Vayigash:Is this how we got here? 

Vayigash is an origin story.  It tells of how the Israelites descended to Egypt.  It tells us the source of the sovereign's authority over the people and the land  But these seemingly fundamental developments rest on even more basic, unstated assumptions. 

The international famine seems to be the driver of both stories: the descent to Egypt and the consolidation of the Pharaoh's power. Joseph, having foreseen the years of plenty followed by the agricultural crash, had amassed a vast store of grain in preparation . Since the famine extended to Canaan, and Joseph saw the hunger continuing for several more years, he invited his father and brothers to Egypt so that they would not be impoverished, so that they would not lose some of their number to the impending starvation. 

Joseph did more than this. He established the family of  12 brothers and the tribe of seventy founding members.  Joseph could have rejected the sons of Leah, Bilha and Zilpa, the men who had plotted his murder and settled for selling him into slavery.  Judah tells the viceroy, whom he does not yet know is Joseph:

וַיֹּ֛אמֶר עַבְדְּךָ֥ אָבִ֖י אֵלֵ֑ינוּ אַתֶּ֣ם יְדַעְתֶּ֔ם כִּ֥י שְׁנַ֖יִם יָֽלְדָה־לִּ֥י אִשְׁתִּֽי׃ 

Your servant my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons.

Jacob had identified Rachel as his (true) wife and (perhaps only) Joseph and Benjamin as his true sons. Judah supplied Joseph with an additional justification for relegating the other 10 sons to a subservient, perhaps a subjugated, or even missing , status. 

Previously, we have the verse:

אֵ֣לֶּה ׀ תֹּלְד֣וֹת יַעֲקֹ֗ב יוֹסֵ֞ף

This, then, is the line of Jacob: Joseph

Joseph is chanted with the  ambiguous gershayim, a tune that sets the name off from the rest of the sentence ( the translation of gershayim could be "divorces")  This can be understood to mean that Joseph was to Jacob what Isaac was to Abraham and Jacob was to Isaac.. the sole carrier of the legacy, divorced from his brothers. 

But Joseph made dreams come true. His dream was leadership over his brothers, not their annihilation. Transience is built into Joseph's dreams  Sheaves rot; the stars  move in the sky. Joseph's leadership might last, and it might not. Now Judah's courage is front and center.  Had Joseph wanted the legacy for himself, he would have crushed Judah.  Instead, he welcomes the 10 brothers who had sold him. This  decision to share the future with his half-brothers is an important part of the origin story. 

Much of the parsha describes how Joseph's grain stores consolidated the reign of Pharaoh. Ultimately, having acquired food ( when it was cheap) and storing it until the predicted famine, Joseph acquired all the wealth of Egypt and the surrounding lands.  Finally, the people sold themselves and their land  and became serfs, eternally indebted servants, to Pharaoh. 

The details of the grain acquisition in the seven years of plenty are vague. 

שֶׂ֣ה פַרְעֹ֔ה וְיַפְקֵ֥ד פְּקִדִ֖ים עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ וְחִמֵּשׁ֙ אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בְּשֶׁ֖בַע שְׁנֵ֥י הַשָּׂבָֽע׃

And let Pharaoh take steps to appoint overseers over the land, and organize^aOthers “take a fifth part of”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.  ( or take one fifth from) the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty.

There is an implication that  one fifth of the produce was taken , but it is not clear whether it was purchased or  a tax.  Regardless, it was the enforcement capabilities of Pharaoh and his minions that protected the grain from theft during the collection process... and prevented liberation when the people were starving. Ultimately, Joseph and the Pharaoh turned might into the  right to rule.

Underlying this process are assumptions. How did the current occupants of the land come to "own" it so that they could sell it for sustenance? Why does the "sale" of an individual come to include all of her offspring? Does the trade of food for land and labor forever indebt the buyer?   All of these are assumed. 

In our time, we can ask whether such a  consolidation of power is the inevitable destiny of  an  unbridled  market system . The wealthy ultimately accumulate all wealth and, eventually, enthrall the populace.  Karl Marx   envisioned a revolution to assert the claims of the oppressed. Can that happen in the era of social media? after the collapse of the Soviet Union that demonstrated that a state that purports to redistribute wealth does so ...  to a different oligarchy. 

Toward the end of the parsha, we are told that  only  the priestly lands were not acquired by the Pharaoh, because the priests were supported; the sovereign gave them a  stipend, so that did not need to sell their land for sustenance.  Jacobs tribe was supported by Joseph.  They had left their land  and the land they purchased, in Canaan. 

וַיֵּ֧שֶׁב יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם בְּאֶ֣רֶץ גֹּ֑שֶׁן וַיֵּאָחֲז֣וּ בָ֔הּ וַיִּפְר֥וּ וַיִּרְבּ֖וּ מְאֹֽד׃ 

Thus Israel settled in the country of Egypt, in the region of Goshen; they acquired holdings in it, and were fertile and increased greatly.

Although they arrived landless, the Isrealites acquired wealth and land. They benefited from their privilege. From Abraham until the end of Deuteronomy: Landless, disenfranchised people strive to enter a Holy Land  that is already inhabited. The Jews in the diaspora did it so many times. Such a life requires training  and a foundational story

We have had many years of plenty.  Watch out!