Vayeshev 5774 - English

By Rabbi Daniel A. Kripper

Beth Israel Aruba

“This, then, is the line of Jacob.  At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers…” (Gen. 37:1).

Based on this first verse of the parashah, where the names of Jacob and Joseph appear juxtaposed, the Midrash establishes a similarity of events between Jacob’s life and that of his beloved son Joseph.

As Rashi points out in his well-known commentary, the verse attributes Jacob’s generations to Joseph.  Indeed, there is a tight parallelism between both experiences of life.  Both Jacob and Joseph are born from mothers who could not conceive for a long time; both father and son were hated by their brothers; both were their parent’s favorite child; both prospered, raised their families, and died in the diaspora.  And both were dreamers.

But the parallelism continues with very important moments in the life of both.

Both men had to go through crucial experiences of transformation, involving not just a change of name but of nature.

Both were able to develop their spiritual potential to the limit, achieving in this manner a noticeable inner quality, something that transforms them into real paradigms of integrity and perseverance.  In Jacob’s life, this occurred during that transcendental night, after the dispute in the crossing of Yabok, whereas in Joseph’s, it occurred with the touching reconciliation embrace with his brothers.

Both father and son quarreled with God and human beings, and though beaten up, were able to come out in triumph after the fight.

Jacob’s grandeur does not lie in the material world, but rather on his capacity to transform from Yaakov, the “one who supplants” and pretends to be someone else, to Yisrael, the “prince of God”.

Joseph’s grandeur, for its part, is not based on his being the first Jew to reach the highest position in the kingdom of Egypt, but rather on his personal mutation from a spoilt and narcissistic boy, to a mature being, capable of meeting his brothers once again and reaching repentance and forgiveness.

Both had the ability to confront their past, going through difficult ordeals and coming out on top. 

Their parallel lives suggest that there is an overcoming dimension in each person, but that a great obstacle is often needed in order for it to be fully revealed.

Joseph achieved his spiritual rise only after being thrown into the pit.  As Rabbi Soloveitchik points out, “Sanctity is not a paradise but a paradox.”

We all meet adversity at one time or another; no home in the world is exempt from pain and suffering. But as the saying goes, we have no control over the cards we are dealt, but we do manage our manner of playing.

Viktor Frankl, eminent psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor, when describing his years at a concentration camp he said that the Nazis could torture his body and hurt him physically.  Although they could control each one of his movements, there was a part of him that they could never control: the way in which he could respond to his circumstances.

It’s true.  The real test of character lies on the way we respond to the tests life presents us.

Rabbi Daniel A. Kripper

Beth Israel Aruba