spiritual food (knowledge of the Torah) and proper clothing (observance of the commandments) to protect them from the spiritual dangers that await them in the field.

As we have seen, when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers, he sensed that somehow this would lead to the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that his progeny would be slaves in a foreign land.15 This inspired him to teach Joseph the laws about protecting those who venture out into the "field." Jacob thereby fortified Joseph with extra spiritual strength to withstand the spiritual temptations he would face.

Thus, when Joseph wished to inform Jacob that he was still alive spiritually, he hinted to him that he had kept the theme of their last study session in mind and that doing so gave him the strength to remain unaffected by the unholy "field" of Egypt.16

14 He fell on his brother Benjamin's shoulders [literally, "neck"] and wept, for he foresaw prophetically that the first two Temples…would be destroyed. Benjamin wept on his shoulders [literally, "neck"], for he in turn foresaw prophetically that the Tabernacle of Shiloh…would also be destroyed: The purpose of the Temple was to illuminate the world. It was for this reason that, although the windows of ancient buildings were typically built wider on the inside in order to diffuse sunlight throughout the rooms, the Temple's windows were built wide on the outside,17 so as to spread light to the outside. For the same reason, the Temple was not built on the highest peak in the region but on a slightly lower one,18 so instead of being aloof from the world, it would serve as a conduit of Divine inspiration to it.

It is not incidental that the two brothers wept over the Temple on each other's necks, for metaphorically, the Temple was the "neck" of the world.

The neck is situated toward the top of the body but not at its peak. It thus serves as a bridge between the head and the body. Metaphorically, then, a "neck" takes the lofty consciousness of our "heads"—our Godly souls—and illuminates our lower, more material dimensions, our animating souls, bodies, and our mundane activities. We thereby turn our existence into a temple, a sanctuary for God's light.19

Why did Joseph and Benjamin cry over the destruction that would occur in each other's territories, but not over the destruction that would occur in their own territory?

The function of crying, generally, is to alleviate pain over a distressing situation;20 it does not actually improve the situation. Thus, as long as we can remedy a distressing situation, we should try to do so instead of comforting ourselves with tears.

Consequently, in regard to the Tabernacle that would be destroyed in his own territory, Joseph had to focus on doing everything he could to forestall its destruction. Crying about it would have been counter-productive. He was ultimately powerless to stop the destruction that would occur in Benjamin's domain, however, since the destiny of Benjamin's territory was in Benjamin's hands. Thus, after Joseph did everything he could do on behalf of Benjamin and still saw that the Temples would be destroyed, he felt so bad about it that he burst into tears. Likewise, Benjamin cried for the destruction that would occur in Joseph's territory, not for his own.

In our lives, when we see that our fellows' "temples" are being destroyed, i.e., that they are failing to sanctify their personal lives and sphere of influence, we must help them by advising them gently and praying on their behalf. But ultimately, they control their own destiny by their freely made choices. At some point, our concern for them can express itself in tears.

But when we see that our own "temple" lies in ruins, we do not have the luxury of comforting ourselves with crying. In fact, crying may impede our work, since we may be tempted to feel that that we have fulfilled our moral obligation by the mere fact that we care, even if we do not act on our concern.

The question remains: Joseph and Benjamin saw prophetically that the Temples and sanctuary would be destroyed. It would seem that nothing they would do could prevent the fulfillment of God's decree. This being the case, why did they not cry as well for the destructions that would occur in their own territories, since these seemed to have been preordained and irreversible?

We see here that we have the ability to affect the outcome even of events that are preordained. Our sages thus say that "even if a sword is at your neck, do not refrain from praying to God for mercy."21 We have the spiritual capacity to cause a Divine decree to be annulled.22

This, for example, was the attitude of the Judean king, Hezekiah, when he fell fatally ill. Even when the prophet Isaiah relayed to him that God had informed him that his time had come, Hezekiah refused to simply accept his fate. Instead, he prayed to God and was granted another fifteen years of life.23

The Talmud states that those who do not merit seeing the rebuilding of the Temple in their lifetime are considered to have destroyed it, since they failed to bring about its restitution by properly repenting.24 The same can be said for each of us individually: we should view the fact that Temple had not yet been constructed as a result of our personal failure to fully construct our own personal "temples" out of our lives.25 The purpose thinking this way is not to bring us to tears, but to inspire us to do all we can to effect our personal redemption, which in turn hastens the cosmic redemption.26

23 Ten male donkeys laden with…aged wine… a delicacy particularly enjoyed by the elderly…and ten female donkeys laden with grain…bread and…food: This gift was laden with symbolism:

• The donkeys symbolized Egypt, which the prophet associates with the flesh of donkeys. 27 The wine symbolized the Jewish people, who are compared to wine. 28 The image of wine riding upon donkeys conveyed the idea that Egypt was subservient to the Jewish people, who would eventually be able to redeem the holy sparks embedded in Egypt, as it is written, "And they drained Egypt [of its wealth]."29
  The wine thus also alluded to the four cups of wine that the Jewish people would drink in celebration of the redemption from Egypt. In this vein, the verse's three different descriptions of food—"grain," "bread," and "food"—allude to the three matzos that are used during the Passover Seder and to the three foods eaten then: the Passover sacrifice, matzah, and the bitter herbs.30
• Wine alludes to the secrets of the Torah, "a delicacy particularly enjoyed by the elderly," i.e., the wise. Joseph was thus hinting that through descending to Egypt, Israel would merit to receive "the wine of Torah" at Mount Sinai. In this context, the donkeys, the proverbial beasts of burden, symbolized the idea of accepting "the yoke of Torah,"31 i.e., committing ourselves to study the Torah study beyond our natural inclination to do so based on the pleasure we derive from it. 32
• The aged wine was wine that Joseph had stored in anticipation of his reunion with his father. By sending him some of this wine, Joseph indicated to his father that, although he foreswore wine the day they were separated, 33 he trusted in God that one day they would be reunited and even prepared wine for the occasion.

Joseph's faith serves as a model for the sort of faith we should have during our exile. Even when we find ourselves in a situation where the exigencies of exilic life distract us from our Divine mission, we cannot give in to despair. We must strengthen ourselves with absolute trust that God will grant us success in all our endeavors so that no worries will impede our adherence to the Torah and its precepts.34

24 Do not engage in any involved discussions of Torah law, for doing so could distract you, causing you to lose your way: Joseph was not warning them against discussing the Torah altogether, only in engaging in complex discussions of legal nuances; after all, the obligation to study the Torah applies at all times.

In fact, there is an obligation to study the Torah while traveling above and beyond the obligation to study it at all times,36 for Torah study protects us from the perils of travel.37 Thus, if travelers are busy with business matters, they might well be absolved of the general obligation to study Torah, 38 but they would not be absolved of the obligation to protect themselves from the perils of travel through Torah study.

There are two aspects to the protective power of Torah study:

(a) The merit of fulfilling any of the Torah's commandments protects us from harm, and the commandment to study the Torah is no exception. Any type of Torah study provides this type of protection—even simply reading verses of Scripture,39 since we fulfill the commandment to study the Torah even by simply reading verses of Scripture.

(b) When we immerse ourselves intensely in the study of the Torah, we "lose ourselves" in it more than just figuratively—we lose our sense of independent selfhood in the experience, and temporarily become united with the Torah, acquiring some of its transcendence, rendering us immune to the transience of this world.40 Only in-depth study confers this type of protection, since only through in-depth study do we truly immerse ourselves in the Torah and thereby become one with it. 41

Accordingly, when Joseph told his brothers not to engage in in-depth Torah study, he was telling them that the first type of protection would suffice.

However, according to another opinion, Joseph in fact told the brothers not to refrain from studying Torah in depth.42 According to this view, Joseph had sent along drivers for the wagons; his brothers were therefore in no danger of losing their way.43

In the context of this view, Joseph wanted his brothers to have the type of protection that is the product of in-depth Torah study, for their final trip back to Jacob required extra merit. Whereas the purpose of their other trips was to buy food, this trip was the first one whose explicit goal was to bring the family down to Egypt, thus initiating the Egyptian exile. Joseph therefore told his brothers that in order to protect themselves on this trip, which was existentially far more dangerous than their previous ones, they would have to equip themselves with a greater measure of protection than before, the protection conferred by in-depth study. Only through such study would they become one with Torah and thus remain immune to the dangerous influence of exile. 44

27-28 He saw the wagons Joseph had sent…understanding that by having sent them, Joseph was alluding to the subject of their last study session together, the Divine spirit came alive in their father Jacob. Israel said, "I am blessed with much joy, for my son Joseph is still alive": As we have seen,45 Joseph's achievement in Egypt was twofold: He remained unaffected by the evil of Egypt and he affected Egypt positively. The first achievement was something that Jacob had achieved, albeit on a smaller scale, during his sojourn in Charan. The second achievement was something Jacob had never experienced.

Accordingly, the two verses that describe Jacob's realization that Joseph was still alive express Jacob's reaction to the two aspects of Joseph's spiritual aliveness: When Jacob "saw the wagons Joseph had sent, understanding that by having sent them, Joseph was alluding to the subject of their last study session together," he realized that Joseph had not been affected by Egypt—he remembered what Jacob had taught him. This realization relieved and enlivened him. When he realized that Joseph had not only remained unaffected by Egypt, but had affected Egypt positively, he said, "[I am blessed with] much [joy], for my son Joseph is still alive." The Midrash46 interprets these words to mean: "The power of my son Joseph is very great, for he has remained righteous throughout all his troubles in a manner that surpasses the way I did."47

Chapter 46

2-3 Once he reached Beersheba, the last city on his journey out of the land, he began to regret having to leave it. God therefore spoke to Israel…and said "…Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for it is specifically there that I will make you into a great nation": God was not trying to soothe Jacob's regret over having to leave the Holy Land, for, on the contrary, a Jew should regret having to leave the Land of Israel. Rather, God was telling Jacob that his regret over going into exile was the key to not becoming intimidated by the exile and therefore overcoming it.

Since God put us in exile, it follows that He has given us all the strength we need to overcome its challenges. Moreover, since God put us in exile, it follows that as long as the exile continues, it is the optimal setting for our individual and collective growth and development: "it is specifically there that I will make you into a great nation." By fulfilling the purpose of the exile—sanctifying our lives and disseminating Divine consciousness throughout reality—our inner strength and greatness is revealed.

Here, however, lurks a great danger. When we realize that we have no reason to be intimidated by exile and that we benefit so greatly from it, we can fall into the trap of becoming habituated to exile. Once we become comfortable in exile, we become vulnerable to its pernicious effects on us, and it goes without saying that we can no longer sanctify it properly. In other words, while we have no reason to be afraid of exile per se, we should be very afraid of the possible results of not being afraid of it!

Therefore, like Jacob, we should always cultivate regret over the fact that we are not in our proper milieu. As long as we remember who we really are and the lives we are really meant to lead, we do not need to fear exile.49

11-27 Levi's wife gave birth to his daughter, Yocheved, as they were entering Egypt…the total of Jacob's household who came to Egypt was seventy persons: By descending into the Egyptian exile, the precursor of all exiles, Jacob began the process of elevating and transforming the nations of the world, which number seventy.50 Yocheved's birth just before they entered Egypt brought the number of Jacob's family to seventy, thus enabling him to begin the mission of transforming the seventy nations of the world.

This teaches us the enormous power of even a newborn child: Although Yocheved was merely a newborn, her very existence was enough to complete the Jewish people and enable them to begin the fulfillment of their purpose.51

It was appropriate that Yocheved bring Jacob's family to this new level, because she personified both the severity of the exile and the faith in redemption. On the one hand, being the last of the seventy to be born, she lived through the later, most difficult periods of slavery; on the other, she (together with her daughter Miriam) inspired the people with belief and trust in God by defying Pharaoh's command to kill the Jewish children, and later, her son Moses revived the people's waning belief in redemption.52

The process of transforming the world is twofold: first, we must overwhelm and thereby subdue the world's antagonism to holiness, and then, we must transform it into holiness.53 The former is the more "masculine" approach; the latter, the more "feminine."

Thus, the commandments entrusted to women—safeguarding the kosher standards of the family's food (exemplified by separating a portion of the dough when baking bread54), ensuring the safety and spiritual warmth of the home (as exemplified by kindling the Sabbath candles), and sanctifying marital life (through the laws governing modesty in demeanor and marital intimacy)—are all ways of transforming otherwise mundane aspects of normal human life into expressions of holiness.55

28 He had sent Judah ahead of him…to…set up a place for the family to study the Torah: Jacob knew that the key to Jewish continuity is Jewish education. Thus, although God Himself had promised to accompany Jacob to Egypt, Jacob first established a Torah school in Egypt and only then went down to Egypt with God.

Jacob's school and others remained active throughout the Egyptian exile,56 despite its incomparable difficulties. While all of our exiles have been difficult, the difficulty of the Egyptian exile was most severe, for several reasons:

• One of the antidotes to exile is Torah study. But since, as shall be explained later, the transcendent dimension of the Torah became accessible only when the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, we were not able to use this dimension of the Torah to counteract the effects of the Egyptian exile.
• Since the Egyptian exile was our first, we lacked the experience of having undergone previous exiles. It was therefore the most traumatic.
• In later exiles, God scattered the Jewish people among various nations. Thus, if Jews were persecuted in one land, they find respite in another land and help the Jews suffering persecution elsewhere.57 During the Egyptian exile, in contrast, all Jews were enslaved together in Egypt.
• The prospect of fleeing an oppressive regime is a source of comfort. But the hope that one day the Jewish people could, without Divine intervention, escape Egypt was dim. As our sages tell us, even a solitary slave had never escaped from Egypt, let alone an entire nation.58

Yet despite all of these difficulties, the Torah schools in Egypt never closed. Surely nowadays, when our troubles are not nearly as severe as were our ancestors' in Egypt, we should spare no effort to build schools for Torah study, thereby ensuring the continuity of our people.59

Jacob sent Judah to start a school rather than asking Joseph to do, or relying on the school that Joseph himself had set up for himself and his children, because he realized that a Torah school must be headed by a person who is completely removed from mundane affairs and is immersed fully in Torah study.

Similarly, the Levites, whose occupation was serving in the Temple and teaching Torah, did not inherit any portion of the Land of Israel, so they could be completely free of any mundane distractions. Likewise, all those who wish to adopt the vocation of the "Levite"—Torah scholar or teacher—must be completely separated from the affairs of the world.60

Since Joseph's Divine mission required that he be engaged in the mundane affairs of Egypt, he was therefore disqualified from heading Jacob's school of Torah, notwithstanding his undisputed righteousness.61

29-30 He presented himself to his father...and wept on his neck…. Then Israel said to Joseph, "Now I can die, having seen your face and having seen that you are still alive": The story of Jacob's descent to Egypt has been replayed in more recent history in the immigration of the Jewish community from Eastern Europe to the United States after World War II. Religious life in pre-war Europe was one of palpable spirituality. Many large Jewish academies existed; Torah scholarship was widespread. The physical structures of Europe's Jewish institutions may have cost a fraction of what similar institutions did in the United States, but they more than made up for by their spiritual innocence and passion, which American institutions sorely lacked.

This is why European Jews only reluctantly immigrated to the United States, fearful of the spiritual desert that it was. Only when life became untenable in Europe did the Jewish community finally descend en masse to "Egypt," to the heathen soil of America.

But just as Joseph had preceded Jacob and his family to Egypt so that he could sustain them in the years of famine, so too, the relatively small number of Jews that lived in the United States prior to the mass immigration sustained their brethren in Europe after World War I by helping them rebuild their institutions and providing for their physical sustenance. Furthermore, just as Joseph prepared Egypt so Jacob would have a place to set up a place of study, so too, the Jews in America paved the way so that the Jewish community could be rebuilt with the immigration that followed World War II.

But the only way this could work was if the immigrants, and even their children, would retain the memory of the spiritual superiority of Jewish life in Europe. They would have to yearningly and lovingly recall the special atmosphere of the synagogue, the house of Torah study, and the Torah school for children. Furthermore, they would have remember the old world not just by writing books about it and observing annual memorials to a "lost world," but rather by rebuilding it in their own communities and for their own children.

In this vein, we can interpret Jacob's meeting with Joseph. The Zohar62 relates that when Joseph wept on Jacob's neck, he we was crying for the future Temple that would be destroyed. It was then that Jacob said that "Now I can die…having seen that you are still alive." Jacob had already been told and believed that Joseph was physically alive, but he was not certain that Joseph was sufficiently spiritually alive to lead the newly exiled Jewish community; if not, Jacob would have to lead the community himself.

But then he that saw Joseph, viceroy of Egypt, escorted by a parade of people63 and chariots, was thinking neither about Egypt, nor that he was viceroy, nor about any other worldly matter, but about the plight of a Jewish Temple that would exist sometime in the distant future. And this future Temple was not simply on Joseph's mind; it concerned him so deeply that he burst out crying.

It was then that Jacob said, "Now I can die. I am no longer needed to lead the Jewish people. Joseph, despite living in an alien land, is fully capable of doing the job exactly as I would have done it."64

Chapter 47

10 Jacob blessed Pharaoh that the Nile would overflow and irrigate the country whenever he approached it The Egyptians viewed the Nile as the source of their sustenance and therefore worshipped it as a deity. By blessing Pharaoh that the Nile would overflow each time he approached it, Jacob weakened the idolatrous reverence in which the Egyptians held the Nile by demonstrating that the Nile was controlled by God. 65

Pharaoh himself, however, was the ultimate ingrate. Instead of thanking God for this blessing, he attributed it to his own powers and declared that he created the Nile and therefore controlled it.66 Pharaoh's very name hints at his stiff-necked insensitivity. The letters that compose the word Pharaoh (פרעה) can be rearranged to spell the word for "the neck" (הערף), 67 which is a metaphor for stubbornly turning one's back.68

12 Joseph provided… for his father and his brothers and all his father's household: As we have seen,70 the Jewish people are referred to collectively as "Joseph," for Joseph sustained our ancestors in Egypt, as stated in the present verse. Nonetheless, great as this act of benevolence was, it seems disproportionate to name an entire people for all time after someone who sustained them for one or two generations. And even if we grant that this eponymy is justified, it still seems to contradict what we know about the Torah's attitude toward names, i.e., that a name expresses an entity's essence. What does the fact that Joseph sustained us have to do with our essence?

Rabbi Yosef Rosen of Rogatchov explains71 that the Torah's eternity does not just consist in the eternal applicability of its lessons; rather, the Torah's commandments and stories themselves are eternally recurring. God is constantly and eternally commanding us to do what it says in the Torah, and the spiritual correlates of the Torah's narratives are constantly and eternally recurring.

Thus, when Joseph provided for his family, he also provided for them and their descendants for all time spiritually, giving them the ability to live proper spiritual lives even amid spiritual "famine," i.e., exile.72

At the same time, Joseph also provided us with the ability to repay evil with goodness, just as he repaid his brothers' evil with goodness and sustained them throughout the famine. (True, he did aggrieve them when they first came to Egypt, but he did so was for their own sake, as we have seen.73)

Joseph was able to forgive his brothers not only because he was a master of self-control, but chiefly because he understood of the nature of human evil. As we have seen, the brothers' evil act served God's plan that Joseph eventually become viceroy of Egypt. Joseph focused on the positive outcome of their acts rather than on their evil essence.

The Midrash74 notes that when we ask God to "lead Joseph like a flock,"75 we are asking Him to treat us like Joseph treated his brothers, perceiving our sins as being ultimately for the good and responding to our offenses with kindness.

Of course, in order to "inspire" God to see our sins as being ultimately for the good, we must first do the same ourselves. If we use our sins to motivate ourselves to return to God, the sin that fuels this repentance is transformed into a merit and retroactively serves a good purpose.

Such, in fact, is the perspective of our soul's essence: the essence of the soul never loses its conscious connection to God and thus is no party to the evil intention of the sin. Its only sees the sin as a potential way to strengthen our connection to God when we repent.

Joseph had the unique ability to view the deeds of others from the perspective of their souls' essence, wherein they are entirely pure. By doing so, he gave us the power to do the same. By focusing on the essence of other people's souls, seeing their sins as potential merits, we enhance our ability to focus on the essence of our own souls, enabling us to transform our own sins into merits. When we do so, God looks at us in the same way, repaying our former offenses with blessings.76

23 Here is seed grain for you, and you shall sow the ground: Joseph provided the seed but the people did the work of planting and harvesting. So, too, when we receive spiritual sustenance from the "Joseph" of our generation, its spiritual leaders, we must not be satisfied with our own survival; we must plant these spiritual seeds and actualize their potential.77

27 They settled in its choicest part, Goshen…and thus they fulfilled God's prophecy to Abraham that his progeny would dwell in a foreign land…. They established residence there: According to the Midrash, Goshen was in fact the property of the Jewish people, since Pharaoh had given it to Sarah.78 Nonetheless, their stay in their own property, the "choicest part" of Egypt,79 was still counted as part of their preordained exile and servitude.

The purpose of the exile was to refine the Jewish people by putting them through "the iron crucible"80 of Egyptian slavery. This would prepare them to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Before Joseph and his brothers died, the Jewish people went through this "crucible" through the intense intellectual "labor" of Torah study81 and the pain of yearning for the Holy Land. Once Joseph and his brothers died, however, the spiritual consciousness of the people deteriorated. They no longer applied themselves laboriously to the study of the Torah and became complacent in their new land.82 They failed to utilize the choice land of Goshen for holy living and instead became spiritually coarsened from its material abundance.83

The servitude to Egypt therefore began in earnest at that point, since the people were no longer fulfilled their obligation to undergo exile through intellectual labor and pining for the Holy Land.84