Last week’s Torah portion left off in an awkward position. A cliffhanger, to say the least. (Were the Rabbi’s the first ones to use this device to get an audience to come back?) We were in the middle of a conversation between Yosef and his brother Yehuda. This week’s parsha, Vayigash, picks up right where we left off. The two opposing parties, the two brothers, continue their confrontation – a confrontation of the progenitors of the two Moshichim (messiahs) that we are awaiting in the future. According to the Vilna Gaon, Moshiach ben Yosef will bring about Tikkun Olam, a rectification of the world, and Moshiach ben David (a descendent of Yehuda) will bring about Tikkun Adam, a rectification of one’s self/the spirit of man.
In the interaction of the two biblical figures in Vayigash, we can see different elements of the messiah surfacing in each of them.
First we have Yosef, the man whose descendent will bring about a rectification of the world. He has been called “Yosef the dreamer,” he has been praised for recognizing God indiscriminately throughout all his highs and lows, and remaining a man of God in a place of idolatry. With all of these attributes of Yosef, it may seem odd that the more physical of the two messiahs is destined to come from Yosef. But Yosef himself recognizes this, after revealing himself to his brothers:
It was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. (Bereishit 45:5-8)
It is physical hardship that God sent Yosef to guard his brothers, Egypt, and many other lands against. Joseph, a spiritual person, was not destined to spend his life learning in yeshiva or reciting psalms. He was meant, in addition to maintaining his devotion to God spiritually, to show his devotion through physical measures. In Yosef we can see a merging of Rav Soloveitchik’s Adam the First and Adam the Second, which are, after all, just two personifications of one being. Yosef is naturally inclined toward the spiritual nature of Adam the Second, but is able to engage the Adam the First, the physical necessity within him, when it is needed and meld the two together. Unleashing the Adam the First within him does nothing to diminish his Adam the Second nature – it only adds to his entire being.
In Yehuda we also see this melding, but in reverse. Yehuda – the ancestor of Moshiach ben David – seems more inclined towards Adam the First. But, if Adam the Second is suppressed, this can be dangerous. Yehuda doesn’t allow Yosef to be killed, but he proposes he be sold into slavery. He is the first brother the Torah tells us “sees” a woman and marries her. And after she passes away, he sleeps with Tamar who he takes for a harlot on the side of the road. He gives in to his physical desires more so than his brothers, seemingly leaving the path of the righteous by forsaking his spiritual side. But between last week’s parsha – where Yehuda takes responsibility for his younger brother Benjamin – and this week’s parsha – where he makes good on his promise to Ya’akov to look after Benjamim – Yehuda has a spiritual awakening. Adam the Second comes to life, reigning in the Adam-the-First-gone-wild part of Yehuda. And so Yehuda leads the redemption of himself and his ten brothers, who have finally repented and felt true remorse for their actions against Yosef and shown that they have changed their ways.
There is a Jewish idea that two individuals in every generation have the potential to be the Messiah, but there is a piece of the Messianic capability within each of us. Based on Yehuda and Yosef, our potential is not wrapped up in what inherently emanates from us, but locked up in what is, at first, a less natural part of us. But in fact what remains hidden is oftentimes what constitutes our essential selves – our goal is to discover what that is and use it in our work to perfect our self and do our part in bringing about a better world.
No comments:
Post a Comment