CHOCHMAS NASHIM: VAYIGASH: K’SHEM SHEMIVORCHIM AL HATOV, MEVORCHIM AL HATOV
WHO SAYS IT’S EVIL?
This week’s torah portion is foundational on the question of faith and appearances of evil. Joseph lost his mother at a young age. His jealous brothers throw him into a pit, then sold him to Egyptians as a slave. They compounded this evil by lying to their father that Joseph was killed by a wild animal and was dead and forced their father into two decades of mourning for his favored son. Joseph was then thrown into jail for allegations which were false. Why would evil befall this young man who lost his mother at a young age? This week we merit seeing the answer with Joseph’s remarks to his brothers, it is not your doing that brought me to Egypt, it was all G-d’s plan.
This week in Daf Yomi we learned Taanis 21 about Nachum Ish Gamzu, Nachum was a man who said This is also for the good. He had a student Rabbi Akiva who said “Kol man d’avid Rachmana l’tav avid, which means: “All that the Merciful One does, He does for good.” What’s the difference? Nachum saw that everything in this world was patently good, ab initio, from the start. Rabbi Akiva said that all ends up okay, a latent belief.
What is the connection between this week’s torah portion and the end of life of these two great torah scholars?
Nachum lost his appendages and had boils. When his students asked how a great and illustrious rabbi as Nachum could be afflicted by G-d when he had dedicated his whole life to G-d and learning Torah. Nachum replied that he asked G-d to afflict him in this world, for he had not acted as he should to a poor person who asked him for food, and Nachum wanted his punishment in this world, rather than in the world to come.
The end of Rabbi Akiva’s life is directly correlated to these torah portions relating Joseph’s story. The brothers were not punished for their sin in selling Joseph. Generations later, at the time of the impending destruction of the Temple, when the Romans ruled, it was decided that ten torah scholars had to be put to death to compensate for the sins of the Joseph’s ten brothers. There is great scholarly work on the question of why these Rabbis needed to be punished for the sins of the brothers, not for now.
When Rabbi Akiva was being tortured to death, an angel’s voice cried out, This is the reward for dedicating a life to Torah/”Zeh Torah, v’zeh scharah?” G-d replied that the angels need to silence themselves for if another word is spoken, G-d would turn the world back to “tohu vavohu,” to the days before creation.
A look at G-d’s answer brings us full circle. As to the age-old question of why the Righteous suffer and why the evil prosper, I ask, are we G-d? Do we know who is righteous or evil, do we know whether something is latently suffering or prosperity? No, because we are not G-d. We don’t know what is in the hearts of men behind closed doors, nor do we know whether what befalls a man is bad. When G-d said that He would return the world to the state it was in before creation, what He meant to say was that only those who were there at the time of creation would know or understand G-d’s plan and how every person and event is part of G-d’s plan. Since there was no one around at the time of creation, no one is privy to G-d’s ultimate plan and therefore cannot say that anything is evil, if he believes that there is a G-d who has a plan and all is for the good.
We want to say that it is evil of the brothers to throw young Joseph in a pit. Joseph suffered in the pit with snakes and scorpions. The fact that the Torah discusses this story over several torah portions, with an apex in this Torah portion, where Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, and immediately exculpates them from guilt redirecting it to the hand of G-d, is a favor from G-d in permitting us to see how He deals with the world. It is a lesson that it is in G-d’s grace that he permitted us and from time to time in our own life, permits us, to see that over time it works out.
We have to determine if we are going to be like Nachum and really incorporate that all that happens is patently for the good, or be a bit more human, feel the suffering like Rabbi Akiva, but know that latently all is for the good.
Shabbat shalom.
-Suri