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Vayigash: Transformation

by Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon

In our Torah portion we are in the midst of the great story of Joseph, perhaps the finest piece of narrative writing ever created in world literature. If all you know about Joseph has to do with a multi-colored coat and a reputation as a dreamer, you are only getting half the story. For Joseph is an incredible model of what we can accomplish, and how much we can transform ourselves and our world, if we believe and act out our identity.

The story told at the end of Genesis starts with an arrogant young man named Yosef—Joseph—who thinks he is simply better than the other people in his family—or his people. He lets them know just how special he is, and how unique his own dreams of conquest are. But for some odd reason, his brothers and parents do not take kindly to his adolescent arrogance. He is, in effect, kicked out of the pool and sent packing—way down to Egypt, where he ultimately lands in prison.

He languishes there, stuck in the lowest depths human society can concoct; if you have ever seen a Third World prison you know I speak the truth.

It is there, in prison, that Joseph learns humility.

But even in those terrible circumstances Joseph continues to dream. He realizes that he may still be able to change the world for the better, provided he can keep his newfound humility but not give up his dreams. Ultimately, through a combination of his own acts of kindness and the changeable wheel of fortune, Joseph gets his chance, and rises with dizzying speed to effective economic control of all Egypt. And the brothers who sold him into slavery and ruin are forced to bow down before him and beg him for mercy.

It should be a delicious saga of revenge fulfilled.

But what’s remarkable is that Joseph, who dreamed of domination from his first days, can’t enjoy his brother’s humiliation. He breaks down and cries, and insists on a big family reunion, with everyone living in the same neighborhood.

As poet Ruth Brin puts it,
“This was the greatness of Joseph,
that he had to weep in spite of himself.
This was the greatness of Joseph,
That he was unable to use his brothers as tools in his hands.
Remember Joseph when you plan to use a person as a tool, And weep instead.”

But Joseph does more than weep; he also seeks to bring his lost brothers back in love.

Joseph learned to transform his own dreams into something much greater than mere fantasies: he made them into a kind of moral imagination. In this week’s portion of Vayigash he rises to a kind of greatness by recognizing that he can make the world better, and holy. All he has to do is imagine it, work for it, and share it with others—and not get blinded by personal ambitions and arrogance.

Isn’t there someone in your own family you’d like to see again, even an old friend from whom you’ve become estranged? Joseph teaches all of us that we can go home again, that we can find our way back to peace and wholeness and love.