{"id":39774,"date":"2018-09-12T01:17:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T22:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=39774"},"modified":"2022-04-05T14:57:41","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T11:57:41","slug":"judahs-perfect-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/judahs-perfect-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"Judah’s Perfect Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[568,571],"acf":{"old_id":"39774","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39167,"related_cahpter":"44","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Judah reverses not only his own sin against his own brother, but his father\u2019s sin against his\u2026.","content":"

Judah, unlike his father, who pleads self-righteous innocence when his family is in fact guilty of the crime of which he is accused [ch. 31], admits guilt to a crime he has not committed\u2026<\/p>\n

The speech he delivers (Gen. 44:18\u201334)\u2014sixteen verses of text\u2014is longer than any number of quintessential narratives (the entire narrative of Babel, for example, is only nine verses) and the longest monolog in the Torah. The word that begins the sentence in which he starts to speak, and, indeed, the name of the Torah portion, is vayigash<\/em>, variously translated as \u201cand he approached\u201d and \u201cand he drew near\u201d (Gen. 44:18).<\/p>\n

This verb appears only five times in the book of Genesis, each on a momentous occasion, signaling either superhuman effort, or sealing spectacular deception. Its first appearance describes Abraham\u2019s action in Genesis 18, after God has revealed his plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Vayigash Abraham vayomer<\/em> \/ \u201cAnd Abraham came forward and said . . .\u201d (Gen. 18:23) introduces Abraham at his most bold, \u201ccoming near\u201d to God\u2014with all the implications such a phrase entails\u2026. Judah, with this verb, will approach what is for him the embodiment not of heavenly, but of earthly power\u2014and not for a principle or for hypothetical people he does not know, but for a beloved, if clearly flawed, father.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s in recounting the narrative of that very father that we encounter the other three appearances in the Torah of the word vayigash<\/em>. In Gen. 27:21, Isaac demands of Jacob (masquerading as Esau) gish-a li<\/em> \/ \u201cPlease approach me.\u201d Verse 22 begins Vayigash Yaakov<\/em> \/ \u201cAnd Jacob drew close to his father Isaac, who felt him and wondered, \u201cThe voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau” (Gen. 27:22). \u2026In verse 26, Isaac again bids Jacob approach: Gisha na ush\u2019ka li<\/em> \/ \u201cApproach and kiss me,\u201d and we\u2019re told Vayigash vayishakh lo<\/em> \/ \u201cAnd he approached and kissed him\u201d (Gen. 27:27)\u2026.<\/p>\n

The fourth appearance of the verb, when Jacob single-handedly moves the stone in front of the well for the beautiful Rachel\u2014vayigash Yaakov vayagel et haeven<\/em> (Gen. 29:10)\u2014signals a rare superhuman physical achievement in the Five Books of Moses\u2026<\/p>\n

The vayigash<\/em> that introduces Judah\u2019s transformational speech both aligns him with Abraham and Jacob at their most heroic\u2014one spiritually so, the other physically so\u2014and also serves to reverse the intergenerational trend of brother mistreating brother in which the verb doubly appears. It establishes Judah both as demonstrating the human equivalent of Abraham\u2019s spiritual daring, and the emotional equivalent of his father\u2019s superhuman physical effort on behalf of love\u2014as well as setting him out as the antithesis of his father Jacob at his worst moment. With the speech that follows this verb, Judah will reverse not only his own sin against his own brother, but his father\u2019s sin against his\u2026.<\/p>\n

The very reason Judah and his brothers treated Joseph so cruelly\u2014their father\u2019s favoritism\u2014has become the centerpiece of Judah\u2019s plea to Joseph on Benjamin\u2019s behalf. He offers to take Benjamin\u2019s place as slave\u2014\u201cTherefore please let your servant remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy\u201d (Gen.44:33)\u2014for the very same reason that he sold Joseph into slavery. The reason for sin becomes the reason for repentance; the nature of the sin\u2014turning his father\u2019s favorite\/his own brother into a slave\u2014becomes the mechanism of repentance: offering to serve as slave in his father\u2019s favorite\u2019s\/his brother\u2019s stead. The speech, therefore, is an instance of perfect repentance; the action it offers, similarly, comes as close as Judah can to reversing his treatment of Joseph through his efforts on behalf of Joseph\u2019s only full sibling.<\/p>\n

(Excerpted and reprinted with permission from the essay \u201c’That We May Live and Not Die’: Judah as Life Force of Genesis,” by Jaqueline Osherow, in:\u00a0Reading Genesis Beginnings<\/span><\/em><\/a>, Beth Kissileff, editor, Bloomsbury, 2016, pp.
\n231-234).<\/p>\n

(Cover illustration:\u00a0Willem de Poorter (1608-1648?), Kaluga Regional Art Museum, from:\u00a0http:\/\/alhatorah.org\/Yehuda_Confronts_Yosef_in_Art#DePoorter)\u00a0<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":39766,"id":39766,"title":"G44B1de Poorter","filename":"G44B1de-Poorter.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/G44B1de-Poorter.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/judah-confronts-joseph-in-art\/g44b1de-poorter\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"g44b1de-poorter","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":39765,"date":"2018-09-11 19:46:23","modified":"2022-04-05 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