Dr. Yitzhaq Hayut-Man. The Name of the Parashah and its Meaning. The key word for this Parashah is va’Yigash (ויגש), a verb related to Gishah (גישה) – which can have two meanings: on the one hand approaching towards meeting, on the other hand hitgosheshut (התגוששות) – a violent struggle, a brawl. It is thus like a wrestling match, that at its peak the two brothers stand face to face, and they are not just brothers but leaders that everything depends on their face-to-face dealing.
The manner of approach – Gishah (גישה) – will determine the course of the next chapter. The beginning of the parashah is “vayigash elav Yehudah – And Yehudah came near to him”, and its ending is the settlement of the children of Yisra’el in the land of Goshen (גושן, the land of approach – Gishah – to Egypt). The encounter – Mifgash (מפגש) – between the brothers, brings the rectification for the sin of Qayin (Cain) and Hevel (Abel), and the gradual completion of the process of reconciliation and brotherly love.
Forms of the root N.G.S (נגש) appear three times in parashat vaYigash. The additional two times come in the most dramatic verse: “And Yoseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, I pray you – Geshu na elay – and they came near – vaYigashu – . And he said, I am Yoseph your brother…” (45:4). In addition, the name of “the Land of Goshen” (ארץ גושן) appears nine times. Together, these is a Dozen of Gishot (גישות) – approaches – that surround and contain the action of the Mifgash – encounter. This is a hint to the Twelve Tribes that would camp around the Tabernacle under four flags/standards (Degalim) – flags of the camps of Yehudah, Ephraim (namely Yoseph), Re’uven and Dan. The flag of the Camp of Yehudah would be the leader in the journeys in the desert. Yehudah becomes the leader of the course of Yisra’el due to “vayigash Yehudah”.
The Gematria value of the word “vaYigash” (ויגש) is 319, which equals 11 x 29. Yehudah represents the eleven brothers (including Binyamin), whereas 29 represents the lunar cycle (about 29.5 days), namely – there is here the encounter of 11 moons of the year with another one, the twelve – an astrological symbolism. In Yoseph’s second dream, he dreamt that eleven stars would bow to him (Gen. 37:9), and this just happened (42:6, 44:14). But Yehudah’s approach has shown to Yoseph that he is the twelfth star, one among his brothers.
Through the encounter (Mifgash) Yehudah (יהודה) shows his seniority by acting the role model of “Yisra’el” (ישראל) better than his father and his brothers: he approaches straight – nigash Yashar – to the issue (ניגש ישר-אל העניין), confessed – hodah (הודה) – in all that happened, and does not follow the course of “Ya’ạqov” – the crooked ways.
In the continuation of the story, in Parashat Shemot there would appear another word connected with the same word-root N.G.S – Nogsim (נגשים) – taskmasters: “And Par’ọh the same day commanded the taskmasters (Nogsim) of the people, and their officers, saying, You shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore” (Exodus 5:6-7). The Egyptian Nogsim (plural of Noges-נוגש) were in charge of officers from the Children of Yisra’el and have beaten the latter when their subordinates do not produce the usual quantity of bricks.[1] This makes a certain repetition of the position of Yoseph and Yehudah in Parashat vaYigash, where Yoseph, the apparent Egyptian, deputy for Par’ọh, stands opposite Yehudah, who has just taken upon himself to be a leader and officer for the Children of Yisra’el. In this meaning of Noges there is a consequence of the slavery that Yoseph caused upon all of Egypt.
In our studies of the Book of Genesis, we have so far surveyed four of its six instances of brothers’ confrontations. In each case there were different situations, and the outcomes of one encounter served as moral for the next one. The case of Yoseph and his brothers is the fifth case in this series. Yoseph and his brothers have split by the pit. Now in Parashat va’Yigash, Yehudah rectified under his leadership the sin of the brothers, the sale to slavery of their brother Yoseph – who was the son of the preferred mother. He offered himself as a substitute for the enslaving of Binyamin, the brother of Yoseph from the same mother.
Yehudah, who obligated himself before Ya’ạqov to pledge for Binyamin, is the one who now stands to the test. Now arrives the dramatic peak – that of Yoseph who judges his brothers, and who holds the options whether to reveal himself and approach them or not, and whether to make one of them, or them all, into sacrifices.
But the approach – Gishah – of Yehudah, the way he approached Yoseph, as if “turned the table” against Yoseph, and brought him to a cry of submission. Not crying under a shelter, but “and he wept aloud; and Mitzrayim and the house of Par’oh heard him weeping”. After this he cannot but reveal himself to his brothers, and not as a ruler from a high throne but as a child crying to his father.
The Qabbalah Interpretation of Yoseph and Yehudah’s Encounter
The Qabbalah exegeses are generally based on the theory of the Sephirot (see appendix 1-A, or Wikipedia, Sephirot) and they always regard Yoseph as a symbol for the Sephirah of Yesod (Foundation) – the one that connects between the World of Action (Assiyah) or the Sephirah of Malkhut, and the World of Formation (Yezirah) and the rest of the higher worlds. Yehudah is discussed less by the Qabbalah and less sharply. The Sephirah of Malkhut (Kingdom) is the domain of David King of Yisra’el, and thus connected with Yehudah; but by his name and characteristics, Yehudah also is connected with the Sephirah of Hod (הוד – Glory, but also “Confession/ Submission” – Hoda’ah הודאה). Within the diagram of the Tree of the Sephirot, Yehudah can pass between the Sephirah of Hod and the Sephirah of Malkhut only through the Sephirah of Yesod – the domain of Yoseph – and therefore “then Yehudah came near to him (Yoseph) – vayigash elav Yehudah“.
Yehudah and Yoseph may be conceived also in terms of revelations and combinations of the Name (haShem) of YHWH (the Tetragrammaton). The name of Yehudah (יהודה) contains all the four letters of the Name and the additional Dalet (ד, the fourth Hebrew letter), which denotes four and thus refers to the four-letter Name YHWH. Yoseph is connected to the Name in that the Gematria value of the name Yoseph (יוסף) is 156, which equal 6 X 26, six times the Gematria value of the YHWH Name. It is thus possible to say about both that “HaShem is in them”.
In terms of combinations, the four letters of the Tetragrammaton (of which two are similar) can be permutated in 12 ways. According to the holy ARI, Yehudah is characterized by the combination of “YHWH”, whereas Yoseph is marked by the combination “WHYH” (והיה). These two are vessels for different emanations of the divinity. By rules of Hebrew grammar, it is evident that the permutation YHWH, starting with the letter Yod (י) is in the future tense, thus oriented to the future, whereas the permutation WHYA, starting with the letter Waw (ו) is past continuous caring for what was. Yoseph would be concerned with sustenance – the continuation of what was – and what is now the threatened survival of the Children of Yisra’el, whereas Yehudah would lead and bind them all to the future vocation.
With twelve members of Israel, this is no longer a situation of polarized confrontation but a place for coalitions. Yehudah has just joined himself to Binyamin, when he offered himself instead of Binyamin. Binyamin himself is joined with his brother of same mother who re-appears. The brothers of Yehudah chose him as leader and spokesman, and thereby they are joined to him. The chosen seniors are not the natural firstborns, a fact that spreads (and thus lessens) the tensions between brothers. In short, it is easier to settle conflicts among twelve than between two.
The Settlement of the Children of Yisra’el in Egypt (46:28-47-10)
The beginning of the Parashah is “vaYigash elav Yehudah“, and its ending is the settlement of the children of Yisra’el in the Land of Goshen (the place of approach from the Land of Kena’ạn/Yisra’el to Egypt). As already noted, the number 7 is used in the Bible for extra significance, and here we see that the seemingly-trivial detail about the name of the place repeats here seven times, five of which as “the Land of Goshen”, as if it was a whole country separate from the Land of Egypt-Mitzrayim.
What is the special significance in insisting upon “the Land of Goshen”? Research locates Goshen at the east of the Nile Delta, a land of both pasture and agriculture. We may add here the strategic consideration of Yoseph and the symbolic significance of the place.
The Land of Goshen is the Egyptian district that is nearest to Kena’ạn and is situated on the axis that connects the sacred center of Egypt – the Gizeh Pyramids – with the sacred symbolic center of the Land of Israel – Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. This was the locality that enabled the exit-flight from Egypt and avoiding Par’ọh’s armies. And indeed, at the Exodus the Children of Israel managed to get in front of Par’ọh’s armies that were chasing them behind and to reach the Red Sea.
At the end of the Parashah, there appears a new arrangement of the brothers that is different than former listings. Yoseph went to present his brothers to Par’ọh and “and he took miqtzeh (מקצה) his brothers, five men, and presented them to Par’ọh”. The word miqtzeh (מקצה) is reminiscent of the name of the last Parashah – MiQez (מקץ). The JPS and Koren translations translate miqẓeh as “some”, but the literal translation is “from the edge of (his brothers)”. The text does not identify who they were, but the Midrash asserts: “Who were those five? Re’uhven, Levi, Binyamin, Shim’ọn, Issakhar”. The Midrash characterizes those five “… to show that they were not heroes”, because “he did so wisely, saying, If I bring heroes in front of Par’ọh, he would observe them and make them his soldiers”. But if we heed the word miqẓeh and arrange them by their order of birth: Re’uven, Shim’ọn, Levi (but not Yehudah) and Issakhar sons of Lea’h, and Binyamin, and with his also Yoseph – as children of Raḥel, then they are the firsts and the lasts in the order of the brothers, exactly miqẓeh – from the edges – of their linear order of birth, the eldest and the youngest together. Yoseph thereby completes the order of the brothers as a wheel or Round Table, in which the firsts and the lasts are close to each other. Thereby there forms a different – and more equal – pattern of the arrangement of the tribes, six and six, those led by Yehudah and those led by Yoseph.
For a full treatment of the Parashah (from which the above was collected)
[1] This recalls the Judenrat serving under the German S.S. in the Nazi Concentration Camps.
