Vayigash 5775 - English

By Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik

Kol Shearith Israel, Panama

“Hashomer Ahi Anohi, am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)  The famous answer Cain gives God shows his lack of responsibility towards his brother.  Abel was not only murdered but was ignored by Cain.  The first brothers in history set the course for disagreement and fraternal hate.  

“Ani Yosef Ahihem, I am your brother Joseph.” (Genesis 45:4)  Joseph’s words for his brothers are a sign of reconciliation.  Twenty-two years after having been sold as a slave, Joseph, now the strong man of Egypt, chooses the road to love and reparation.  Joseph responds to Cain too.  He proves that a different dynamic between brothers is possible.   

The Torah tells us that Judah’s allegation touched Joseph.  His refusal to go back to his father without little Benjamin and his offer to stay prisoner in his place manage to break Joseph’s ruse.  In his famous tetralogy Joseph and his Brothers, Thomas Mann takes a step forward and affirms that Judah in his desperate plea recognized that it was not an animal that killed his brother Joseph, but that it was them who sold him into slavery.

“And Joseph?  He had risen from his seat and shiny tears ran down his cheeks,” writes Thomas Mann.  The Torah, less effusive, states that Joseph asked to be left alone with the eleven strangers before breaking down in tears.  

“I am Joseph.  Is my father still well?” (Genesis 45:3)  Joseph removes his mask and unveils his identity.  In response, he gets only silence from his stunned brothers.  

It would seem that in certain situations isolated words are not enough.  It is hard to understand them when they are not in context, and are difficult to assimilate when the ear sends signals to the brain that differ from the ones coming from our other senses.  Even the Talmud – Chagigah 4b – claims that Joseph’s words were a reproach.

This is why Joseph insists, “Come forward to me” (Genesis 4:4) and the brothers come forward.  At that moment, he casts the phrase “I am your brother Joseph”, and introduces a long speech where he talks about forgiveness and reconciliation, and includes the invitation for his father to come down to Egypt and settle there.  The scene ends with Joseph crying and kissing his brothers.  

In rereading this story, we can appreciate how the key moment that changes the atmosphere of the meeting is Joseph’s request for his brothers to come forward.  Staying alone with them was not enough.  Even Joseph’s sobs managed to confuse his brothers, but it still was not enough to build the frame of intimacy the moment required.  His asking them to come forward – and his brothers’ decision to do so – was the final stroke in this scene that allowed for a happy outcome.  

I like to think about the profound symbolism locked in this family picture.  Forgiveness and reconciliation require many factors that are not necessarily easy to achieve.  That is why it may seem easier to act as Cain and not as Joseph.  However, the defining point is the will of the offended party to trade his wish for revenge and instead seek the closeness of the other party, and in that closeness, being able to find the words that contain the right feelings so that the possibility of rebuilding an honest harmony may leave behind a history of disagreements.  

“Ani Yosef Ahihem, I am your brother Joseph.”  With courage and determination, Joseph reaches out to his brothers, relinquishing his wrath and willing to forgive.  

In this way, Joseph is presented to us as the opposite of Cain.  With all the anger he carried, and how difficult and challenging it may have been, he summons us to leave behind our eagerness for revenge and to prioritize always the search for union and harmony.  

May we be able to follow his example. 

Shabbat Shalom!

Gustavo