The Honesty of Love
Essay from The Glimpses 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 .