Va-Yiggash (Genesis 44: 18-47:27)
LA JOLLA, California — This parasha covers Judah’s emotional soliloquy appeal to the Vizier (Joseph) to not enslave Benjamin, which would threaten their father’s death; Joseph’s emotional breakdown, and revelation of himself to his brothers; the brothers’ generously supplied trip back to Canaan to bring their father Jacob; an enumeration of the Jacob family of 70 persons; settlement of the family in Goshen of the eastern Nile delta, as skillful herdsmen; Jacob’s introduction to the Pharaoh; finally an enumeration of Joseph’s shrewd management of the famine, resulting in the Pharaoh’s ownership of the entire Egypt farmland mass, and its citizens as sharecroppers.
I have chosen three passages, for comparison, via the Internet, with writings attributed to ancient Israel’s neighbors.
I. Genesis 44:18-34 “Then Judah went up to him and said, “Please my lord, let your servant appeal to my lord, and do not be impatient with your servant, you who are the equal of Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants, ‘Have you a father or another brother?’ We told my lord, ‘We have an old father, and there is a child of his old age, the youngest; his full brother is dead, so that he alone is left of his mother, and his father dotes on him.’ Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set eyes on him.’ We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father; if he were to leave him, his father would die,’ But you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, do not let me see your faces.’ When we came back to your servant my father, we reported my lord’s words to him. Later our father said, ‘Go back and procure some food for us.’ We answered, ‘We cannot go down; only if our youngest brother is with us can we go down, for we may not show our faces to the man unless our youngest brother is with us.’ Your servant my father said to us, ‘As you know, my wife bore me two sons. But one is gone from me, and I said: Alas, he was torn by a beast! And I have not seen him since. If you take this one from me, too, and he meets with disaster, you will send my white head down to Sheol in sorrow.’ Now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us—since his own life is so bound up with his—when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will send the white head of your servant our father down to Sheol in grief. Now your servant (me) has pledged himself for the boy to my father, saying, ’If I do not bring him back to you, I shall stand guilty before my father forever.’ Therefore, please let your servant (me) remain as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father unless the boy is with me? Let me not be witness to the woe that would overtake my father!”
I regard this soliloquy of 414 words to be of Shakespearean quality. Joseph is dramatically moved immediately.
The internet yielded no “recorded ancient emotional soliloquies?” Its answer was None, representing a screen of about 1,730,000 results.
I also inquired: “Any comparisons of Judah’s soliloquy with one of Shakespeare’s?” The answer was: None, representing a screen of 39,300 results. Furthermore the internet contained “No recorded literary critiques of Judah’s soliloquy,” resulting from a screen of 34,200 results.
There are, to be sure, soliloquies and powerful monologues in Greek and Roman records and literature. Demosthenes (341 BCE) sharply criticized Athenians for indolence and indifference in their failure to resist conquest by Philip of Macedon. There are also a number of sustained emotional pleas within Greek plays, e.g. Antigone,” by Sophocles. Jocasta, in Oedipus Rex, strongly consoles him at length over the prophesy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. [1] [2]
II Genesis 47:8-9 “Pharaoh asked Jacob (on first meeting), ‘How many are the years of your life?’ And Jacob answered…’The years of my sojourn (on earth) are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years…’”
To my internet inquiry: “Ancient recorded inquiries as to an elder’s age?” Its answer: None, from a screen of about 9,920,000 results.
Tangentially, the internet described the status of Older People in the ancient world. Average lifespan was short, largely due to high infant death rates. However, once past infancy, people did have adult longevities of at least 60 years. Pseudo-historical figures, as in the Hebrew Bible, had declared 300-500 years of life. Homer described that Nestor, king of Pylos, lived three centuries.
To Homer, old age was associated with wisdom. Also, someone long dead, often developed an exaggerated longevity.
As to the Greeks’ actual treatment of, and opinions on elders, there was variation. They were repositories of lore and wisdom. At this same time, an old ager’s value was attached to his remaining usefulness. There were unscientific aging notions of ‘lost innate heat and fluid,’ like a lamp running out of oil. The elder, like a corpse, might be considered as cooled and dried, or alternately as having lost blood and yellow bile, with retained abundant phlegm and black bile.
Galen, a Roman physician (c. 129- 216 AD), noted that coldness of the old affected both body and mind. As to women, since men were warmer, men age more slowly than women and ergo, live longer! Physical exertion ‘dries one out,’ and thus hard-working people age more quickly. For the same reason, excessive sex was considered deleterious to aging.
Galen’s prescriptions for the elderly; massage and gentle exercise; if strong enough, go for horse riding and ball throwing; travel on a ship; read aloud; adequate sleep; tepid baths; blood-letting for stronger patients up to age 70; and bizarre food avoidances, e.g. no cheese, hard-boiled eggs, lentils, mushrooms, or many vegetables. As to beverages, no milk as it caused ‘rotted teeth and gums. However, he prescribed human breast milk and warm donkey’s milk, or milk mixed with honey. He recommended wine, the ‘gift of Dionysus,’ which among other things, ‘makes an old man dance.’ [3]
III. Genesis 47:20-21 “So Joseph gained possession of all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, every Egyptian having sold his field because of the famine…he removed the population town by town,,,”
To my inquiry, “Event in Ancient Egypt wherein Pharaoh became owner of all land?” Answer; None, from a screen of 949,000 results.
Also, to a second inquiry: “Any ancient acquisition of all land by any King?” None, from a screen of 16,100,000 results.
Ancient Neo-Assyrian (911-609 BCE) kings employed the title, “King of All Lands,” as a prideful boast of their right to govern conquered lands. Similarly, Cyrus the Great of Persia took the title “King of Countries.” These, however, did not constitute royal ownership of all land.
In India Post Gupta (c. 600- CE), there are ambiguities as to land ownership, sometimes declared as owned by the king, other times the man living on a land was acknowledged as the owner. [4]
*
NOTES
[1] Commons/Wikipedia
[2] The Best Dramatic Monologues b y Greek Playwright Sophocles, Wade Bradford, November 15, 2019
[3] Status Of Older People: The Ancient And Biblical Worlds, encyclopedia.com, updated Dec. 19, 2020
[4] King of the Lands, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
*
Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.