By Rabbi Norman Lamm, zt’l
December 1974—One of the most dramatic moments in the entire Torah comes when Joseph reveals his true identity to his brothers. It is not remarkable that he has to repeat the words, “I am Joseph your brother,” twice. That is to be expected because the shock is too great to be absorbed at once. What is rather unusual is that the second time he says it he formulates his introduction somewhat differently. Thus, the first time, he says, “I am Joseph your brother; is my father still alive?” The second time he says, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.”
The commentators discuss the differences in these two verses. What seems to concern many of them is that the first identification is more jarring and unnerving to the brothers than the second, whereas we would expect the reverse. This time, however, we shall take expressions as models for two kinds of self-identification of Jews, to the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds.
In presenting ourselves to the non-Jewish world, we can never ignore the past. Healthy and reasonable relationships cannot be established by an act of transcendental ignorance. Our people are steeped in memories. We are a people that sanctified memories. We can no more let the world forget what it did to us, than we can forget ourselves. “I am your brother Joseph whom you sold to Egypt!” This coming year will mark the 79th anniversary of the liberation at the end of World War II. New generations have sprung up that do not know the Holocaust, but the people of Israel will not forget.
I can understand why gentiles want to forget. Those who were guilty, or who lived in the countries where the crimes were perpetrated, find the burden of guilt simply too onerous, too crushing, too overwhelming to be able to live with the consciousness of that guilt on a day-to-day basis. The new generation that was born after the Holocaust feels that it cannot assume guilt endlessly, and it is not fair to make them suffer for the sins of their fathers. At times, I can appreciate what they are saying and feeling.
I might even be inclined to accept such a reaction, were I to feel that the Holocaust had at least left some mark, some teaching, some lesson of value. But when I see the old antisemitism crawling out of the woodwork, as ugly as ever, but disguised as anti-Zionism, anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and anti-Israelism; when I notice that French politicians to this day continue the policy of De Gaulle who considered us an “arrogant” people; when British politicians reveal their real intentions (in October 1973, during the Yom Kippur War a Jewish Member of Parliament arose and declared, “Israel is a steadfast and loyal ally of Britain,” whereupon Sir Alec Douglas-Home retorted, “If that is what you think, then you are neither…”). When the United States can tolerate a General George Scratchley Brown (who uttered antisemitic statements) as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then it is time for us to turn to the world and say: Remember me? I am the Jew, the Joseph, whom you attacked in pagan Rome as a lazy parasite, and in the empires of Christendom as a pagan renegade; whom you harassed and tormented in crusades and inquisitions, in pogroms and in holocausts; by Fascists and Communists, Leftists and Rightists, atheists and saints. It is the selling into Egypt all over again.
Remember me! And think carefully before you lightly undertake a flirtation with bigotry again. It may be seventy-nine years since the Holocaust, but it is only seventy-nine years since the Holocaust…
Yet, in confronting the gentile world with the memories of the Holocaust, we should not necessarily always appear in a mournful and baleful guise. When Joseph told his brothers that “I am the one whom you sold into Egypt,” he was not whining resentfully. What he was saying is: despite all your best efforts, I am still around!
So, our self-identification as the Joseph “whom you sold into Egypt,” must be positive as well as negative: you did it to us once, twice, a hundred times before, but never again, no more! Whether it is the PLO or the Third World or the Communists or the Islamists and their incomparable insolence, we are here and we are here to stay!
Though our presence is interpreted by the world as a threat to peace and as a potential source of nuclear destruction, we tell the Western World what Joseph told his brothers: you may not realize it now, but you will eventually. “Providence has placed us here as a way of saving your lives! Were Israelis not in ‘Palestine,’ you might have been strangled a long time ago by the Soviets acting through the Arabs in control of oil. Some day you will thank us openly for being in the Middle East and insisting upon staying there.”
The other statement of Joseph’s credentials is directed to the Jewish world: “I am Joseph your brother. Does my father still live?” We must appear to our non-observant fellow Jews as the bearers of tradition, as ambassadors of Israel’s spiritual heritage. We must remind them that we are not only brothers, ethnically allied, but that we share a common spiritual patrimony, we have a mutual father. We must never let up in our efforts to educate fellow Jews in Judaism.
It gives me great pain and anguish to discuss what I am now about to mention, but I fear that should I refrain from doing so, it would be an abdication of my moral responsibility. I refer to the scandal in the nursing home industry which has been appearing on the pages of the New York Times and other branches of the media. I know that you are bewildered. I too am bewildered, and I do not know if I can offer you guidance. But let me at least invite you to share with me some of my personal reactions.
First, we must beware from joining a hanging jury before the verdict is in or even the indictment legally prepared. Newspapers cannot convict, and such information has known to be faulty in the past. Jewish law and civil law and simple ethics all teach us: you do not hold a man guilty until you have corroborated and established the facts of his guilt. Let no one be a hangman whose own neck itches. Furthermore, although this is apparently not relevant to the issue at hand, we must make a distinction between one who is guilty of a single wrong act, and one who is enmeshed in a whole pattern of systematic corruption. A man may be guilty of one crime or one misdemeanor, but we should not rush therefore to condemn him in public.
Second, we must beware and make others aware of generalizations. Because one or two or a thousand Jews do something wrong is no reason to blame all Jews. Because one or two or a hundred Orthodox Jews sin is no reason to hold all Orthodox Jews guilty. “If one man sins, shall You be furious with the entire congregation?” The media have generally been restrained in dealing with the current scandal. Yet there are occasional slips, and when I see someone who is accused of wrong-doing described as “Orthodox,” I am annoyed. How often is a mugger identified in the press as Black, a rapist as a Puerto Rican, a pickpocket as Episcopalian?
I now can hear the reproach of Joseph rolling down like distant peals of thunder through the ages, becoming deafeningly louder as it approaches us and ultimately envelops us: I am Joseph, your brother. Remember me? Remember the Joseph who resisted temptation even when he could have gotten away with it? Does my father still live? Is my father Jacob still alive for you, that Jacob who was an old man, sick and infirmed, whom you treated callously and for which you suffered? An old man who, like other elderly, ought to be treated with deference and tenderness, not ignored and defrauded?
Is our Heavenly Father alive for you? He who taught and teaches and always will teach justice and righteousness, love and ethics, and the obligation of the Jew to respect the laws of the country? Has your Judaism ossified into rite and note, into mere cult, with no moral passion and no ethical dimension, and no sense of a living G-d? Can we continue as we have continued, when all the labor and effort we have put into building Jewish life in this country, especially the Torah community, is undone because we are struck with such chillul Hashem instead of arriving at a state of Kiddush Hashem?
So, we must not be impetuous in passing judgment. We must never condemn before the facts are in. But the dignity of Orthodoxy and Torah takes precedence over individuals. Where the desecration of the Divine Name is concerned, no individual can deter us from our task. We must resolve that in the future we shall never allow principle to be sacrificed for expediency.
As we read Joseph’s immortal words: “I am Joseph, your brother,” we should know that these words are still relevant and germane to Jews, to non-Jews, and to ourselves.
“I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt,” and never again will we allow that to occur.
“I am your brother Joseph, is my father still alive?” Let us hope and pray—and even more, strive and labor—to deserve to hear the answer loud and clear: our Father still lives! n
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