TorahParsha

Tamar, Judah, Joseph, Symbol

i
Joseph dreams prophetic dreams. His father dresses him in a special many-colored coat. His brothers hate him for his coat, these dreams.

Joseph's brothers attack him. They call him the dreamer. They  strip him of his coat. They cast him in a pit, from which he is sold into slavery.

*
Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law, reveals her identity (she had been disguised) by means of the cord, the staff, and the ring that Judah had given her when she was disguised.

*
Joseph becomes ruler of Egypt. He hides his identity from his brothers when he meets them again. He pretends not to speak the same language as they do: the translator is between them when they speak.

*
Finally it is Judah who approaches Joseph and causes Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers; and the brothers are reconciled.

ii
A symbol is meant to be a communication: it is meant to bind people together. A cord, staff, and ring, for instance, tells Judah that Tamar is Tamar.

Symbol can also overshadow its own meaning, making communication impossible, tearing people apart. It is language, for instance, that lets Joseph pretend he does not know his brothers.

And it is Judah, who has learned from Tamar, who approaches Joseph, who encounters Joseph face-to-face, who takes the veil of symbol away.

iii
This story holds in it the same lesson as Isaiah's chastisement to all religious hypocrites:

Bring Me no more vain offerings, says God; incense of abomination they are to Me: but cease to do evil, learn to do good: seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Based partially on the writings of Avivah Zornberg, and on a teaching of the Ishbitzer relayed to me by Raquel Sanchez.

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The Children of Rebecca and Isaac

i
The text relays how Abraham's servant brings Rebecca from her homeland to Abraham's house, to become Isaac's wife; in that story the text uses the word camel eighteen times.

For instance. The servant sets a sign to know whom of the women he meets should be Isaac's bride. The sign is that the right woman will volunteer to water the servant's camels. It is Rebecca who fulfills that sign.

And for instance. When Rebecca finally does come to the house of Abraham, to be married to Isaac, she is riding on a camel.

And we do not learn that Isaac actually sees Rebecca when she arrives. We only learn that Isaac lifted up his eyes, and behold: camels were coming.

Rebecca is signified by camels.

*
At the time that Rebecca and Isaac meet, Isaac has just gone out to meditate in the field.

*
After they meet, Isaac takes Rebecca in to the tent, in to their marital home.

And he loved her.

ii
A camel in that time and place was a vehicle of journey, like our car or our train.

So Rebecca, drawn to camels, signified by camels, is a woman of journeys. She looks out to the wide expanse of the world.

*
Isaac is a man of meditation, of plumbing the depths of all things in a single field, of things close-at-hand.

*
Isaac and Rebecca's marriage joins two opposite views within a single home of love.

iii
God gives the Law to the Children of Israel—Rebecca and Isaac's descendants—at a precise mountain, a specific spot, along the Children of Israel's journey from Egypt to Canaan, from landlessness to home, from profane to holy. 

And God asks the Children of Israel to make for him a Mishkan, a portable temple, a meeting-house for the people and God, for the people and holiness, in their journeys from place to place.

And even up through now we meditate upon the Law, that is called Halacha, that means Path, inside the room called a Beit Midrash: a House of Study: the journey and the meditation in one home.

*
So that we, who are Rebecca and Isaac's children, come to God as Rebecca and Isaac's children.

Their marriage is eternal.

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This thought owes a great deal to both an online shiur from Yaacov Steinman, and insights from Rabbi Laurie Dinnerstein-Kurs.

Torah Through Mercy

i
God gives the Torah to Moses. But the Children of Israel commit the sin of the Golden Calf. And Moses, in anger, smashes the stone Tablets of the Covenant—the stones of Torah—that God had written.

*
God forgives the Children of Israel. He tells Moses to re-fashion a second set of stone Tablets. He calls Moses back up the mountain.

He gives Moses the Torah again.

*
Moses returns from the Mountain. His face shines.

But Moses does not know that his face shines. The people flee from him. Even Moses' brother flees.

*
Moses calls them back. They return to him. He teaches them Torah.

ii
One imagines that Moses is lonely when the people flee from him. And so his calling them back is more personal than a calling-back-to-holiness, alone. He is calling to them because he needs them.

But it is impossible for them to stand before this shining man. And so, until he calls them back, they flee.

*
So there is the guilt of sin. And there is Moses' need of others.

There is an impasse

Until Moses calls the people back, overcoming their guilt.

iii
Moses reaches out to the people from his loneliness: he ignores their sin.

Moses brings them back: the need for others overcomes sin itself.

That is the essence of Mercy.

*
It is in this way that the Torah is finally given.

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In God’s History Lies Forgiveness

i
Joseph’s brothers cast him down into a pit. From there he is stolen and sold into slavery in Egypt. In Egypt he is sentenced for a crime he does not commit. He lives in prison.

Later, in a twist of fate, Joseph becomes ruler over all of Egypt.

*
As ruler over Egypt, Joseph sustains his brothers, and his father, and all the people of that land through seven lean years of brutal famine.

ii
Later, Joseph forgives his brothers; though they have caused him suffering.

Joseph says to them: You …thought evil against me; but God meant it for good: to bring it to pass… this day that many people should be saved alive.

iii
Joseph looks at the world and does not see the world.

Joseph looks at the world and sees God’s will, revealing itself through the world.

Joseph looks at his brothers but does not see his brothers. He sees emissaries of God’s will.

You …thought evil against me, Joseph says to his brothers: but God meant it for good.

*
And so Joseph’s own suffering cannot cripple him.

And so though Joseph has suffered, he can forgive.

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Children of Isaac

i
Jacob and Esau are Isaac’s sons.

Esau is a hunter. But Jacob is a simple man, a dweller of tents.

Jacob’s offspring—and not Esau’s offspring—will carry the mantle of Isaac.

*
Once, Esau returns from the hunt and is hungry to the point of death. Jacob, meanwhile, cooks lentils.

Esau remains hungry, though he hunts: though he seeks to capture food from far and wide.

Meanwhile Jacob, a dweller of tents, makes a meal. A dweller of tents, he understands how to use what is near at hand.

ii
Torah is the study of the holiness of the close-by. In it you jump into questions like how to prepare meat, or what fire is, or what constitutes the act of sewing.

*
Torah will be the task of the family of Isaac, through the end of time. So the task of the family of Isaac is to grow nourishment from the-near-at hand. It is a task for dwellers of tents.

Jacob is a dweller of tents. It is no surprise, then, that Jacob would carry the mantle of his family.

*
We are that family.

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