This week we say our goodbye to Sefer Bereishit. After focusing on individual patriarch and matriarch week after week, we’ve collectively experienced both their triumphs and travails in the establishment and legitimization of a future homeland for their children in Eretz Yisrael. But the journey of B’nei Yisrael cliff hangs at an uncertain juncture – their seemingly comfortable relocation and settlement with brother Yosef in Eretz Goshen - which somehow feels so uncomfortable.

Three generations of incredible individuals in possession of incomparable virtues schlep back and forth across a dusty Mesopotamian and Ancient Egyptian landscape, following where ever G-d leads them through the guiding forces of blatant verbal command, promises of innumerable descendants, trials by insufferable relatives, trials by divine decree, natural disasters, famine and war. The patriarchs and matriarchs make sure to leave their marks wherever possible to indicate a future permanent return to the land, when they will be equipped with strength that will be both new-found and hard-earned - from the wells dug by Yitzchak to the steeply priced familial burial plot intentionally purchased by Avraham.

So - one famine and that’s it? Finally, when the children of our patriarchs expand in number to twelve blossoming tribes – that’s when characteristic apathy of inherited privilege sets in to shift the focus of B’nei Yisrael from actively settling what has been promised to them? It certainly seems so.

Bellies start rumbling, families reunite and decide to settle down all together in sunny Egypt where the wisely harvested food was protected and available in abundance. This seems to be the final guiding force wrapping up a book of struggle and family dysfunction. At last, no more heartbreak. All wrongdoings seem to be divinely forgiven with food, shelter, and the best-placed protexia an immigrant family possessing facial characteristics reminiscent of subversive spies could ask for.

That - and they still get to eat their goats.

Talk about enjoying the benefits of tolerance in a land of fiscal opportunity. Who needs ties with a promised land that’s reminiscent of the Dust Bowl? (American Midwest circa the Great Depression, overrun with dust storms resulting from repeated droughts) Clearly that was all going downhill anyway… It was time to refocus collective attention from the exhausting struggle for a national destiny to enjoyment of current gains.

All was well for B’nei Yisrael in their new surroundings... that is, until their father was confined to his death bed. All were called upon to join him and to receive his final blessings.

Rabbi Menachem Leibtag points out that not all of Yaakov’s words to each of his children could be accurately described as “blessings”. Yosef is rewarded for his loyalty as a son and savior to his family by being singled out officially as the bechor (firstborn) son, born to Yaakov through his first love, though second wife, Rachel. Yosef’s sons then receive blessings in his stead, joining their father’s brothers as their equal. Meanwhile Reuven, Shimon and Levi are all rebuked for their violent or immoral past actions with no comforting vision of future greatness. This is done from a fatherly perspective – not in order to condemn them, but rather to point out their weaknesses and thus inspire them to strive for self improvement. A telling sign that this method worked out for the best in Levi’s case is his tribe’s future role as the nation’s spiritual leadership.

Rabbi Leibtag also touches upon the idea of the tribes being singled out to be addressed as independent entities and how this could lead to disunity among B’nei Yisrael. He states that instead of this being the end result, the individualized attention that each tribe receives will cause them each to identify which skill sets they already possess and which ones they have yet to fully develop. B’nei Yisrael’s ultimate function is one of representing Godliness to the rest of humanity. This is best achieved through the collaboration of individuals with different talents working together towards the common good.
Yisrael wishes ultimately for each of his sons to focus on themselves and their self development towards becoming a vital component of a holy nation by focusing on the talents and interests they naturally possess.

On a personal note, that is a goal that I have had the privilege to focus on within myself these past few months. While working at Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, I have had the opportunity to immerse myself in so many wonderful Torah learning formats – from intensive text study to learning for the first time to read Torah with Ta’amei Hamikra as my guide. This week I complete a course that has added so much more meaning to my Torah study by allowing me to approach it in a way that is most near and dear to where my own talents lie – through music and song. As my instructor said on the first day of class, Ta’amei Hamikra not only provide the melody of a Torah reading, they also contribute additional revelations into the meaning of a text through the musical emphases they provide.

After she sang to us the portion selections we had to choose from to lein at our class’ siyum, I chose the portion I wanted to read according to its musical beauty (pazer is a personal favorite of mine among the te’amim, bested only by a munach/munach revi’i), as well as its narrative content.

In my portion, Bereishit chapter 50 verses 15 through 20, yes, I will have the opportunity to melodiously and joyously sing out a pazer. But more importantly, I get to relate the ultimate resolution between Yosef and his brothers. After Yisrael passed away and Yosef received permission to go bury his father in Mearat Hamachpelah, new realities set in for B’nei Yisrael. Here they were in Eretz Goshen tending to their flocks, and their father as the last remaining tie to the land of their promised independence was now no longer among them to protect them. They were completely at the mercy of a brother who had every reason to exact justice upon each of them any way he saw fit. He could finally put to rest the years they had imagined he spent thirsting for his revenge.

Calling upon Yosef’s mercy, they quote Yisrael as having told them to plead to be forgiven and spared their lives for his sake. They go so far as to volunteer themselves as slaves to Yosef (and perhaps also give a future Pharoah within earshot some very bad ideas…). Stranded in the land of opportunity, it had suddenly become a nightmare for them.

Suddenly all became clear to Yosef in the very same moment that was so blinding to his panicked brothers. The same faith that carried him through all the turbulent events of his seemingly windblown life allowed him to see the all-knowing force behind it all and his role as the divinely chosen protector of B’nei Yisrael. Even though it seems that he is not able to forget his own pain, he right away explains to his brothers that he now understands things from a larger perspective – their intentions were evil, but their actions were ultimately a necessary part of G-d’s plan for their future as a unified people. Yosef was put in place to keep the children of Yisrael alive while they are formed into a mighty nation, each tribe and individual developing their own talents and identities.

One day, all of B’nei Yisrael would unite to return to the land of their independence and would go on to build a model of common good for all of humanity to see. May Eretz Yisrael and Am Yisrael continue to be that strong model for the entire world in our times.

Chazak! Chazak! Venitchazek.

Shabbat Shalom.

Fun Fact Found on Fbook: Ariella is a Taylor Swift fan!