Vayigosh: conflicts of culture

This parsha is a study is desperation. There is an undercurrent of famine and the anguish of starvation.  The regional  famine has brought everyone to the Joseph's Egyptian food stores.  Even the family of Israel, in neighboring Canaan, is forced to buy grain from the genius of Egypt. 

Grandfather Abraham, whom Jacob had known, had gone to Egypt during a prior famine.  Abraham had seen Egypt  as a tough place, where men took what they wanted from others, especially from foreigners.  He felt forced to pass his wife, Sarah,  off as his sister, lest he be killed so that some local boss could take her. The (Fascist) hierarchy that was the Egyptian system was already in place in the days of Abraham. The story of Joseph's ascent to viceroy implies the strength of Pharaoh and his chain of command in those times.   Now, that power was backed up by a monopoly on the most precious of resources - food. 

 The Israelite brothers had run afoul of the viceroy, the  צָֽפְנַ֣ת פַּעְנֵחַ֒, the explainer of the hidden.  To keep   his sacred vow to his father,  Judah approaches the viceroy of Egypt to trade himself into bondage instead of his half brother. He explains the special relationship between Benjamin and their father (as if the man in power would care).  Benjamin is the the sole surviving  son of the favored wife ( the heir apparent?).  Judah has pledged personal responsibility for Benjamin.  His explanation is filled with implicit ambivalence,  these tangential details.  Sometimes the truth, with all of its details, is the best reaction to an otherwise hopeless situation. 

The value that Judah gives to his oath is the moving aspect of his actions. He could not know the consequence of his offer.  Offers had already been made: The brothers had suggested death to the thief and slavery for all; slavery for all of the brothers. Now Judah was offering a one for one trade, Judah for Benjamin.  The viceroy had the power to enforce all previous offers...and worse.  Judah took a chance on honesty... and won ... because of a history he did not know. 

Joseph offers to settle the family in the town of Goshen.  The name , Goshen, comes from the same root as Vaigash, "and he approached", the name of the parsaha. The Isrealites will approach, but not enter, Egypt.  They will not integrate into the Egyptian people.  They are excluded. Even Joseph is excluded, as stated in the previous parsha at the feast:  

וַיָּשִׂ֥ימוּ ל֛וֹ לְבַדּ֖וֹ וְלָהֶ֣ם לְבַדָּ֑ם וְלַמִּצְרִ֞ים הָאֹכְלִ֤ים אִתּוֹ֙ לְבַדָּ֔ם כִּי֩ לֹ֨א יוּכְל֜וּן הַמִּצְרִ֗ים לֶאֱכֹ֤ל אֶת־הָֽעִבְרִים֙ לֶ֔חֶם כִּי־תוֹעֵבָ֥ה הִ֖וא לְמִצְרָֽיִם׃

They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves; for the Egyptians could not dine with the Hebrews, since that would be abhorrent to the Egyptians. The  Egygptians despised the Hebrews.  They did not want them close. 

Today is the fast of the Tenth of Teveth. Today is Christmas.  It reminds me that my ancestors were murdered by Christians who claim this date for the birth of their religion.  Although my parents were rescued, in part, because of the purity of the Christianity of those who hid and sustained them, my grandparents were murdered by people who had a tradition of antisemitism that was conflated with their religion.  That merger of antisemitism and Christianity came from a long tradition of the churches, Protestant and Catholic, deriding Jews. 

The Tenth of Teveth  commemorates factors that contributed to the obnoxious fallout of the European diaspora.  It commemorates the beginning of the Exile that leads to the dispersion, as the displaced desperately sought a livelihood and accepted every invitation offered; invitations that would be revoked - often on the basis of religion.  

On the Tenth of Teveth, we mourn the death of Ezra.  Ezra had aspects of an anti-Joseph.  Ezra rose to prominence in the Persian court, the successors of the Babylonians.  Ezra brought a portion of the exiled Jews back to the Promised Land.  He re-established Jewish identity.  That identity was/is a bulwark against persecution. 

On the Tenth of Teveth, we  bemoan the translation of the  Hebrew Bible, at the direction of  Ptolemy (the Greek speaking Egyptian Phaoroah).  The translation exposed  some of the secrets in these volumes:the canonized  antagonisms, the nationalistic hopes.  This was fodder for antipathy.  More importantly, it made  the Hebrew Bible available.  It could be derided by the disrespectful.  The claim that it had been superseded could be made; it could contribute to the rise of the "new" religions; The religion whose destructive aspect we fast for today. 

What would I do without ArtScroll?