January 10th: Vayechi
THIS WEEK IN THE TORAH
Rabbi David E. Ostrich
Two wisdom texts present themselves this week. The first, of course, is our Torah portion. After the death of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers worry that he will exact punishment for their sins against him—for selling him into slavery and abandoning him for years. “But Joseph said to them, ‘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.’” (Genesis 50.18)
My second text is one of the Louisiana State University’s fight songs:
“Hey, Fightin’ Tigers, fight all the way!
Play, Fightin’ Tigers, win the game today!
You’ve got the know-how; you’re doing fine.
Hang on to the ball as you hit the wall,
And smash right through the line!
You’ve got to go for a touchdown, run up the score:
Make Mike the Tiger stand right up and roar!
Give it all of your might as you fight tonight
And keep the goal in view: victory for LSU!”
In both texts, we have an awareness that the individual’s fate is less important than the group’s—or, to put it another way, that the vicissitudes of an individual’s life can be transformed into significance by virtue of their contributions to a greater goal. In the case of Joseph, maturity and piety help him see that his sufferings are merely steps along the way of a greater good: “Besides, although you intended me harm, God intended it for good, so as to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.” In the case of the LSU football team, the hope is that the individual players will use their talents in a concerted way and thus deliver a victory for the greater community: “Victory for LSU!”
Of course, one of the problems of group dedication and loyalty is that the group’s needs may not be in the best interest of the individual who is being asked to sacrifice. One thinks of how many athletes suffer lifelong injuries acquired in the pursuit of temporal glory. Is it team loyalty? Or, does the danger dissolve in the joy than an athlete feels when doing that which he/she has trained so hard to do? As the Psalmist reflects on the sun’s enthusiasm in lighting up the world, “It is like an athlete, rejoicing to run the course.” (Psalm 19.6)
One also thinks of the sacrifice some athletes are asked to make sitting on the bench. At Ohio State in 2014-2015, Cardale Jones was willing to sit on the bench behind the first and second string quarterbacks. Little did anyone imagine that both would be injured and that Jones would lead Ohio State to the National Championship. On the other hand, Joe Burrow (Burreaux) was not willing to sit on the Ohio State bench, transferred to LSU, and has had a pretty good year (leading the Tigers to the national championship game and winning the Heisman Trophy). There is also the case of Jalen Hurts, an outstanding quarterback at Alabama who lost the starting job to Tua Tagovailoa and then transferred to Oklahoma. No one could anticipate Tagovailoa’s season-ending injury in November, but, when it happened, Hurts was long gone, and Alabama was left wallowing outside of the BCS for the first time in many years. There is also the case of Alabama coach Nick Saban, now known in Louisiana as Nick Satan for showing disloyalty by leaving LSU and going (very successfully!) to their arch rival, Alabama. Loyalty is important, but to what?
Getting back to the Bible, let us consider the many ways loyalty is a factor in the Joseph saga. Joseph shows loyalty to his father but not his brothers when he gives bad reports about their work. His brothers obviously betray him and their father when they put him in the pit and lie about his “death.” He shows loyalty to his employer Potiphar—and to God’s morality—when he refuses Mrs. Potiphar’s amorous advances: “How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?” (Genesis 39.9) He shows loyalty to God when he attributes his ability to interpret dreams to God. Pharaoh says, “I have heard it said of you that for you to hear a dream is to tell its meaning,” but Joseph responds, “Not I! God will see to Pharaoh’s welfare!” (Genesis 41.15-16)
Joseph and Pharaoh show a kind of loyalty to the Egyptian populace, storing the excess grain during the seven years of plenty and then distributing it during the seven years of famine, but the loyalty comes at a price: Pharaoh grabs all the peasants’ land. Pharaoh shows loyalty to Joseph by taking in the Hebrews during the famine and giving them the region of Goshen, but, after several generations, a new Pharaoh “knows not Joseph…” (Exodus 1.8) and imposes slavery.
Though Joseph eventually shows loyalty to his family, the Torah does not explain why he does not go searching for them when he ascends to the right hand of Pharaoh. Even if he is busy, such an important personage could send agents to find his father and brothers and have some kind of contact. That he does not suggests a continuing hurt on his part—and a sense of profound betrayal: why do they not search him out and buy him out of slavery?
We have no indication that Joseph suffers tranquilly during all those years in slavery and prison. The greater Divine purpose he recognizes in Genesis 50 (“Besides, although you intended me harm, God intended it for good, so as to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.”) seems to be an insight he develops after many years of hurt and anger. This is why Joseph is one of the best Biblical examples for us: he starts off imperfect and improves with age. A spoiled, impetuous, conceited, tattle-tale, he matures into responsibility, piety, and forgiveness. At the end of his saga, he is a much better man than when it begins.
As for loyalty, it is—as are most noble aspirations—a matter of balancing the opportunities for service with the need to take care of oneself. As Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Pzhysha might have said today in referencing the college football transfer portal, “Every player should have two pockets. In one, there should be a piece of paper saying, ‘I am but dust and ashes: a part of the team to which I dedicate myself.’ And, in the other, there should be a piece of paper saying, ‘For my sake was the whole world—or, at least, the Heisman Trophy—created.’”