Parshat Vayigash
January 2nd-3rd, 2004!
9 Teves, 5764

I’m imagining for a moment: What would be the first thing I’d do upon being reunited with one of my sons after more than 20 years without any contact whatsoever?

I’m sure I would embrace my child and shower him with kisses, shedding tears of joy and relief all the while. (And I daresay that you readers—y’all, as we residents of the Deep South like to say—would probably do much the same.)

Well, what happens—in this week’s Torah portion— when the aged patriarch, Ya’akov, first lays eyes on his (favorite) son, Yosef, after more than 20 inconsolable years spent believing that he was dead?! (What’s more, Ya’akov now sees Yosef—removed from his house as a callow youth of 17—dressed in royal garb, viceroy to the most powerful monarch on the face of the earth!)

The Torah records the scene:

"Yosef harnessed his chariot and went up to meet Yisrael [Ya’akov], his father, in Goshen. He appeared before him, fell on his neck, and he wept  on his neck excessively. Then Yisrael said to Yosef, ‘Now I can die, after my having seen your face, because you are still alive.’" (46, 29-30; my emphasis)

There are different ways to understand the verse in boldface, it’s true, since the Torah leaves the subject somewhat ambiguous (i.e., who is appearing before whom?). But we’ll follow the interpretation of Rashi, who goes with the most sensible grammatical reading. Since Yosef is the subject of the previous clause, it is he who appeared before Ya’akov, fell on his [Ya’akov’s] neck, and wept excessively.

If so, however, we are certainly entitled to ask an obvious question. What was Ya’akov doing while his son was hugging him and weeping copiously? Why wasn’t he also weeping (as we all agree most fathers would)? Could Ya’akov have been just standing there impassive at this moment of supreme, and unanticipated, joy?

Anticipating our question, Rashi cites an ancient rabbinic teaching. At the very moment of his reconciliation with his beloved, long-lost son…Ya’akov recited the Shema!

This might seem strange to many people. After all, the Shema refers to the daily commandment to utter those words that comprise the supreme declaration of our Jewish faith: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is your G-d, the Lord is One…You shall love the Lord, your G-d, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might, etc.." These words are recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy…which is part of the Torah that, in Ya’akov’s time, had not yet been revealed unto mankind!

To better understand this (or maybe not!), know that there is a fascinating (and profound) tradition—cited by many of our Torah commentators—that the Patriarchs kept the totality of the Torah before it was given! With their penetrating, and indeed prophetic insight into G-d’s Creation, they were able to discern—as it were—the existence of all the commandments of the Torah…which, our Sages tell us, preceded the Creation of the universe and was G-d’s blueprint for the Creation of the universe. ("G-d looked into the Torah, and created the world…")

But I don’t want to get involved in that aspect of things at the moment. Let’s just say that the meaning of Ya’akov "reciting the Shema" when he first saw Yosef is that he gave verbal expression to those ideas that are the essence of the

Shema, ideas that certainly were known to him, since they formed the basis of our ancestors’ monotheism—the tradition passed down (with the greatest seriousness and dedication) from his grandfather, Avraham.

What is the essence of the Shema? Simply put: the declaration of the unity of G-d, and of our obligation to love and fear Him, and the acceptance of His service. Our Sages referred to the Shema as "the acceptance of the Kingship of Heaven." It is not just a philosophical or abstract declaration of the existence of a single Deity. It is the pledge of allegiance to serve Him, the One Who knows all of what transpires on this earth (and in our minds)—accepting His kingship upon ourselves, and expressing our devotion to Him through study of Torah and acts of righteousness (the "yoke of the commandments"). And not just any old "service," but a supreme service of LOVE and self-sacrifice, a service with all of our hearts (our thoughts and emotions), and all our strength.

Back to Ya’akov. At the moment when his dear son, Yosef, was weeping on his neck, then, Ya’akov was…expressing his love and devotion to the One

G-d, and wholeheartedly accepting His Kingship upon himself.

I’m not sure that clears everything up. It still might seem rather strange to us that Ya’akov was, in a sense, "removed" from the immediate—and "normal"—emotional reality of this moment of longed-for reconciliation! Perhaps we’re thinking: There’s nothing wrong with thanking and praising G-d, but for crying out loud, first hug your son!

Here’s where we have to adjust our own thinking a bit in order to better understand Ya’akov’s behavior, and to grasp what the Torah is teaching us. And that’s a good thing. One of my wonderful teachers (Rabbi Beryl Gershenfeld) used to remark to us that the Torah is most valuable not when it tells us what we already knew (i.e., confirms our own assumptions or presuppositions), but when it opens our eyes to something we did not think of beforehand! Or—in this case—when it shows us behaviors that might not match what we would do in a certain situation…but which are meant to inspire us to levels of spiritual greatness above our own. (Of course, it’s already an accomplishment to even admit that someone somewhere—like, for example, Avraham, Yitzhak, Ya’akov, Sara, Rivka Rachel, Leah—might be, or might have been, more spiritually advanced than we are.)

It goes without saying that Ya’akov loved his son with the same normal parental (and human) love that we all have for our children. The Torah tells us how much Ya’akov grieved when he first learned of Yosef’s "disappearance," and concluded that he had been killed by a wild animal. "All his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, and he said, ‘For I will go down to the grave mourning over my son.’" (37, 35) And I think it also goes without saying that Ya’akov wept tears of joy and relief (and gratitude) when he was reconciled with Yosef…probably immediately after reciting the Shema (and for the remainder of his life). But first he made sure to turn his attention to Hashem.

I think that the Torah here wants to emphasize that Ya’akov had a greater love than that which he felt for his son. In his life, love of G-d was the primary and fundamental motif and motivation. In this moment of great joy, Ya’akov wanted first to channel the love and gratitude that filled his heart towards the Almighty, and so he recited the Shema (i.e., declared his acceptance of the Kingship of G-d). He also thereby expressed his realization that G-d had Himself brought about all the circumstances of Yosef’s sale for the beneficent purpose of bringing down the nascent Jewish people to Egypt. For implicit in declaring that "G-d is One" is acknowledging that "His watchful concern and His ability extend over all and everything" (Sefer HaChinuch)—that His Providence governs what happens in this world. (Of course, we human beings simultaneously maintain our freedom of choice, our ability to choose good or evil, in the circumstances that G-d presents to us.) Before showering his Yosef with his fatherly love (as he surely did), Ya’akov first directed His thoughts and his overwhelming emotion to his own Father in Heaven.

Was Ya’akov somehow unusual in elevating the love of G-d over all other loves, and making it primary in his life? Hardly. Recall that Avraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, Yitzhak (whom he loved dearly), when G-d commanded him to do so—showing clearly that his love and awe of G-d took precedence over his normal parental love and concern. (We read the Akeidah, or binding of Isaac, on Rosh Hashanah because Avraham’s reverence towards G-d is meant to be a model for us as we enter the New Year, and a merit for his us as we earnestly pray before G-d Who sits on the Throne of Judgment.)

Is this not expected of us as well, we who declare (in the Shema), "you shall love the Lord, your G-d, with all your heart"?

G-d forbid that we should ever be put to the nisyonos (tests) that were given by G-d to Avraham or Ya’akov, but still we learn from their example that the highest love of the righteous (whom we all are supposed to emulate) is reserved for G-d alone.

I know that I can’t begin to express how much I love my own children, and I thank G-d every day for each one of them (despite the fact that I can’t wait for them to return to school next week at the end of this too, too long vacation). But nonetheless, I recite the Shema each day, in which I declare that the love which is to fill all my heart and transcend my love for any other human being…is the love of G-d.

Maimonidies, who is often misleadingly termed a "rationalist" in his approach to the Torah and its commandments, was filled with the most passionate love of G-d imaginable. He writes in his Laws of Repentance (from the Mishneh Torah): "It is known and certain that the love of G-d does not become closely knit in a man’s heart till he is continuously and thoroughly possessed by it, and gives up everything else in the world for it; as G-d commanded us, ‘[You shall love the Lord, your G-d] with all your heart and with all your soul.’" (my emphasis) There are many similar passages in his work. We must be prepared to give up everything for our love of G-d.

What can we take away from this glimpse we’ve had of Ya’akov reciting the Shema when he sees his son? Perhaps the basic lesson that we are called on to "connect" all the joys we experience in life back to the One Who gave (and gives) them to us. (In fact, this is the very essence of making a blessing before the food we eat: to connect the joy and pleasure we are about to experience back to the One Who has given it. MAKING BLESSINGS BEFORE EATING IS A GREAT WAY TO DEVELOP LOVE AND AWE OF G-D.) At a moment of supreme and almost unimaginably great joy in Ya’akov’s life, he makes sure to connect it back to the One Who gave it, to acknowledge that everything has come, and comes, from Him Alone. May we all try to do the same, to strive to reach the level of Ya’akov, who in all moments of life "clung unto" G-d, and connected all of his joys…including the joy of seeing Yosef…back to their Source.

GOOD SHABBOS.

My e-mail address is yosefe@comcast.net

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Rabbi Yosef Edelstein, Savannah Kollel. Phone: 912-351-0469; fax: 354-9923