Bereshit ends this week in a way which, if it were a traditional novel, would leave its readers with a sense of contented fulfilment. After an epic first few episodes covering the creation of the world, the first humans, a cataclysmic flood and an attempt to impose global hegemony on all the peoples, a family drama begins to unfold. Parental and sibling conflicts, migration, famine and local wars are all eventually resolved through repentance, forgiveness and the wholesale uprooting of a family to a new land, where everything promises a bright future. The latest of the patriarchs dies in peace, reunited with his long lost son, now happily married, a proud father himself and occupying a position of power and renown. They all lived happily ever after…

Except they didn’t, for Bereshit is not a novel or, if it is one, it is only the first of a quintet… and then more. Life works its way through the Torah as an increasingly complex, intertwined and multi-layered destiny. Not a fate, for the characters are not puppets of predetermining forces bound to an inescapable future, but the subjects of a guiding and coaxing God, who constantly works to opens the eyes of His beloved creatures. The Torah is, besides, both an ever renewing work and the lead-in to the future of Israel and of the world. 

So be strong, be strong and may we be strengthened by the new found harmony of Jacob’s family. May we be strengthened and ready for a most challenging future that is about to unfold in Sh”mot. 

This week may Zehava Cohen, the golden one, be strengthened, too, as, guided by Harvey Kurzfield, she reads to us from the final sedra of Bereshit. The service will begin at the normal time of 10:30.

Could those of you who have your own siddur please bring it along to the service, since there will be over sixty guests and not enough siddurim for half of them. 

Let’s face it, Joseph was a bit of a pain as a young lad. Snitching on your brothers, especially when they are bigger, older and more numerous than you, is not wise. To follow such behaviour  by telling them your dreams in which all eleven brothers, plus your father and mother in one dream, seemed to be bowing down before you, related, what’s more, without so much as a self-deprecating intro or summing-up, these are not things which are likely to endear you to them, or to anyone, for that matter. Small surprise that Joseph was not greatly loved by his older siblings. By the time he is sold into slavery, however, a profound change is working away inside him. Thus, when Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him, he refuses her solicitations. The reasons he gives, to his great credit, have nothing to do with concern for his own wellbeing and everything to do with loyalty, gratitude and righteousness. To give in to the importunate lady would be a sin against his master and against God. Falsely accused and condemned, Joseph quickly rises to prominence again, this time as a kind of prison warder, and he seems more concerned with the welfare of his fellow prisoners than with enforcing a harsh regime. Noticing, one morning, that two of them are unhappy, he tries to help. After the fortunate chief wine steward and unfortunate chief baker tell him that they each had a dream they don’t understand, in complete contrast to the boy who had declared his own dreams as though they were a mark of his own greatness, he prefaces his explanation with the words, “Interpretations are God’s business.” 

Which brings us to Mikkeitz. Summoned into the Pharaoh’s presence and asked to interpret his troubling dreams, Joseph again attributes any insight he might have to God: “It is not in my power. But God may provide an answer concerning Pharaoh’s fortune.” 

Joseph’s own moral development prefigures that of his brothers later in the story, as they repent and make amends for their previous cruelty towards him. Among the brothers, Judah shines out for his sincerity and courage, qualities which have themselves been heralded in the previous sedra in the episode of his daughter-in-law Tamar. 

There is much to ponder here and to help us do this most unponderously Adam Feldman will be leading us at this Saturday’s service, beginning at 10:30.