Choosing to Remain in Galus
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5774
Nobody likes to be rebuked. No one appreciates having to face the reality that we are not doing what we should be doing, that we are wrong.
I certainly do not. But that is exactly how I felt after reading an idea in a book of sermon from Rabbi Benny Lau, the rabbi of the Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem.
I share the idea with you because I believe that he is right and partially in the spirit of misery loves company!
The very last verse in our parsha describes the Jews taking residence in Goshen, the section of Egypt that Joseph had cleared for them.
בראשית פרק מז
כז) וישב ישראל בארץ מצרים בארץ גשן ויאחזו בה ויפרו וירבו מאד
They settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they grabbed hold of it, and multiplied greatly.
The Torah tells us that the Israelites did not simply settle in the land, ויאחזו בה, they grabbed hold of it as well.
That extra description, the extra activity described demands explanation. What does it actually mean and it is a positive description or a negative one?
The consensus seems to be that ויאחזו בה refers to houses and property.
The Midrash reads this in a very positive way. The Pesikta Zutrata writes that we should give praise to God for providing us with what we need and allowing us to be successful in Egypt. After all it was God who told them almost a chapter ago, don’t be afraid to go down to Egypt as I will make you a great nation there.
Once we have to be there for a long time and we are there as a part of God’s plan, it is only right that God should take care of us.
The only other positive spin that I could find was in the commentary of the Ohr Hachaim, 16th century Morroco. He writes that the purpose of the descent to Egypt was to collect the niztoztot, the sparks of holiness, which were scattered there after Adam’s sin. ויאחזו בה refers to the act of collecting those nitzotzot.
The majority of the commentators see this as a negative comment, at some level describing the Jews love of Egypt and desire to remain there.
Rabbeinu Bachya argues that ויאחזו בה means that the Jews desired to establish a nachalah, an inheritance in the land. They wanted to establish a permanent and eternal residence. And their intention did not come to fruition.
He also points out that it is far from clear that the Yaakovs’ family knew that this was the beginning of the exile into Egypt that was told to Avraham. God comes to Yaakov in a dream and tells him not to be afraid and that they will become a great nation. Rabbeinu Bachya argues that Jacob never told his family. To the best of their knowledge this was a temporary trip in order to survive during the famine and after “x” number of years they would return to their home in Israel.
But once there, they gave up on the return to Israel and desired to remain in Egypt.
I am not sure if it makes it better or worse, but the Kli Yakar assumes that Yaakov did tell his family about the descent. They knew it was the beginning of the exile where Abraham’s descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs. Their sin was that although they originally came to Egypt to live as strangers and foreigners, once there they changed their minds and wanted to settle in Egypt and remain there. It got so bad that God had to come and take the Jews out with an outstretched arm, God literally had to force them to leave, and those who chose to stay he killed in the plague of darkness.
Hirsch reads ויאחזו בה not that they grabbed the land; rather they were grabbed by it. He refers us to the 20th chapter of the book of Ezekiel where the prophet describes Israelite involvement in Egyptian culture and idolatry.
Here to I am not sure which is worse: Hirsch’s argument that they did not want to leave and return to Israel because of their attachment to Egyptian idolatry or the Kli Yakar/Rabbeinu Bachya argument that they simply got comfortable, owned property and wanted to stay.
Either way they describe an exile community who chooses to stay and gives up on their dream of returning to Israel.
Rabbi Lau argues that this verse seems to serve as the paradigm for all of our subsequent exiles. ויאחזו בה teaches us that we get used to a new place even if it is not ours and desire to grab a hold of it and connect ourselves to it.
In the next great exile, the Babylonian galus, the Jews were to remain there for 70 years. They went, settled, got comfortable and attached themselves to land and culture. When the call came to return the overwhelming majority of the people remained in their new land and did not heed the call to return to Israel.
That mentality travelled with the Jew throughout their subsequent exiles. Although he does not specify the American galus we clearly suffer from that very fame mentality. We have become comfortable and wealthy and we don’t return to the land of Israel.
The line that really hit me was: “the majority of Babylonian Jews, the grounded and strong in the group remained, they continued to pray for the return to Zion and they remained in Babylonia.”
That hurt because that is exactly what we do! We proclaim our love for the land, we exclaim and pray for the beginning of the redemption and we sit here in America.
We have the opportunity to go back, the fulfillment of Jewry’s dream for the last 2000 years and yet we remain.
This week as we fast on the 10th of tevet on Friday, and we commemorate the laying of the siege of Jerusalem and the beginning of the process that led to the destruction of the temple and exile we mourn not only for the past but for present as well.
We mourn the past churban and exile and stand shamefaced that we are still in the current exile.
