Parashat Vayigash 5786

by Rabbi Margie Cella

Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt to obtain food a second time. This time they brought Benjamin along. To test them, Joseph accused Benjamin of stealing his goblet and threatened to keep him as a prisoner. Judah stepped forward to plead for Benjamin, offering himself as a substitute. He explained to the vizier how Jacob would be devastated if they returned without Benjamin. Finally, Joseph could take it no longer. Breaking down and crying, he revealed himself to his brothers, telling them not to be upset about what happened because God had sent him to Egypt so that he could save them from the famine. Now he instructed them to go home and tell Jacob that he was still alive, and instructed him to pack up everything to move to Egypt. Before they left, Joseph told his brothers, “Do not be quarrelsome on the way.”

Why did he need to say this? He had just told them that it had been God’s plan for him to come to Egypt; there was no need for them to quarrel over the role that each of them may have played in bringing that about. Perhaps he feared they might argue over how to break the news to Jacob that he was still alive. Or about having to pack up and move to Egypt. There were any number of things that ten individuals could have disagreed about. I think Joseph was telling them that in order to survive the famine and be reunited as a family it was more important to put their differences aside.

Today, when the scourge of antisemitism has raised its head again, we Jews need to remember Joseph’s words. We are stronger together when we can put aside the things that divide us. Oseh Shalom, Maker of Peace, help us to avoid quarreling along the way.