Parashat Vayigash
Genesis 44:18 – 47:27
What would Father do?
This is a question that sometimes faces a person when they need to make an important and difficult decision. The influence of a father on a child can be enduring, overcoming time and space and even life itself. In a time of need a son or daughter – no matter how old they are at the moment – may reach back toward their parent for guidance and support.
After Joseph and his brothers are all reunited and reconciled in Egypt, it is time for the beloved son to be reunited with his beloved father. So Joseph sends for his father Jacob, beckoning him to descend to Egypt so that he may enjoy Joseph’s support and protection.
At first glance Jacob’s decision to go see his long-lost son is any easy and immediate one. Indeed, Jacob, once he is convinced that Joseph is still alive and has actually sent for him, joyously embarks on the journey. But our Torah portion hints that there may have been some issue that complicated the question for Jacob, for he stops along the way.
“And Israel traveled, along with all that was his, and he came to Beer Sheva; and he offered sacrifices to the Almighty God of his father Isaac.” (Gen. 46:1) If we pay close attention to this seemingly simple verse we can notice a couple of things. Jacob embarks on his journey toward his son and reaches Beer Sheva. Where, then, did he start from? We have no information about the specific place where Jacob had been living. Was it Hebron, Beer La-Hai Ro`i, Shechem, or somewhere else? We are not told. What the Torah chooses to tell us is that he dwelt is “the land of Canaan.” (See Gen. 37:1. 42:29. 45:25) It is no more specific than that.
And we also might notice that, unlike in previous incidents, Jacob’s connection with God is limited here to “the God of Isaac,” whereas we have usually found the Torah insisting on mentioning Abraham along with Isaac. (see – Gen. 28:13. 32:10. 35:12. And, at Gen. 31:53, it may seem that Jacob only mentions Isaac, but that is simply because Abraham has already been mentioned earlier in the verse.) Jacob decides to stop at this place and offer sacrifices to his father’s God. Is something agitating Jacob’s spirit? Why, of all places, does he stop here? And why, this time, is only Isaac mentioned in his intentions?
Perhaps Jacob/Israel is wrestling with contrasting feelings. On the one hand he is desperately eager to see his son before he dies. But, he is also plagued by a doubt – “What would Father do?” Jacob is Joseph’s father. But he is also Isaac’s son. He is fleeing his home to see his son, but the trip is necessary because of the terrible famine in the land. Jacob cannot but remember that his father Isaac also felt compelled to leave Canaan during a famine. But Isaac’s Almighty God appeared to him in a vision and forbade him from leaving the land, telling him, instead, to sojourn in Canaan no matter what. (See Gen. 26:1-3)
Perhaps, now, we can better understand the Torah’s decision to tell us only that Jacob dwelt “in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan.” (Gen. 37:1) Perhaps this was Jacob’s commitment since he had returned home, to live somewhere –anywhere – in his father’s land, but not anywhere else. And now his son was calling him from Egypt. O, why could not Joseph simply return home to his father? But, of course that was impossible because of the famine. What should Isaac’s son do now?
So Jacob journeys to Beer Sheva, the place where Isaac had restored his own father’s legacy (Gen. 26:33), in the hopes of finding out “What would Father do?” Is he obliged to stay in this land of his father’s devotion, or is he allowed to follow his own heart’s bursting desire to go to his son? God appears to him that night and calls him: “Jacob! Jacob!” and he answers, “Hineni! – Here I am!” (Gen. 46:2) Jacob has come to this place because he is prepared to follow whatever God shall demand even, it seems, if God tells him to turn around and stay in this land.
But God’s Fatherly mercies overflow toward this man, both son and father, and sends him to be with his son. As for the imperative to remain in the land of Canaan, Isaac’s land – God promises that, after Joseph places his hands on Jacob’s eyes to bid him a final farewell, God will accompany Jacob back to this land. (vv. 3-4) After the father is restored to the son in Egypt, the son will be restored to the father in Israel.
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