חוה"מ סוכות תשס"ז - פלעי, ליפא שמעלצער

Hi Guys,

I thought you may enjoy reading my last posting regarding the story of Yosef and the brothers and the issue of reconciliation and teshuvah that we have been discussing on an on-line class with Rabbi Follman. I'd love your input -- if you would care to give it. It's a little lengthy, so bear with me, or put it aside until you have some time to give it a little consideration.

Gemar Chasima Tova,

Moshe

The story of Yosef and the brothers is one that ultimately encompasses the great theme of exile and redemption -- Israel's descent into the pit of Egypt only to be redeemed 400 (or 210) years later by G-d in order to fulfill the promises made to our forefathers regarding Israel's eventual rise to be a spiritual "light onto nations" (note Yosef's second celestial dream) and eventual restoration to the land of their inheritance -- Eretz Yisroel.

The issue of teshuvah that we have been grappling with over these three weeks, deals as well with the personal issues of exile and redemption taking place within the soul: the act of sinning contributing towards a spiritual exile from G-d. The ability to do teshuvah -- to redeem oneself before G-d, man and before oneself, is a gift bestowed upon man to enable him to become the instigator of his own personal redemption and to hence return to a state of fullness and completion that existed within himself prior to the sin having been committed. By doing teshuvah man comes home to his higher self that is encompassed with the notion of t'zelem elokim.

Embedded within this almost cosmic drama that encompasses as well many realms within the human spirit, is the very personal story of Yosef and his brothers.

The character of Yosef is an extremely complicated and intriguing one. Yosef, the visionary, who possessed a broad and deep cosmic consciousness of the ways of G-d exists side by side with Yosef, the orphan -- who longs for a relationship with his father and brothers -- a relationship that was seemingly doomed to failure from the start.

In initially describing Yosef, the text, together with the Midrash, is clear in depicting a very complex personality in the making. On the one hand we are introduced to a 17 year old "naar" who is the centre of his father's universe "Eleh toldosh Yaacov. Yosef ben 17 shanah". The text goes on to describe an adolescent on the verge of adulthood that tends towards vanity and speaking evil on his brothers for which he is eventually castigated (note Midrash 84,7). But, Yosef is also a dreamer of dreams -- the nature of those dreams, whether they prove to be truly prophetic or,as had been interpreted by Yosef's brothers, manifestations of power needs on Yosef's part is, at this point, unclear. Yaacov himself voices his ambiguity: "What is this dream that thou has dreamed? Shall we indeed come, I and thy mother and thy brothers to bow down to thee to the earth?" But, we are told Yaacov "kept the saying in his mind" -- he stored the dream away in the recesses of his soul, awaiting further revelation.

Furthering our understanding of the nature of Yosef is the shepherding aspect of himself "He shepherded "et ochiv" with the sheep" -- a shepherd representing both the nurturer and the leader of Israel (both Moshe and David being shepherds). We are also told via the Midrash that of all the brothers Yosef was the only one who chose to stand in front of his mother in a very protective manner when the meeting between Esau and Yaacov took place.

Yosef, who was as deeply attached to his mother as his mother was to him -- Yosef epitomizing the actualisation of her deepest longings for motherhood, was the only one from amongst his brothers who lost a mother he knew and loved, at a very early age. The deep need to nurture and connect to family was now transferred onto his father (who reciprocated his love) and his brothers (who decidedly didn't). We may possibly say, that because of this loss of mother, Yosef may have become enslaved to a need to actuate his nurturing aspect through his family.

But, from the brothers perspective Yosef represented not only a threat to their personal relationship with their father, but their very legitimacy as spiritual inheritors of Israel (note Yehuda in his impassioned speech to Yosef speaks of Rochel as being the only wife of Yaacov -- given Yaacov's love for only her -- a reality the brothers were very conscious of, and only came to accept at that later stage in their lives). The brothers, who hadn't lost a mother at this point, could never fully understand Yosef's needs to share in a relationship with them as well as with his father. They had each other -- Yosef only had 2 year old Binyomim.

Aggravating the situation was the issue of Yosef's dreams. Whereby we, knowing the way the story unfolded, could see within these dreams the visionary aspect of Yosef berginning to take root -- the brothers' interpretation of the dreams represented a classic mirroring of their own issues regarding personal power and subordination: "Shall thou indeed have dominion over us?" By choosing to throw Yosef into the pit -- the brothers chose to either seemingly thwart G-d's plan out right (if the dream could be interpreted as indeed prophetic) or to put an end to what they perceived as Yosef's delusions of personal power and majesty over them.

In Yosef's subsequent descents and ascents, he eventually learned to find a peace within himself regarding the reality of who he was and his intended purpose and destiny. His power dreams proved, indeed, to be prophetic gifts from G-d rather than delusions of grandeur. Yosef, subsequently, attained great heights in the Egyptian realm where he was able to acutalize his nurturing and leadership needs on both a very personal level -- through his children, and by becoming the nurturer of the world through Egypt. The Abrabanel notes 10 points of comparison between what took place to Yosef before and after his ascent pointing out the "measure for measure compensations" to be found in the narrative. I will quote 4 that I find most significant to my argument.

1. There Yosef was hated and despised by his brothers. Here he is loved by strangers, by Pharoah and the Egyptians.
2. There he was hated because of his dreams. Here he is loved because of dreams.
3. There the brothers made him disrobe himself of his tunic. Here Pharoah has him dressed in robes of fine linen.
8. There he was "brought down" to Egypt -- an idiom of degradation. Here he is "installed" on the whole land of Egypt.

Yosef went from a place of degradation within the family unit that was actualized by his brothers throwing him into the pit, to a place of ascendency where he was deeply appreciated. Ironically, within his father's house, where he was taught the ways of G-d, his soul was not allowed to find peace or fulfillment. It was within Egypt, a place that the Torah tells us time and again, represented the very antithesis of the Israel way of life given their idolatry and immorality, that Yosef's soul was able to connect on a deep level with G-d's intention and the healing process within himself was able to take root.

Yet, the longing for connection with his brothers was still very acute. That could only come about after he came to the recognition that his brothers had indeed changed : that they, who had succumbed to a great evil within themselves, had arrived at a point of deep remorse regarding their sin against Yosef, their father and against G-d. These men had transformed on a very fundamental level -- as had Yosef. All of them had gone through a gruelling teshuvah process that was begun immediately after the brothers' deceit of their father -- a deceit that created a festering, open wound within their souls that could not be healed.

Relationships that bring pain with little relief, that do not allow for the growth of the spirit because they come from a point of weakness and ego (a dark side within the self) as opposed to from a point of spiritual strength -- are destructive by their very nature. In spiritually fulfilling environments, the uniqueness of the spirit is acknowledged and encouraged to grow and develop at its own pace and in its own direction. When that development is curtailed in order to meet the ego needs of others, it is psychically and spiritually destructive for all.

Yosef, the visionary, was able to realize the visionary aspect of himself in the land of Egypt -- it was here that he was able to realize as well the unfolding of his second dream -- his coming to a point where he no longer saw himself as the centre of his cosmic universe, but as an instrument of G-d -- for it is G-d alone who encompasses the entire cosmos and more. Yet Yosef, the child, longed still for a relationship that had proved to be so destructive to his spiritual and personal growth. In the final act of the reconciliation drama between himself and his brothers, Yosef comes to a final healing contained within the 7th (the number of completion) time that he cried. In acknowledging to himself that his brothers were limited by their own personal power issues and by their understanding of who he was, he was finally able to let go of that intense emotional need within himself to connect with them.

At this point, Yosef found himself no longer enslaved to the need for a relationship between brothers whose very definitiion demanded a level of equality between them. Yosef was not equal to his brothers. He represented malchus -- majesty. His destiny being a reflection of his character (as was the case with all the brothers -- note Yaacov's final prophesies to them), he understoood that although he could never touch them as an equal, he could continue to nurture and guide them from an elevated position, and in this way both fulfill his deep longing trasmitted to him by Rochel, and more importantly to help bring about the fulfillment of G-d's plan regarding His guarantees to our forefathers.

Yosef's soul let go of his misguided need for a lower connectedness with his brothers and by doing so, did its own teshuvah -- a return to the path set out by G-d to enable his higher self to find its full actualization. We are told that "maaseh avos simon l'bonin" -- the actions of the fathers influence the actions of the children. Within this sublime teshuvah on the part of Yosef, symbolized by Yosef's final release from his personal bondage, we can perhaps glimpse the germination of the seeds of the final redemptive process that was contained within the promise that was Israel's.




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