Illustration
Photo: Ata Awisat
Torah portion: VaYigash
Figure that will give rise to Israel’s mythic leader is measured by his ability to evaluate a situation, act and take responsibility for consequences
Judah is the true hero of parashat VaYigash. His heroism is essential to the corrective process that he must undergo in order to repent and assume his historically ordained role as leader. Judah, not Reuben, the eldest, nor Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son, is destined to become the father of the Jewish nation.
But there is a stain in Judah’s file that impedes his advancement. Judah – who now approaches Joseph (without knowing his identity) – is the one who came up with the idea of selling Joseph to the Ishmaelites. In Genesis 37:26-27 we are told:
"Then Judah said to his brothers, 'what do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.'” His brothers agreed.
On its face, Judah appears to save Joseph from death. But if Judah were truly righteous, he would have insisted that Joseph be taken out of the pit and restored to his father. But we are not concerned here with righteousness but rather with leadership.
Matter of leadership
As early as the story of the sale of Joseph, Judah shows himself to be a natural leader, and his brothers listen to him. But this is not the kind of leadership that will earn him and his descendants the future monarchy. The proof of this is that after selling Joseph, Judah’s stature among his brothers does not rise, but quite the contrary (as we read in Genesis 38:1: “About that time Judah left his brothers…”).
But despite his weakened position, Judah continues to bear responsibility for the family, and he - and only he - is able to convince Jacob to allow Benjamin to accompany his brothers to Egypt. Not only does he succeed in convincing his father, but he also makes the extraordinary gesture of declaring that he will personally guarantee the safety of the child of Jacob’s old age.
This is an unprecedented example of taking responsibility and of leadership. We have become accustomed to think of “taking responsibility” as a response to the results of one’s actions. But taking responsibility is not a result. Rather, it is the willingness to assume a risk to achieve a proper purpose. That is what Judah did. Even if nothing were to happen to Benjamin, Judah had already assumed the responsibility for his family’s survival.
Our Sages viewed the meeting of Judah and Joseph as a meeting of giants. Their tribes would head two separate kingdoms (the Kingdom of Judea, and the Kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim). Therefore, the stories of Judah and Joseph appear side-by-side.
Between their dramatic meeting at the pit in Dothan and their reunion in Joseph’s palace, we read the story of Judah and Tamar and the story of Joseph and the wife of Potiphar. As opposed to Judah, Joseph is righteous, pure, and cannot be tempted to the bed of his master’s wife. But Judah (differences aside) does not hesitate to sleep with his daughter-in-law in the belief that she is a prostitute.
The contrast between the two stories is significant and brilliant. It leads the Sages to conclude that “where the repentant stand, even the utterly righteous cannot stand.” Ultimately, the greatness of Judah’s leadership - his ability to admit the truth, to recognize the rightness of Tamar’s conduct, and to repent and repair - surpasses even Joseph’s consistent righteousness.
The figure that will give rise to Israel’s mythic leader and king is not measured by his blamelessness but rather by his ability to evaluate a situation, take risks, act and take responsibility for the consequences, and when necessary, to repent and repair.
Today, in the face of the corruption rampant among our leaders, it is important that we recall that leadership and righteousness are very different vocations. A leader cannot be, and is not supposed to be a saint (which is why the prophet stands at his side as the voice of justice and conscience).
A leader is a person of action, and action implies risk, and worse, it implies some degree of harm. We do not choose our leaders for their virtue, but for their ability to identify objectives and tasks, to take the necessary risks to realize them, to assume responsibility for their deeds and to repair what is wrong.
Rabbi Elisha Wolfin, rabbi of the Masorti Congregation of Zichron Ya’akov, heads a leadership-training program for the TALI Education Fund
