Thoughts on parashat Vayigash.
The end of the secular year 2020 is approaching. For many of us it is a time of reflection on our accomplishments and disappointments. We evaluate our lives and make plans for the future. For many 2020 hasn’t been such a good year. The worldwide pandemic affected our lives significantly: some of us lost loved ones, many lost jobs, incomes and savings and we have also lost our freedom. Our hope and faith in a positive future has been tarnished.
Times of this kind, however, are not uncommon in the history of mankind. They happen cyclically and have been noted many times in our scriptures. In this week’s parsha Jacob with all his sons and his entire family move from Canaan to Egypt, to escape the famine and to reunite with Joseph. They settle in the land of Goshen, the best and the most fertile part of the land of Egypt. All of this was part of Joseph’s larger plan, who instructed his brothers what to tell Pharaoh:
Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and tell the news to Pharaoh, and say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. The men are shepherds; they have always been breeders of livestock, and they have brought with them their flocks and herds and all that is theirs.’ So when Pharaoh summons you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ you shall answer, ‘Your servants have been breeders of livestock from the start until now, both we and our fathers’—so that you may stay in the region of Goshen. For all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians.” (Gen 46:31-34)
All of this was aimed to keep the whole family in one place and prevent Pharaoh from dispersing the family all over Egypt or putting them in the big cities where they may have been more despised as shepherds. For this reason all the brothers had to say that they were breeders of livestock for generations (which was in fact true) and that they were not versed in any other occupations (even though they probably had other skills). Settling in Goshen made it possible to maintain family unity, and spared them, at least to some extent, from their degradation in the eyes of Egyptians (because probably all Goshen’s inhabitants were shepherds). But it also had another very important goal: the plague of famine had already arrived, so settling the family in the most fertile region of food production for all of Egypt was the best possible strategy for surviving the famine.
This strategy indeed turned out to be the best possible plan. As we read later in our parasha:
Now there was no bread in all the world, for the famine was very severe; both the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. Joseph gathered in all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, as payment for the rations that were being procured, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. And when the money gave out in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, lest we die before your very eyes; for the money is gone!” And Joseph said, “Bring your livestock, and I will sell to you against your livestock, if the money is gone.” (Gen 47:13-16)
The Egyptians began selling everything they had in order to survive. Ultimately they had to sell their land and their freedom – they became Pharaoh’s slaves:
Take us and our land in exchange for bread, and we with our land will be serfs to Pharaoh; provide the seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become a waste.” So Joseph gained possession of all the farmland of Egypt for Pharaoh, every Egyptian having sold his field because the famine was too much for them; thus the land passed over to Pharaoh. And he removed the population town by town, from one end of Egypt’s border to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not take over, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh had made to them; therefore they did not sell their land. (Gen 47:19-22)
What we see in this week’s parasha is strikingly similar to what we are observing in our world today. Not only do crises rarely hurt the most rich and powerful in our societies, the rich often capitalize on the crisis and get richer and more powerful. They “utilize the crisis”, as Pharaoh did, by buying up everything or taking advantage of those economically disadvantaged. Additionally, there are always some groups of people protected by the most wealthy and powerful, like priests in our biblical story. According to some experts, what we see now is one of the greatest wealth transfers in human history, and it is just the beginning as it will likely last for at least several years. Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 America’s 614 billionaires grew their net worth by a collective $931 billion. Some of them increased their wealth 300-400% and one as much as 650%. According to a Forbes prediction in late August, one-third of Americans have and will be hit hard by the pandemic and the recession; one-third will be able to maintain their lifestyle, but it will be increasingly tougher to do so; and one-third of Americans will get much richer. (How To Prepare For The Greatest Wealth Transfer In History, Garrett Gunderson, August 20th). The social class that is the most hurt is the working class, especially small businesses owners and workers that are not considered ‘essential’. They have to make the greatest sacrifices for the safety of the most vulnerable in society even though they are not particularly vulnerable themselves. Any politician that does not see this imbalance and this injustice is an unjust, failed, and likely corrupt leader. We are not all in the same boat. We are in the same storm. Some of us have ferries, some have yachts, some lifeboats and some are drowning.
It is important in these difficult times to be a keen observer of reality and see opportunities that arise but at the same time we must be sensitive to the injustices around us. All our actions should be guided by dignified and just goals, such as care for the well-being of our loved ones, families, friends and human society in general. There is no higher justice than Divine justice. We should love this supreme Divine justice as we love God Himself: with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our resources.
Shabbat shalom
Happy New 2021 year!
