Many Paths, One Center
In this parsha we have the reunification, after twenty-two years, of Yaacov and Yosef. It is, of course, an emotional meeting. Yaacov travels all the way to Mitzrayim with the entire family. Yosef harnesses his chariot himself and goes out to greet his father. However, the pasuk that describes the meeting itself is ambiguous. “He appeared before him, fell on his neck, and he wept on his neck excessively (Bereisheit 46:29)” It’s a little unclear who exactly is doing what. Rashi explains that it was Yosef who fell on Yaacov’s neck, and Yosef who wept, while Yaacov did neither because he was saying Shema. Now, this is not necessarily the most intuitive explanation of the pasuk. However, Rav Schorr gives us the depth we need to really understand the moment according to Rashi’s explanation.
Yaacov and Yosef, standing together in a loving embrace, are experiencing two different worlds. For Yaacov, this moment is the sweet end of his last and hardest test. As Yaacov absorbed the news that Yosef was still alive, his spirit revived and the Shechina, which had been absent for twenty-two years, came to rest on him again (see Rashi, 45:27). The rogez of Yosef, the troubles of Yosef, had ended with the clarity of “your son Yosef is still alive,” and Yaacov was finally able to leave behind the world of galut and begin to prepare for the geulah.
For Yaacov, a new period of ma’aseh avot siman l’banim had begun. For the last seventeen years of his life Yaacov lived in a state of geulah, and he implanted within us the spiritual seeds for our own geulah. The Maharal explains that when Yaacov saw Yosef standing before him, not just alive but a ruler in Egypt, his heart was filled with love and fear of Hashem. He had moved out of the darkness and could now see with clarity the hashgacha of Hashem, how Hashem and His Name are one in the world. The intense spiritual joy this tzaddik felt during his reunion with his beloved son was naturally channeled into saying the Shema. That was Yaacov’s reality. But Yosef’s reality was different. For the children of Yaacov, the arrival into Mitzrayim was the start of the galut. Yosef, so happy to be united with his father, also knew that this was the first step along a long and difficult road. How could Yosef do anything but cry?
These two tzaddikim were experiencing the exact same moment, in the same place, and yet they were living in two different realities. This ability to share a moment, and a mission, with another person who sees reality differently is one of the important themes of this parsha. The parsha begins with the confrontation between Yehudah and Yosef. These two brothers are two kings in one family, which is not a comfortable situation. However, Rav Schorr compares their approaches to that of the heart and the mind, which are the two kings of the body. In a healthy body, these two sources of power work together, and in a healthy nation, the same is true. As we approach the end of Sefer Bereisheit, and the seeds for geulah are implanted in the nation, these two tzadikkim, with their very different approaches, must come together. This theme is repeated in the haftorah, which is from Yechezkel (37: 15-28) and is all about the future unification of Yehudah and Yosef. The message is clear. Geulah is about unification, but it is a specific type of unification. It is the unification of different parts, where each piece of the whole still retains its own identity.
This message of simultaneous unity and diversity comes intertwined with the story of the beginning of galut in Mitzrayim. This is not by accident. Our ability to tolerate the differences of others is born from the same emunah which allows us to get through the difficult circumstances in our lives. Our emunah tells us that Hashem has a plan that is greater than what I can see. Tolerance is based on the knowledge that each person has a role in Hashem’s grand plan that is greater than what I can see.
At the very end of Mesechet Ta’anit there is a description of the tzaddikim in Gan Eden: “In the future the Holy One, Blessed is He, will make a circle of all the righteous people and He will sit among them (in the middle of the circle) and each and every one will point with his finger (toward him).” Rav Schorr explains that in this world, every Tzaddik has his own path, each different from the other, which will require individualized and different responses. We saw that Yaacov was living in geulah at the same moment, and in the same space, that Yosef was experiencing the beginnings of slavery. They could not live in each other’s world. Similarly, it was incomprehensible to the young Yehudah how Yosef could follow the path he did, and it is often incomprehensible to us why those Jews we term ‘other’, in whatever clothes they wear, choose to act as they do.
If we had to map the spiritual path of the world from our own perspective, we would probably draw a maze of intertwining lines that point in every direction imaginable. What Hashem will reveal in the World To Come is that all the different paths are really one path. They are all circling around a central axis. In this world it looks as if each tzaddik, each person, is travelling his own path, alone. In the future Hashem will show us how all the paths were really pointing in the same direction, towards a central point that unifies them all.