{"id":39845,"date":"2018-09-12T16:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=39845"},"modified":"2022-04-05T20:10:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T17:10:31","slug":"joseph-combines-religious-and-royal-identities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-combines-religious-and-royal-identities\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Combines Religious and Royal Identities"},"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":[462,523,402],"acf":{"old_id":"39845","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":39525,"related_cahpter":"45","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Coming to terms with our Jewish identities is one of the first acts of great Jewish leadership","content":"

When Joseph becomes a leader he covers up some aspects of his Jewishness. He takes on a new, Egyptian name. He wears different clothes. He speaks a different language, and most tragically, he names one of his sons after his own sense of personal abandonment in his father’s house. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bestowing a name on a child that’s designed to help us forget our own childhood wounds never works. With each mention of the child’s name, the pain or the nostalgia returns. These outside changes pierce the existential question of Joseph’s personal leadership identity. Who do I serve? How do I serve? Who am I?<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph has a watershed moment when his royal and religious identities converge, forcing him to confront his past and his future. Joseph’s brothers come down to Egypt seeking bread during famine. After testing them, Joseph observes that his brothers have matured in their notions of familial responsibility. Swept up in the emotion of this realization, Joseph can no longer withhold his emotion. <\/span><\/p>\n

In Genesis chapter 45 we read: \u201cJoseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone withdraw from me!” So there was no one else about when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. His sobs were so loud that the Egyptians could hear, so the news reached Pharaoh’s palace.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph tries to separate his family identity from his life in the palace. He demands that all the Egyptians in his midst leave the room when he reveals his real identity to his brothers. But the text tells us that all the Egyptians hear his sobs; the news quickly reaches Pharaoh’s palace. He can no longer play his game of doubles and hide his real self. <\/span><\/p>\n

Like this Biblical hero, we need to consider what is uniquely Jewish about our leadership and how sometimes different and competing values can merge together in a more integrated and authentic way. We live in an age that respects ethnicity and does not force our spiritual identities into hiding in order to compete in corporate or academic settings. The same goes for Joseph: Pharaoh respects Joseph’s Jewishness and invites Joseph’s family to live in the best land that Egypt has to offer. There are no recriminations. Joseph only becomes more whole as a result of his confession and the integration of his current and former selves. Coming to terms with our Jewish identities is one of the first acts of great Jewish leadership. It is an internal calibration that only we can undertake<\/span><\/p>\n

From Erica Brown, <\/span>Inspired Jewish Leadership: Practical Approaches to Building Strong Communities<\/span><\/em> (<\/span>Jewish Lights, 2008)<\/span>, by courtesy of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":103765,"id":103765,"title":"-624c77f3ad11b--624c77f3ad11dgen45-fingerprints identities.png","filename":"624c77f3ad11b-624c77f3ad11dgen45-fingerprints-identities.png.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/624c77f3ad11b-624c77f3ad11dgen45-fingerprints-identities.png.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joseph-combines-religious-and-royal-identities\/624c77f3ad11b-624c77f3ad11dgen45-fingerprints-identities-png\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"624c77f3ad11b-624c77f3ad11dgen45-fingerprints-identities-png","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":39845,"date":"2022-04-05 17:10:11","modified":"2022-04-05 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