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Shabbat Shalom!
(Kiddush Levana)
Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Parshas Vayigash.Please click here to view the PDFs of the Weekly Publications distributed in Shule each Shabbos.
PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL
Genesis 44:18–47:27
Judah approaches Joseph to plead for the release of Benjamin, offering himself as a slave to the Egyptian ruler in Benjamin's stead. Upon witnessing his brothers' loyalty to one another, Joseph reveals his identity to them."I am Joseph," he declares. "Is my father still alive?"
The brothers are overcome by shame and remorse, but Joseph comforts them. "It was not you who sent me here," he says to them, "but G‑d. It has all been ordained from Above to save us, and the entire region, from famine."
The brothers rush back to Canaan with the news. Jacob comes to Egypt with his sons and their families—seventy souls in all—and is reunited with his beloved son after 22 years. On his way to Egypt he receives the divine promise: "Fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again."
Joseph gathers the wealth of Egypt by selling food and seed during the famine. Pharaoh gives Jacob's family the fertile county of Goshen to settle, and the children of Israel prosper in their Egyptian exile.
HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL
Ezekiel 37:15-28.
This week's haftorah mentions the fusion of the kingdoms of Judah and Joseph during the Messianic Era, echoing the beginning of this week's Torah reading: "And Judah approached him [Joseph]."
The prophet Ezekiel shares a prophecy he received, in which G‑d instructs him to take two sticks and to write one one, "For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions" and on the other, "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions." After doing so he was told to put the two near each other, and G‑d fused them into one stick.
G‑d explains to Ezekiel that these sticks are symbolic of the House of Israel, that was divided into two (often warring) kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom that was established by Jeroboam, a member of the Tribe of Ephraim, and the Southern Kingdom, that remained under the reign of the Davidic (Judean) Dynasty. The fusing of the two sticks represented the merging of the kingdoms that will transpire during the Messianic Era — with the Messiah, a descendant of David, at the helm of this unified empire.
"So says the L-rd G‑d: 'Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land. And I will make them into one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be to them all as a king...'"
The haftorah ends with G‑d's assurance that "they shall dwell on the land that I have given to My servant, to Jacob, wherein your forefathers lived; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their children and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever."
SAGES ON THE PARSHAH
Judah approached him . . . (Genesis 44:18)
Said Rabbi Yehudah: The verb "he approached" (vayigash) implies an approach to battle, as in the verse "So Joab and the people that were with him approached unto battle" (II Samuel 10:13).
Rabbi Nechemiah said: The verb "he approached" implies a coming near for conciliation, as in the verse "Then the children of Judah approached Joshua" (Joshua 14:6).
The sages said: It implies coming near for prayer, as in the verse "It came to pass, at the time of the evening offering, that Elijah the prophet approached . . ." (I Kings, 18:36).
Rabbi Eleazar combined all these views Judah approached Joseph for all three, saying: If it be war, I approach for war; if it be conciliation, I approach for conciliation; if it be for entreaty, I approach to entreat.
(Midrash Rabbah)
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ZICHRON YAAKOV
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