|
December 21, 2024 - 20 Kislev 5785 Parashat Vayeshev - A Biblical Roller Coaster
Dear Friends, On Wednesday, December 25th at 4PM, the first night of Hanukkah, I will help lead the Fort Lee community Menorah lighting. Joining me will be Cantor Paul Zim, who will lead the singing of some traditional holiday songs. I hope you will join me in representing the synagogue to make sure that the Fort Lee Jewish community has a good turnout and shows a strong presence. Like most people, I don't exercise as often as I should, but when I do, my machine of preference is the elliptical. One of my strategies for attempting to get into shape is having television series I designate as "workout shows," which means I can only watch them if I'm working out. In theory, this should motivate me to exercise more often because if I want to know what happens next, I have to get myself back on the machine to do so! My workout show for entirely too long now has been my first re-watching of The Sopranos, what I and others consider to be the best show in television history. Going back through a favorite movie or series, it seems to me, is similar to our re-reading of Torah, whereby we are able to relive our most beloved moments, as well as to learn and pick up things we either completely missed before or hadn't quite put together. It's also an opportunity to retrace the individual journeys of Tony, Carmela, Christopher, Silvio, and so many other iconic roles from series start to the dramatic conclusion still spoken about today. To go back to the beginning and see the origins of characters, whose fates we now know so well, is both fun and fascinating because we gain a deeper appreciation for each of their respective arcs, how they develop from episode to episode and season to season. I'm especially mindful of this joy as we begin the epic story of Joseph, this week, in Parashat Vayeshev. In the portion, yet another generation of our biblical ancestors comes into existence with children being favored from birth, and the predictable, negative consequences that stem from it. Here, our patriarch Jacob/Israel designates Joseph as his most beloved child, the "child of his old age," and more importantly, the first son born to his most loved wife, Rachel. He makes this preference clear and public by giving Joseph what the text calls "an ornamented tunic," what so many of us have to come to know as his "dazzling coat of many colors." Joseph has literal dreams of grandeur, in which all 11 of his brothers, and even his parents, bow low and pay homage to him - in one, as sheaves of wheat; in another, as a star to which even the sun and moon are subordinate. The arc of Joseph begins here, with an enormous ego and the narrowest of perspectives, the most important being in a tiny universe. And yet, his arc will cover a tremendous amount of ground in a short period of time, especially when compared with that of his ancestors. In efforts to confront his brothers and face the music of their unmitigated hatred of him, he is thrown into a pit (rather than being killed), literally and symbolically casting him from the heights into the depths. In truth, Joseph's odyssey is a virtual roller coaster. He is his father's favorite and then he is cast into a pit before being sold into slavery, the lowest station a person can have. He rises to become master of the house of a powerful Egyptian leader only to be falsely accused of a crime and thrown into an underground prison. And years later, he ascends one more time, perfectly interpreting the dreams of two fellow prisoners, eventually being summoned to solve the upsetting dreams of none other than Pharaoh himself. In doing so, Joseph attains the status as second-in-command to the most powerful ruler in the known world. As a visual representation, it seems Joseph's character development is more a sine wave than an actual arc. And yet, he - and the brothers who nearly brought about his demise - come out on top because, somewhere along the line, Joseph widens his worldview and lets God into it. When he does so, he seems to know that even the moments at the bottom of the curve are only temporary, like the couple of years he spends in Pharaoh's prison waiting for the cupbearer to remember him. "Even while he was there in prison," we read this week, "God was with Joseph, extending kindness to him and disposing the chief jailer favorably toward him...because God was with him, and whatever he did, God made successful." Allowing God into our lives and our worlds can be an incredible blessing, and one which our tradition entreats us to seek. While doing so is certainly no guarantee of success and fortune, it can imbue our triumphs and celebrations with deeper appreciation, and it can lessen the bitterness of our disappointments by adding even a drop of sweetness to the way we see the world. This is the secret to Joseph's tumultuous, yet ultimately triumphant, arc: he comes to see that the world is so much bigger than just himself. And that the source of it all is God. May we be inspired by Joseph to see beyond ourselves, to open our lives to the presence of God, and recognize that we are part of something so much larger. In doing so, our own character arcs will be strengthened, and our lives will be richer for it. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Strom
|
