Parashat Vayechi: Joseph Returns to the Pit

עברית

Thirty-nine years[1] after his brothers cast him into a pit, Joseph returns to the scene.

A midrash in Bereishit Rabbah (100:8) wonders why when Joseph and his brothers are on their way back to Egypt after burying Jacob in Hebron, approximately three months[2] after his death, the Torah suddenly notes “Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead” (see Genesis 50:15). What has changed, and why are they suddenly afraid of Joseph again?  

The rabbis suggest several possibilities. I want to focus on the comment of Rabbi Isaac who said, “He went and looked into that same pit.” Joseph’s brothers saw that he left the caravan, took a side path and looked into the pit where they had thrown him 39 years before.

They saw where he went, but they didn’t know what he was thinking. Perhaps he was planning revenge against them now that their father was no longer around to control him? Perhaps he would throw them into another “pit,” the jail operated by Potiphar, and then sit down to a meal with Benjamin ignoring their distress just as they had ignored his. What goes around comes around.

Therefore they fabricated an additional testament in the name of Jacob and sent a messenger to plead with Joseph: “Forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly” (Genesis 50:17). I contend that this is a fabrication because Jacob, in his last words to his sons, reprimanded Reuben, Simon and Levy for their evil deeds. Surely, he wouldn’t have passed over what the brothers did to Joseph, if he had known about it. Apparently everyone kept silent for all these years, in order not to ruin Jacob’s joy of being reunited with Joseph.

The brothers concern is understandable, revenge is a natural motion but Joseph rises above it:

Have no fear! Am I a substitute for God? Besides, although you intended me harm, God intended it for good, so as to bring about the present result—the survival of many people. And so, fear not. I will sustain you and your children.” Thus he reassured them, speaking kindly to them (Genesis 50:19-21).

Joseph overcame his sexual urges when seduced by Potiphar’s wife, and now he overcomes the urge for revenge. Therefore, rabbinic literature refers to him as “tsaddik - righteous.” Moreover, Midrash Tanhuma (Noah 5:1) emphasizes that Noah and Joseph are called “righteous” because they provided food for God’s creatures. There is no work more elemental or more elevated than this.

Joseph looked into the pit, felt the severity of his situation at the time and rose above the natural inclination to seek revenge. Thus, he became a living example of the mitzvah that the Torah would later command Jacob’s descendants after they left Egypt: 

You shall not oppress a גר stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). 

Do not throw others into a pit because you understand that experience, you understand the misery of a person chased from his or her home, of a people exiled from their land.
What is hateful to you (plural) do not do onto others.

Leviticus 19:34 raises the threshold: 

The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your native-born; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 

Altogether, the Torah warns us to be concerned about the well-being of the stranger 36 times. The many repetitions are necessary because the behavior being demanded is indeed difficult. The temptation to think “After everything we have been through no one would dare blame us if we were to oppress others as we ourselves were oppressed” is alive and well. The Torah commands us to resist the temptation.

Human nature tends to forget pain. Therefore, perhaps “You know the feelings of the stranger” should be read as a command “You must know,” if you have forgotten what it means to be a stranger, it is your obligation to make the effort to recover that knowledge. Joseph could have gone straight back to his high office in Egypt. He chose to take a detour in order to look at the pit, because he did not want to forget. His willingness to feed and support his brothers and their families despite remembering full well what they did to him entitles Joseph to be considered righteous, and makes him an example of keeping the Torah’s commandments.

Like Joseph, we also are likely to forget. We have returned to the Land. We still remember exile but are beginning to forget. The facts are known but the feeling is dulled. Therefore, we must take a detour from the natural path and make an effort to remember. To look into the pit, to experience the pain, and to love the stranger because we were strangers in the land of Egypt, to love the refugee because we were refugees in the lands of the north and wherever we were exiled.

I am not talking about theoretical strangers and refugees but rather about real people, the asylum-seekers who live here in the State of Israel, who have fled for their lives from real dangers of violence and famine. Some people ask: “How do we know who is a genuine refugee and who is ‘just coming along for the ride?’” The question is appropriate, and there are international rules for determining these matters but the bureaucracy moves very slowly. Therefore, the lack of clarity and human suffering continue. That being the case, how should we act? According to Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, we must act according to the established principle of Jewish law that whenever we have doubt about implementing a law stated in the written Torah, we must be strict. We must widen our concern beyond the “poor of our city.” We must also love the stranger, providing basic necessities for those seeking protection in our country. These are mitzvot from the Torah, and we must be strict with ourselves about keeping them.

If you would like recommendation about opportunities to help, leave a comment or contact the Consortium for Israel and the Asylum Seekers because we were strangers in the Land of Egypt.

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I am grateful to Leni Wesly for the inspiration and to Rabbis Shai Held and Aaron Leibowitz for helping me find the language to express it.

[1] “At age seventeen, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers” (Genesis 37:2)     

     “Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh” (Gen. 41:46) [13 years]

     Seven years of plenty (Genesis 41:47) [20 years]

     Two years of famine before Jacob comes to Egypt (Genesis 45:6) [22 years]   

     “Jacob lived seventeen years in the land of Egypt” (Genesis 47:20) [39 years]  

[2]  There are 70 days of embalming and mourning in Egypt (Genesis 50:3), plus the time it took to get to Hebron and seven days of mourning there (verse 10), and now they are on the way back to Egypt.