Shabbos Parashas Vayeishev - 5776

Shabbos Parashas Vayeishev - 5776

Rabbi Hal Miller

A man discovered him, and behold, he was straying in the field. The man asked

him, saying, "What do you seek?" [Bereishis 37:15]

We are told that this mysterious man was the angel Gabriel. Midrashim and commentaries

go into depth about who he was, what "discovered" means, and why Gabriel interacted

with Yosef. Nobody spends much time on those last words, "What do you seek?"

When reading the verse in a hurry, it's easy to just assume that Gabriel was referring to

Yosef's brothers. But since Gabriel was an angel, he would presumably have known

exactly what Yosef was doing there, who he was looking for, and why. So why did he

ask "what" instead of "who"?

If for a moment we ignore the status of Gabriel, and assume him to be a human, he might

have thought Yosef had lost his way. In that case, "what do you seek" would refer to a

destination. Ramban seems to follow the non-prophetic analysis when he explains our

verse as saying that when Yosef lost his way, he left roads and went into fields, knowing

his brothers would be in a field.

Rashi and others explain lessons we can learn about Yosef honoring his father Yaakov,

continuing to search even in the face of adversity.

But would the Torah have spent so much time telling us a story about Yosef being lost,

or is there something more than a secular mistake involved here? Had he actually lost

his way?

Further on in our parsha, 39:2, we read, "And G-d was with Yosef, and he became a

successful man." If G-d was with Yosef, and Yosef's entire relocation to Egypt was

Divinely handled, then our verse is not describing a human mistake of getting lost.

Next week we celebrate Chanukah. That story could potentially be read as a secular

war, but we know that wasn't the case. The recapture of the Temple could have been

just a result of good tactics by the Maccabees, but we know that wasn't the case. The

single jar of oil lasting eight days could have been a fluke, but we know that wasn't

the case. These events were miracles, the Hand of G-d making His will come about.

We say that the lights of Chanukah are a beacon for those who have lost their way,

to bring them back to Judaism. The people looking at that light are searching too,

as Yosef was. The "destination" of this search is G-d, Himself. For Yosef, it was an

understanding of his dreams and position in the world. For the Maccabees, it was a

return to the service in the Temple. For those of us who see a Chanukiah, the light is

a reminder that G-d is present in the world.