One the greatest challenges of being a Jewish educator is helping each student see that their Jewish engagement is not only about their personal journey as a “sovereign self,” to use a term from Arnie Eisen and Steven M. Cohen’s The Jew Within, but a communal narrative that links each individual Jew with the story of the Jewish people. In many ways, Parshat Vayiggash provides us a paradigmatic example of God reminding Jacob that his own needs are forever linked with the story of the Jewish people’s past and future that is yet to be. As Jacob journeys to Egypt via Beersheba to reunite with Joseph, God appears to Jacobs in a dream and says the following:
““I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes” (Bereishit 46:3-4).
When our commentators looked at this passage, they asked, “Why was Jacob afraid about going down to Egypt?” Was Jacob afraid of a dangerous journey, or what would happen when he arrived? Was Jacob afraid of what going down to Egypt would mean for his present, or for his family’s future? The answers brought by our commentators capture something important about what the conclusion of the Jacob and Joseph narratives represent for their family and, by extension, the Jewish people.
Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah, otherwise known as the Hizkuni, states that Jacob feared that his going down to Egypt represents the final step before the eventual enslavement of the Israelites, and Jacob did not want to be the one responsible for completing this divine plan. The Hizkuni writes:
“The expression “fear not” is only directed to one who is afraid. Jacob was afraid and said: Now that I am about to go down to Egypt the days are at hand foretold my forefathers regarding the decree of bondage and affliction on my seed in a land not their own. Thereupon the Holy One Blessed be God set his mind at rest, saying: “fear not to go down to Egypt.” Notwithstanding that I warned thy father I have come to promise you that though the days of bondage and affliction are at hand, so too is the blessing wherewith I blessed your grandfather, “that I shall make you a great nation”” (Hizkuni on Bereishit 46:3).
In this commentary, while God does not deny that going down to Egypt means eventual enslavement, that does not mean that God will abandon the Israelites. While Jacob may not want to be a party to future hardships for his progeny, God reminds Jacob that this journey is not only about Jacob, but about the great nation that is yet to be, and that nation will be protected by God through any and all hardships.
Taking a different approach, Rabbi David Kimhi, known as the Radak, writes that Jacob was more afraid of the social mixing between his family and the Egyptians. The Radak writes:
“Jacob was afraid that his seed would be absorbed by the Egyptian nation. Only in the land of Israel could the unique Jewish spark be preserved down the ages. It was on this score that the Almighty reassured him: “Fear not, for there I shall make you a great nation.” Our Sages interpreted the “great nation” to imply that the Jews would preserve their national identity, and not be absorbed into Egypt” (Ha-Emek Davar on Bereishit 46:3).
In contrast to the Hizkuni, whose commentary focuses on God’s role in shaping the future destiny of the Israelites, the Radak emphasizes how God’s statement to Jacob may reference the people’s role in shaping their own destiny. While God might be able to ensure that the Israelites will remain safe in spite of their future enslavement, Jacob wonders whether or not the Israelites will protect themselves from losing their distinctiveness. Responding to this concern, God reminds Jacob that even though the Israelites might mix with the population, God will keep his promise to make Jacob’s family a great nation.
Finally, in his modern literary analysis, Robert Alter points out that God’s message to Jacob takes place in the context of a journey that parallels the journeys taken by Abraham and Isaac, and a message from God that is parallel to previously established covenants. Alter writes:
“Fear not...for a great nation I will make you”: Both the language and the action of this whole scene are framed as an emphatic recapitulation of the earlier Patriarchal Tales now that they are coming to an end as the last of the patriarchs with his offspring leaves Canaan for the long stay in Egypt. Jacob, traveling south from Hebron, stops in Beersheba, where his father built an altar, and offers sacrifice just as both Isaac and Abraham did. God appears to him and speaks to him, as He did to Abraham and Isaac. The language of the dream-vision strongly echoes the language of the covenantal promises to Jacob’s father and grandfather” (Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, 266).
According to Alter, the context of God’s statement to Jacob reminds us that Jacob’s journey to Egypt is the culmination of not just the Joseph narrative, but of the entire narrative of the Israelites up until that point. As a result, when God tells Jacob not to be afraid, God is telling the past, present, and future generations not to be afraid, as well, for God’s interest in them is eternal.
Each of the above commentaries take the long-view in understanding the source of Jacob’s fear, recognizing that Jacob must ask himself how his decision to travel to Egypt will affect generations yet to come. Rather seeing God’s command as affecting him alone, Jacob is challenged in Parashat Vayiggash to see how his actions fit into the larger story of the Jewish people. In our work at Schechter, may we have the merit of pushing our children to see their actions in the context of our people’s story, writing a chapter that lives out God’s highest aspirations for the Jewish people and all of humanity.
Shabbat Shalom!
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