Shabbat Parshat Vayechi - 5763
The Pharaoh of Bereshit and the Pharaoh of Shemot

Parshat Vayechi is on the Bereshit side of the transition between Sefer Bereshit and Sefer Shemot. One of the aspects of the transition is that in Bereshit, the Pharaoh we encounter is a relatively benign figure (although the Sar HaOfim might not agree). On the Bereshit side, the Pharaoh is blessed by Yaakov, and allows the infant nation of Israel to live in peace in Goshen of Mitzrayim.

In Shemot, we find that a “regime change” has taken place, but not for the better; “And a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Yoseph” (Shemot 1:5). He was the leader of a people who most probably wanted to regain the property and indeed their independence that Yoseph had confiscated in behalf of the Pharaoh during the Years of Famine.

The Pharaoh of Bereshit speaks of Yoseph as one in whom resides the spirit of Elokim, the Hebrew G-d. The Pharaoh of Shemot not only “does not know Yoseph;” he will claim not to know the G-d of the Hebrews (Shemot 5:2). He will return the “favor” of Yoseph, though the latter had basically saved the Kingdom, with a vengeance, with the imposition of slavery upon the Jewish People, the drowning of the infant boys of Israel and by mortaring them into the Pyramids.

Slavery is the most abusive of human relationships, one in which the “master” completely controls the slave from morning to night, in every aspect of his being. Witness the curse that Slavery has wrought even here in America, the “Land of the Free,” that curse continuing in more subtle forms, almost 150 years after the formal abolition of Slavery.

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Scholar-in-Residence at Congregation Bais Torah of Monsey, dealt with the topic of abuse within the family relationship in his speech Motzaei Shabbat. He stated his theory that the root cause of abuse in the family is the desire of the abuser to exercise control over the abused party. By various means, consciously or unconsciously, physical or verbal, he extinguishes the feelings of self-worth and freedom of choice; he effectively snuffs out the spirit of the spouse or, in the case of an abusive teacher, of the child who has been entrusted into his care.

HaShem is the enemy of the institution of human slavery because He alone is the Master of the world. The ear of the Hebrew indentured servant who chooses to remain with his “master” after a period of six years, is bored with an awl against the doorpost. Rashi asks, “Why was the ear chosen of all the parts of the body to be bored? Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai answered, “Let the ear of the one who has sold himself into slavery, despite hearing G-d proclaim at Mt. Sinai, ‘For to Me are the Children of Israel slaves’ (VaYikra 25:55), and acquired a ‘master’ for himself, be bored.” Rabbi Shimon used to interpret this verse as pleasingly as a packet of pearls: “Why were the door and the doorpost singled out from all the parts of the house? The Holy One Blessed is He said, ‘Let the door and the doorpost that were witnesses in Egypt when I ‘passed over’ the lintel and the doorposts and I proclaimed ‘For to Me are the Children of Israel slaves,’ and not slaves to other slaves; and this one went and acquired for himself a human ‘master’ – let his ear be bored against them.’ ”

Thirty six times does the Torah enjoin “You shall love the stranger,” and the reason is given, “For you know the spirit of the stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt.” Shemot (23:9)

HaShem is called HaKel HaKadosh, the Mighty One Who is Holy. Rabbi Yochanan explains that the awesome might of HaShem is written back-to-back throughout Scripture with His humility, to teach that the Almighty abhors the abuse of power. And Kohelet teaches (3:15) “And the L-rd is on the side of the oppressed.”

Rabbi Weinreb, currently Executive Vice-President of the OU, formerly a highly successful psychotherapist (and one of the founders of the “Nefesh” Organization of mainly Orthodox mental health professionals) as well as a widely respected pulpit rabbi, declared that Jewish communities should adopt a policy of minimum tolerance for abusive teachers, but provide teacher training in the area of classroom management. He said also that the religious and lay leadership of Jewish communities, should support in every way possible the victims of family abuse. And he noted the phenomenon, reported with some amazement in secular journals of psychotherapy, that prayers for the abused, whether they were aware of them or not, seemed to be of help.

This week, we observed the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet, on which we prayed during Shacharit and Minchah, “Answer us, HaShem, answer us, on this day of our fast, for we are in great distress” - from the “inside,” as Rabbi Weinreb elaborated on Friday Night, meaning the great damage experienced by institutions that should be the bedrock of our lives, marriage and the family, from abuse and neglect, from the “outside,” where anti-Semitism has reappeared with greater virulence, and greater potential for harm, than ever before, and also from the degradation of our spirituality. “Please let Your kindness comfort us; as it is said (Yeshayahu 65:24), ‘And it will be that before they call, I will answer; while they yet speak, I will hear.’ For You hear the prayer of Your People Israel with compassion.”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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