DECEMBER 21 • 2023 | 45
J
N

past, but we can reinterpret it 
by integrating it into a new and 
larger narrative. That is what 
Joseph was doing and having 
used this technique to help him 
survive a personal life of unpar-
alleled ups and downs, he now 
uses it to help his brothers live 
without overpowering guilt.

THE VALUE OF 
REINTERPRETATION
We find this in Judaism 
throughout its history. The 
Prophets reinterpreted bib-
lical narrative for their day. 
Then came Midrash, which 
reinterpreted it more radically 
because the situation of Jews 
had changed more radically. 
Then came the great biblical 
commentators and mystics and 
philosophers. 
 There has hardly been a gen-
eration in all of Jewish history 
when Jews did not reinterpret 
their texts in the light of the 
present tense experience. We 
are the people who tell stories, 
and then retell them repeatedly, 
each time with a slightly dif-
ferent emphasis, establishing a 
connection between then and 
now, rereading the past in the 
light of the present as best we 
can.
It is by telling stories that we 
make sense of our lives and the 
life of our people. And it is by 
allowing the present to reshape 
our understanding of the past 
that we redeem history and 
make it live as a positive force 
in our lives.
I gave one example when I 
spoke at the Kinus Shluchim of 
Chabad, the great gathering of 
some 5,000 Chabad emissaries 
from around the world. I told 
them of how, in 1978, I visited 
the Lubavitcher Rebbe to ask 
his advice on which career I 
should follow. I did the usual 
thing: I sent him a note with 
the options, A, B or C, expect-
ing him to indicate which one 
I should follow. The options 

were to become a barrister, or 
an economist, or an academic 
philosopher, either as a fellow 
of my college in Cambridge or 
as a professor somewhere else.
The Rebbe read out the list 
and said “No” to all three. My 
mission, he said, was to train 
rabbis at Jews’ College (now 
the London School of Jewish 
Studies) and to become a 
congregational rabbi myself. 
So, overnight, I found myself 
saying goodbye to all my aspi-
rations, to everything for which 
I had been trained.
The strange thing is that 
ultimately I fulfilled all those 
ambitions despite walking 
in the opposite direction. I 
became an honorary barrister 
(Bencher) of the Inner Temple 
and delivered a law lecture 
in front of 600 barristers 
and the Lord Chief Justice. I 
delivered Britain’s two leading 
economics lectures, the Mais 
Lecture and the Hayek Lecture 
at the Institute of Economic 
Affairs. I became a fellow of 
my Cambridge college and a 
philosophy professor at several 
universities. 
I identified with the bibli-
cal Joseph because, so often, 
what I had dreamed of came 
to be at the very moment that 
I had given up hope. Only in 
retrospect did I discover that 
the Rebbe was not telling me 
to give up my career plans. He 
was simply charting a different 
route and a more beneficial 
one.
I believe that the way we 
write the next chapter in our 
lives affects all the others that 
have come before. By action 
in the future, we can redeem 
much of the pain of the past. 

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan 

Sacks served as the chief rabbi of 

the United Hebrew Congregations of 

the Commonwealth, 1991-2013. His 

teachings have been made available 

to all at rabbisacks.org.

‘Trust in Hashem’ 
and Peace of Mind
S

ince January 2020, I’ve 
facilitated a Mussar 
Study Group with 
Congregation B’nai Israel and 
Temple Kol Ami. From the out-
set, we have used Alan Morinis’ 
Everyday Holiness as our 
primary text for weekly 
discussion. In mid-No-
vember, we finally com-
pleted this book just as I 
began to write this com-
mentary on Vayigash. 
 Joseph’s explanation 
of Hashem’s Divine Plan 
has long troubled me. 
I’
d like to share how our 
discussions have changed 
my view. 
Joseph tells his broth-
ers: “Now, do not be dis-
tressed or reproach yourselves 
because you sold me hither; it 
was to save life that Hashem 
sent me ahead of you” (Bereshit 
45:5). He then adds: “Hashem 
has sent me ahead to ensure 
your survival on earth and to 
save your lives in an extraor-
dinary deliverance. So, it was 
not you who sent me here, but 
Hashem …
” (Bereshit 45:7-8). 
Joseph’s explanation troubles 
me: the absence of free will. 
Joseph declares that everything 
has worked out for the best. Yet 
Joseph enabled this “extraordi-
nary deliverance” at the price 
of devastating privation that 
his brothers and their father, 
Jacob, experienced as a family. 
Moreover, the suffering caused 
by famine was somehow just a 
backdrop for this “extraordinary 
deliverance” of Jacob’s sons. 
Our Mussar discussions 
helped me reassess Joseph’s 
explanation as embodying 
what the Mussar masters call 
bitachon — loosely translated 
as “trust in Hashem.
” Bitachon 

does not mean we can trust that 
we’ll always get what we want 
nor that we’ll get what we think 
we need. Instead, bitachon 
provides peace of mind and 
contentment. 
Morinis explains: 
“You don’t expect that 
everything will turn out 
as you want, but instead 
accept whatever happens 
because understand that 
there is a reason and 
order behind the world 
— that nothing takes 
place without a reason, 
even if the reason is not 
apparent at the moment.
” 
When worry and help-
lessness paralyze us, the 
antidote is bitachon, a 
trust in a power greater than 
ourselves. When the world 
seems overwhelming, bitachon 
allows us to reframe our 
worldview. 
It’s hard to trust that all is as it 
should be … To quote Morinis: 
“[w]here you do have a 
choice is over how you evaluate 
and respond to the world. It 
is up to you whether you see 
the world as a very botched 
creation for which God is to 
blame, or whether you accept 
that this apparently flawed life 
is actually just as it should be, 
created in God’s wisdom, and 
act accordingly.
”
This is how Mussar study of 
bitachon has added a new layer 
to my objections to Joseph’s 
explanation of how Hashem 
preordained what happened 
to him. For me, at least, this 
proved valuable. 

David A. Victor Ph.D. is full professor 

of Management and International 

Business at Eastern Michigan 

University. He facilitates a Mussar 

Study Group on Thursday nights.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

David 
Victor

Parshat 

Vayigash: 

Genesis 

44:18-47:27; 

Ezekiel 

37:15-28.

