Vayiggash...A week late...but an Important Conversation None-the-Less

If today's Torah portion were a modern day news story we would view it as a positive account of a family that was reunited after years of separation.  The camera would zoom in on the scene as Joseph removed the bystanders in the room and made himself known to his brothers.  We would hear the weeping, see the embracing, and be overtaken by the emotion of the moment.  Of course the news reporter would most likely make sure we understood that the original separation of the brothers was not due to the effects of a war or cataclysmic event in nature, rather it was due to the malicious actions of the older brothers who wanted to kill their younger brother.  That information might stop us in our tracks and make us wonder how such a reunification could actually take place.  What kind of individual could forgive his brothers for trying to destroy his life?

The Torah portion actually attempts to answer that question when it reports Joseph's words:  "Be not distressed, nor reproach yourselves for having sold me here, for it was to be a provider that G-d sent me ahead of you.  ....G-d has sent me ahead of you to insure your survival in the land and to sustain you for a momentous deliverance....It was not you who sent me here, but G-d."

This raises a difficult question. Are we humans mere chess 

players in a game which God is playing? People love to quote 

the Yiddish saying, Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht – “Man plans 

and God laughs.” The English equivalent is the saying, "Man 

proposes and God disposes." On the surface it seems that 

Joseph and his brothers are acting out of their own free will. The 

brothers throw Joseph into a pit, cover his coat with blood, and 

lead his poor father to believe that he was killed by a wild beast. 

As a result of their actions, Joseph is sold as a slave in Egypt. 

The brothers seem to be guilty. But now we learn that this was 

part of God's plan all along. To switch metaphors, were the 

brothers mere puppets and God the puppeteer? ( Rabbi Michael Gold)

Pirkei Avot takes a middle ground when it states that  "All is foreseen by G-d and freedom is given."  That statement might seem hard to understand because we have a tendency to want to see life in black and white terms.  Which one is it?  Does G-d have a plan and we have to follow it or is there no plan and we merely act according to our own whims?  How can the statement made in Pirkei Avot make sense?

Rabbi Michael Gold explains it in the following manner.  G-d is a G-d of persuasion not coercion.  G-d gives us a purpose and a direction, luring us to behave in certain ways, but we still have the free will to make the choices about how we will act..  When he thinks about G-d in such a role, he uses the metaphor of a GPS.  The GPS can tell you which way to go, but it is your choice to ignore it.  When you do ignore it, however, it does not leave you alone!  It states loudly, "RECALCULATING"...and it tries again to influence your actions along a correct path.

 

More than just a bitter sweet story of a family's emotional reunification, Parshat Vayiggash, is also a portion which confronts us with the theological question, " Are we free agents making our own choices in life or are we part of a larger plan merely carrying out G-d's will?"  Torah portions can deal with such questions...Modern day readers should grapple with the possible answers.

Shabbat Shalom.