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Readings for Shabbat and the Tenth of Tevet
This
week’s Torah readings provide another example of the Jewish belief that life is
a combination of the bitter and the sweet, sort of like when we dip the bitter
herbs into the sweet charoset at the Seder.
On Saturday we joyfully read the Shabbat Torah portion. On Sunday, we mournfully read the Torah
portion connected with the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet. It is tangible reminders like this that keep
us from being overly depressed when faced with life’s vicissitudes or filled
with hubris and vainglory when things are going well.
Readings for Saturday, December 27, 2025
Vayigash (“And he approached”)
44:18-47:27 Bereshit (Genesis)
Vayigash is the eleventh sedrah in the Book of
Bereshit (Genesis). The sedrah takes its
name from the first Hebrew word in the first sentence of the reading. “And Judah approached him and said.…” This sedrah is the third in the Joseph/Jacob
cycle. It is ironic that a sedrah that
begins “Then Judah came near unto him and said…” is important not just for what
is said but what is left unsaid. For
some students, that which is left unspoken is the most intriguing part of the
sedrah. Vayigash is another action
packed sedrah that begins with the deliverance of Benjamin and ends with the Israelites
settled in the Goshen.
Judah Steps Up to the Plate (44:18-44-24)
Vayigash picks
up where Miketz left off with Judah pleading for Benjamin’s freedom. In one of the most eloquent speeches in the
Bible, Judah pulls out all of the stops as he attempts to save Benjamin from
slavery and Jacob from the certain death that will take place if Benjamin does
not return home. Unbeknownst to Judah,
Joseph is not moved so much by Judah’s words as he is by the fact that Judah is
willing to risk all to save his brother.
Unlike the time when Joseph was faced with possible death and certain
enslavement, here Judah is willing to become a slave in order to spare his
brother and his father. Judah has
promised Jacob that he would protect Benjamin and he proves himself to be a man
of his word. This alliance of Judah and
Benjamin is a foreshadowing of Jewish history.
The Southern Kingdom will be composed of the large tribe of Judah and
the small tribe of Benjamin. They will
stand in opposition to the Northern Kingdom composed of the ten tribes referred
to by some as the Joseph tribes
The Revelation of Joseph and the
Reuniting with Jacob (45:1-46:30)
Joseph cannot
contain himself any longer. He is so
moved by Judah’s words that he dismisses his servants and, weeping, announces
to his brothers, “I am Joseph… I am Joseph your brother – it is me, whom you
sold into Egypt.” Knowing that his
brothers might be frightened by this revelation, Joseph reassures them that he
bears them no ill will since what they did was part of God’s plan. “Be not distressed nor reproach yourselves for
having sold me here, for it was to be a provider that God sent me ahead of
you…it was not you who sent me here but God….”
After further
reassurances and entreaties from Joseph and Pharaoh, the gift-laden brothers
return to Canaan. Their mission is to
bring Jacob and all of the Israelites back to settle in Egypt. “They went up from Egypt and came …to Jacob
their father. And they told him…Joseph
is still alive and…he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.” At first Jacob cannot believe his ears, but
when he sees the laden wagons from Pharaoh his disbelief disappears and he
declares “My son Joseph still lives! I
shall go and see him before I die.” He
then packs up the family and heads south.
This is one of those moments of puzzling silence. Why didn’t Jacob ask about the “death of
Joseph”? Why didn’t Jacob express any
words of anger or recrimination over the fact that his sons let him mourn for
over twenty years? Why didn’t the
brothers apologize to Jacob for their deception? After all, according to Jewish law, in order
to gain forgiveness, one must apologize to the injured party. The silence is deafening and mystifying, but
it is only one of many silences in this sedrah.
As Jacob
prepares to leave Canaan, he hears from God directly (46:1-4). At Beer-sheba, God tells Jacob not to fear
going to Egypt; that He, God, will go down with His children and He will redeem
them. At a personal level, Jacob will be
taken care of even unto death with Joseph there to close his eyes. This revelation takes place at night, which
reinforces the connection between Jacob and the Evening Service. The Torah provides a detailed listing of the
Israelites going into Egypt. The tally
comes to seventy. But just as there is
some “confusion” as to who is included when the term the Twelve Tribes is used,
so is there some question as to who constitutes the seventy souls. Dinah is named in the genealogy, but we are
not sure in what capacity. Also listed
is Serah, the daughter of Asher. She is
the only granddaughter mentioned in the tally.
While there are commentaries giving reasons for this, the text is silent
as to this oddity (46:8-27). This
section of the sedrah ends with Joseph and Jacob reuniting in tearful embrace. Jacob utters the classic line “Now I can die,
having seen for myself that you are still alive.” And then there is silence. No question about why Joseph had not sent
word to his father that he was alive. There are no questions about anything from
either of them. There is just the sound
of silence; a silence which can prove deafening for the modern reader.
Pharaoh and the Israelites (46:31-47:12)
As his family,
including his father, figuratively bow down to him, the second of Joseph’s
dreams comes true. Joseph organizes the
settling of the clan in Egypt. He
instructs his brothers in how to speak to Pharaoh and he orchestrates Jacob’s
meeting with the Egyptian ruler. Three
things of note occur in these conversations. First Joseph tells his brothers to describe
themselves as breeders of livestock and not as shepherds. Yet the brothers tell Pharaoh that they are
indeed shepherds. Was Joseph trying to
create a better family history with which to impress the Egyptians? Why did the brothers defy their powerful
brother? Did they not realize in what
low esteem Egyptians held shepherds? Or
are we seeing an echo of that same defiance to Joseph’s pretensions to power
that we saw in the opening verses of Va-yayshev? Commentators may speculate, but once again,
the text is silent. Secondly, when
Pharaoh asks Jacob how old he is Jacob responds by saying, “Few and hard have
been the years of my life.” This is a
strange answer for a man who has lived to see the sons of his sons grow to
manhood, who has lived to see one of his sons become Viceroy of Egypt and who
has spoken with God. Is this more of the
same self-pitying whine that we heard when the sons avenged Dinah or when they
returned without Simeon or is there a deeper meaning? We can explore this further next week when
Jacob closes his eyes for the last time.
Thirdly, Joseph is determined to see to it that his family will maintain
its own identity. He secures Pharaoh’s
approval to settle them in Goshen, a distinct area where they will not
intermingle with the Egyptians. Joseph
may have taken an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife but for whatever reason,
he is determined to see to it that the Israelites do not lose their
identity. Of course, at one level, this
has to be done as part of the God’s plan.
The Israelites must maintain their group identity so that the Exodus can
take place.
The Famine Continues (47:13-27)
The famine
continues unabated just as the dreams had said it would. The people are reduced to a status similar to
sharecroppers in the post- Civil War southern part of the United States. Only the priests get to keep their
holdings. At the same time, there appear
to be transfers of population reminiscent of Stalinist Russia. We should compare the response to famine,
poverty and land tenure in Egypt with the laws we have already read in Devarim
on this same topic. The contrast is
startling. The last sentence in the
sedrah provides a startling contrast between the plight of the Egyptians and
that of the Israelites. While the
Egyptians were tottering on the brink of starvation and surrendering their land
for bread the Israelites “were acquiring holdings…and were fertile and
increased greatly.”
Themes
The Seventy
– Who are the seventy
who went down to Egypt? According to the
Torah the tally is made up of the following elements. First, there are the twelve sons and one
daughter of Jacob. Then there are all of
their living off-spring including the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt. Next there are two grandsons of Judah who in
effect replace his two sons who died (see the story of Tamar). This adds up to only sixty-nine souls. There are three views as to who makes up the
seventieth. Some say it was Jacob. Some say it was Jochebed, the daughter of
Levi. Supposedly she was conceived in
Canaan but born as they crossed into Egypt.
Those who count Jochebed believe that this is the same Jochebed who will
be the mother of Moshe. Finally, some
say the seventieth was the “Divine Presence” which accompanied the Israelites
into what would ultimately be the Egyptian Bondage.
Family
– No matter how you cut
it, the chaotic and sometimes hostile family life we saw in the time of Abraham
and Isaac continues through the family of Jacob. At the obvious level, Rueben has been
supplanted by both Joseph and Judah. At
the unspoken level, one cannot help but wonder about what was going on in the
minds of Jacob and Joseph when the father learned that the son was alive.
Egypt versus Israel
– The laws of the Torah
stand in stark contrast to the life of the Egyptians. Some might say that Egypt was an abhorrent
place and the Torah was designed to keep us from being like the Egyptians. The response to the famine at the end of the
sedrah provides one example. In Egypt,
the Priests keep their lands. In the
Torah, the Levites are landless and the Israelites are commanded to support
them and the Cohanim. In Egypt, the
people become landless. In the Torah,
the Israelites are commanded to observe the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. As we read more Torah, look for more of these
contrasts to see if this hypothesis has any validity.
Names – The descendants of Abraham are no longer called Hebrews. Now they are Israelites. They are the Sons of Israel. In the Hebrew text the term “Sons of Israel”
appears not just as two separate words; it now begins to appear in a hyphenated
form.
Appearances of God
– When Jacob left for
Laban’s home, God appeared to Jacob.
When it was time for Jacob to leave Laban’s home and return to Canaan,
God appeared to Jacob. And now God
appears to Jacob when it is time to travel one last time; only this time it is
to Egypt, a place from which he will not return alive. There are several possible messages in this
last encounter with the Lord. God
appears to Jacob at night, which is unusual.
According to some, this nocturnal appearance is God’s way of assuring
Jacob that he will be with the Israelites during the long night of the bondage
that is to come. Remember that Jacob is
Israel and we are the children of Israel.
For the Israelites, for the Jews, the message is that no matter where we
travel, God is always with us.
Dreams
– Jacob has three
dreams. The first is “Jacob’s
ladder”. The second is Jacob Wrestling
with the Angel. The third is found in
this sedrah when God calls out to Jacob and the Patriarch accepts the fact that
he must go down to Egypt. There is a
midrash that tells of Jacob refusing to climb the ladder because he is
afraid. This is symbolic of Jacob’s fear
of taking responsibility, of entering into history. Now, he lets God comfort him. He lets God allay his fear and he is able to
enter into history, to play the role that needs to be played.
Customs and Ceremonies
– We know from our
studies that the Jew prays three times a day and that each of the services is
rooted in the ritual of Temple. According to tradition, each service is also
connected with one of the Patriarchs.
Ma’ariv, the evening service, is connected to Jacob in general and to
the episode of his last nocturnal encounter with God before going into
Egypt. The evening service actually
marks the start of the next day even though it is recited before the start of
the long night of darkness. This matches
God’s last appearance to Jacob, which serves a reminder that the evening is the
prelude to a long night of darkness that will end in the daylight of freedom.
Forgiveness – How do we know we have been forgiven for a sin? When confronted with same situation, we do
not behave in that manner again. This is
the message of Judah. The first time, he
betrays his brother and allows him to be sold into slavery. The second time, he offers himself up rather
than allow his brother to become a slave.
Interestingly enough, Judah continues to lie about the fate of
Joseph. He continues to portray Joseph
as being dead and never does own up to what he did. Since some commentators consider this episode
with Judah to be the epitome of Teshuvah, how does this fit in with the Jewish
conception of seeking forgiveness from those whom we have wronged before we can
seek God’s forgiveness (see Yom Kippur)?
Peace in the House – Avoiding conflict is an important Jewish value. When sending his brothers back to Jacob,
Joseph says, “Do not fight on the way.”
In other words do not quarrel among yourself over who was responsible
for selling me into slavery. Other
commentators say Joseph was telling them, “Do not worry on the way.” They contend that Joseph is telling the
brothers not to worry about facing recriminations for selling him into
slavery. Also, they need not worry about
the future as long as they follow his instructions.
Goshen – Some commentators erroneously refer to Goshen as the first
ghetto. A ghetto is place of involuntary
confinement. Goshen was a district at
the edge of Egypt. It enabled our
ancestors to live in Egypt without losing their identity. The so-called Jewish neighborhood was a
common phenomenon in many major American metropolitan areas, which served a
similar purpose as that of ancient Goshen.
More About Shepherds – The Israelites are supposed to identify themselves as breeders of
livestock to ensure that the Egyptians will assign them a separate place to
live i.e., Goshen. The text continues
with the words “For all shepherds are abhorrent to Egyptians” (46:34). This hatred of shepherds has produced a great
deal of commentary; little of it very satisfying. Why did the Egyptians hate shepherds and what
impact would that have on the future fate of the Jewish people? Consider the following. Egypt had become a sedentary, feudal
society. All of its citizens were bound
to the land. Shepherds were outsiders at
best; synonymous with rebels at worst.
Shepherds could come and go as they pleased. Shepherds were nomadic. Since they were not tied to the land, they
had no place in society. The very
free-wheeling nature of their existence posed a threat to the Pharaoh’s
authoritarian rule since they were a constant reminder that men could and did
exist in a world beyond Pharaoh’s control.
To the extent that the Israelites would become synonymous with Shepherds
in the Egyptian mind, they would be seen as a threat to the established
order. They were free people living in
an authoritarian world and this would set them up for the interplay that is
found in the opening chapters of Shemot, the Book of Exodus.
On the other hand, there may be no rational
explanation for the Egyptians’ abhorrence of Shepherds. The lesson here may be one about the simple
evil of bigotry. First the Egyptians
abhorred Shepherds. Then they invented
rationalizations for their hate to justify their behavior. Is this not the truth of anti-Semitism? First people hate Jews. Then they find excuses for their hate.
Of course for those who remember the range wars of
19th century American West, this could be nothing more than an
ancient version of the cowman versus the sheep herder. Maybe there is something “genetic” about the
competition of those who chase cows and those who herd sheep.
Apologies and Commentaries – At the end
of the story of the Rape of Dinah, I said she disappeared from the Torah. Since she is mentioned in the listing of the
names in this sedrah, I was wrong. In
45:8, Joseph refers to himself as “the father to Pharaoh.” The commentary in Etz Hayim assures us
that no such title existed in ancient Egypt.
The commentary in Plaut assures us that this is a translation of
an official Egyptian title. Somebody has
it right and somebody has it wrong; or so it would appear.
Jewish Identity – Who is a
Jew? What does it mean to be Jewish? How do Jews define themselves? These questions have taken a special urgency
with the growth of various Jewish renewal movements and as individual Jews work
to deepen their connection with their faith and heritage. As we will continue to see, these are not new
questions and as with all good questions, there are no simplistic answers. In his commentary on this portion entitled
“Member of the Clan,” Professor Avigdor Shinana from Hebrew University offers
some interesting insights. He contends
that this portion reveals three ways of identifying and deepening Jewish
identity. Joseph reveals himself to his
brothers with three different statements. First he tells them “I am Joseph” (45:3)
followed by a narrative of how his brothers sold him into slavery. Note before actually beginning this narrative
he says to the brothers, “Come close to me if you please” (45:4) Sensing that they do not believe him, Joseph
finishes the narrative saying “…it is my mouth that is speaking to you” (45:12)
or “It is I who am speaking to you.”
When he tells his brothers I am Joseph and then relates the family
history, they do not believe him. After
all they last saw him as callow youth of 17 and the person before them is a
bearded viceroy of the Pharaohs – a man whom they have no reason to trust given
their experience with him. For all they
know, this man might have heard these stories from somebody else and is using
them for his own devious ends. But when
Joseph says, “it is my mouth that is speaking to you,” Shinana says that Joseph
is really saying, I am speaking to you in our language – Hebrew. Remember up until this moment, Joseph had
always talked to the brothers through interpreters. It is only just before the revelation of his
identity that Joseph sends everybody out of the room and speaks directly to the
brothers. The reasons that he asks the
brothers to “come close to me” is so that he can show them something hidden
that nobody else has seen – his circumcision which marks him as being a member
of their family.
The rabbis who developed these interpretations lived in the
Graeco-Roman world which abhorred circumcision and had no use or knowledge of
Hebrew. Hebrew and circumcision are two
sources of Jewish identity. The third is
the plainly stated one – knowing the family and its history. “Hebrew, circumcision and knowledge of a
shared past were among a Jew’s identity badges in the ancient world…Anyone who
wants to fade into his surroundings could conceal his circumcision, avoid
Hebrew, and not mention his people’s past.
But the signs are available when it comes time (as with Joseph) to
identify oneself to other Jews.” The
modern interpretation goes deeper. After
all circumcision was a masculine rite and in today’s world we are concerned
about the Jewish identity of both Joseph and Josephine. Circumcision becomes an example of all the
religious commandments. Hebrew stands not
just for the language but for the shared Jewish culture. The family story that Joseph told is
emblematic of the whole history of the Jewish people. Just as Joseph used these “three strands of
shared identity” to re-unite with his family, so can those seeking a deeper
connection with their Judaism use them in their quest.
Names 2 – “God spoke to Israel in night visions and He
said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here
I am.” We have seen name changes in the Torah. For example Abraham and Sarah both had their
names changed. But once the change took
place, their old names were never used again.
The name change for the third patriarch is unique. He begins life as Jacob and then becomes
Israel. But we keep seeing references to
him using both names. In this final
encounter, even God cannot seem to make up His mind as to the name of the
patriarch. Is this a case that even
though he had come to embody the changes brought on by maturity he could not
shake off the behaviors of his early “Jacob” years? In truth, I have not found a commentary that
explains this and hope that one of you will be able to provide one.
Judah and
Ephraim – The reading opens with Judah playing the role of family leader when
he heroically stands up to the second most powerful person in Egypt – a person
with the power to kill him with the flick of a finger. Later when the tally is given of the 70
people who comprise the core of the Israelite community, Ephraim is not even
mentioned by name. But we are reminded
that he is the grandson of Jacob, not the son of the Patriarch and we are
reminded that his mother is one of the Egyptians whose descendants would
enslave the Israelites. “And Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt were
two in number.” (46:27) Judah will become synonymous with the Southern Kingdom,
the remnant of which survived the Babylonian Exile and provided us with the
term Jew by which we are known today.
Ephraim became synonymous with the Northern Kingdom; the Kingdom of
Israel that turned to idolatry, lost its connection with Ha-Shem and
disappeared into the lands of the victorious Assyrian Empire. Does this week’s reading foretell the fate of
the two kingdoms? Or was this reference
in Vayigash a way of explaining the fate that befell the two kingdoms? Here are a couple of more Kiddush or Cholent
Questions for your consideration.
Haftarah
37:15-28 Ezekiel
The
Book/The Man: Ezekiel is one of
the Three Major Prophets. The other two
are Isaiah and Jeremiah. This grouping
comes from the size of their books, not just the quality of their teachings and
preachings. Ezekiel lived at the time of
the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Exile (586 B.C.E.) He is a younger contemporary of Jeremiah. He was born about 620 B.C.E. and died about
570 B.C.E. We know little about his
personal life from the text. He is
described as the son of Buzi and is a member of the priestly family of
Zadok. He was married and his wife died
suddenly. He was carried into captivity
by the Babylonians and lived in a place called Tel-abib (Hill of Corn Ears) on
the banks of the Chebar River.
Apparently this was one of the sections set aside for the exiles. According to legend, Ezekiel died of unknown
causes during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar and was buried in a town lying
between the Euphrates and the Chebar rivers.
A synagogue was built on that site and as late as the twelfth century
pilgrims came there to read from a Sefer Torah supposedly written by Ezekiel’s
own hand.
The
Message: Ezekiel is unique
in many ways. He was a seer, an inspired
speaker and a member of the priestly class with knowledge of Temple
ritual. In his preachings Ezekiel “was
unable to distinguish between the ritual and moral elements in religion, since
he coupled high social morality with ritualistic demands.” He was the first prophet to preach after the
destruction of the Temple. His audience
consisted of the exiles, the remnant that has survived the destruction of both
kingdoms. According to one historian,
the nation had gone from a population of four million in David’s time to
approximately one hundred thousand at the time of the Babylonian Exile. These dwindling numbers coupled with the
reality of exile could have meant the end of the Jewish people. The challenge for Ezekiel was to explain the
plight of the nation in terms of its moral shortcomings while offering a vision
of future redemption. In the realm of
personal morality, he assured the people that they would be rewarded and
punished according to their own behavior. They would not be punished for the sins of
those who came before. Nor could they
rely on the merit of others for their own forgiveness. Two of his most famous visions are the Vision
of the Valley of the Dry Bones and the Vision of the Sticks, the prophetic
portion coupled with this week’s sedrah.
But Ezekiel was given to other visions as well – for example, the famed
Merkavah or Divine Throne-Chariot. This
vision gave rise to a whole school of mysticism called the Masseh Merkavah or
Work of the Chariot. For once I do not
feel the need to apologize for my lack of knowledge since the study of this is
“reserved for men of the highest degree of mental and moral perfection.” Fortunately there are other Haftarot taken
from Ezekiel. This will provide us with
an opportunity to discuss his message and teachings in greater detail.
Theme-
Link: The sedrah and
haftarah both describe reunifications of the Children of Israel. In the sedrah, the reunification takes the
form of the brothers meeting with Joseph and the family of Jacob all moving to
Egypt. In the haftarah, Ezekiel
describes a future reunification when the Ten Lost Tribes, the Joseph Tribes,
will be reunited with the Judah (and Benjamin) tribes of the Southern
Kingdom. The two kingdoms will become
one united under a single king descended from the house of David. The haftarah comes from the second half of
Chapter 37. The first half of Chapter 37
is the Vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones.
The two visions are companions.
One describes a spiritual reunification. The other describes a political
reunification. In both visions, the
prophet uses the term Ben-Adam, Son of Man. This majestic phrase is a signature line for
Ezekiel, appearing over one hundred times throughout his writings. In referring to the prophet in this manner,
we are reminded that although a person might gain great spiritual insight, he
is not divine; he is always Ben-Adam, Son of Man.
Readings for Tuesday,
December 30, 2025
Asarah be-Tevet (Tenth of
Tevet)
This minor fast
day commemorates the start of the siege of
King who would destroy the
in 586
tried to use this fast day as a memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust. This choice was superseded by Yom ha-Shoah,
Holocaust Memorial Day which falls on the 27th day of Nisan. The Fast of Tevet is observed from dawn until
dusk. The morning service includes
penitential prayers and a special Torah reading. The afternoon service also includes a reading
from the Prophet Isaiah. These readings
are the same ones recited on the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz which
commemorates the breaching of the walls of
Torah
32:11-14; 34:1-10 Shemot (Exodus)
As part of the observance, the Torah is read at both the
Morning and the Afternoon Service. The
Torah portion is the same for both services.
It is a short reading with only three aliyot i.e., only three people are
called to the Torah. In the Afternoon
Service, the Torah reading is followed by a Haftarah chosen especially for this
day. The first part of the reading
(chapter 32) portrays God’s anger at the Israelites for the Golden Calf. The second and third parts of the reading
(chapter 34) describe Moshe’s return to the mountaintop to receive the Ten
Commandments for the second time. As
Rabbi Kolatch points out, this is a fitting reading for a minor fast day since
it contains the reminder that “sin leads to tragedy and expressions of remorse
lead to forgiveness.
Haftarah
55:6-56-8 Isaiah
This is the same haftarah read with Vayeilech, the ninth
sedrah in Devarim. In the haftarah,
Isaiah calls upon the people to “Maintain justice and do what is right.” The term for “right” in Hebrew is
Tzedakah. On fast days, it is even more
important than on other days, to provide contributions for the poor
(Tzedakah). Two reasons are given for
reading the haftarah in the afternoon instead of the morning. One is that by reading it in the afternoon,
people will have had all morning to perform acts of Tzedakah. A second reason is that on three of the more
minor fast days, people are allowed to go to work. Reading the haftarah in the morning would
extend the service to the point where it could become burdensome. Since Mincha is relatively short, it would be
less burdensome on the community to read the haftarah at the Afternoon Service.
Personal Sadness of Asarah
be-Tevet (Tenth of Tevet)
Yahrzeit of Judith Sharon Rosenstein (nee Levin)
Known to one
and all as Judy, she truly was an Ashit
Chayil, “A Woman of Valor.” A devoted
wife, loving mother, doting grandmother, faithful friend as well as daughter
and sister extraordinaire, Judy was a gift to all who were fortunate enough to
be part of her life. “And her children
called her ‘Blessed’.” May her name
always be remembered.
Copyright
December 28, 2025, Mitchell A. Levin
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