Shabbos Parshas Vayigash 5778

Shabbos Parshas Vayigash 5778 Rabbi Hal Miller You will reside in the land of Goshen and you will be near to me. [Bereishis 45:10] He (Yaakov) sent Yehudah ahead of him to Yosef, to prepare ahead of him in

Goshen; and they arrived in the region of Goshen. [Bereishis 46:28] Why did Yaakov send Yehudah as an advance party to Goshen? For that matter, why

did Yosef arrange for Yaakov and family to go to Goshen in the first place? Yosef was

in the capital city, which meant they would not be "nearby". After 22 years of separation it

would seem that the family would like to be as close as possible.

Ramban asks why Yosef felt it necessary to tell Yaakov in advance where they would be

living, and says,

Yosef knew his father would not want to stay in the city of Egypt, which was the capital of

the kingdom. Yosef therefore sent a message to Yaakov at that time that he would settle

him in the region of Goshen. Ramban does not tell us why Yaakov would not want to live near Yosef. Perhaps finding an

answer to this will help us answer the first question. Rav Hirsch tells us that Yaakov knew the Egyptians would believe the family was out to take

anything they could get--just as the Egyptians themselves would have done had they been

in the same situation. It was necessary for Prince Yosef to direct his family to some out of the way place instead of taking up the high-rent district of the big city. Nachshoni adds that

the society of Egypt was so depraved that to preserve his family, Yaakov had to establish

the first shtetl in history. It couldn't be done close to the center of Egyptian society, it had to

be segregated. A Torah society required living apart from Yosef's home. So why send Yehudah in advance? This is really two questions: why Yehudah instead of

one of the other brothers, and why in advance? Regarding sending an advance party, Rashi says, "This is to be understood as Targum

Onkelos renders it, 'to clear a place for him', and to instruct how he will settle in it." In

other words, clear out the vestiges of idolatry, and prepare the place for a house of study.

Midrash Rabbah backs this, "R'Nechemiah said: to prepare an academy for him there

where he would teach Torah." A single day without an operational yeshiva was a day

irretrievably lost for the mitzvah. Nachshoni points out the importance of setting up batei midrashim wherever Jews may

find themselves. He quotes Oznayim LaTorah, that Yaakov wanted to teach his sons,

"Talmud Torah is more important than saving lives" (Megillah 15). Yosef told his brothers,

"And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and all that you saw" (that he was feeding the hungry, saving lives.) People commonly think that saving a life is greater than

any other mitzvah, and absolves one from learning Torah. Yaakov therefore sent Yehudah

to set up a beis medrash and to demonstrate to all that even lifesaving does not exempt

one from setting aside times for Torah study. Why Yehudah? Midrash Rabbah [95:2] says that Yaakov believed that Yehudah had killed

Yosef years earlier: "an evil beast has devoured him" is an allusion to Yehudah, as it says

"Yehudah is a lion's whelp." Thus, Yaakov was demonstrating his renewed trust in Yehudah.

Although the mantle of leadership had passed to Yosef, Yaakov recognized that the son

who had the best chance of leading the future nation of Israel in its real mission was

Yehudah, whose growth he saw, rather than Yosef, who was fully involved in secular society

despite his maintenance of Torah law. Yosef was ready to study Torah, but Yehudah was

ready to teach it. Yehudah, through the incident with Tamar, then with vouching for Binyamin,

had shown himself to Yaakov as a true Ba'al Teshuvah, something the other brothers had yet

to learn. Just because some things are, or at least appear to be, very important does not justify our

not maintaining the big picture, and staying on track with the rest of the Torah

commandments! A little organization may be necessary, and this is best accomplished in the

context of a Torah community where everyone pitches in as part of the team.