Why the Torah is a story

for Parshat VaYigash

i

Telling

brings the listener

and the person told about

into one story—

across divides

across lands

across hearts.

*

Here is one example:

 

ii

Joseph rules Egypt.

He disguises himself from his brothers—

who have hated him,

who have tossed him from home,

from his father.

They come to him now

down from Canaan

to seek bread during famine.

*

But Joseph demands

that they leave their youngest brother,

Benjamin,

in Egypt.

Then the brother Judah

describes the whole story

of the brothers coming to him

from far away

and going back to Canaan

and seeing their father

and returning to Egypt

only for Joseph to demand

that Benjamin stay.

And Judah tells Joseph:

our father’s heart will break

there in Canaan

if Benjamin stays

here in Egypt.

*

Then Joseph says: I am Joseph.

And Joseph reconciles with his brothers

and Joseph reunites with his father.

 

iii

Another example

of uniting through story

is the Torah itself.

Because  sometimes God seems far from us.

But hearing the Torah,

studying Torah,

we are reunited with God

into one story,

into one telling

into one book

from across a great distance.

 

____

With special thanks to my wife Kathi, as always.

_____

Shabbat Shalom, Abe

Please pray for for Ayelet Yakira bat Chaya Hinda Matel Nechama, and for Neshama Emunah bat Batya

 

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