Paroh Loved Us – To Death
And you will settle in the Land of Goshen. You will be close to me – you and your sons, and your flocks and cattle and all that is yours. (Sefer Beresheit 45:10) Take your father and your households and come to me. I will give to you from the excellence of the Land of Egyptand you will eat of the riches of the land…. Do not have concern for your implements, for the excellence of the entire of land of Egypt will be for you. (Sefer Beresheit 45:18, 20)
Yosef and Paroh give different instructions to the brothers
Much of Parshat VaYigash deals with the reunification of Yosef with his father and brothers. Yosef reveals himself to his brothers. He tells them to return to their father and tell Yaakov that Yosef is alive and master of Egypt. They are to tell Yaakov that Yosef urges him to immediately come to Egypt. The first above passage describes a portion of Yosef’s instructions to his brothers. In Egypt, the family will be reunited and it will survive the severe famine that is devastating the land. Yosef adds two other details. He tells his father to bring with him all of his possessions. Yosef also tells him that he will settle them in the Land of Goshen.
In the second set of passages cited above, Paroh gives his own directions to the brothers. Paroh’s directions differ from Yosef’s instructions to his brothers. Yosef communicated to his father that he should come to Egypt with all of his possessions. Paroh directs the brothers and Yaakov to not be concerned with their possessions. They are invited to share in the wealth of the Land of Egypt and to live from the abundance of the land. They should leave their possessions in Cana’an. They will not need them in Egypt. Also, Yosef told Yaakov that he would settle them in the Land of Goshen. Paroh does not mention this detail. Let us explore the significance of these details. Once we better understand their importance, we can identify Yosef’s and Paroh’s treatment of them.
And the news was heard in the household of Paroh saying that the brothers of Yosef have come. And it was positive in the eyes of Paroh and in the eyes of his servants. (Sefer Beresheit 45:16)
Paroh welcomed the immigration of Yosef’s family
The above passage describes the reaction of Paroh and his ministers to the news that Yosef’s brothers had come to Egypt. They were pleased with the development. Why was the arrival of Yosef’s brothers important to the Egyptians? The commentators offer a variety of explanations. Let us consider a sampling.
According to Rabbaynu Ovadia Sfrono, Paroh and his servants saw the arrival of the brothers as an opportunity. Yosef was Paroh’s prime minister but he was also a foreigner. Paroh recognized that Yosef served him faithfully. But Paroh also recognized that Yosef was serving a nation and society that was not his own. Paroh saw the arrival of Yosef’s brothers as an opportunity to tie Yosef more closely to the Land of Egypt. Paroh recognized that if he could persuade Yosef’s family to immigrate to Egypt, Yosef would then be working for the benefit of his own family. With his family settled in the land, Egypt would become Yosef’s true home and his bonds to the land would be strengthened.
Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehudah Berlin – Netziv – takes a similar approach to interpreting Paroh’s motivations. He also suggests that Paroh wanted to motivate Yosef’s family to immigrate. Paroh recognized Yosef’s unique talents and his remarkable wisdom. He expected that the qualities he observed in Yosef might not be unique to him, but be shared by other members of his family. He was eager to bring this human resource to Egypt. He reasoned that Yosef’s family might make an enormous contribution to Egypt.
Paroh and Yosef had different visions of the future of Yaakov’s family
Other commentators provide alternative explanations of Paroh’s motivations. However, these two interpretations suggest that Paroh’s interests extended beyond encouraging the immigration of Yosef’s family. He wanted to integrate the family into Egyptian society. According to Sforno, achievement of this integration would make Egypt Yosef’s own nation. He would no longer be laboring for a foreign land while his family lived far away. He would be devoted to the land of his own family and people. According to Netziv, Paroh viewed Yosef’s family as a valuable resource. He wanted to integrate the family into Egyptian society and take advantage of the intelligence and talents of the members.
Yosef did not share Paroh’s vision of integration. He understood that his family must remain separate and preserve its uniqueness. In short, Yosef and Paroh shared the desire that the family come to Egypt. However, they had different visions of the future of Yosef’ family once it arrived. Paroh envisioned an integration of Yosef’s family into the Egyptian nation and society. Yosef envisioned his family as living separately from the Egyptian nation, resisting assimilation, and preserving its uniqueness.
Yosef and Paroh’s conflict over the autonomy of Yaakov’s family
This difference in perspective explains the divergence in Yosef’s and Paroh’s instructions. Yosef’s objective was to assure the survival of his family. He needed to rescue his family from the devastating famine. It was also imperative to not endanger the spiritual wellbeing of the family. His plan was designed to accomplish both of these objectives. He would bring his family to Egypt. He would provide the family with the food and provisions needed to survive and even flourish. But, he would settle the family in Goshen. They would be close by, but yet, segregated from the center of Egyptian settlement. Also, Yosef told his father to bring with him all of his possessions. He did not want his family to be dependent upon the Egyptians. He wanted them to be fully equipped to care for themselves as independent individuals.
Paroh made no mention of settlement in Goshen. He may have been aware of Yosef’s desires but he was not eager to acquiesce. Paroh also suggested that the family members leave behind their implements. He told them they will not need them. They will be cared for and enjoy the abundance of the land. He was not interested in facilitating the independence and autonomy of the family. He wished to create a dependant relationship that would empower him to force the family to integrate into Egyptian society.
And you will say: We have been from youth and until now herders of flocks – we, also our fathers.
This is so that you will settle in the Land of Goshen – for every herder of flocks is an abomination to the Egyptians.
(Sefer Beresheit 46:34)
- Yosef’s strategy to coerce Paroh into granting autonomy
There is another detail mentioned by Yosef that Paroh omits from his instructions to the brothers. Yosef tells his father to come to Egypt with his cattle and flocks. Paroh does not mention this. The discussion above provides an explanation for this difference in Yosef’s and Paroh’s instructions. Yosef was concerned with preserving the independence and autonomy of the family. Their cattle and flocks provided the family with a means of support. Paroh wanted to force the integration of the family into Egyptian society. He did not want the family to come to Egypt with the means for self-support. So, he had no reason to encourage the family to come with its flocks.
In the above passage another factor emerges for the divergence between Paroh and Yosef in their instructions regarding the flocks and cattle. In this passage Yosef is providing his brothers with guidance in how they should speak to Paroh when they meet with him. He tells the brothers that they should tell Paroh that they are shepherds and that the care of herds and cattle has been the traditional occupation of the family for generations. He explains that this will force Paroh to settle them in Goshen. The Egyptians detest herders and will not tolerate them in their midst. Paroh’s only option will be to segregate the Hebrews from the rest of Egypt. In contrast, Paroh recognized that if the family persisted in their occupation as herders, they would be greeted with antagonism. The Egyptian people abhorred herders and would resist the integration of the family.
The attitude of the Egyptians to herders was identified by Yosef as a means by which he could coerce Paroh to acquiesce to his vision of an autonomous life for his family. Yosef directed his father to come with his flocks and cattle. This would force Paroh to assign to the family its own area of settlement. Paroh was not a fool or blind to this strategy. He directed the family members to not be concerned with their possessions and to come to Egypt and be supported by the abundance of the land. He hoped that the brothers and their father would welcome the invitation to live in comfort, enjoy the prestige offered them, and abandon their flocks and their autonomy.
- Applying Yosef’s strategy to contemporary challenges
There are a number of important themes in this narrative. The most obvious is the relevance of Yosef’s analysis to the American Jewish experience. As Jewish Americans, we enjoy comforts and a degree of affluence that is unprecedented. We feel that as United States citizens we are protected from the dangers that Jews experience every day in many other countries. The accomplishments of American Jewry cannot be dismissed, and should not be minimized. We have used our affluence and influence to benefit Jews all over the world. Our unique position has provided us the opportunity to shield and rescue less fortunate Jews from oppression and persecution. We have supported the State of Israel with our resources and used our influence to promote its interests in our host country. In addition to everything we have accomplished on behalf of the Jewish people, we have also made enormous contributions to every aspect of American society.
But Yosef would ask us, “At what cost?” We find ourselves at an historic crossroads. Our American Jewish community has accomplished so much and continues to have remarkable potential. Yet, simultaneously, as Yosef would predict, we are self-destructing. We are losing our children and young people. We seem unwilling to make the hard choices necessary to stem this tide of assimilation. So, Yosef’s advice seems to be speaking directly to us. He believed that his family could survive and develop in Egypt, but only if it took those measures necessary to resist the temptations of assimilation that Paroh offered. Are we willing to take those measures?