Parshat Vayigash – 2011
Parshat Vayigash December 30 2011
The tehillim “Even maasu habonim hayita lerosh pina” – “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” refers to the life and times of the persona of the rejected Yosef, suffering in captivity and disappearing into thin air only to be revealed as a VIP dignitary living a full life of success and bringing life support to those that rejected him and to the world. The entire tale of Yosef is the parallel of the heart and soul substance of Mashiach Ben Yosef, what he represents as the “revealed one” and the many tasks he has at the end of days.
One of the most dominant traits of Judaism is believing in a G-d that is not tangible. “He has no body or image” we say every morning in our prayers. As opposed to other religions that need a person or object to pray to and believe, the Jewish people do not bow down to idols. G-d is seemingly hidden. This was the challenge given to the Jewish people in a physical world. Through the generations of our long exile, a time that seemed to the world of “rejection”, we literally seemed to have gone up in the smoke of Auwshwitz, and boom!, suddenly Israel stands as a superpower. The source of vitality and success cannot be ignored by anyone in the world today (there are those that want to negate it but they recognize it) as G-d reveals Himself in the living soil of Eretz Yisrael. There is no greater revelation of G-d than this.
The haftarah of Parshat Vayigash should be an open letter to the New York Times.If anyone does have a problem with the Jewish people building in Jerusalem or any other place in Israel’s heartland: “Behold! I am taking the Bnei Yisrael from among the nations to which they have gone and I shall gather them from all around and bring them to their soil. I shall make them a single nation in the land upon Israel’s hills…” (Ezekiel 37:21-22)
As Yosef gathered his brothers to him, so too will Mashiach Ben Yosef gather all the remnants scattered all over the world and people will come to know their hearts and souls and be returned to their land. Israel is a built and thriving country today, it can be perceived much like Yaakov Avinu upon seeing Yosef- not only surviving, alive, but alive and kicking- revealed! Making a difference in the world- why don’t we all come to recognize him?
Shabbat Shalom Leah Goldsmith
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