Torah from JTS

SERVICE OF THE HEART: EXPLORING PRAYER By Rabbi Samuel Barth, senior lecturer in Liturgy and Worship, JTS Torah from JTS Texts and Songs—“First Fruits” Journey into Shabbat Va-yiggash 5774 First Fruits: Erev Shabbat, the preliminary partial edition of Siddur Lev Shalem, which will become the new siddur of the Conservative Movement, has just been published. Let us look at the journey of Shabbat liturgy, a journey of text and music. The formal liturgy of Kabbalat Shabbat (Welcoming Shabbat, the Friday evening service) begins with a series of six psalms (Pss. 95–99 and 29) followed by Lekha Dodi. A generation ago, almost all sid‐ durim and services began with “Lekhu neranena . ” (the opening of Psalm 95), perhaps preceded by a reading or devotional prayer. The magisterial Minhag Ami: My People’s Prayer Book, a contemporary commentary to the siddur, follows this practice (vol. 8: Kab‐ balat Shabbat, 49). It was a custom of Sephardim and some others to read Shir Hashirim (the Song of Songs) before this service, seeing this ancient collection of lovers’ poetry as PARASHAH COMMENTARY symbolic of the love between God and Israel that is “fulfilled” or “consummated” on Shab‐ bat. By Dr. Walter Herzberg, Assistant Professor of Bible and Professional and Pastoral Skills In the 1960s, beginning perhaps in some minyanim (informal congregations) and centers of What Did Joseph Mean To Say? learning in Jerusalem, the practice arose to sing the ancient love poem Yedid Nefesh Joseph, viceroy of Egypt, who has not yet revealed himself to his brothers, threatens to (Beloved of my Soul), written in Safed in 1584 by the kabbalist Rabbi Eliezer Azikri. Siddur retain his brother Benjamin as a slave (Gen. 44:17). Judah implores Joseph to allow Sim Shalom includes this poem (with a stirring translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Sha‐ Benjamin to remain free, and proposes that he, Judah, “remain as a slave to my lord lomi) along with several other alternative choices for the opening song: Shalom Aleikhem, instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers: For how can I go back to my traditionally sung before kiddush, and Shabbat Hamalkah (The Shabbat Queen), the first father unless the boy is with me? Let me not be a witness to the woe that would overtake verse of a longer poem by the leading figure in the modern Hebrew renaissance, Hayyim my father!” (Gen. 44:33–34; italics added). The word father is mentioned by Judah no less Bialik (see Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat, 13–15). than 14 times as he beseeches Joseph in the first 17 verses of this week’s parashah, This first extract from Siddur Lev Shalem has consolidated the more ancient text and song, among them: “we have an old father”(Gen 44:20); “the boy cannot leave his father, for offering two alternatives, Yedid Nefesh and the opening verses of Shir Hashirim, with a should he leave his father, he would die” (Gen. 44: 22); “and now, if I come to your slightly fuller version of Shabbat Hanalkah inserted as an option for the end of the service. servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, since his soul is bound up with the boy’s This compels the congregations using Siddur Lev Shalem to engage with love, lovers, and soul . he would die and your servants would bring . your servant, our father with yearning at the very beginning of the Friday night service, setting an anticipatory tone for sorrow to the grave” (Gen. 44:29–30). Lekha Dodi and affirming the ancient metaphor of Shabbat as “bride” to the community of Judah’s words had more than the intended effect, so much so that “Joseph could no Israel (see First Fruits: Erev Shabbat, 7–9; Shabbat Hamalkah is on page 69). longer control himself.” He weeps aloud, and finally, after withholding his identity from It is certainly not by chance that each of these selections has many beautiful and haunting his brothers, he shockingly reveals himself to them (after a 22‐year separation) with the musical selections. We also note the radical innovation of juxtaposing the traditional six words, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” Joseph’s question, upon careful analysis, is psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat with further selections from Shir Hashirim, allowing the meta‐ doubly puzzling: (1) why does Joseph ask if his father is still alive, if Judah clearly phor of yearning lovers to be continued until it culminates with Lekha Dodi (9–24). Rabbi mentioned that Jacob was indeed alive, having employed the word father 14 times; and Edward Feld, editor of the Lev Shalem series, has offered our communities a new pathway (2) even more baffling, perhaps, why does Joseph say, “Is my father still alive,” and not to guide us into Shabbat—a new pathway of text and song paved with sources from an‐ “our father”? cient texts and wisdom. The new Jewish Publication Society (JPS) translation deals with the first question by taking I look forward to the unfolding journey of our communities in walking that path through the liberty of eschewing the literal meaning used in the old JPS translation and most the pages of Siddur Lev Shalem. others (including those of R. Alter, E. Fox, and R. Friedman). It dubiously renders the phrase as “Is my father still well?” instead of “Is my father still alive?” Let’s examine the commentary Keli Yakar (Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, 1550–1619, Prague), which preserves the literal translation, and provides the following two explanations addressing each of our questions: To read more Torah from JTS, visit www.learn.jtsa.edu To learn more about JTS, visit www.jtsa.edu Keli Yakar addressing our first question, why Joseph asked if his father was alive: Even though they [the brothers] already told him that he [their father] was still alive as was [1] Robert Alter notes that Rashi’s comment to Genesis 22:2 reveals a sensitivity to understood from all of Joseph’s words, nevertheless Joseph thought that perhaps they this very phenomenon: “Although [Abraham] the human object of God’s terrible im‐ spoke thus, so that he would take pity on the old man and not cause his death since his soul perative does not actually speak in the text, this midrashic dialogue [cited by Rashi] is bound up with his [Benjamin’s] soul. Therefore, he asked once again, “Is my father still demonstrates a fine responsiveness to how the tense stance of the addressee [the alive?” listener] is intimated through the words of the addresser [the speaker] in a one‐sided dialogue.” (The Five Books of Moses, 108) Richard Friedman nicely captures the essence of Keli Yakar’s comment: “For all he knows, his brothers were lying to him as the Egyptian official, but now he asks them; tell me your A TASTE OF TORAH brother, Joseph, is he really alive?” (Commentary on the Torah, 148). By Rabbi Matthew Berkowitz, director of Israel Programs, JTS Keli Yakar offers an additional interpretation, this time addressing our second question, why Joseph said “my father” and not “our father”: Judah Leads But they [the brothers] did not understand it thus, and thought [instead] that he [Joseph] This week’s parashah, Va‐yiggash,showcases the most dramatic moment of the Joseph nar‐ didn’t intend to ask if he were alive or not, but [rather] to remind [them] of their sin. rative. Coerced by Joseph to bring their youngest brother, Benjamin, down to Egypt, the Therefore, he said, “Is my father alive” meaning that he’s my father and not your father brothers find themselves involved in a Kafkaesque plot. Benjamin now stands accused of because you did not take pity on his suffering—as if he were not your father. They were, stealing a goblet from the Pharaonic household. Judah’s promises to his father to return therefore, terrified and unable to utter a word [in response]. (Gen. 45:5) the child flash before him as he pleads with Joseph to let himself be enslaved in place of In other words, according to Keli Yakar, the brothers interpreted Joseph’s words differently their brother Benjamin. How are we to understand the emerging character of Judah? And than he intended them. Not surprisingly, Keli Yakar provides us with a psychologically why does his plea open the emotional floodgates for Joseph, leading him to finally reveal himself before his brothers? nuanced interpretation. The two comments are actually one: two sides of the same coin. Keli Yakar’s first comment interprets Joseph’s words from Joseph’s own perspective as the Joseph B’khor Shor (French Bible commentator, Orleans, 12th century) imagines a dialogue speaker: “Joseph thought ”that perhaps his brothers were lying. On the other hand, Keli taking place between Judah and Joseph, on the one hand, and between Judah and himself, Yakar’s second comment interprets Joseph’s words from the brothers’ perspective as the on the other. He explains, listeners: the brothers “thought ”that Joseph was reminding them of their past misdeeds by If you ask “why is it that I am spokesman before brothers that are senior to me, it is be‐ emphasizing the words my father, when in essence that was not Joseph’s intention at all. cause I am the guarantor”: [Judah had said to Jacob, their father] “if I do not bring him The brothers interpreted Joseph’s words based on their own feelings of guilt, and were (Benjamin) back to you and set him before you, I will stand guilty before you for‐ therefore rendered speechless as the verse concludes.

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