1.
The swearing-in of the new government comes at the same time that we read the end of the saga of how Joseph was sold and the subsequent effects on Jacob's family. This is no coincidence. From the foundational book of our people, we can draw solace and strength today.
For twenty-two years, Joseph's brothers kept secret from their father how they had sold him to traders, instead leading him to believe his beloved son had died. Every day they would see their elderly father morning for Joseph without being able to find any comfort. When the goblet of the Egyptian master was found among Benjamin's possessions, the last remnant of the House of Rachel was about to remain as a slave in Egypt. Judah, who was Benjamin's guarantor, proposes that all the brothers become slaves, but the Egyptian pushes him into a corner. "The man in whose hand the goblet is found, he shall be my bondman." (Genesis 44:17)
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There are moments in national and individual history where it seems that all hope is lost, and that there is no way out. In the law of historical selection, Isaac continued the House of Abraham and Ishmael was pushed out, Jacob continued and Esau was pushed out. It would be tempting to think that the heavens wanted the House of Rachel removed: Joseph has disappeared and now Benjamin too.
In such moments, there is a need for leadership that knows how to look beyond the here and now. A good king – or prime minister – does not suffice with being the ruler, he works to discover the hidden forces in his people. Like a good conductor, he brings to the fore the mosaic of capabilities and talents in society and unites them under one flag.
Judah, the son of Leah, was the one to suggest selling Joseph. He had prepared for this moment for 22 years, for the moment of rectification for the sale that had split apart the House of Jacob. He had done his soul searching and that of his family. He knew that without the House of Rachel, it would mean the end of the dream of the House of Abraham. That was what stood at the root of his promise to his father when he asked him to take Benjamin to Egypt. "I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him; if I bring him not unto thee … then let me bear the blame forever." (Genesis 43:9) Jacob heard in that terrible surety, a deep reconciliation with the decisive place of the House of Rachel in the existence of the family and in fact the existence of the House of Israel. The significance of the declaration "I will be surety for him [Benjamin]" is "All of Israel's are guarantors for one another." The sons of Leah, the sons of Rachel, the House of Judah, and the House of Joseph, Israel, and Judah.
And that is what happens. As the Egyptian master seeks to take Benjamin, Judah stands up and gives the speech of his life, a moment before the gates slam shut. It is a short speech, 223 words (in Hebrew), but one that in biblical terms is considered long. The speech is full of cunning and sophistication, of diplomacy and vision. It is both sensitive and cerebral, and even musical. (See Genesis 44, 18-34) At the end of the speech, he offers himself as a slave in place of Benjamin. "For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not with me? lest I look upon the evil that shall come on my father!"
2.
It is a historical speech. Judah speaks to the vizier standing in front of him, but his words are addressed to future generations, to us as well. In my life, I attended a historic speech that was a foundational moment for me. In March 2015, I sat in the United States Congress when Benjamin Netanyahu spoke against the emerging nuclear agreement with Iran and recruited American public opinion against the President at the time. Barack Obama was working to sign an agreement that in Netanyahu's view endangered Israel's existence.
One particular section of the speech moved me more than anything when Netanyahu said: "I can guarantee you this, the days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage…. as a prime minister of Israel, I can promise you one more thing: Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand."
Later, when I tried to understand why I was so moved, I saw in my mind's eye the leader of the Jewish state coming 2,000 years later to the gates of Rome of our era and telling the world, "The people of Israel live." At that moment, I did not know that just a few years later, I would land in Rome itself as the representative of the country.
3.
In his speech, Judah puts words in his father's mouth: "You know that my wife bore me two sons." (Genesis 44:27). Although he had four wives and twelve sons, he speaks according to Judah about one wife, The wife, and her two chosen sons. It is reasonable to assume that Jacob did not say that, but after the terrible split, Judah repents. Until then, he and his brothers had treated Rachel and her sons as a threat and tried to get rid of them. Now, at their moment of trial, he tells the brothers: Rachel is our father's wife and these two are the dearest to him. Sometimes in order to reconcile, we have to go beyond what we thought. Repairing relations with our fellow man begins with rectifying our own moral measures.
Present at the heart of the story is the elephant in the room: the dream! Abraham in the Covenant of the Pieces (Genesis 15), Jacob and the ladder (Ibid 28), Joseph's dreams in which the brothers (or their representations) bow before Joseph (Ibid 37). Bowing is an annulment of the self, renouncement of the individual self for a greater idea. Sometimes the idea narrows and suppresses the self and sometimes it strengthens and nurtures it. Joseph's dreams sought the annulment of familial and tribal sectionalism and recognition of the greater idea for which Abraham went to the good land: "I will make thee a great nation." (Genesis 12:2), in other words, the national idea.
Joseph's dreams were a continuation of Abraham's great dream in the Covenant of the Pieces: "…thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them… and afterward, they shall come out…and in the fourth generation they shall come back here." (Genesis 15: 13-16) A dream that began with one man and continued with a family that became a tribe and from there was swallowed up in the Egyptian womb to be reborn later as a new people on its way to its ancient homeland. Selling Joseph was a renunciation of the national dream and a convergence into angry sectarianism, in a competition over the question of who is the select group among the people.
4.
From the distance of generations, Judah talks to us, to the citizens of the independent State of Israel, the descendants of the return to Zion the dreamers in the wake of the sun. Judah and Joseph – or: Judah and Israel – are two deep aspects of the nature of our identity: the Jewish and Israeli. In order to get Joseph to lift the veil and confess to his brothers and in order to cause Judah to exit his sectorial politics, there is a need for the devotion of each side of the people to save the other. As a society, we must not give up on each other even if the divisions are deep and difficult.
To borrow a term from Jungian theory, Joseph's dreams were the House of Israel's "internal guide": The House of Leah had to subject itself to the national idea represented by Joseph. The fact that the brothers bowed before Joseph as a ruler, did not yet rectify the rejection of this idea which was expressed in the sale of Joseph, because they bowed to Joseph's mask – to the Egyptian vizier – not to their brother hidden under the dresses of royalty. That is what stands at the foundation of Judah's speech. He annulled himself and his private sector in favor of a greater idea. From the House of the Mother – one of four – to the House of the Father, on the way to becoming a tribe that hundreds of years later would be born out of the storm as a people. There is no greater rectification.
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