Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27)
There are certain popular aphorisms that would get to me when I was serving as a hospital chaplain in Philadelphia a decade ago: “God never gives us more than we can handle,” “it’s all part of God’s plan,” “God will provide.”
My fellow chaplains and I would cringe at hearing such things from patients and their families undergoing tremendous hardship, not because we wanted them to have less faith, but because of the way their sense of faith was inhibiting their recovery. My understanding of God, is that we are allowed to be angry and disappointed in our life circumstances. Ending up in a hospital room is fundamentally unfair and that it is more than okay to let God know all about it.
Listening to Joseph’s response to his brothers after he has just finally revealed his identity to them in this week’s Torah portion, Vayigash, I feel a similar sense of unease. “Now be not aggrieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life,” he tells them in Genesis 45 verse 5.
All of Joseph’s suffering, and the pain inflicted upon him as a result of his brothers’ actions, are reduced to necessary elements of God’s plan.
I am reminded of the struggles I had with a devout evangelical dying of Graft vs. Host Disease. His body was rejecting the bone marrow that been transplanted inside of it, leading to tremendous pain and prolonged suffering. I spent months with this particular patient, watching his skin yellow, his body bloat, and his life cruelly come to an end. If there was ever a situation to be angry with the world, it was this one. And yet, this man’s faith in a loving God was so strong he never wavered.
He is my reminder that each of us must choose our own path and own theology, and in the right circumstances, even the one we don’t believe can come in handy.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy New Year,
Rabbi Alex
Last Updated on 01/20/2020 by Marc Slonim