Parashat Va-Y'chi 5769 -- Fear & Blessings

This week’s Torah portion, Parashat Va-Y’chi, tells of the last moments of Jacob’s life. On his deathbed, Jacob draws his son Joseph near to him and blesses Joseph’s sons. After Jacob’s passing, Joseph, the dutiful son, takes the lead in preparing his father’s body, arranging for his burial, and overseeing a mourning ceremony for him. Our Torah is touchingly articulate in its description of the care and concern Joseph shows for his father. Joseph’s honest and poignant expressions of mourning are directly contrasted by his brothers’ reactions to their father’s death. Instead of pointing to their grief and sadness, the Torah tells us “Joseph’s brothers, seeing that their father was dead, now said ‘Perhaps Joseph [still] bears us enmity and intends to repay us for all the harm that we inflicted upon him’” (Genesis 50:15). Joseph’s brothers respond to their father’s death with fear.

What prompted such a reaction?

Midrash Tanhuma suggests the following: "What did [the brothers] see that made them afraid? As they were returning from burying their father, they saw that Joseph turned off the road and went to look at the pit into which his brothers had cast him.Upon seeing this, they said, 'He still bears a grudge in his heart. Now that our father is dead, he will make his hatred of us felt.' But in fact Joseph's motive was a pious one — he wanted to utter a blessing for the miracle wrought for him in that place” (Va—Yehi 17).

This past week, I had the distinct pleasure of hearing a provocative d’var torah by Rachel Timoner, a fifth year rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. In her d’var torah, Rachel cited this midrash and asked poignant questions about, based on her reading of this midrash, suggested that we must consider our own reactions to our world today. She asked us to consider what we might see while looking into “the pit.” Inspired by Rachel, I am thinking:

I, like each of you, have been reading the news these past weeks with my eyes open wide. We are all shaken by the situation in Gaza, the economic crisis, and the growing job loss.

Despite these realities, I believe each of us is still called to answer a critical question: Who will I be in this world?

Will I be like Joseph’s brothers? Will I be continually incited by fear and anxiety? Will I look out at the world and assume sinister motives? Will I become paralyzed by worry? Will I become stagnant? Will I remain mired in conflict? Will I give into my own feelings of jealousy or inadequacy?

Or, will I be like Joseph? Will I look out at the world and see blessings? Will I look at the most challenging parts of my life and find meaning? Will I search for the capacity to forgive? Will I find the strength to honor others? Will I dedicate myself to growth and healed relationships?

This week we read the final Torah portion in Genesis. Next week, a new story begins. Exodus. This is a story of slavery and redemption, of leadership and God’s presence, of pain and of joy. This is life. We cannot often affect what comes to us. But, we can affect how we react to what arrives.

Will we be Joseph or will we be his brothers?

The choice is up to each of us.

“I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life!" (Deuteronomy 30:19).