| “Judah went down….Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up”
Rabbi Dr. Amir Mashiach Click for PDF The brothers hate Joseph. It begins with a childish ‘feud’—“and they could not speak to him peacefully,” but very quickly matters deteriorate to the point of deciding to eliminate him: “And now come and let us kill him and cast him into one of the pits and we will say a wild animal has devoured him.” Although in the end they decide to sell him to Egypt, this does not lessen the severity of the act nor the terrible thought behind it. (In parentheses: It is not at all certain that being sold into slavery is a mitigation of the sentence, for Elazar ben Yair, the leader of Masada for example, believed that it is better to die a free man than to live as a slave: “We chose death over lives of slavery.” And see also Socrates’ speech, “Apology,” in Plato’s writings I, for similar words. So perhaps the sale into slavery was nothing but an additional cruelty by the brothers toward Joseph.) In the parasha we encounter for the first time the character of Judah as the leader of the brothers. Indeed, from Judah will come David and Solomon and the entire royal line, until King Messiah, son of David. But why did Judah merit this? What is so special in his personality? After all, Reuben also tried to save Joseph, and his words were heard and accepted. It seems to me that Judah’s advantage and leadership were revealed through his actions, immediately after the difficult event. The structure of the parasha is somewhat strange, for suddenly the Torah shifts to tell about Judah, his wife, his sons, and Tamar his daughter-in-law. Is there a hint here about Judah’s personality? It seems to me that indeed there is. The Midrash says: And this is exactly the difference—everyone is occupied with their sackcloth and fasting, everyone laments the past, but Judah goes and acts for the future. He takes a wife and begins to build the House of Israel. He goes to Adullam, a place that reminds us of the words “forever.” Judah thinks long-term; Judah thinks how to rebuild the House of Israel in order to connect to eternity. He fathers three sons, whose names themselves hint at what he is experiencing and the hope within him: Er—one must always be awake and active, not fall asleep nor rest on the achievements or failures of the past; Onan—there are many crises in life, some of which relate also to the laws of mourning, Heaven forbid, just as befell the house of Jacob at that time; Shelah—this is the hope for the days in which “Shiloh will come,” meaning the Messiah. Thus the names of the children express the present, action, and hope for the future. Judah marries his sons to a woman named Tamar. What is so special about Tamar? Why is she important to him, to the point that in the end he himself marries her? Because “Tamar was the daughter of Shem” (Bereishit Rabbah 85:10). This is also an act of a leader who thinks far ahead. Judah knows that Joseph was the beloved youngest son, but this was not expressed only in the multicolored coat, rather in the transmission of different kinds of wisdom. Rashi says: “Everything he (Jacob) learned from Shem and Ever he passed on to him (Joseph).” Therefore, with the loss of Joseph, the wisdom of Shem was lost, which is the wisdom connecting Israel to the nations of the world, the universal wisdom necessary as a bridge that will bring influence, a bridge enabling the fulfillment of the mission of being a light unto the nations. Now, the wisdom of Shem is gone. Judah, as a leader who thinks “forever,” understands that this is not the time to engage in sackcloth and fasting, but to repair the damage. He immediately connects with the daughter of Shem, in order to save as much as possible the wisdom of Shem. At first he marries Tamar to his sons. Yet they were not worthy of bearing the heavy burden. They die for their sins, and now Judah finds himself drawn to a mysterious woman by the roadside. The Midrash says: “He sought to pass by, and the Holy One, blessed be He, appointed an angel in charge of desire. He said to him: Judah, where are you going? From where do kings arise? From where do great ones arise? And he turned aside to her by the road—against his will and not by his choice.” Thus God, the “Creator of the light of King Messiah,” orchestrates matters, for He knows that Judah must bond with Tamar himself, and therefore: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said: The Messiah is destined to arise from Judah, and he went and took a Canaanite woman. What shall I do? I will bring pretexts… let the Canaanite woman die… so that Judah will cleave to Tamar” (Midrash Aggadat Bereishit 64). Through his actions and his hopes, Judah merited to rise and establish the dynasty of the kings of Israel. “And Judah went down… and it was told to Tamar, saying: behold, your father-in-law is going up.”
Dvar Torah for Chanukah: Click for PDF The festival of Chanukah symbolizes, for many, the triumph of the soul of Israel and its spirituality over Greek materialism and physicality. But it must be remembered that Greek wisdom is not merely body-exposing Olympic games, nor only magnificent buildings and refined aesthetics. Greek culture also includes splendid wisdom that has greatly shaped Western culture, as well as significant ideas within Jewish thought. It must be remembered that the struggle and the supposed victory between Jewish spirituality and Greek materialism is not the whole picture, and such a statement contains a grave mistake that can lead to great distortion. The point is that the Torah of Israel is not only spiritual. It is no less material. The struggle revolved around Greek one-dimensionality versus Jewish two-dimensionality. As is quoted in the name of Rav Kook: “Greek wisdom held that there are two separate paths: either to go in the ways of nature, to develop and strengthen them (and they were the first to venerate sport and the body), or to go against nature and devote oneself to complete asceticism, removing oneself from all natural forces and living a life of spirit. Not so Israel, of whom it is said: ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests’: a kingship engaged in worldly governance and a priesthood engaged in spiritual guidance, united and fused. ‘And a holy nation’: not only individuals reach holiness, but the entire nation, engaged in all kinds of labor, is also called holy. This content of the spirit of Israel is expressed in the pure Menorah, whose candles were kindled in a natural way — with olive oil and through human action — yet the ‘western lamp’ burned miraculously (Shabbat 22b). The natural force and the miraculous force merged together, ‘a testimony that the Divine Presence rests upon Israel’… The Greeks could not comprehend Israel’s unique way, which unifies both elements in complete harmony — the view that sees the body as a foundation for the spirit and knows how to cultivate holiness even within natural life. Therefore, when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils. They fought against the light of Israel, against the Menorah that unites nature and miracle together. In contrast, the Hasmoneans arose — descendants of Aaron, from the priestly family of Israel. They, who stepped forward to fight the holy war and restored the crown of kingship to Israel, embodied the spiritual struggle: the warriors of strength and bravery were also the protectors of the spirit of Israel.” (Moadei HaRa’ayah, pp. 160–161) And this is the message of Chanukah: two-dimensional Judaism against one-dimensional Hellenism. Yet one must be careful not to blur boundaries: “There is a world of the secular and a world of the sacred… These worlds contradict each other. Of course, the contradiction is subjective. A person, in his limited understanding, cannot reconcile the sacred and the secular… Indeed, they are reconciled in the heights of existence, in the seat of the Holy of Holies.” (Orot HaKodesh II, 311) And yet, Rav Kook says: “But an even higher level exists — the elevation of all the secular into the sacred. This is the trait of the most exalted of the righteous.” This is what is required of us: to internalize Chanukah and walk in the path of two-dimensional Judaism. For comments: a.mashiach@gmail.com |
