I discuss the parsha with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7pm PST on my live cam.
This week we will discuss our Torah portion of Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27).
* When God identifies himself, he does it as the concrete God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, rather than as the universal source of morality. The latter would not have worked. Abstract moral principles are not enough, you need a concrete people to live them and the only way to maintain a commitment to principles is through ritual observance. Rituals guard ethics (Dennis Prager).
* Judaism isn’t stoical. Jews give vent to their emotions from Genesis to the present day. This is dramatic to me as I was raised a stoical Protestant. So the patriarchs and other Biblical characters are much more real and accessible to me since I converted to Judaism. As a Christian, they were also my ancestors, but they lived contrary to Protestantism. They had dietary laws. They were very emotional. They lusted. They observed mourning rituals. They were tribal. They had attachments to places such as Israel.
* Jews were shepherds. Egyptians despised that profession, just as Christians despised money lenders in the Middle Ages and pornographers today.
Jews wanted their own area and Egyptians wanted to put them in their own area.
It’s important to know your place in life.
Should Jews live in their own enclaves as they did at Goshen?
* Awareness of being strangers in Egypt left a profound impression on the Jewish consciousness and is a source of numerous statements in the Torah such as to the love the stranger.
