Torah Portion
DR. HENRY J. SPIRO IS PLEASED
TO ANNOUNCE THE ASSOCIATION OF:
DR. STEVEN A. SHANBOM, M.D.
SPECIALIZING IN LASER VISION CORRECTION
DR. HENRY J. SPIRO,
M.D.
DR. STEVEN
A.
SHANBOM,
M.D.
THE LASIK SPECIALIST
THE CATARACT SPECIALIST
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Egyptian dungeon, there would be
no ascent to the royal palace as a
base of rescue for the family.
The text curiously continues
(Genesis 50:15) "and Joseph's broth-
ers saw that their father was dead."
They had just returned from the bur-
ial journey at Machpelah Cave. Why
does the verse say now that they saw
that their father was dead?
Furthermore, why the sudden words
of panic: "Perhaps Joseph still bears a
hidden grudge against us. He is like-
ly to pay us back for all the evil we
did him." This hardly demonstrates
successful family reconciliation.
The Midrash Tanchuma Yashan
clarifies the episode with a dazzling
insight: "What is meant by 'and
Joseph's brothers saw'?" They
noticed his death and its effects on
Joseph, for they had been accus-
tomed to dine at Joseph's table; and
he would be friendly toward them
out of respect for his. Father. But
once Jacob died, it seems that Joseph
was revealing a latent animosity
toward them, and "he was not
friendly toward them.' The real rea-
son, this Midrash conrinues, was
Jacob's insistence that Joseph
demonstrate his rank over his broth-
ers' in the banquet chambers. With
their father's passing, Joseph was
truly uncomfortable pulling rank
over his older brothers. He instruct-
ed them to "fear not," that life is not
just a series of ruefully random
events, bearing no positive relation-
ship to one another. Rather, "You
might have meant to harm me, but
God intended it for good ... than: the
life of a great nation be kept alive."
(50:19-20).
Five hundred years ago, one of our
most prolific historical figures, Don
Yitzchak Abarbanel, philosopher,
statesman and financier to the Royal
Houses of both Portugal and Spain,
took a practical lesson from our Torah
portion. Using the entire portion as a
proof-text, he learned chat one should
not delay in drafting a will prior to
death, lest the pain of final ill-less
cloud one's mental faculties.
Summing up one's life implies he
dialectic of both finality and conti-
nuity. The message of Jacob's passing
is that death is anything but final.
Rather, the "torch is passed" to
Jacob's children in a conveyance of
earthly bounty and spiritual values.
It answers mankind's age-old dilem-
ma in the face of death: What did
one stand for? What sense of pur-
pose?