One of the most famous speeches in the Torah is that made by Judah to Joseph at the beginning of this week’s Parshah. It is also one of the most successful, leading as it does to Joseph’s unmasking. It pays therefore to take a closer look at this oration and see what we can learn from it. Judah is speaking up on behalf of Benjamin who has been caught red handed apparently stealing Joseph’s goblet. The crime is clear and the punishment also clear, and accepted as just. Judah, in the final analysis is merely attempting to get Joseph to accept him as a slave in stead of Benjamin. But he does this in a way that actually, though not openly, casts doubt on Benjamin’ guilt and Joseph’s justice. He does this by putting the present situation into context. This is something the midrashic tradition is very sensitive to. Judah recounts how Joseph asked them questions about their family. Then, despite having informed him of Jacob’s attachment to Benjamin, he demands that he be separated from his father and brought before him. The midrash sees in each of these stages an implicit accusation that Joseph was from the first intent on trapping them. Questions about family are justified when arranging a marriage, not when requesting to purchase food. Joseph then has used the information so elicited to put the brothers’ in an impossible situation. Despite being informed of the negative effect on Jacob of such an action, Joseph insists on Benjamin being brought before him, using the families need for food as blackmail. In this context, the previously open and shut case seems not so clear. Maybe Benjamin is not the ungrateful thief and Joseph the aggrieved host, but Joseph the schemer and Benjamin and his brothers the hapless victims. Putting things in their true context thus helps elucidate the truth and in this case leads to the unravelling of Joseph’s plot. Unfortunately, when it comes to the Jews and Israel context seems to be the first casualty, and with it truth. Reaction to violence or unending provocation is seen in isolation from its context, thus turning the villain into a victim and the victim into an oppressor. The world thus sees a distorted picture which influences them in the wrong direction. Judah understood this and used context to correct the distortion We must therefore also constantly remind people of the background of what is happening, in Israel and elsewhere. For the lack of context in understanding our world is dangerous, and not just for Jews.

ALIYAH BY ALIYAH SYNOPSIS

Rishon	Judah pleads for Benjamin before Joseph and offers himself instead.
Sheni	Joseph breaks down and reveals his identity to his brothers.
Shelishi	Joseph tells his brothers to go and bring the family to Egypt.
Revi’i	Pharaoh offers Joseph’s family the best land. The brothers go and tell Jacob, who faints.
Chamishi	Jacob and his family move to Egypt.
Shishi	Joseph is reunited with his father and is presented before Pharaoh.
Shevi’i	Joseph’s economic reforms give all the land to Pharaoh.
Haftorah	Ezekiel: 37;15-28:  The two kingdoms of Israel will be reunited into one nation.

Sidra Statistics

Parshat Vayigash

·         has 106 verses ;

·         is the 11th in Genesis, 11th in the Torah

·         9th longest in Genesis, 31st longest in the Torah

·         has no mitzvot.