"My Son Binyamin Will Not Go Down With You."

 Some people, on the face of it, seem to have a knack for saying the wrong thing. That would seem to be the case with Reuven. 

Yaakov, still in mourning over Joseph, faced with the horrible ultimatum of risking Binyamin's life for that of his whole family, is paralyzed by indecision. The stakes are simply too high. And then, Reuven says, "If I don't bring Binyamin back, you can kill my two sons," to which Yaakov responds, "My son is not going down with you."

The accentuation placed on the words, "my son," is clear. The question is, "What was Yaakov's message?" Was Yaakov saying, "Treat your sons however you want, my son is not going to be treated as such. With my son you won't be playing Russian roulette." I humbly don't think that Yaakov saw Reuven's mode of expression as callous. Reuven in fact was trying to express his seriousness; ostensibly, when the famine gets more grave, it is Yehuda who more elegantly voices the collective good, "I shall have sinned to you all of my days if I don't bring Binyamin back alive." But that notwithstanding, I would like to briefly underscore one thing.

The words "my son" must have reverberated very strongly for Binyamin's brother. For in effect, as far as Yaakov saw it, Binyamin was his only son left, which he states very clearly, "for his brother is dead," Yaakov states, "and he (Binyamin)" alone is left." 

Whatever the dynamics were between Yaakov and his 2 wives will always be somewhat of a mystery, and the relationship he shared with his sons from Leah (and likewise, that which he shared with his sons from the 2 maidservants) will also be equally enigmatic, but it would seem that all of the sons knew that Yaakov had placed Yosef on a pedestal, that Yaakov was conscious of that - and that it was even premeditated - and that the one thing that the other sons took umbrage at was that Yosef's dreams, and comportment, seemed to connote that the latter's approach was "either them or me," the fulfillment of my dreams of kingship and the subjugation of my brothers, or the rejection of my brothers as rightful heirs to the legacy of Jacob. The same way Ishmael, and then Eisav were rejected, the brothers feared for that fate, but that notwithstanding, at least in my humble opinion, they seemed to understand, because of Yaakov's special and exclusive relationship with Rachel, that Yosef did deserve preferential treatment in some shape or form. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No More Mr. Nice Guy

Parshat Kdoshim makes us think twice about how we treat people who are mean to us. "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people. Love your fellow man as yourself: I am Hashem." The sages teach that taking a revenge takes the following pattern. One man asks his fellow man to lend him a sickle because his has broken and he needs to harvest his wheat and trim the weeds that threaten his wheat. His friend says no. A month later the same scenario plays out, just this time, the one who refused needs one himself. His friend says no. Why, he asks himself, would he lend his friend a sickle if his friend didn't lend him one? The rationale even makes sense. In the business world, there's a new term, "coopetition," companies usually do compete but sometimes cooperate for their mutual benefit. The thinking makes sense when it comes to the nitty gritty of human relations; Nobel Prize winner, Professor Israel Aumann talks about w...
Read more

Can Moshe Have Misheard God?

Sometimes we hear something, but we don't really hear what has been said. Or, we understand a message differently from how it was intended. That was what happened in this past week's parsha, Shemini, when Moshe's wrath flared against Aharon's sons, Elazar and Itamar for not eating the he-goat of their sin offering. He chastised them. "Hashem gave it to you to procure forgiveness for the community's sin and to atone on their behalf before Hashem. Its blood was not brought into the sanctuary within; it should have been eaten in the holy domain as I had commanded." For a little bit of background, for Aharon HaCohen, it had been a fraught day to say the least; Elazar and Itamar's older brothers, Nadav and Avihu, had been eaten alive in a heavenly flame that took their lives but left their bodies intact. Moshe commanded Mishael and Elzaphan, their cousins, to then remove them by their tunics and place them outside of the camp. The day, in essence, ha...
Read more

What if God Was One of Us

The answer is, it would be pretty darn bad.  This week's parsha speaks to four different situations where one accidentally sins, and the consequent atonement process.  On Shabbat, a friend asked me, "Why does the verse  say, ' When a chieftain (i.e. leader) sins, unwittingly bearing guilt by performing an act Hashem has commanded him not to do (Vayikra 4:22)..?' Why doesn't the Torah say " If " like it says for all of the other transgressors, 'If the annointed priest sins...If the high assembly sins...If a layman sins..?' What distinguishes between the Nasi or tribal chief, or head of Israel, and every other potential sinner'"? I told him, "You see, it's like the expression, ' She'elat Chacham, Chatzi Teshuva ' (the question of a wise person, is already half the answer). A person who has to lead others, will inevitably get his hands dirty." You can't lead without making mistakes, you can't be human withou...
Read more