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There Is No Peace
For The Righteous
RABBI HERBERT A. YOSKOWITZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
W
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12
hat will the headlines
read erev Shabbat Nov.
25, as you receive your
copy of The Jewish
News? Will they reveal a heinous
crime, a terrible act committed
by one person against another?
No matter the frequency of im-
moral, inexplicable acts, we are
not yet reconciled to their in-
evitability. It is shocking for us to
think of a mother killing her chil-
dren. Though we live in a violent
world, cruel, vile, dastardly be-
havior still repulses us, whether
this behavior is a present event
or a past event.
Reverberating through the
pages of history is the horrible act
of 10 brothers selling an 11th
brother, Joseph, into slavery, the
act which establishes the proto-
type for internecine enmity. Who
could have imagined such horrific
behavior of brother against
brother then or of mother against
children now?
This week's parsha demon-
strates the truth that life itself is
a battle, a battle from the mo-
ment we take first breath to the
moment when we bid the world
Shalom. We are reminded that
life can toss us hither and thith-
er, even when we least expect any
change from current non-turbu-
lent period of life, even when we
think that we have earned a
respite from life's trials and tests.
As the sedrah, Vayeshev opens,
we read a simple statement: "Ja-
cob settled down in the land of his
father — Va'yeshev Yaacov
B'eretz Mikure Aviv." Then there
is an abrupt change of subject.
The Torah veers away from Ja-
cob the Patriarch to focus on the
story of Joseph, the son. In at-
tempting to explain this abrupt
change in the text, there is an in-
teresting rabbinic comment
BikashYaacov Laishev B'Shal-
vah Miyad Kafatz Alav Ragzo
shel Yosef "Jacob wanted to
settle down to a life of tranquili-
ty. Suddenly the troubles of
Joseph come upon him."
Jacob had earned a period of
tranquility in his life. After all, so
much of his life had been a strug-
gle. Even in utero, according to a
rabbinic teaching, Jacob had
wrestled with his brother Esau.
As an adolescent, Jacob tricked
his father and then, in fear of his
brother Esau, Jacob had to flee
from his home. After his flight,
he was deceived and cheated by
Laban, his father-in-law. He
wrestled with an angel who left
30400 Telegraph Rd. Suite 134, Bingham Farms • 642-5575
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his thigh permanently impaired;
Jacob's wife died during their re-
turn to Israel; his sons deceived
him. Wasn't that enough strug-
gle and pain for one life? At last,
didn't Jacob deserve some peace-
ful years? Instead the tragedy of
Joseph befell him.
No matter what the headlines
of one's life may be, there is an
applicable teaching from rabbinic
literature — Ain Shalva
L'tyadikim B'Olam Hazeh —
There is no tranquility for the
righteous of the world.
This comment is relevant to
Jacob's life and to the lives of
many others. There is no guar-
anteed peace of mind not unend-
ing tranquility.We are constantly
exposed to injustice and un-
righteousness, sin and corrup-
tion.
How do we join together to
make this a better world, cer-
tainly a more kind, less cruel
world? The parsha points us in
the correct direction. Before the
brothers sell Joseph into slavery,
we read that he is sent on a mis-
sion to find his brothers. He is
told by an unidentified man
"Nasu mizeh" — 'They have de-
parted from here." The Hebrew
worked for "from here" is mipoh,
not mizeh. Rashi, quoting
Midrash Tanchuma explains He-
siu et atzman min haachvah —
Shabbat Vayeshev:
Genisis 37:1-40:23
Amos 2:6-3:8.
"they have wandered from the
feeling of brotherliness." At times,
we, as Joseph, seek brothers and
they wander away from the idea
and act of brotherliness. Some-
times, we do the same when our
brothers and sisters seek us.
When a mother kills her chil-
dren or when brothers sell an-
other into slavery, they have
departed from the elementary
feeling which should fill our
hearts and minds, the feeling of
brotherliness. Such feeling of
brotherliness in turn leads to our
commitment to actions which
bridge the distance between us
and our fellow man..
The text of the Joseph story re-
inforces this analysis: "They
(Joseph's brothers) saw him Mer-
achok — "from afar" — and they
conspired to kill him. That is,
when we look at our fellow man
from the distance, we do not try
to know who he really is, to un-