VAYIGASH 1993

In the Torah portion Vayigash we learn about the four things that are necessary if the Jewish people are to be able to survive in exile.  The first one is that they must be mutually responsible for one another.  They must be willing to help each other at all times.  The second thing is they must maintain their Jewish visions. When Jacob went down to Egypt it said that he will put his eyes on Joseph.  Joseph had the same visions as his father as to what the world should look like.  The third thing is that we should make sure that we contribute to the societies in which we live, as Joseph did so stunningly.  Finally, we have to invest great efforts in Jewish education, as Jacob did when he sent Judah ahead "L'Horos", which means not just "to show" but "to teach" the people about what Judaism is when they lived in the land of Goshan.  So we need these four things.  We need to be mutually responsible for each, as Judah proved when he stepped forward to help his brother Benjamin against what he thought was an alien viceroy.  We also must maintain our Jewish visions. We must contribute to the society in which we live, and we must also be interested in Jewish education.
This Torah portion teaches not only about the survival of the Jewish people.  It
also speaks about the survival of the individual, of what an individual needs to
do in order to cope in this world in order to be an upstanding fine human being.
We have learned recently in science that 99.6% of the DNA of a chimpanzee is identical
to that of a human being, but we are not chimpanzees, although occasionally people
like to monkey around. We know that we are different. We know that we have a different
character.  A human being has a spiritual nature.  A human being wants to change
nature.  No other animal wants to change nature.  We want to make sure that we live
not just to live but we live for a purpose.  We know that because of our spiritual
nature we want to leave a mark on the world.  We want to improve the world.  We want
to make this world a better place.  We do not live just to live.  We live in order
to better ourselves and to better the future.  Each of us has a spiritual nature,
and because we have a spiritual nature we know that we are not complete, that we

are not whole the way we are, that we know that we must do certain things in order to make ourselves feel whole.  Other religions give different prescriptions of what a person must do in order to be whole.  Some people say you have to believe in certain things.  Other people say you have to be a passive recipient of love.  Judaism says that we must do, that we must assume responsibility.
That, of course, is even what the term bar mitzvah means.  It means the son of a commandment, or a bat mitzvah, the daughter of a commandment.  It means that when we reach the age of responsibility we must be resonsible for the whole world.  We must be responsible first of all for ourselves, then for our family, then for our people, and then for the world.  We must make sure that this world is a better place because of us, that this world is a little bit better because we live. We must assume responsibility for the world and for everything in it, primarily for ourselves and our family.  That is, of course, what the word responsibility means.  It means to respond, to respond to the challenges at hand.  Only we can be the best parent to our child.  Only we can be the best child to our parents.  Only we can solve the problems of this generation.  We cannot act selfishly because if we act selfishly we will be filled with depression, and if we are filled with depression then we will not be able to fulfill our spiritual nature.  We will give way to drugs and to alcohol. That, of course, is why there is a paradox in the world.  And what is the paradox? The paradox is the more you become self-actuated and self-indulgent and self-motivated the more selfish you become and selfishness is not a unique thing.  Anybody can be selfish, but to be special means that you assume the responsibilities and the tasks that only you can do best.  As I mentioned before, only you can be the best parents to your child.  Only you can be the best child to your parents.  Only you can solve the problems of this age.  The problems of the past age were your parents' responsibility. The responsibility of the problems of this age are yours so that there will be a future, so that your children will be able to solve the problems of the future.
That, of course, is what this Torah portion is talking about.  Throughout this Torah
portion we have the term Vayigash - and he approached.  Judah, when he approached
the viceroy of Egypt, it says, "Vayigash, and he approached11.  He assumed responsibility
for his family, something he had failed to do before when he was willing to sell
Joseph to Egypt.  He was now willing to attach himself to others because it is only
by attaching ourselves to others that we actually find ourselves, that we actually
fulfill our spiritual nature.  The same expression is used when Joseph reveals himself
to his brothers.  It says, "Approach, please, to me, and they approached and Joseph
said, 'I am your brother that you sold me to Egypt1." Joseph did not whitewash what
his brothers had done.  The brothers had done a terrible thing, but he said, "You
are still my brothers and I am approaching to you." Then he said something very
interesting.  He said, "Don't be sad and don't be angry in your own eyes because
you sold me here because in order to preserve life G-d has sent me before you."
Joseph tells me that there are going to be more years of famine ahead, another 5
years of famine and that G-d sent him ahead in order to cause the family to survive.
Then Joseph continues and he says, "And G-d sent me before you to put for you a remnant
in the land to cause you to live, to cause you to be alive for a great redemption,
for a great deliverance." The rabbis all ask, why does it say "Veeatah Anow"? Why
does it use the word "Anow"? And why does it say, "And you shall not be sad and
you shall not be angry in your eyes"? Well, my friends, sometimes it happens that
people can do the wrong thing and tragedy occurs.  Sometimes it can happen that a
person can do the wrong thing and it actually turns out all right,  Many times people
intend to do bad but it turns out good.  We know that throughout history that that
has happened.  Czar Nicolas II, who was a terrible czar vis a vis the Jewish people
because he started pogroms and several hundred Jews were killed but because of these
pogroms millions of Jews left Russia and went to the United States and their lives
were saved.  Later on when Hitler rose to power he invaded these areas where the
Jews lived and all these Jews probably would have been killed.  Now, of course, Nicolas II
was never repentant of his act and, therefore, he deserved to be punished, but he did evil but it turned out actually to be good for the Jewish people.  We see that, too, of another terrible anti-Semite, Stalin, who wanted to kill all the Jewish people to make a second holocaust and he almost succeeded.  He had what was called the doctor's plot and he died just a month before it was to be implemented.  All the Jews of Russia were to be taken to Siberia and killed but it was the same Stalin who saved Israel because he hated Britain so much that he sent all his captured German arms that he had stored in Czechlosovakia and sent them to Israel so they could defeat the Arabs. Otherwise Israel would be in the same place as the Bosnians today without any arms. They could never have defeated the Arabs, so G-d sometimes takes the evil that we do and makes it good because we cannot stop G-d's plans.  G-d can take the evil we do and He can make it good.  There are many paths to get to the same place.  In fact, there is a scientific theory called chaos now which speaks about this, that, true, winter comes but not every day in winter is winter.  Spring comes but not every day in spring is spring.  There are different patterns that can arrive at the same result. There are different roads, different paths to arrive at the same result.  We see that G-d can take even the evil we do and fulfill His plans for us.  We may suffer more because of it, but He can still take the evil that people do and make it good. When he says now, "Don't be sad," what he is referring to is, "Don't be sad that you think that you have done evil, and you did do evil.  You sold me, but it did not turn out, so don't be sad.  It actually turned out to be good." That's why he says, "For saving a life G-d sent me before you." Then he says, "Don't be angry." Anger means it could be anger at themselves for even doing something bad in the very beginning.  It turned out good.  It did not turn out bad.  It turned out good because people then would be angry at themselves.  You know, depression is also anger directed at oneself.  He says, "Don't be angry at yourselves at this time because it is going to result in a great deliverance.  Eventually you are going to leave Egypt and come out and be a people." Yes, G-d could have brought us back down to Egypt in another
way and I wouldn't have had to suffer so much, but in the end it is going to be all right.  That is why it says, "Now don't be sad, now don't be angry" because the brothers had done teshuva.  The brothers had proven that they were repentant for what they had done before.  Judah, instead of taking his brother and saying, "Here, here is Benjamin.  Let him be a slave.  We are going back to our father," like he would have done before and which he did in the case of Joseph when he sold him.  Instead he did the exact opposite.  He proved that he was his brother's keeper, that he was interested in helping his brother.  Since they did teshuva, since they were repentant of their act, therefore, they should not be sad now and they should not be angry at themselves now.  Yes, they had done a terrible thing, but G-d tell us all no matter what you done in the past you can always pick up the responsibility for each other. You can always do the right thing.  You should never feel that you are blinded by the past.  We always have the opportunity to assume responsibility for ourselves and for others no matter what we have done in the past.  Of course, there is one catch.  What is the catch? We have to understand what is the good thing to do and that is difficult.  Other religions run around the problem.  I know what is good but where do I get the power to do good? Judaism runs around the problem, I have the power to do what is good, but what is good? Therefore, we must study and we must learn.  That's why studying and learning is so important in Judaism because before we act we must make sure that what we are going to do is going to better the situation and not worsen the situation.  In order to be responsible you must know all the options.  You must know how you should act in a given situation, what you have to do in order to make the situation better, but each of us has responsibility to act, to act to make ourselves and our lives better and our family's lives better and our people's lives better and the world's lives better.  We cannot just run away and hide like some religions say.  Some religions say that the purpose of life is to destroy our own individuality and merge with the greater whole.  Other people say it is to lead the quiet life away from the rest of the world.  Our philosophy
is not that.  Our religion says you fulfill yourself, you obtain spiritual life by
assuming responsibility.  This assumption of responsibility, although it is a heavy
burden, also is a great sense of joy and happiness and will bring you a great sense
of joy and happiness because you know that you are worthwhile and you are doing worthwhile
things.  You cannot shirk your responsibility to yourself, to G-d, and to others.
If you assume this responsibility you will have a happy and a good life.
I am reminded of the story they tell about a paratroop group who were going to be taken out to be dropped off about 50 miles from the camp.  They were told to check their parachutes and their safety parachutes but one guy did not want to do it. He did not feel like doing it.  They were told that they were going to be taken on the plane and if they should pull the parachute cord and that did not work they should pull the cord on the safety parachute.  There would be trucks waiting for them below. This fellow got on the plane.  The others jumped and he jumped, too.  He pulled the cord on his main parachute and it broke.  He pulled the cord on his safety parachute. It, too, broke.  He looked up and he said, "Just my luck.  I bet the trucks won't be there either." If we are to live decent and good lives we have to be responsible people.  We have to check the things we are supposed to check. We have to learn the things that we have to learn.  We have to act in a way that is responsible so that truly we will be there when the trucks will be there and we will be able to help and do our job the way it should be done.  Let us all hope that we will assume responsibility for ourselves, for our family, for our people, and the world so the Mashiach will come quickly in our day.  Amen.