This particular Torah reading, Vayigash: Genesis 44:18-47:27, taken from the first word “to draw near,” where Judah DRAWS NEAR to Joseph, has great meaning to United Israel World Union and its history.
It just so happens that on January 1st, 1943, the weekend that United Israel World Union was officially formed in upstate NY by David Horowitz, that the Torah reading was indeed Vayigash! David had no idea of this at the time, and never noticed it years later when it was pointed out to him around his 90th year.
There could have been no more appropriate date or reading, in that Horowitz at that time represented the ONLY significant person of the House of Judah who was determined to do something to “DRAW NEAR TO JOSEPH.” Is this not rather incredible!! Indeed this Joseph cycle of readings has proven very significant in our own time. Allenby took Jerusalem on December 9, 1917 (just “happened” to be on Kislev 24!), and the reading with Mikketz (Gen 41). The UN Partition vote was on November 29, 1947 and the reading was Vayeshev. In both cases, the nations that I would associate with Joseph come to the aid of Judah and his companions, saving their LIVES in a great time of trouble, and there is a kind of “uniting” of the two houses even then, but in a preliminary way.
It is obvious that the Rabbis who complied the Haphtorah readings from the Prophets saw more than an ordinary meaning in this phrase, in that they chose Ezekiel 37:15-28, the passage about the two “sticks,” one for Judah and the sons of Israel his companions, and the other for Joseph, and all the house of Israel and his companions. Those sticks are UNITED, thus the whole idea of UNITED ISRAEL which David Horowitz has pioneered for over 50 years now. One stick IS the stick of Joseph, but it is in the hand of Ephraim–and we learn why in next weeks Torah reading where the aged Jacob adopts the two sons of Joseph, but puts the younger Ephraim, BEFORE the older Manasseh, and gives Joseph the birthright, taken from Reuben, the firstborn son. You might have expected it to go to Judah, since Judah is clearly next in line since Simeon and Levi were eliminated for their cruelty (see Gen 49:5-7), as well as being one of the strongest and most prominent of the twelve tribes, but Jacob rather chose his beloved Rachel’s son Joseph. Joseph is also given the special plot of land in Shechem, where he was later buried, and the site of such contention now with the Palestinians (Gen 48:22; Josh 24:32). YHVH declares that these TWO sticks will become ONE in His Hand (Ezk 37:20) and the following verses explain how that will happen:
I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them ONE NATION in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and ONE King will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.” This chapter of course opens with the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones.
So the children of Israel end up in TWO COMPANIES, as was already hinted at the previous Torah reading Vayishlach (Gen 32:10).
The whole Joseph story seems to echo this history of the Lost Tribes. Joseph is sold into slavery, as was ancient Israel, the Northern Kingdom. He is effectively given up for DEAD (thus the valley of Dry Bones), and forgotten by his brothers, here represented mostly by Judah, who remains in the Land and returns to the Land after the Babylonian disaster. He marries a GENTILE woman, an Egyptian, and eventually reaches a great position of power and prominence, the highest of the kings of the earth–and for all practical purposes completely loses his identity–but all this time YHVH was with him. He is the DREAMER, the one who did not fit in, the one rejected by his brothers. According to Genesis 49:22-26 the descendents of Joseph will achieve great blessings and incredible wealth, and Moses adds his own details to the prophecy in Deut 33:13-17–Joseph is to push to the ends of the earth, and have the favor of “the one who dwells in the Bush,” achieving great favor and prominence. We should expect then, at the time when Judah returns to the land (the prophets declare: I will save the house of Judah first), which we have seen the this past century, that Joseph will exist someone on the earth, looked upon as Gentile, but somehow oriented to the God of Israel and the Bible, but with incredible wealth and power. The key then would be that large portions of such “Gentile” populations would begin to feel an irresistible pull toward Judah and the Land of Israel, and be drawn home. There is a preliminary return, spoken of in Jeremiah 3 and 16, but also that massive return that will pale the Exodus in size…we seem to be living in such days, and have for the past 50 years, but especially I think we have seen the return of large pockets of Joseph to God, Israel, and Torah in the past 25 years. It can only increase not decrease, and it is one of the strangest phenomena on the earth today, as thousand of “Gentiles” seem suddenly interested in discovering their Hebraic “roots.”
There appear to be some incredible parallels between the Joseph story, the Lost Tribes saga, and the story Jesus tells in Luke 15, most often referred to as the Prodigal Son. One son stays “home,” the other becomes “lost” and forgotten among the Gentiles, but eventually returns home…
Both Houses of Israel, that is Judah and Ephraim (usually called Israel in the prophets, in contrast to Judah) are chastised and rebuked, but the language of Jeremiah 3:6-14 is most important and interesting. Judah is called treacherous while Israel is called faithless (lit. turned, slidden away), but v. 11 says that “Faithless Israel has proven herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.” That, no doubt, becomes the source of the jealous that Isaiah 11 speaks about, and it is echoed in the Prodigal son story. Judah is very reluctant to give up her privileged place of “faithfulness” to a backslidden Israel–but it is Judah’s attitude that has to change. In the end, though falling into great apostasy, Joseph is proven MORE RIGHTEOUS, and returns home. Also, based on the words of Jacob in Gen 49 it does appear that the Scepter departs from Judah and eventually goes to Joseph also–from him comes the Stone, the Rock of Israel–or Shiloh…This will surely be a surprise to all the world, both Jews and Christians, who are so focused on a Davidic Messiah figure.
The story in the Torah today is itself so very moving. What a scene, and yet there is such power in the grace and love that he ends up showing his brothers. It is easy to forget that the sons of Israel are a very diverse mix, born of four different women, and with very different temperaments and characteristics, as are outlined by father Jacob in next Sabbath’s reading.