Shemoth: Law, Justice, Rebellion

Shemoth: Law, Justice, Rebellion

 

What happens in the parsha? Cruel laws are imposed on the Hebrews (taxes, tasks [with the corresponding masters], drowning the male children [what did they want to do with the females?], perverse work, etc.) The (female) heros (Shifra, Puah, Yocheved, Bath Pharoah [Batya],  Miriam) find ways to evade the law or don't follow it.  They choose justice over the law.  Moshe confronts the perpetrator of evil, he kills the Egyptian taskmaster, and is then criticized by the people he is trying to save, for going outside the law ( for the sake of justice), leading to his exile (from the [worker's] Eden of Egypt).  He returns to Egypt and confronts the authorities, leading to harsher conditions for the (compliant, as usual) workers, leading, ultimately  to their leaving the horrible situation ( which they did not recognize), to rebellion.

This compliance of the (law-abiding) Jews has been used to the advantage their oppressors over the generations.

Tzedek, Tzedek tirdof.

 

 

 

Shemoth: Nobody listens

 

 

Shemoth: the burning bush and...

 

shemoth: undoing the Eitz had...

vayechi: death

vayechi: death

 

The action in Vayechi, a parsha named for life, involves death. Vayechi evokes the notorious midrashic phrase: "Yaakov lo meith, Yaakov did not (does not)  die." Yaakov spends the entire parsha dying.  He is embalmed and buried ( in the Promised Land)  He tells his sons what will happen to them in the future ( in code) from his perspective of a dying man, who will not be present in the future, and is thus free to see the future more clearly. He is free from the deceptions that are necessary for continuation of physical life, from the lies of economic needs, the half truths that are required for success.  

Yaakov recognizes  the importance of his burial in the holy land and he knows that  he will not be able to accomplish it  from his powerless, dead position.  He elicits an oath from his powerful son, Joseph , thus fulfilling the dream that began this story.  His funeral unites the family,(what we think is) his ultimate goal.

In the end, Yaakov lives like he is going to die and dies in a way that allows his legacy to live. Yoseph shadows this.

 

The ClifNotes  of the story: Yaakov dies, Joseph kisses him and buries him.  That is how it was with my father. I was bringing him to Seattle ( my Egypt).  He died on the way.  I fell on him and kissed him ( CPR with mouth to mouth) and buried him in Israel.  Like Joseph, we bought our plots near my parents. 

 

On this day of mourning for the compromise of our culture ( the 10th of Teveth) which some modern rabbis ( unsuccessfully ) wanted do rededicate to the holocaust, I remember my re-enactment of Vayechi.  

 

 

 Vayechi: staying in Egypt

 

 

Vayechi: hic jacet

 

 

Vayechi: Jibberish

 

Vayechi

 

 

Vayigash: economics

Vayigash:economics

 

 

 knowledge is power. The knowledge of the course of the plenty followed by the famine that Joseph divined and shared with Pharoah made him the most powerful man in the world.  

Power is power: were it not for the army of Pharoah, the starving people would have seized the food that they needed. Thus, the wealth that devolved from the knowledge went to the house of Pharoah.

 

Vayigash relates the foundational story of why the people serve the king, why they pay taxes, why they are subjects (subjugated). Our ancestors sold themselves so that they could live, so that we could be born.

This is the origin of gashmiuth and we know it.  In that context, it is interesting to to note that the priesthood ( representative of some kind of ruchiuth) was exempted from this system.

 

The first word of the parsha, Vayigash, converys the idea of approach, hence something other, foreign. The related word goshen implies that the relationship between the Children of Israel and the Egyptians was one of foreigness.  Perhaps Goshen should be translated as "refugee camp."  The imigrant ( to a more advanced culture) has an ambivalent  relationship with the culture that he finds himself next to: approach and avoidance. The new culture is the new gashmiuth.  Gush is the next step after ger.

 

 

Vayigash: Blame Yoseph

 

Vayigash: Akward Approach

Vayigash: enslavement

 

 

Vayigash: substitutiary sacri...