Vayigash: Social Contract ; Capital in the 14th Century (BC)

Vayigash: Social Contract
Capital in  the 14th Century (BC)

In this week's parsha is that the Israel family, which spawned the Israelite nation, emigrated to Goshen, a place near ( gosh means approach), or in, Egypt, This sets the stage for the foundational story of the Jews, the Exodus, the slave revolt of liberation.  

The Egyptian exile had been foretold to Abraham, in a trance, between animal halves,  after he had returned from his own messy sojourn there.   Didn't Abraham warn his grandson?  Would the warning have helped? 

What was the purpose of the bondage in Egypt?  Abraham's vision included the accumulation of wealth.  Abraham himself had achieved ( perhaps through dubious means) wealth in Egypt , and that may have helped him dominate Canaan upon his return.  It probably helped him raise his army  to rescue Lot in the war with the  Mesopotamian kings.  Abraham had gone to Egypt to survive a famine, his great grandchildren returned to Egypt for the same reason... but they remained

Joseph tells his family to move to Egypt, to leave the land for which  Jacob risked everything when he confronted Esau, the land bought from Hamor the Hivite (there is much more to that story).  They are to leave this land , פֶּן-תִּוָּרֵשׁ lest they become impoverished.  Does this justify American ( and all other  diaspora) Judaism despite the existence of a Jewish state in the Promised Land?  Is the  Egypt story, condoning expatriation for affluence,   part of the  Jungian structure that created the Judaism of the Pale of settlement? We know that the Hebrews will soon be enslaved.  They are immigrants and naturally fall to the lowest social rung.  Did their motivation for wealth enslaves them before they were put in chains?

The Haftorah deals with the unification of the descendants of Joseph and Judah. Had the 11 brothers not descended to Egypt it seems likely that the Josephites would have been separated from the rest of the nation, they would have had a different history.  Instead, they became slaves together, unified by the bond of shared suffering and shared liberation

The parsha ends with the restructuring of Egyptian society based upon Joseph's  grain stores.  In the modern models like those of  Marx and  Piketty , the starved people take what they need.  Those who need take from those that have. The ruler sustains the masses to prevent revolution.  This  Egyptian state, led by Joseph,  is the provider.  The people and the land become  Pharaoh's property based upon a sale under duress.  The starving people gratefully accept the sovereignty of their purchaser and accede to a permanent 20% income tax.  The system  derives its validity from  the will of every individual to survive.


The role of the Jew -  brilliant savior,  greedy interloper, subjugated low life, threat to society .   Has it changed?