This week's parsha is the climax of the Joseph story, the third of four parshot devoted to Joseph and the rest of Jacob's family. Last week ended with the brothers returning to Egypt with Benjamin, after finally convincing Jacob that they would only get needed food if they bring Benjamin with them. Joseph has a cup placed in Benjamin's sack, and when soldiers stop the brothers and find it, they are brought before Joseph again. Benjamin is to stay as Joseph's slave, he tells them.
Then Judah steps forward.
This week, we begin with Judah's plea, with which he eloquently begs Joseph to take him instead of Benjamin, because their father will die if his only remaining son with Rachel does not return. He promised Jacob not to let anything happen to Benjamin, and is determined that nothing will.
Joseph is so moved that he turns away, weeping, and tells all but his brothers to leave the room. Then he reveals himself to his brothers. "I am Joseph. Does my father live?"
What has just happened? Is Joseph really just making sure his brothers have changed since they sold him into slavery? Has he been getting even? Both?
Or has something just happened between Joseph and Judah more intense than anything that has gone before?
Think back. Both Joseph and Judah have been through what Joseph Campbell calls a journey, part of the archetypal hero story. Joseph, arrogant, cocky and petted, has been enslaved, but risen to a position of authority in Potiphar's household. Even after Potiphar's wife attempts to seduce him, and then accuses him to her husband, he rises in the prison as well. After Pharaoh's cupbearer is freed as he had predicted, Joseph expects to be released soon as well. Instead, he stays imprisoned for many years.
This is the first time that Joseph does not feel better than those around him. This is the time of his inward journey, when he wrestles with his own angel, and in these years he stops being a youth and becomes a man.
Judah has also changed. Unlike some commentaries, I think he suggested selling Joseph to the passing caravan to help save him. If the brothers left Joseph in the pit he would surely die of starvation or exposure, or perhaps a wild beast, as the brothers falsely tell Jacob he died.
But then comes the story of Judah's sojourn away from his family, and of his family and his treatment of Tamar. This story shows Judah insensitive to Tamar's position after Er and Onan die. He perhaps does not want to risk the death of his only remaining son, but he is also burying Tamar alive in a way; as a betrothed childless widow, she cannot marry anyone else, and has no social standing in her father's house.
Tamar takes action and becomes pregnant with Judah's twins, Judah finally admits the justice of what Tamar has done, and says that she is more righteous than he, and deserves no punishment. The Davidic line of kings descends from this union. So do most of us Jews who survived in exile.
So Judah too has had to grow by confronting his own wrong behavior.
Joseph and Judah both left home in order to fulfill their destinies, and have each learned a much-needed lesson. In this sense, these two meet here face to face, equal as men despite inequality of rank. No one of the other brothers would have been able to take a stand as Judah has done. He has stopped resenting his father's favoritism, has understood his father's pain, and now accepts his father as he is.
I think these two men recognize something in each other at the moment of confrontation.
Shabbat shalom.