Mikeitz and Vayigash 2022

1“And Pharaoh named Joseph Tzafnat Paaneach and gave to him Asnat the daughter of Poti-Pherah who was the priest of Ohn for a wife” (Gen 41:45)

2The Pirkei D’Rebbi Elazar explains who Asnat really was: “She was the daughter of Dinah who became pregnant from Shechem. The children of Israel wanted to kill her to avoid their being labeled a house of harlotry. (Beit Zenut) Instead Jacob gave her an amulet (Tzitz) on which was inscribed “daughter of Dina daughter of Jacob son of Isaac son of Abraham.” He sent her off on her way. The angel Michael brought her to Egypt where she was adopted by Potiphar and his wife Potiphera. She later married Joseph her uncle.”

3This Midrash appears with a variety of versions: In some it was Jacob who chased her out of the house and placed her in a bed of thorns (Sneh) hence the name Asnat. A band of Egyptians found her and took her to Egypt. Alternatively, it was the angel Gabriel who took her down to Egypt. When Joseph drove his chariot through the country the Egyptian women all threw garments or jewelry at him to gain his attention. Asnat had nothing to throw except for the amulet. Joseph saw the amulet and instantly recognized who she was and married her. There are a variety of midrash-based descriptions of how Asnat became the adopted child of Potiphar but all have her as the daughter of Dina who was abandoned or rejected by Joseph’s brothers and ended up marrying Joseph.

4The introduction of Dina’s daughter into the story provides an answer to one of the most perplexing and difficult questions raised by many biblical commentators on our Parsha. Why did Joseph not reveal himself to his brothers and to Jacob right away? What was his motivation for dragging them through the mud until finally revealing his true self? Surely Jacob had suffered enough as he himself testified to Pharaoh “My days have been few and bad” (Me-at ve-raim) (ibid 47:9). The Ramban (42:9) attempts to answer this question. He suggests that Joseph wished to have his dreams fulfilled. This explanation is rejected by others (Kli Yakar ibid) arguing that is not a reason to cause suffering.

5Another question often raised is about Joseph’s naming of his first-born son Menashe. “And he named his first-born son Menashe for God has made me (or helped me) to forget all my toils and my father’s house.” (41:51) First of all there is no evidence that Joseph forgot anything about his father’s house, and what does it mean that God helped me to forget? What did God do to help him to forget? If I was a therapist this dvar Torah would devolve into PTSD but I will leave that to others and instead focus on the story.

6Joseph may have been willing or able to forgive his family for his own mistreatment as he famously says “You thought to do evil to me and God turned it into a good thing in order to save a great nation” (50:20). He was disinclined to forgive the brothers or his father for their mistreatment of his wife. He remembers how they sent this little innocent girl away into the world with nothing but an amulet to help her through life. It was God who sent her to him helping them both to forget their mistreatments. It is often the right match “shidduch” that helps overcome the trials and tribulations of a person’s upbringing and family trauma. Ok I devolved, so forgive me for that.

7Vayigash

8“And they told him (Jacob) that Joseph is alive and a ruler in the entire land of Egypt, but his (Jacob’s) heart was weak because he did not believe them. And they spoke to him the words that Joseph had spoken to them and he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him. And the spirit of Jacob came alive. “ (45:26-27)

9Many explanations have been offered for the revelation associated with seeing the wagons. According to Rashi it was a special signal passed to Jacob about the last learning session with Joseph that was hinted to by seeing the wagons. The last learning session had been about the “Egla Aruphah” or the decapitated calf. The Midrash their plays on the word Egel comparing it to Agalot or wagons.

10See Kli Yakar who comments “This seems very farfetched and certainly nowhere in the text.”

11In another Pasuk, later in this Parsha, there is another reference to these wagons. “And Jacob came up from Beer Sheva and the children of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their children and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. (46:5)

12In case you may wonder what was Jacob doing in Beer Sheva the Pasuk explains as follows: “And Israel and all that was with him traveled to Beer Sheva and he came to the Well of Sheva and he brought sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.” (46:1) Jacob stopped in Beer Sheva in order to obtain divine permission to leave Israel. As the Pasuk reads “And He said I am the God of your father do not be afraid to go to Egypt for there you will become a great nation”

13This explains the stopover but does not explain the wagons. The Midrash offers the following comment. “Where did he go? He went to cut down the tree that Abraham had planted in Beer Sheva as the Pasuk say’s “And Abraham planted a tree in Beer Sheva” (21:33). Now you wonder why would Jacob cut down that tree? Why did Abraham plant that tree (it was actually an orchard – see Mefarshim there) in the first place? According to the Midrash the trees were to be used in the distant future to build the Mishkan. (Tanchuma Trumah 9) The wagons were to be used to transport the trees to Egypt and replanted there for use in the Mishkan in over two hundred years! This special status of these trees was given over by Jacob to Joseph and only to Joseph.

14Jacob, upon seeing these wagons and receiving Josephs report is uplifted for he knew Joseph was alive and that at some time in the future the Jewish people would leave Egypt and use these trees to build a holy Mishkan to service God.

15This explains the wagons but not why the Pasuk refers them once as the wagons that Joseph had sent and later as the wagons that Pharaoh had sent. The midrash suggests that the Pharaoh wagons had Idols inscribed in the body of the wagon while Joseph’s wagons did not. It explains again how Jacob knew that Joseph was alive and that had not succumbed to the prevalent idol worship in Egypt.

16These two explanations are slightly closer to the text than Rashi’s explanation and are therefore worth your consideration.

17Shabbat Shalom