Weekly Torah Portion

According to Kabbalah and Chassidut the meeting between Judah and Joseph is archetypal. Judah is the classic ba’al teshuvah, a repentant, while Joseph is the epitome of the tzaddik; Judah is the prototype of Mashiach from the side of David, while Joseph represents the Mashiach from the side of Joseph. According to tradition Mashiach ben Joseph will pave the way for Mashiach ben David. According to many traditions he will die in the process. In their archetypal meeting though an amazing transference occurs where each one takes on the quality of the other and in the process helps the other realize his inner potential.

As Judah approaches Joseph he is literally at the end of his rope. After his advice to sell his brother was heeded by the other brothers, Judah left his family in shame. The text uses the words “descended from his brothers,” as his leaving was a descent in every sense of the word. Then he is publically shamed by admitting his mistake in not letting Tamar marry his younger son as discussed above. And now he finds himself in an untenable situation due to his promise to his father to return Benjamin, who instead has been taken as a slave. It seems everything Judah does goes wrong. Yet like a true ba’al teshuvah he turns to God in his need, tries to make amends, confesses and prepares to offer himself as a slave for life in Benjamin’s place.

Yet as he is maneuvered by Joseph into the place where he can finally rectify his selling his brother by offering his life for his brother, the tzaddik that is in him comes to the fore as it says: “seven times a tzaddik falls but rises” (Proverbs 24:16). It is the tzaddik within him that does not allow him to despair; it is the spark of righteousness deep within that allows him to offer himself in order to save his brother. At the crucial moment Judah merges the qualities of both ba’al teshuvah and tzaddik together.

Joseph the tzaddik on the other hand has been brilliantly and often times spontaneously crafting a strategy that will allow him to probe whether his brothers have truly repented, and if not, how he can create a situation where they will finish their process of repentance and atonement. At the climatic moment when Judah offers to sacrifice himself for his brother’s sake Joseph is so moved that he reveals himself to his awe-struck brothers. But he did more than divulge his true identity. Something moved inside that made him realize that he too on some level needed to do teshuvah, that he was not totally faultless or perfect. Many thoughts may have crossed his mind as Judah poured out his heart. Perhaps he had acted arrogantly when telling his dreams; maybe his great beauty had blinded him in his youth, possibly he should have contacted Jacob before then instead of leaving him in the dark for so long. At the crucial moment Joseph, like Judah, merges the qualities of both the tzaddik and the ba’al teshuvah within himself.

We see that each one as they reached their defining moment, unbeknownst to them, assisted the other to integrate their secondary hidden quality, creating a monumental synergy of transference and integration. Yet we are taught that “in the place that a ba’al teshuvah stands even a complete tzaddik cannot stand” (Berachot 34). That is why in the future Mashiach ben Joseph paves the way for the even greater Mashiach ben David. Here too we see that although Joseph sets up the situation it is the force of Judah’s sincerity, pure emotion and spirit of sacrifice that ultimately opens to way for Joseph to reveal himself.

It is written in the Zohar that when the Mashiach comes he will return all the tzaddikim in teshuvah. For ultimately every tzaddik must realize his own need to do teshuvah, while every ba’al teshuvah must also realize his or her own spark of the tzaddik within, as it is written: “And all your people are tzaddikim” (Isaiah 60:21). Judah and Joseph at that fateful encounter were not only creating the possibility of soul integration for every Jew in the future but were paving the way to a rectified world and the coming of Mashiach.