Vayeshev 2021
In this week's parsha, Vayeshev, we read the story of Joseph and his brothers which contains the tragic seeds of the Jewish peoples' exile in Egypt. As the Talmud writes (Shabbat 10b):
“Rava bar Meḥasseya said that Rav Ḥama bar Gurya said that Rav said: A person should never distinguish one of his sons from among the other sons by giving him preferential treatment. As, due to the weight of two sela of fine wool that Jacob gave to Joseph, beyond what he gave the rest of his sons, in making him the striped coat, his brothers became jealous of him and the matter unfolded and our forefathers descended to Egypt.”
Why were the righteous sons of Israel so murderously jealous of Joseph? Where does jealousy come from?
In Judaism we have an important concept called hakarat hatov-recognizing the goodness that one has been blessed with. This recognition of, and gratitude for what we already have, is the cure for jealousy. When we are jealous of something and actually get it, the thrill does not last because we then want something else. The opposite is a vision of hakarat hatov, gratitude.
Had Joseph's brothers not wanted what they did not have- Joseph's coat and the special love between Joseph and his father- the Jewish people would not have landed in the Egyptian exile for 210 years. Perhaps this is why the Torah commands us the following perplexing commandment (Deuteronomy 23:8): Do not persecute the Egyptian, for you were strangers in their land.” The Egyptians threw our male children into the Nile river and enslaved us, and we should be thankful to them because they “hosted” us in their land? This seems preposterous.
Perhaps the answer is that when it comes to Egypt we must be extra sensitive to the need for recognizing goodness, because it was the lack of this among Joseph’s brothers in our Parsha which caused the entire Egyptian exile in the first place.
This week is Thanksgiving. Some people say that Thanksgiving is not a holiday Jew’s should mark since we already pray three times a day about thankfulness in the Amidah when we say “modim anachnu lach” and many of our own holidays are about being thankful for God's protection. But perhaps the lesson of our parsha is that every opportunity for giving thanks is an important one.
