We just
finished celebrating Chanukah, a holiday which reminds us of the ills of
assimilation, especially when it leads us away from maintaining a path of Torah
living and learning. Part of today’s
Torah portion, Vayigash, tells of the descent into Egypt by Jacob and his
sons. Although, Jacob’s son, Joseph, held
a very powerful position within the Egyptian court, Joseph still instructed his
brothers’ and his father’s households to settle in the land of Goshen with its
rich pastureland. They were to work as shepherds,
an occupation not respected in Egypt.
If you read
the commentary in Aytz Chayim today, it suggested that the brothers were not
embarrassed about being shepherds. They
had a healthy self-esteem about their work as a result of having been raised in
their own land. Joseph, according to the
commentary, was raised in the Diaspora and worried about what his neighbors
would think and in an attempt to show sensitivity to his Egyptian cohorts’
feelings, he modified the language he would use to describe his family’s source
of livelihood. Instead of being
shepherds, they were to be described as breeders of livestock.
Perhaps, for
the Jews who made their way into Goshen where their language remained alive as
well as their customs and traditions, assimilation did not seem to be a worry.
Perhaps, having an occupation that was hated by Egyptian society, actually kept
the Israelites safely apart from their neighbors.
Joseph, on
the other hand, did not live apart from the Egyptians. He worked among them, rose to a position of
prominence in their society, adopted their dress, and their language. Yet, when he met his brothers, it is obvious
that he never gave up his connection to G-d. He tells them that it was G-d who
sent him to Egypt and gave him an important mission to fulfill. He spoke to them in Hebrew, without an
interpreter. His connection to his
brothers did become publicly known….he did not hide his identity.
In Sparks of
Light, Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion Based on the Philosophy of Rav Kook,
it is written that “It is relatively easy to be righteous when one is in a
conducive environment….The pressures of everyday life and the constant need to
justify one’s actions in a hostile society often cause one to relax the
religious fervor that one previously felt and to cease practicing
Judaism.” However, although Joseph
looked like an Egyptian, we can see that he never forgot his connection to
G-d. It influenced his behavior even
when he refused to lie with Potiphar’s wife.
His response to her was, “How can I do this most wicked thing and sin
before G-d?” Even when he was interpreting dreams in the prison, prior to his
rise to fame, he prefaced his interpretations by saying, “Surely G-d can
interpret. Tell me your dreams.” In other words, Joseph did not shy away from
speaking about his Jewish background and belief in G-d as transmitted to him
via his father Jacob.
In many
ways, the world in which we are living is not much different than the world in
which Joseph was living. We live amongst
non-Jews, dress similarly, compete for work in the same venues, and many of us
even intermarry as did Joseph when he married Asenath, the daughter of an
Egyptian priest. We have to decide
whether or not we are going to totally assimilate into the larger society or
hold on to our beliefs, customs, and traditions. When we think about our own
children and grandchildren we have to consciously decide whether or not we will
provide them with the opportunities for understanding who they are and what
makes them unique as Jews compared to the rest of society. I think Rabbi Dr.
Geoffrey Haber’s analysis of why he loves Judaism, speaks to many Jews. He
wrote, “ I love Judaism because it is a This World oriented religion….if we see
something broken, we want to fix it….I love Judaism because it is not only a
religion but a sense of community….I love Judaism because we are born neutral
and can walk down any path we choose, but if we err we can change and repent
our ways…..I love being Jewish because it beckons me to ask questions and to
even struggle with G-d.”
May we learn
to look at Joseph’s life as a model for refusing to hide one’s attachment to
Judaism and the belief that we have a covenant with G-d. May we remember that when we bless our male
children to become like Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Menashe, that we do so
knowing that they become the models for future generations not because they
were raised in isolation from their non-Jewish peers, rather because they were raised
to maintain their Jewishness even in the midst of peers who did not share their
value system.
Only time
will tell how we succeed as a people to fight the forces of assimilation. When
Rav Kook compared us to Joseph, he wrote, “We are also the children of Israel. The
whole time that we continue to survive, live, and teach the ideals that he
brought to the world, we continue to give Yaakov, Yitchak, and Avraham eternal
life. …..Our prayer is that we shall
always continue to represent them honorably and succeed.”
Shabbat
Shalom.
No comments:
Post a Comment