No One Is Alone

This week’s Torah portion is Vayigash, which means, and he approached. Judah, Jacob’s fourth son, approaches Joseph, Viceroy of Egypt, who is really his brother, to plead for their youngest brother, Benjamin; and to ask to be enslaved in place of Benjamin. Benjamin has been wrongly accused of stealing Joseph’s silver cup. When Joseph learns that his brothers love and support Benjamin, Joseph reveals his identity to them and forgives them. He then arranges to bring his father and his brothers’ families to Egypt so that they will be sustained during the continuing famine.

The first three words of this portion are: “Vayigash eilav Yehudah, and Judah approached him.” Later in the portion there are the words: “For it was for life that Elohim, or God, sent me ahead of you.” It is a curious attribute of Hebrew that the word eilav, has an unpronounced yud before the last letter. It is also a curiosity that one of the words we use for God, Elohim, is plural. In Hebrew, the yud toward the end of a word tells us that it is plural. Very few people speak or write about this. And in fact, the plural of Elohim, which literally means Gods, is a bit of an embarrassment in Judaism.

We don’t know why the Torah uses a plural term for God. Perhaps the Torah is making a very important point with these plural words. If God includes everything, then reminding us of God’s plurality: of the many, many of us people existing within God, is very important. So, too, with the word eilav, him or, of him, or to him. This plural quality of the word means that no person is alone. No person is even a singular. God is always present: in every interaction, in every person; and one person represents us all, and is part of us all. And perhaps this is why the speech of Judah to Joseph is considered one of the most beautiful in the Torah: Judah is making a human connection to Joseph which expresses the great truth that we are part of each other. This is also why Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers feels so right: because it expresses that same truth, that we are one, and one within God.

The Berdichever Rebbe commented on another verse, “If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.” He said, “if you are not concerned with your brother, who is not on your level or status,” meaning those who are poor, “then you will not see my face again. This means that when we forget that we are connected to others and to God, by treating others as if they don’t matter, as if they are not as important as ourselves, we distance ourselves from the Divine Presence; but when we make human connections, it feels so right, because it is true, and we mint love and goodness in the world.

The S’fat Emet wrote about the meaning of this Oneness. He said, “The meaning of One is that there is nothing except God…God is the All…Even though we are incapable of understanding this properly, we still need to have faith in it. This faith will lead us to Truth.” Later, he says, commenting on Rabbi Isaac Luria’s teaching that God is within us, “You should have faith that you have within yourself the soul of the Living God…When you negate yourself before this Divine Life-point, wanting to know the Truth, it will be revealed to you.”

If the reasoning seems circular, perhaps it is. Knowledge leads to faith. Faith in our knowledge leads to Truth, which in turn, leads back to Faith and to knowledge; and it all leads to a deep natural knowing that the human connections we forge reveal our own God-nature and God’s goodness.

Joseph and Judah were remarkable people: Judah for his amazing growth as a person, his willingness to sacrifice himself to be enslaved instead of Benjamin, and his faith in himself to forge a vital human connection to this Vice Pharaoh of Egypt. Joseph, too, for his growth as a person, his forgiveness, and his ability to be touched by Judah and form a human connection to him. They expressed the deep truth of our connection to each other. May we realize the God nature within us, and form those vital human connections which lead right back to Divinity.