Dvar Torah - Vayigash: Stepping Aside

Parshat Vayigash:  Stepping Aside

“I’m sorry, but I don’t want to be an emperor. That’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other’s happiness - not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost....”

Charlie Chaplain spoke these stirring words in his 1940 satire, The Great Dictator.

I don’t want to be an emperor he says…

He advocated democracy instead.

One of the hallmarks of healthy democracy is called the peaceful transfer of power.  In two years, if all goes smoothly, the outgoing president will walk out of the White House, greet the incoming president, and escort them inside. 

A peaceful, graceful, transfer of power.

When we think of power, and the transfer of power, in Jewish history, we tend to think of Moses passing the torch to Joshua.

As we see this week the time just prior to when Jacob’s life will end, we recognize that while Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob may not have led the people – after all, there wasn’t a nation yet – they are the spiritual leaders of God’s people and message in the world.

Jacob, whose name is also Israel, says to Joseph upon seeing him after so long, “Now I can die, after seeing your face, for you are indeed alive.”  In a way, Jacob is now saying he is ready to die.

As difficult as the end of life is for us as human beings, we find that for God, death is equally difficult.  As the poet of psalms writes, “Dear in the eyes of God is the death of the righteous.  The Rabbis teach us it was difficult for God to Jacob that he must die.  He had studied Torah all his days, made God’s name holy in the world.

And God is hesitant to grant the end of life that Jacob is now ready for, motivating the Rabbis to observe that if the righteous ones like Jacob did not say they are ready, they would end up living forever.

And so God must arrange a peaceful transfer of power, or presence – not only because humans are mortal and must continue to be, but also because the transfer, the stepping aside, is necessary and healthy for the people.  God says, “If Abraham were immortal then how could Isaac ever fulfill his leadership, and the same is true of Jacob,” one must step aside for the next.

The piece that the Rabbis leave out here is that handing over leadership is not just a matter of handing over the keys to the White House, or the reins of the camels to the individuals who will take over, it is about grooming those new leaders to be the leaders they can be, to fulfill their potential.  Leadership training must be active.  It cannot happen in a vacuum.  It is about character, leading by example, creativity, humility, patience, thoughtfulness.

Some of Jacob’s children learn the lesson, some do not.  Shimon and Levi are firebrands, and pass through fire before they take up their destiny.  Judah struggles with himself and his role until he finds his way.  Joseph goes through many trials before he becomes the man who can stand up and speak to Pharaoh with confidence.

The transfer is significant, though, all other things being equal.  And according to the Torah, Jacob is now ready, prepared, and feels himself fulfilled and motivated for his children to take up the banner of his second name Israel and to represent God’s vision for him by becoming a nation within a nation, as the people of Israel are born in Egypt.

Shabbat Shalom.