Author: Inna Rogatchi

Shemot – Names 

Exodus 1:1 – 6:1

Essay from The GLIMPSES of the TORAH

Analysis of Psychological Causes of Human Behaviour in the Torah

 © INNA ROGATCHI

With ART by MICHAEL ROGATCHI ©  

2020, 2022 – 2026  

The Rogatchi Foundation

Parsha Shemot opens the second book of the Torah with the chapter under the same title, the Names. The Torah tradition provides a special, elevated meaning for naming. When it is done ( apart from those representing evil ) it means more than a usual mentioning. It means an emphasis, double-weight and verification. It adds a special merit. In this motion, the names of all the Tribes have been provided in the Shemot, most likely, as the respectful  commemoration of them at the moment of the sons of Jacob generation’s leaving the stage of life. 

At the same time, very much in the mode of the Torah narrative, here also the end of something means or leads to beginning of something else, in a reflection of the Judaism philosophy and perception of life. It is in this way that after mentioning of the Tribes families names, the parsha Shemot brings to us some of the names of the Moses family, with all the family appearing in the Torah together for the first time – opening the new chapter not only in the second book of the Torah, but in the life and history of Jewish people. 

Here appears Moses’ parents, Amram and Yochebed, and his siblings, sister Miriam and brother Aaron. The marriage of Moses’ parents was the marriage between a nephew and his aunt in the period when such marriages were not forbidden by the rules of Judaism yet. It also means that Moses , Aaron and Miriam all had the genetically enforced super-line, all coming from Levi, as both their mother Yochebed who was Levi’s daughter, and their father Amram who was the son of Levi’s son Kehot, were direct and closest relatives of Levi, thus making Moses and his siblings twice grandsons of Levi, so to say. This is an extremely strong and highly mattering genetic potential. 

With developing the Moses’s story, his miraculous saving from the Nile river, and his high-end upbringing at the Pharaoh court, the parallel between him and Joseph appears very graphic, with only difference that Joseph appeared at his time Pharaoh court when he was 17, while Moses grew up as the adopted son of the Pharaoh daughter Bithiah since he was a baby. But the principle of their development is strikingly close: both Jewish boys were thriving as the Egyptian royalties, with no impact of anything Egyptian or royal on their both personalities of organic strong Jewish men whatsoever. This is highly unusual, if not to say unique.  But this, so similar parallel in both Joseph and Moses life-lines in its beginning, their both strong and devoted withstanding of their Jewish personality amidst total and quite strong Egyptian environment around them in their formative years does explain, from yet another perspective, that deeply touching devotion that Moses had for Joseph. 

After all, he was the only one amongst thousands of people whom he was preparing to lead out of Egypt , who was interested to find and to take with him Joseph’s remnants, not merely remembering Joseph’s will, plea and hope, but also being absolutely committed to fulfil it. The only one – as it is emphasised in the Talmud and other primary Jewish sources. Just to think about it.   

Reading, analysing and studying this parsha, we normally concentrate on Moses’ family and the dramatic twists of their lives, with a good reason. Miriam’s character of a strong and extremely smart and decisive Jewish woman is shown here in her life-saving actions, with a rare vision, even pre-vision, understanding and knowledge of what to do, and with a phenomenal sense of timing.  Moses’s mother Yochebed is set in this parsha as a model of the forthcoming in a vast number and at the different periods of history a special character of Jewish mother, with our moms’ absolute devotion, bottomless love, their unique hearts, their incredible selflessness, their warmth, gentleness, protection. Their beauty, their smartness, their stunning resourcefulness. In short, the best of what life can actually provide to a human being. All this had been set  for our extremely lucky in this respect people initially by Sarah and all following matriarchs, and further on by Yochebed, that special loving and brave mother of Moses.  

Michael’s Motherhood ( Next Year in Jerusalem) painting tells about it in the best possible way, with our never ending dramas, our moms’ main priority in life for their children, our strength and ability for overcoming against all odds and through any storms that are pushing non-stop our way. The work is both elegant and dynamic, which is a rare and worthy combination in visual art. It is created in a very coherent palette, thus making its strong , almost passionate message, tangible but  intentionally constrained, in a noble, not over-reacting  way.  And finally, it brings out the ongoing drama of Jewish life and history, the drama which very often falls on the protective shoulders of Jewish mothers, from Sarah and Rebeccah to Yocheved and so many others all the way through the history. In a paradoxical way, this work , while portraying an open, ongoing drama, strengthens a viewer instead of making him depressed and weaker. When art  that speaks about suffering strengthens, it is both the most unusual and most healthy outcome. It is a deed by an artist. 

 * * *

In my understanding, there are two unsung heroes in Parsha Shemot, additionally to its main protagonists, a man and a woman. Yethro, who will become Moses’ father-in-law, and whose role in Jewish way of life and history will be quite meaningful, due to his personal qualities and his ability to think and to see the core of matters, was known to Moses many years prior to becoming his father-in-law. It was Yethro, the one of the most notable wise men in the Pharaoh court, who saved the boy Moses from an evil-inclined powerful people in the household who with a power instilled into them by the evil forces, if not fully realised but still sensed the threat to the Egyptians en masse that will come from Moses, eventually. In both Midrash and Talmud, the story about Yetro saving the life of the adopted son of Bithiah is told in detail. 

We also know, from the same primary sources, that soon after saving Moses, Yethro did become disillusioned with the pagan practices and preaching, and left the Pharaoh household making a pretty clear moral choice. Due to that fact and his principal disagreement to preach the paganism, Yethro, previously very popular and influential on the top of the Egyptian hierarchy, following , naturally for this kind of regime, with wide subduedness by  the middle and lower lawyers of the Egyptian society , has become a pariah in the eyes of them all overnight, which forced him to retreat to his own place of living and to work for providing his family by himself with his seven daughters. Still , Yethro did not mind, was not depressed, and lived as he believed was right, which was and still is a privilege of strong and independent minds. 

That man saw and understood many things and phenomena that most of the ordinary and non-ordinary people of his time and environment had no clue about. One of such provident samples has to do with Moses’s stuff. As we learn from the Talmudic sources, the miraculous stuff that has been created  on the Sixth Day of the Creation, went from Adam to Abraham and further on the line of the patriarchs , reaching Joseph from Jacob. After Joseph’s death, his household was looted by an Egyptian mob, with the stuff ended at the Pharaoh household. The stuff had such a self-protecting power that nobody who would approach it , trying to grab it, could not do it. Except Yethro. 

Leaving the Pharaoh court for good, Yethro took the stuff with him, being the only person who could physically – and metaphysically – do it. Secluded with his family at his home far from the Pharaoh court ‘s glitter and menace, Yethro was wise to place the stuff in the middle of his garden. And again, nobody was able to reach the stuff, and the stuff was a blessing and the most powerful protection for Yethro’s household and the family. Leaving the court and stating publicly his disillusionment  with pagan practices and belief, Yethro had all the reasons to be in need of protection, indeed. When Moses entered the Yethro’s home after meeting him and his daughters , including his future wife Zipporah , at the well, the first thing that grabbed Moses’ attention on the spot, was the stuff that stood proudly in the centre of the Yethro’s garden. Coming closer, Moses saw the signs on the stuff and was able to read and understand that. It is then, according to the Talmudic sources, when Yethro realised fully who was the man whose life he saved in the boy’s childhood at the Pharaoh’s court, and at that moment Yethro decided to give his daughter Zipporah as the wife to Moses. And we know how Yethro was supporting and helping Moses ever since. 

An unsung female hero of the Parsha Shemot is Serah. The text of the Shemot parsha does not mention Serah explicitly, but according to the Midrash and other Jewish sources, the events described in this part, has her role as a key-one. And at least in one more substantial episode from the Torah narrative, Serah has played a special and important role , as we learn from the Talmudic sources.   According to the rabbinical tradition, she was daughter of Asher, possibly adopted one, and if that was the case, she is mentioned as the granddaughter of Eber.  In the highly dramatic and full of possible  emotional implications episode of Joseph returning home with his brothers in the parsha Vaygash , the Tribes were seriously worried of what might happen to Jacob if he would be told straightforwardly and on the spot that his beloved Joseph is alive and is about to meet him soon. Jacob’s heart might not sustain such a shocking, even if positively so, news without necessary psychological preparedness. To make it happen, the Tribes tasked Serah, an exceptionally beautiful ( as all Asher’s daughters)  their niece, to sit near Jacob, with lute in her hands, and to play and sing gently, including into her solo from time to time a small phrases like “Joseph is alive”, “Joseph is about to come’, “Joseph will see his father soon”, the things like that. Serah’s solo set up Jacob’s sub-consciousness in the proper mode, so when he was informed sometime after that Joseph is alive and coming indeed, it did not come as a high emotional risk for him. It was probably the earliest psychological training in the history of humankind. At least, the earliest among the registered ones. 

 In the parsha Shemot, Serah plays a pivotal role twice, first time acting as a fact-checking authority, and second time as a historian or archivist with a decisive knowledge. When Moses appeared to his people, they were not convinced at all. Not to mention that some of them, like those two who reported him to the Egyptian authorities years before in the episode that had prompted his escape for his life, did not like him from the beginning. Interestingly enough , that vicious couple of low  informers is believed by the Torah commentators to be the same Abiram and Dathan who would later on bring another serious mess among the Jews igniting, on purpose, the mean conflict with Moses and Aaron. 

When Moses, fulfilling the Creator’s will, appeared to Jews and started to speak with them, most of them had their doubts in the beginning. Some of them ran to the wise woman who was the only one surviving of the generation of the Tribes ( as Serah was blessed with an exceptionally long life), to check what she was thinking about this newcomer. Listening to what the doubters had to say about what Moses said and how he did it , wise and knowledgeable Serah was not impressed either, saying that that man was a commoner without a mission. The people speaking with Serah then said that Moses did pronounced the phrase which they did not quite understand, ‘ I will indeed remembered”/or visited, ‘pakod pakadeti’, and Serah immediately recognised the code phrase ( known as ‘pakad-pakad’) that was known in her generation ( and previously, from Abraham onward) as a special message and the sign from the Creator indicating His chosen ones for the mission. It is hard to imagine what might happen  – or might not happen – with enslaved Jewish society in Egypt without Serah and her recognition of who Moses was that she explained to the people who were doubting him. 

Later on, the same woman, Serah, would be the one who only knew and remembered what had happened with the remnants of Joseph when Moses ran to her to inquire about her possible knowledge after frantically searching for Joseph’s bones prior to leaving Egypt. Among all the people who were preparing to leave ( those 20% brave and convinced ones), Moses was the only one who was occupied with the matter. After his search proved fruitless , he turned to Serah, who did remember what had happened with Joseph’s coffin, or rather the lead box with his remnants,  and where the Egyptians had put it. They had placed it in the Nile, to bless the river that was in their culture much more than a river . It was the element that commanded their way of life, a cosmos of Egypt. Moses ,who went to the Nile’s bank and started to pray fervently, did succeed in finding the resurfaced lead box with Joseph’s bones in it. But he would not know where to search unless wise and special Serah would not tell him. Given the importance and not obvious underlining of all remarkable episodes ( there are many more)  in which she was playing a decisive role throughout her remarkably long life, it is logical to conclude that Serah is one of the most interesting and meaningful personages of the Jewish tradition. 

And there is one more exceptional woman portrayed in the parsha, Bithiah. Her, the Pharaoh’s daughter’s history in the context of the Jewish – and the world civilisation’s – history is crucial.  An Egyptian royalty takes pity on a Jewish male baby, in the midst of the draconian measures against precisely these acts, imposed all over Egypt by the  young woman’s father, mighty sovereign of Egypt.  Something has driven her from inside, perhaps something that she was not able to comprehend fully at the time. That mighty impulse has prompted Bithiah to save that little boy who was inside that basket floating slowly through the Nile. But Pharaoh’s daughter not  only saved the boy. She loved him. Only a loving person would allow the saved boy’s real mother , Yochebed, to nurse him for two years. Only  a loving person would bring the boy out with utmost care and love, subduing and avoiding the rigid rules of a cold power to produce an empathy towards a lonely boy from entirely different people , and to make his life as warm and privileged as possible. 

I tend to think that Bithiah was given knowledge , probably from the very beginning, even if she did not realise it in full measure at the time. I think that Bithiah might have been infused by the High Force with a subconscious sense of duty, which she might not fully comprehend in the beginning of that moral imperative . It is for that devotion, I believe, that Pharaoh daughter Bithiah , who was subsequently converted, was rewarded by marrying Caleb, according to the Talmudic sources. Caleb, of all Jewish men, the best of them at the time, the most devoted one both to Moses and to the Jewish cause,  the most decisive and resilient, the eternal  pride of ours. Bithiah’s life and evolution in her unique mission is a very important part of Jewish history, one of its lines that has determined our all’ future.   

In this remarkable parsha, there are so many episodes which one can identify as key-ones for the entire destiny of Jewish nation, they are coming in the Shemot one after another.  But the most enigmatic one, and one of the most decisive for entire Jewish history is the episode of the Burning Bush.  There are some intriguing questions in the phenomenon that still has its grip not only on the Jewish observant people and scholars, but also on many of those of the Christian faith who find the episode as one of the strongest in the Old Testament. In my artwork Burning Bush II from my Songs of Our Souls collection, I have been trying to address the ongoing importance of the Burning Bush from which the Creator did speak to Moses, for every next generation of Jewish people. 

Why was the Bush burning, without being consumed by the fire for as long as seven days? Not one, not two, not even three, but that many. As it comes from the logic of human behaviour, it happened because Moses himself could not believe in the sufficiency of his leadership abilities, most of all due to his exceptional humility. We know that Moses was the epitome of humility in the very best sense of it.  But the Creator knew the main quality of that stuttering ( because of an incident in his childhood) man, a crystal honesty of his heart. This quality has become the main source of Moses’ leadership that sustained so many daring tests, and which designed the character of the man who led our people out of slavery, not only literally, but metaphorically too, which is of principal importance. 

Undoubtedly, in the case of Moses, there was a fantastic genetic lineage. He was the grandson of Levi on both his mother and his father’s sides, the great-grandson of Jacob, and the direct successor of Isaac and Abraham in the third and fourth generations. But there was also the conscious choice of his heart which led him through life, and which was the decisive factor and the main criteria for the Creator’s choice, I dare to believe. 

There is no coincidence in the way of the Creator’s choice among the Jewish forefathers to become our patriarchs and the key leaders. Both Abraham and Moses were chosen directly by the Creator for their personal abilities and the honesty of their hearts. It was a foundation stone of their both personalities. This honesty of the heart formed the way of their both faith. It has kept their will to believe unshaken. It has made their beliefs uncompromising, with a special strength. It also contributed largely to their both ability to lead – because due to their crystal honesty, they had nothing to be afraid of, they were both completely uncompromised people in any way, thus having a lasting moral authority under any circumstances.

These kinds of people appear in every generation, as we know. Otherwise, humankind would not sustain. My great-grandfather and my grandfather were men of this kind.  I was very lucky to know what the crystal honesty of a strong, convinced in the best morality Jewish person is since I was born. The only thing is that such people are so rare. But it tells about the quality of us, and our preparedness and ability to overcome challenges and give  – or not – the way for compromises. Moses did not. And that’s why Bush was in the fire, unconsumed, for seven days, to set up a strong  symbol of the strength of the honest heart that gives us, everyone who is open to honest dialogue with itself and the Creator,  to live decently.

Vayechi   – And he lived

Genesis 47:28-50:26

Essay from The Glimpses from the Torah. Analysis of Psychological Causes of the Human Behaviour in the Torah.

Inna Rogatchi (C) 2023 – 2026

With Art by Michael Rogatchi (C)

Parsha Vayehi, And he lived, which ends the Bereishit, the first Book of the Torah, is one of the most concentrated chapters of the Torah. It is  filled with so many essential topics for Judaism and Jewish outlook towards the world that even one of them would be sufficient for a very substantial part of a Jewish fundamental document to discuss and learn. But perhaps the fact that this parsha concludes the first book of the Torah demands an extra weight in it.

In this part, we are told about the passing of both Jacob and Joseph, the third Jewish patriarch and his beloved son, it narrates a rather dramatic and essentially meaningful process of Jacob’s blessing the Tribes, his sons, and in the case of Joseph, his grandsons. That destiny-prescribed blessing  gave to the Tribes the impetus for their development from the new plato, with new knowledge and understanding, all of it being articulated by their father at the highly special moment before his departure from this World . 

The parsha also tells about the one of the most enigmatic episodes in the entire Torah when Jacob who was about to tell the Tribes , and thus, to the entire Jewish people, the time of the end of the world ( meaning the coming of the Messiah in the Jewish tradition) , was prevented from doing it by the Divine intervention. The reason for that is still discussed by the Jewish scholars till today.  

Vayechi tells us about the return of Jacob’s body to the Land of Israel and the unusual circumstances of his burial there ( with Talmud bringing more dramatic detail on that important episode). It also tells about the death of Joseph, but yet before that , it brings to us another eternal thriller of the Tribes’ behaviour towards Joseph after passing of their all father, in a very human whirl of emotions, fears and nervousness. 

And – it produces Shema, its beginning, the first of its three verses, in the scene of the beginning of Jacob’s blessing of the Tribes. The appearance of the quiet-essential of Jewish prayer is a very decisive mark of the chapter which tells about Jewish people entering a principally new, post-Patriarchal stage of our history. With the passing of Jacob, the last of the patriarchs, the Jewish people were about to enter the next period of their life. The life in which the responsibility for self-sustainability had been growing for every Jewish person individually further more. They had to be morally prepared for this new way of their spiritual and moral life. They had to have their constant personal check-in, which the Shema is effectively about. 

It is in this connection that Jacob decided to double-check, in the emphatic manner, the Tribes’ devotion to the Jewish faith. Prior to his departure from this World, Jacob knew that he needs to make the Tribes, his sons and two of his grandsons, to look into themselves at the pivotal moment and to make them to be decisively re-assured in their devotion to the Creator, an absolute basic of Jewish faith.  

Jacob’s sudden, sharp, dramatic  question to his sons which was perceived as an unexpected alarm by them ( and that reaction was exactly what Jacob was aiming to),  in fact , was his ever-wise signal to the Tribes to remember who they are, what was their purpose in life, and what this purpose shall be based upon. 

The Tribes’ emotional reply is the first  phrase from our three-phrased essential Shema prayer: “Shema Israel, Adonai Elohaynu, Adonay Ehad” ( Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is One). Before the Shema will be formed as we know it in the last, the fifth book of the Torah, in Deuteronomy, its first phrase, according to the Talmudic authorities was actually the Tribes’ answer to their father Israel ( as Jacob was re-named by the Creator, and as his name is written in the Torah since then, including the entire Vayechi chapter) – “Hear , O Israel… “ was their re-assurance, literally so, to their dying father of their strong, deep, unshakable devotion to the very core of the Jewish belief. 

In Michael’s very special – and unique in his oeuvre – visual interpretation of the Shema, there is a ground for many reflections on the matter, from clear differentiation between good and evil to virtual details of the essential for Jewish people prayer. The shield of our belief and the way of an Jewish individual in his very personal daily addressing the Creator and plea to Him are expressed in this amazing artwork at the high level of intellect and laconism. Every time this work has been exhibited, we observed many people spending a lot of time in front of it, not surprisingly. 

Further on in the parsha Vayechi, patriarch Jacob not only blesses his sons and two of his grandsons, Joseph’s children, before his passing, but his vital blessings is also a deep destiny-visioning analysis, which only wise heart of a unique leader of a courageous nation can provide. The leader whose own life was a concentration of an incredible amount of trials. It is not coincidental that many commentators have pointed out that the last seventeen years of Jacob’s life, his time in Egypt after his re-uniting with Joseph, were not only the happiest days of his life, but it was the only happy period of it. This is less than the eighth’s part, something like 11%  of his 147 years of life. And he lived – emphasises the title of the parsha. 

In the crucially important for all the further development of the Jewish history Jacob’s blessing of the Tribes, the leaders of the Jewish people received the impetus for their personal and, very importantly, their families, the tribes of Israel, further development. They’ve got the direction from Jacob, putting it in the modern way of expression. And they lived by it. Our people lived by it, having the Tribes characterised by Jacob before his passing, in the most authentic way. 

That’s why Michael’s Strength of Love depicting the Lion of Judah in his work of 2016 ( he has more than one work on the theme) is so powerful. It conveys Jacob’s blessing to Judah as it is breathed through and from the canvas.  At the same time, the work also reflects Judah’s and his descendants’, including King David, Michael’s favourite personality in the Jewish history, devotion to his father’s crucial blessing, and brings it tangible to anyone who sees it. The loyalty of Judah – and his tribe – to his father, and to Jacob’s vision and principles of life , his and his descendants’ resilience to defend our soil, spirit, lives and values, has become one of the noblest features in the Jewish character and Jewish history.  And it continues to be like that. 

The Torah’s commentators in every generation were acutely interested in the fact that Jacob, very decisively,  has blessed two of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, thus elevating them to the level of his sons, the Tribes. In the blessing that has doubled Joseph’s portion, according to Jacob’s intention, Jacob foresaw two other crucial developments in Jewish history, with our heroes and formative figures Gideon and Joshua coming as descendants of Manasseh and Ephraim respectively. Nothing, just nothing, not a single detail in this amazing parsha Vayeish appears as occasional, sidelined or casual. And he lived. 

Coming to its end, parsha Vayeish tells us about Joseph’s passing. But yet before that, the Torah narrative gets us to Shechem, twice. Firstly, in the beginning of his meeting with Joseph during which Jacob made his beloved son to give him the oath ( an exclusive deed in Jewish life), he grants Shechem as the portion in the Land of Israel to Joseph and his descendants, in a very meaningful reminder of the role of the place in their both destiny. Shechem was the place where his brothers carried out the plot against Joseph. By granting Shechem to Joseph as his portion of the Land of Israel, Jacob recuperated the devastating damage that the brothers, his sons, inflicted upon Joseph. It was an absolutely important and very meaningful implementation of fairness which, as a concept of life, is a backbone of Jewish moral heritage and tradition. 

The next time Shechem appears in the same parsha after Jacob’s death, when the burial procession of his family accompanying Jacob’s coffin enters the Land of Israel and moves towards Machpelah Cave in order to bury the third patriarch there.  At the Machpelah, as the  Talmud provides in a dramatic and rather detailed account, there was also a dramatic confrontation between the Tribes and their descendants and Esau who decided to appear and prevent a possibility for Jacob to be buried at the last available place in the Cave, which Esau has planned for himself. The confrontation led to the ultimate end of Esau in swift and rather brutal way when one of the grandsons of Levi, in indignation of Esau’s plotting against Jacob, took his sword and the Esau’s decapitated head rolled over on all the way to the Machpellah, stopping precisely at the feet of his father Isaac where it is believed to be still there from then on, as it is stated by the Torah authorities. 

But Shechem which is 200 km from the Machpelah, was the place where Joseph went alone after entering the Land of Israel after all those 37 years that he spent in Egypt after being set up by his brother in Shechem. It was essential for Joseph to return there, at the place from which his life has had such an ultimate and dramatic turn. 

In Joseph’s decisive return to Shechem and his quiet  intense prayer there, on his own, a special important feature of Jewish existence has transpired. In Shechem, returning immediately after entering the Land of Israel after 37 years of absence, a third part of his life that continued for 110 years, a mighty viceroy of Egypt, a de-facto ruler of a huge and important country, has profusely become the person who he really and always was: a Jewish man, the son of Jacob and Rachel, supremely talented and intelligent, solely devoted,  introvertive Messenger of G-d, to cite the vision of Elie Wiesel, who had a lot of similar characteristic with Joseph himself and who understood and loved him deeply. 

First and foremost, that sole prayer of the Egyptian viceroy at the pit in Shechem that has changed both his destiny, the destiny of his family, and consequently, the destiny of Jewish people, was absolutely important for Joseph who was there Alone But Not Lonely. That return and that prayer in Shechem was not just a closure for Joseph, but, from the point of view of Jewish perception of the world, it was a closing of the circle, which is an essential philosophical concept in Judaism. In the case of Joseph, it was a circle of a Jewish destiny which in the form of a circle is always purported to the perfection, and the logic in which the end also means the new beginning. This is actually the foundation of Jewish stern optimism that moves us on through the centuries of unimaginable trials against all odds. 

Both, his father Jacob’s and his own deaths featured in the parsha Vayeshi, have not only ended their both noble and extremely difficult lives which did not poison their both hearts, but it prompted the springing of Jewish life further on, led by their both’ sons, the Tribes and Manasseh and Efraim whom both Jacob has elevated to the level of the Tribes so prophetically.

Vayigash   –  And He Approached

Genesis 44:18-47:27

Essay from The Glipmses of the Torah. Analysis of Psychological Causes of Human Behaviour in the Torah.

Inna Rogatchi (C)

2023 – 2026

With Art by Michael Rogatchi (C)

Throughout parsha Vayigash , translated as And He Approached, the high degree of the dizzy thriller’s plot unfolding during Joseph’s and narrated  in previous parshat ( chapters of the Torah) , has got to its highest degree. The parsha tells about Judah’s confrontation with Josef over the latter’s intention to keep Benjamin next to himself.  The extraordinary confrontation initiated by an unknown man in position who initially came to ask for a life-saving favour, and the viceroy of Egypt,  demonstrated an extraordinary character  and resilience of Judah. We are not that surprised about it as we know that from that unique man as Judah was,  will originate the line of people leading to King David . But in general, that unheard of confirmation has become one of the most commented episodes in the entire Torah throughout the centuries. 

In my reading , from a complex background of the feelings and considerations that overwhelmed Judah at that moment, the driving force for his extraordinary standing off to the viceroy ( he had no clue at the moment who that viceroy really was) was  Judah’s deep love for his father Jacob. That mighty love of a mighty man with its honesty has driven Judah to the situation in which a compromise was excluded. 

 This ability of Judah to see the things as they were had been undoubtedly affected by his auto-remourse for his inability to save Joseph – and to prevent his beloved father from an immense suffering – all previous twenty years from the moment of brothers’ plotting against teenager Joseph and them coming to Egypt in a desperate hope to obtain some provision from that legendary viceroy who ruled Egypt.  

Being deeply remorseful about the catastrophe they the brothers did cause to Joseph and thus to their all father Jacob, seeing – and understanding – his father’s suffering during all those twenty years, Judah just cannot allow the next tragedy in their family to happen by leaving Benjamin to the demanding viceroy. He simply could not let his father down. Does not matter what. Every real leadership comes from a personal preparedness to defend the most vulnerable ones.  

That amazing Judah’s persistence in the front of the viceroy, and yet more amazing his preparedness to stay his ground has affected Joseph’s heart directly and powerfully.  He also heard Judah’s rightful words about Rachel who was ‘the most beloved wife of our father’.  

 One has to possess a seriously above-average courage to confront the viceroy of Egypt in the way Judah the Lion did. One also has to have the most serious reasons for that – and the clarity of mind to acknowledge it , first of all, for  oneself. Those things are not as easy as they seem. People are usually moving to self-defence, self-comfort and absolution far more easier and quicker than they are able and willing to act as Judah did, starting the count from oneself. 

Importantly, the origin  of that unusual courage of Judah was love. The honest, deep, manly love to his father. Being prompted by this  powerful and deeply human love, Judah was not afraid for a bit of whatever might happen to him while confronting the viceroy. The only thing he was thinking about was his father.  

The argument between Judah and Joseph was conveyed at several levels: rational, spiritual, emotional and human.  As Joseph saw and recognised the essence of Judah’s ability and willingness to confront him, which was an indisputable love for their both father, his own extremely elaborated self-defense in dealing with his brothers twenty years after they have plotted to get rid of him has been breached. By the honesty of love. 

What started as an escalating confrontation turned into an unexpected – and that’s why so highly emotional – dialogue of the souls of two sons of Jacob. The brothers. The selfless sincerity of Judah towards his father has compelled Joseph to open to his stunned brothers. 

Looking back from the perspective of time, that healing of the broken ties inside the Patriarch Jacob’s family has paved the way for the entire Jewish people’s history to move forward and to go to its next milestone, coming to Egypt. 

On his way, Jacob had all justified doubts and fears with regard to the immediate and more distant future of his family and his people there. But he was calmed down and assured on his way to Egypt by the Creator himself, commanding him not to fear ( which is a quite-essential motto for any Jewish character at any moment of history ), as He will be with Jacob, his family, and our people. This presence is seen in Michael’s Light Flight  ( 2025) artwork from his Alone But Not Lonely collection. Amongst the darkness and challenges, amidst the winds, many of them hostile, there is always the Presence of caring High Force, which often is depicted in the Jewish tradition as a bird, which protects, supports, and helps us. This Presence is the best and most important gift that we do have in our lives in this world. This Presence is actually the only thing on which we can rely on. And we do. 

With the coming of the Jacob’s family to Egypt, not only the essentially important next chapter in the Jewish history started to unfold, but a principally important period of the world’s civilisation had begun.  

The importance of the 70 souls coming, or descending as it is stated in the Torah and Judaism religious literature, is hard to over-estimate. The whole new stage of the development of the civilisation has started from there, from agriculture to craft, from geopolitics to arts and culture, eventually. The number of 70 Jewish souls who moved with Jacob in order not to perish in the famine, but to survive, blossom and develop, is also principally important for Judaism, Jewish history and history in general.  Seven is understood as the figure of perfection, and its multiplication in ten times refers to many highly important symbolically patterns of Jewish life and knowledge. 

We know, directly from the detailed list in this very parsha Vaiygash, that with Jacob there went 66 souls of his family, who were united in Egypt with Joseph and his two sons. But who was the last, the 70th soul that entered Egypt? 

There are a couple of opinions with this regard. I support the one that lists as the 70th soul Yochebed, a baby girl, the child which was born just on the border with Egypt, already in the Egyptian territory, but still between the walls of it, as it is stated in the Jewish sources. 

The baby girl was the daughter of Levi. She would become the mother of Moses, who has played a pivotal role in the Jewish and humankind’s history.  

This also explains, to me,  Moses’ unique feelings towards Joseph , who was the one who has made the entering of the Jacob’s family, including his just born   mother , possible, thus simply saving their all lives.  It also explains Moses’ very touching love and  his unique personal connection  to Joseph, coming from a conventional wisdom of the simple fact: without Joseph and his will and ability to bring the entire Jacob’s family, predecessors of us all, effectively, to Egypt, his, Moses’s mon Yochebed simply might be not born, due to the severe famine , and thus, Moses himself could never be born, G-d forbid.  

I know, first-hand,  several cases of the people’s feelings similar like that, in the families of the Holocaust survivors. It concerns the families in which children from the Jewish families were saved, and later on, they became parents for the next generation. The feelings of the second generation children born to the saved parents towards their parents’ saviours  are probably the strongest ones one can encounter in life. 

In this logic, the 70th soul of our people who entered Egypt thanks to Joseph’s vision and will, was the soul of the woman who will give birth to Moses, thus prompting the history in the direction we know it.  

And the focused  caring glance of the High Spirit was at that pivotal moment on a small baby girl who would be named Yochebed ( translated as Glory of God, so justly)  and who was born on the way to Egypt – just as the loving, caring, thoughtful and  concentrated  glance of the High Spirit bird that Michael’s artwork expresses .