From the Rabbi’s Desk
Rabbi Manes Kogan
Vayigash
5761
What makes a Jew a Jew?
This is, of course, not an easy question and I will try to give to it a comprehensive answer this morning. Jews have been described as being compassionate, loyal, eloquent, brave, smart, intelligent, wise (actually this is the why many Jewish mothers, including mine, describe their children.
There is, however, a quality that could very well define a Jew through Jewish history, but because it does not fit into our daily reality, we haven’t dedicated much thought to it. This quality is called in Hebrew, "Mesirut Nefesh" and could be translated (although not very accurately) as "Readiness to Give Up the Soul" ; something like a constant spirit of sacrifice, for Jewish values, for the Jewish people as a whole and for every single Jew in the world who is – by definition – considered part of each us, interconnected with our own soul. As Judah says about Jacob and Benjamin: "Venafsho Keshura Benafsho" – his soul is so bound up with his soul".
"Mesirut Nefesh" is a quality that shows itself in moments of real crisis (fortunately we don’t have such moments in our daily Jewish lives). We find "Mesirut Nefesh" in queen Ester, risking her own position and even her own life to save her people. We find "Mesirut Nefesh" in the Jews who were deported to Siberia for studying Torah in the former Soviet Union. We find "Mesirut Nefesh" in Jewish mothers and daughters who killed themselves not to be defiled by the crusaders.
Where did we learn this quality? Who taught us to give our lives for our brethren? Who is the father of "Mesirut Ha Nefesh"?
It is not a coincidence that Jews learned this quality from Judah, from whom the word Judaism comes.
In Sidrat Miketz, Joseph –after finding the goblet in Benjamin’s possession- dictates his verdict: "The man in whose possession the goblet was found, only he shall be my slave, and as for you -- go up in peace to your father." (Genesis 44:17)
And it is at this point, at the beginning of Sidrat Vayigash, that Judah approaches Joseph and speaks to him:
"..."If you please, my lord, may your servant speak a word in my lord's ears and let not your anger flare up at your servant -- for you are like Pharaoh: My lord has asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father or brother?': And we said to my lord, 'We have an old father and a young child of [his] old age; his brother is dead, he alone is left from his mother, and his father loves him.': Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, and I will set my eye on him.': We said to my lord, 'The youth cannot leave his father, for should he leave his father he will die.': But you said to your servants, 'If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again!': "And it was, when we went up to your servant my father, we told him my lord's words: and our father said, 'Go back, buy us some food.': We said, 'We cannot go down; only if our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down, for we cannot see the man's face if our youngest brother is not with us.': Then your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two [sons]: One has left me and I presumed - Alas, he has surely been torn to pieces, for I have not seen him since: So should you take this one, too, from my presence, and disaster befall him, then you will have brought down my hoariness in evil to the grave.': "And now, if I come to your servant my father and the youth is not with us -- since his soul is so bound up with his soul: it will happen that when he sees the youth is missing he will die, and your servants will have brought down the hoariness of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave: For your servant took responsibility for the youth from my father saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you then I will be sinning to my father for all time.': " (Genesis 44:18 – 32)
Joseph could have shown himself moved by Judah’s words, or not. What does Pharaoh’s vizier care if the soul of Jacob is so bound up with the soul of his son Benjamin, or if Judah "will be sinning to his father for all time"
In this long speech, Judah, who doesn’t know that Joseph is Joseph, is just putting together his toughts before his ultimate act of "Mesirut Nefesh". He is trying to explain to this young Pharaoh’s vizier, to his brethren and to his children’s children, the Jewish people for generations, what is behind the act of "Mesirut Nefesh" he is going to perform. And here come his words, words that remind Joseph who he is, words that make him cry and make me cry each time I read them, words that paved the path for Joshua, for David when he approached Goliath, for the Maccabees, for Rabbi Akiva and his friends, for the Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages, for Janusz Korchak who walked with 200 children from the orphanage to Treblinka when the Nazis offered to spare his life.
"Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the youth as a servant to my lord, and let the youth go up with his brothers: For how can I go up to my father if the youth is not with me, lest I see the evil that will befall my father" (Genesis 44: 33-34).
Judah is the prototype of the "Jew".
Not Reuben ‘the philosopher’ whose explanation, "Did I not speak to you saying, Do not sin against the boy", came late. Not Shimon and Levi who are brave enough to kill an entire city, but not brave enough to face their father’s pain. Not Joseph, Pharaoh’s C.F.O, the smart youth full of dreams.
Judah is the prototype of the "Jew". Judah, the quiet Judah who knows that human nature is complex, who went down and came back up, who repented one time after the other, who teaches us that it is never too late to change.
Judah, who is the only one ready to give his life to save his brother, is the one who showed us the way of "Mesirut Nefesh".
When I read the story of Judah, my ancestor, a feeling of pride fills my heart and I want to say to everybody: I am part of such a marvelous people, whose leader was ready to give his own life to save his brother.
That is why the most illustrious kings of Israel came from him and that is why the Messiah – may he come speedily in our days – will come from Judah.
Shabat Shalom