Although the Joseph story seems to be about Joseph and his
brothers, this week, it is revealed to us that the story is really about Jacob,
the father. The father’s favoritism, his passivity, his struggles, have shaped
the drama of the brothers’ relationships from the beginning, and this only
continues in Vayiggash.
Jacob is always there. Throughout Joseph’s testing of his
brothers, Joseph asks after the wellbeing of their father. This week, in the
same breath in which Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, he asks, “Is
my father still alive?” As Judah powerfully steps forward and pleads on behalf
of Benjamin, his primary concern is always Jacob’s welfare - that Jacob would not survive the loss of
Benjamin, because “his father loves him.” As Robert Alter comments, it is “remarkable
that Judah accepts the painful fact of paternal favoritism.” Judah even refers
to Rachel as if she is Jacob’s only wife.
It all seems to be about Jacob. When Jacob lays eyes on
Joseph again for the first time in 22 years, Joseph weeps and weeps. And Jacob?
He doesn’t shed a tear. Rather, he comments that now he can die peacefully. And
when he comes down to Egypt, he bemoans his short, difficult life to Pharaoh.
Has Jacob become a narcissist? What has happened to the
awe-filled Jacob after the dream of the staircase – the humble God-wrestler the
night before he encountered Esau? What is his relationship with God now? Does
it mean anything to Jacob that as he descended to Egypt, God came to him in a
night vision and assured him that “I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and
I Myself will also bring you back”? When he wakes up from this final
God-encounter, Jacob doesn’t seem transformed – he just gets back in the wagon
and continues on his way…
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