Bulletin VAYIGASH

Welcome • ohtcv ohfurc
Shabbat Shalom • ouka ,ca
Shabbat Parshat Vayigash
11 Tevet 5784 • December 23, 2023
adhu
Dr. Gordon’s lecture will be streamed via

Yahrtzeiten
Dec 25
Dec 28
vfrck oburfz
Dec 22 • 10 Tevet Harriett Post – Mother of Ben Post
Dec 23 • 11 Tevet Seth Weinstein – Son of Barton Weinstein
Addie Perl
– Mother of Lisa Ratner
Dec 24 • 12 Tevet Stuart Friedman – Brother of Melvin Friedman
Dec 26 • 14 Tevet Maxine Robins – Mother of Stacey Baum
Dec 28 • 16 Tevet Mildred Isenberg – Mother of Shelly Goodman
Dec 29 • 17 Tevet Sam Leibowitz – Grandfather of Arleen Sivakoff
Marian Sturm – Grandmother of Kathy Abrams
Arnold Mazor – Father of Eileen Jacobs
Birthdays
Anniversaries
jna `skuv ouh
Phil Jason, Aviva Chorny, Ronda Amar
Stan Kagin
Dec 23 Arlene & Mark Litow (44)
Dec 27 Jaclynn Faffer & Leonard Silverstein (37)
Dec 28 Heidi & Howard Gilbert (57)
Shabbat Kiddush Sponsored by:
Harvey Rosenthal
In honor of his great-grandchildren
Mavens: Rosalee Bogo & Steve Chizzik
cuy kzn
Assisted by: Kathy Abrams, Janet Cohen, Nancy Garfinkle,
Shelley Goodman, Evelyn Hecht, Elaine Kamin,
Judy Levitt, Carol Mest, Roberta Miller,
Shep Scheinberg and Arleen Sivakoff
Sponsor a
Kiddush
Contact Arleen Sivakoff:
dsivakoff@aol.com • 239.455.8811
Get your TICKETS at
NaplesJewishFilmFestival.org

Torah & Haftarah Readings:
Shabbat Parshat Vayigash: Genesis 45:28-46:27 (Cycle 2) (Etz Hayim p. 279)
1. 45:28-46:4 2. 46:5-7 3. 46:8-11 4. 46:12-15
5. 46:16-18 6. 46:19-22 7. 46:23-27 M. 47:25-27 (p. 288)
Torah Commentary
D’var Torah:
Haftarah: Ezekiel 37:15-28 (p. 291)
Judah and Jacob - Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
Judah loses two of his sons. In doing everything he can to protect his
remaining son, Judah ensures that that son will not have progeny of his
own. He bears the unbearable pain of loss of a child and it changes him.
Judah, the brother who would not consent to killing Joseph, callously
orders that his daughter-in-law, Tamar, be burned to death for harlotry.
He may see her as the source of his loss, the source of his pain. Yet when
he learns that it is actually he who is in the wrong, Judah once again
changes. He says, famously, of Tamar, “She is more in the right than I.”
And Judah becomes the sort of person from whom King David would
descend. He becomes the sort of person who can convince people to
change.
In this week’s parashah, we read Judah’s devastatingly beautiful speech
to Joseph. It is this speech that will finally break through the facade
of Joseph’s foreignness, this speech which will convince Joseph that
his brothers have changed and that he can reveal himself to them.
Last week, Judah convinced his father, Jacob, to allow them to bring
Benjamin down to Egypt. This week, when Joseph wants them to
abandon Benjamin with him, Judah refuses. He says, “let your servant,
pray, stay instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up
with his brothers. For how shall I go up to my father, if the lad be not
with us? Let me see not the evil that would find out my father!”
Judah is willing to sacrifice himself to save his father and the brother his
father loves best. He knows the pain of losing two sons; he’s done it. He
is willing to do anything to prevent his father from suffering the loss of
a second son. Somehow, Judah’s suffering has made him stronger, more
empathetic, more ready to give.
Jacob too has suffered. He has suffered the loss of his beloved wife and
thinks he has lost his beloved son. And these losses break him. Jacob
ossifies, drowning in his grief. Repeatedly, we hear him speak about
himself as if he is already dead. Life cannot go on for him without
Joseph. He forgets his other sons, he forgets Benjamin, he forgets God’s

promise and his responsibility to it. Jacob sleepwalks through life after
losing Joseph.
Then, in our parashah, Jacob finally learns that he has not in fact lost
Joseph. This could be a moment of jubilation. This could be the revival
of Jacob, the happy, long-imagined, hardly thought to be possible
reunion. But it is not. Jacob has been broken by unbearable pain. Even
upon learning the cause of the pain is gone, even knowing that Joseph is
still alive, all Jacob can think of is death.
In the moment that he hears the news, Jacob’s heart stops. Some think he
faints, some think he suffers a heart attack. He has been so consumed by
grief that when he learns that there is no cause for grief, there is nothing
left in him that can celebrate. He needs a restart, a reawakening, in order
to be able to leave his grief behind. Even so, he still thinks only of death.
Jacob has been pushed to the point of breaking. He cannot change; he
cannot heal. It is fitting then that we are B’nei Yisrael, descendants of
Jacob. We know unbearable grief. But our kings come from Judah. We
aspire to follow Judah’s example, to rise up from grief and choose life.
Lecture Series Continues
January 11 th -2024
Dr. June Sochen
& Joyce Schrager:
“Five Hot Spots in the World”
In a world in flux, a discussion of the obvious
and less obvious choices for places where trouble
can erupt for the entire world community.
WITH
Beth Tikvah of Naples
1459 Pine Ridge Road
Naples, FL 34109
239 434-1818
Visit us online at
bethtikvahnaples.org
or scan the QR code
to go there directly