I

n his Hilchot 
Teshuvah (Laws of 
Repentance), Moses 
Maimonides makes one 
of the most empowering 
statements in religious 
literature. 
Having 
explained 
that we, and 
the world, 
are judged by 
the majority 
of our deeds, 
he continues: 
“Therefore we should see 
ourselves throughout the 
year as if our deeds and 
those of the world are evenly 
poised between good and 
bad, so that our next act 

may change both the balance 
of our lives and that of the 
world.” 
We can make a difference, 
and it is potentially immense. 
That should be our mindset, 
always.
Few statements are more 
at odds with the way the 
world seems to us most of 
the time. Each of us knows 
that there is only one of us, 
and that there are 7 billion 
others in the world today. 
What conceivable difference 
can we make? We are no 
more than a wave in the 
ocean, a grain of sand on the 
seashore, dust on the surface 
of infinity. Is it conceivable 
that with one act we could 

change the trajectory of 
our life, let alone that 
of humanity as a whole? 
Our parshah tells us that, 
yes, it is.
As the story of Jacob’s 
children unfolds, there is a 
rapid rise of tension among 
his children that threatens 
to spill over into violence. 
Joseph, 11th of the 12, is 
Jacob’s favorite son. He was, 
says the Torah, the child 
of Jacob’s old age. More 
significantly, he was the first 
child of Jacob’s beloved wife 
Rachel. Jacob “loved Joseph 
more than all his other 
sons” (Gen. 37:3), and they 
knew it and resented it. They 
were jealous of their father’s 

love. They were provoked by 
Joseph’s dreams of greatness. 
The sight of the multi-
colored robe Jacob had given 
him as a token of his love 
provoked them to anger.
Then came the moment 
of opportunity. The brothers 
were far away from home 
tending the flocks when 
Joseph appeared in the 
distance, sent by Jacob to 
see how they were doing. 
Their envy and anger 
reached boiling point, and 
they resolved to take violent 
revenge.
“Here comes the dreamer!” 
they said to one other. “Now 
let us kill him and throw him 
into one of the pits — we 
can say that a wild animal 
devoured him — then we 
shall see what comes of his 
dreams!” Gen. 37:19–20

A PARADOX
Only one of the brothers 
disagreed: Reuben. He 
knew that what they were 
proposing was very wrong, 
and he protested. At this 
point, the Torah does 
something extraordinary. 
It makes a statement that 
cannot be literally true, and 
we, reading the story, know 
this. The text says: “When 
Reuben heard this, he saved 
him [Joseph] from them.” 
Gen. 37:21
We know this cannot be 
true because of what happens 
next. Reuben, realizing that 
he is only one against many, 
devises a stratagem. He says, 
“Let us not kill him. Let us 
throw him alive into this 
pit in the desert and let him 
die. That way, we will not be 
directly guilty of murder.”
His intention was to 

Rabbi Lord 
Jonathan 
Sacks

How to Change 
the World ...

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

NASA

