{"id":39841,"date":"2018-09-12T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T10:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=39841"},"modified":"2022-04-05T17:42:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T14:42:18","slug":"and-they-fell-on-each-others-necks-and-wept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/and-they-fell-on-each-others-necks-and-wept\/","title":{"rendered":"And They Fell on Each Other\u2019s Necks and Wept"},"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":[366,484],"acf":{"old_id":"39841","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39842,"related_cahpter":"45","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Personal, interpersonal, communal and historical grief and consolation are all intertwined","content":"

Rashi, the prolific eleventh-century commentator, offers an evocative image of the dramatic embrace between Joseph and Benjamin in verse 14: \u201cAnd he fell upon his brother Benjamin\u2019s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi interprets the verse as follows, basing his comments on Genesis Rabbah:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he fell upon his brother Benjamin\u2019s neck and wept\u201d for the Temples which were to be in Benjamin\u2019s territory and which would ultimately be laid in ruins.<\/span>
\n<\/span>\u201cAnd Benjamin wept on his neck\u201d for the Tabernacle of Shiloh which was to be in Joseph\u2019s territory and which would ultimately be laid in ruins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi here transforms this moment of interpersonal healing into one that marks communal destruction. It would appear that Rashi does not imagine Joseph and Benjamin\u2019s weeping to be that of joy at their reconciliation, as it seems from the text. Rather, for Rashi the tears must be tears of mourning; that mourning is not \u00a0for the losses the two brothers have suffered in their relationship but maps onto a historical loss suffered by the Jewish people.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shift Rashi applies to the verse, from personal relationship to national calamity, is the opposite of the shift that that we as Jews undergo between Tisha B\u2019av and the Yamim Noraim, <\/em>the High Holidays. We mourn the destruction of our Temple and linger in that mourning, comforted by the seven Haftarot of Comfort, until we reach Rosh HaShanah. Gradually, we move from national mourning to individual introspection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps Rashi\u2019s understanding of Joseph and Benjamin\u2019s tearful embrace is not such a leap as it first appears. The damage in their relationship — which lingers even as they begin to heal — prefigures the damage done between the relationship between the Jewish people and God. Interpersonal harm is of a piece with communal harm. These relationships are not separable.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can imagine Joseph and Benjamin crying over both the time together they had lost and over the destruction of the Temple and Tabernacle. We have learned what it is to mourn massive communal loss, and we have been comforted. Now, we are faced with the knowledge that our community is built from our own personal relationships. The continuation of our communal consolation is to repair what we have damaged; we must fall upon our siblings and weep — not just for destructions we all share, but for those between us as well.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":73520,"id":73520,"title":"ez11-cold comfort","filename":"ez11-cold-comfort.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez11-cold-comfort.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/cold-comfort\/ez11-cold-comfort\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez11-cold-comfort","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":73519,"date":"2020-04-20 12:58:04","modified":"2023-07-12 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