A number of years ago, a friend introduced me to the movie Finding Joe. The film is about the work of Joseph Campbell, a professor of literature who studied stories and myths from cultures around the world and came up with the now-famous theory of “the hero’s journey” that he articulated in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
According to Campbell, all of our greatest stories are about a regular person who, through a series of events, is “called to adventure.” He or she is forced to leave home and encounter challenges and threats along the way, and while those challenges may be external, the real journey is about having the courage to look within, face inner challenges, and return home having grown into the hero that one is meant to become.
In the words of Oscar-winning filmmaker Akiva Goldsman, “Storytelling is about people learning something. You go to a place that is dark and mysterious. You are faced with yourself… You acquire a quality, a hidden strength, a value… Moments where somebody is tested… Somebody goes to a place where it feels like a crisis point. They are restored, redeemed, made better through that trial, and we call them heroes.”
In last week’s parsha, we were introduced to Yehuda in his very first speaking role in the Torah. With Yosef thrown in the pit and death by “natural causes” in his future, Yehuda comes up with a new idea:
מַה־בֶּצַע כִּי נַהֲרֹג אֶת־אָחִינוּ וְכִסִּינוּ אֶת־דָּמוֹ׃ לְכוּ וְנִמְכְּרֶנּוּ לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Yishmaelim.
According to Ramban, Yehuda’s suggestion to sell Yosef as a slave solves a major problem for him and his brothers. We can get rid of him, thinks Yehuda, without being culpable for his death. Is this true leadership to be admired? Is this the leadership we expect from the progenitor of King David, and ultimately of Mashiach? Yehuda guides his brothers in selling Yosef as a slave, with no regard for his father and certainly not for Yosef! And thus ends פרק ל"ז.
Immediately after the sale of Yosef, the Torah in פרק ל"ח moves on to a seemingly disconnected story about Yehuda and Tamar. Bible critics have gone so far as to say the story was inserted here by mistake, but nothing could be further from the truth! First, Rashi and other Meforshim point out that וַיְהִי בָּעֵת הַהִוא, It happened in those times, teaches us that this new story is, indeed, connected to the previous one. According to Rashi, when the brothers saw the pain and suffering caused to Yaakov by Yehuda’s plan to sell Yosef, they pinned responsibility for the sale directly on Yehuda. For this reason, Yehuda moved away — and the next story begins. But it seems as if the connection is not merely about sequence. The Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 84:19) points out that the words הַכֶּר נָא, please identify [this], which the brothers used when they brought Yosef’s coat to Yaakov, are used again when Tamar sends Yehuda back his collateral items that prove her innocence and his guilt. The use of this distinctive language in both stories seems to imply a thematic, important connection between the Yosef narrative in פרק ל"ז, which continues in פרק ל"ט, and the “sidebar” story of פרק ל"ח.
Rabbi Ari Kahn suggests that we can find a hint as to how the story fits together by examining Yehuda’s behavior both before and after the פרק ל"ח story. As we’ve noted, Yehuda’s involvement with the sale of Yosef seems to highlight a potentially self-serving callousness that causes tremendous suffering for Yaakov, as well as for Yehuda and his brothers. But after פרק ל"ח, Yehuda stands up again, only this time, his actions are selfless and in service to Binyamin and to his aging father. He is willing to take full responsibility for the situation, and he is even willing to sacrifice himself for another.
So what event occurred between these two stories? Well, Yehuda was forced away from his family and sent on a journey, a journey that involved making mistakes and needing to take responsibility. In the story in פרק ל"ח, Yehuda at first ignores his moral and legal obligations to his widowed daughter-in-law Tamar, leaving her in a state of “marriage limbo.” Instead of blaming Yehuda and exposing his wrongdoing, she takes matters into her own hands. And then, even when standing accused and facing death, she places no blame and quietly hints to Yehuda that it may not be her who is in the wrong. In a moment of shock, Yehuda is transformed and decides to stand up for what’s right and to take full responsibility.
And thus, we return to Yosef’s story and now see a Yehuda who has gone on his own hero’s journey. “Why did [the descendents of] Yehuda merit the kingship?” the Tosefta asks. “Because he admitted [he was wrong] in the incident with Tamar.” Now a leader who is ready to stand up for what’s right, admit when he’s wrong, and take responsibility for his brothers, Yehuda can finally become the progenitor of Jewish leadership for all time.
Shabbat Shalom! | 
Comments
Post a Comment