What we do and what we say matters; once we do or say something, there is often no turning back. One of life’s most important lessons is to think before we speak or act.
In reflecting on this week’s Torah portion, one cannot help but wonder how the story might have turned out differently if the biblical Joseph had been more intentional about his words and actions. What if he had not told his brothers about his dreams? What if he had appeared less arrogant? What if he had shared a more strategic version of his ideas for the future? Similarly, what if Joseph’s brothers had not been so impulsively angry? What if they had not thrown him into a pit, what if they had not sold him into slavery? Did each have another choice? Might the trajectory of the history of their lives, their family, our people and perhaps humanity have been different had they been more intentional in their words and actions?
We’ll never know, of course, for the biblical story that begins in this week’s Torah portion, Vayeshev, plays out predictably. Joseph acts on his impulses and shares his dreams, and his brothers act on theirs, throwing him into a pit, selling him into slavery, and setting the stage for Jewish exile, and eventually return.
Such impulsive thought and action often define human behavior and are often acted out in Jewish personal and communal history. We are no different.
For an eternity, and particularly over the past 14 months, the Jewish world has been consumed with defending ourselves from enemies who we know hate us, and from those we fear hate us, arguing with those who criticize us, rejecting those who demand that we live up to our own stated humanitarian values, and marginalizing those even in our midst who struggle to find a way to reconcile these competing and sometimes conflicting goals and outcomes.
While Jewish identity politics and the nationalist fervor of some has been awakened, others in our midst feel alienated, marginalized, out of touch and deeply uncomfortable with the current dominant narrative of contemporary mainstream Jewish life. Those in power, and those who hold the levers of Jewish communal decision-making seem increasingly intent on casting those who hold other well-thought-out points of view into a proverbial “pit.”
Many Jews, particularly but not exclusively many younger members of the Jewish community, report feeling alienated or even rejected by a refusal of others to tolerate points of view that make them feel uncomfortable. Lately, it seems, a loud and vocal minority in our midst are so wrought up with fear of what is, what might be, and even what has been, that they are choosing to cast others away.
Witness those who publicly attack others in the community, attempting to marginalize or label them as traitors, anti-Zionists, or worse. For over a year we have seen loyalty tests imposed by the few on the larger Jewish community, claiming that there is only one way to be loyal supporters of Israel, one way to be a Zionist, one way to be a leader or member of the American Jewish community. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. We have always been a pluralistic people, with countless variations of Jewish identity, support for Israel, Jewish observance, and community membership co-existing, sometimes peacefully, sometimes fraught with tension, but never with the intensity that threatens our existence today.
Claims of unity blur the fact that these exclusivist politics make us less unified, less safe and less vital as a community. This then leads to a growing deterioration of communal cohesion, an alienation of the many whose loyalty is being challenged by the few, and a drift towards Jewish disunity and alienation that threatens the community itself.
In Parashat Vayeshev, Joseph’s experience must have felt similar. Joseph had a dream, he had ideas about the present and the future. His brothers threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery because they didn’t like how he acted, or what he said, or what he believed about the future of their family or what would eventually become the Jewish people.
The fact that he turned out to be correct merely underscores the lesson that should be clear; we are far better off allowing diverse points of view to thrive and exist in our midst, even if they make us uncomfortable, and even if we don’t like the implications. For when we cast those with whom we have disagreement or discomfort into a pit, we sow seeds of discontent, and we risk the consequences.
Luckily for us and for the Jewish people, Joseph did not remain in the pit, cast aside, alienated. Indeed, he ultimately saved his family, his people, and perhaps, the world. He changed history. Can we?
