Third Reading: Why Jacob Loved Joseph
“He refused to be comforted saying, ‘No, I will go down to the grave in mourning for my son.’”
The parashah’s first verse reads, “these are the descendants of Jacob, Joseph....” Joseph is the archetypal soul of the sefirah of foundation, and the first example of this is in Jacob. What the verse implies is that all of Jacob’s children, all the Tribes, were born through the spiritual conduit of Joseph’s soul. This is true even though Joseph was not the first child born to Jacob. Thus, the first verse is saying that all the descendants of Jacob, they are in a sense, Joseph.
The next verse reads, “And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he resembled him the most, and he made him a fine woolen robe.” Why does the Torah switch from Jacob to Israel?
Chasidic teachings posit that the name Jacob represents his status as an “intermediate,” a beinoni, a state that Jacob retained even after having won in his struggle against Esau’s archangel. But his name “Israel” indicates his more superior status as a tzaddik, a righteous individual. So, what we have is that Jacob’s descendants are related to his status as a beinoni, but when it comes to love, there Jacob is represented as a tzaddik. In fact, the original Hebrew for Joseph’s resemblance to Jacob is the word זקנים, whose value is 207, the same as “light” (אור). Joseph is all light and Jacob’s revelation, the light of his love, passes through Joseph and to manifest that light, Jacob makes Joseph a special robe.
Did Jacob Regret His Favoritism?
Now, we know what terrible trouble came to pass because of this special robe. because of this special garment, a lot of great trouble for the Jewish people. But, in the end, was it worth it? Did Jacob regret what he had done, causing the Egyptian exile, and later in history, the 10 martyrs executed by the Romans? All because he favored Joseph over his other sons. Does it say anywhere that Jacob did teshuvah for this? I cannot recall there being a source that answers these questions in the affirmative. We must ask ourselves how can this be? It seems clear that Jacob made a mistake here.
One of the most pressing issues is Chinuch—how to raise our children. We ourselves have talked about this a great deal and written several books on the topic. The classic example of a failure in upbringing is what Jacob did here regarding Joseph, by making him a special robe. Everyone must be careful not to make the same mistake. However, every person has a point of self-sacrifice in his life, an issue to which he or she is willing to dedicate themselves absolutely. Jacob’s issue was bringing up his sons. If what he did with Joseph was such a big mistake, we should find that he spent a great deal of time repenting for it. And yet, what a wonder, we do not find that he regretted what he did.
Essential Love
Therefore, we must acknowledge that from an inner perspective, the revelation of the very essence of Jacob’s love, as it was revealed in his love for Joseph, mitigates any consequences. This is not just any love, as we have seen; it is the revelation of love associated with his name Israel, the love of a father for his son. It is worth it, in any case, to reveal the essential substance of love, be what may.
From this we learn that the special conjunction of these two names, Israel and Joseph, reflects this essential and substantial love between parents and children. Indeed, the value of these two names together (ישראל יוסף) is the same as the value of the phrase, “embodied substance” (עצמות בגוף).
Now if we contemplate how Jacob’s essential love for Joseph might be extended to our own situation now, we could think about how God loves us today. When Mashiach comes, the Almighty will choose among us and say that a particular person is the one who really understands Me, this person can reveal my substance. But an attitude like this might be a setup for another negative outcome like in Jacob’s case. On the one hand, Jacob did not regret his behavior, on the other hand, we must say that the lesson has been learnt.
The solution would be that God should show his essential and substantial love to every single Jew and not pick a favorite. We too need to learn from this lesson that the way to bring up our children is to show each of them our essential and substantial love. As we said, this type of love stems from Jacob’s greatest stature. Jacob is the foundation of the Father principle in Kabbalistic terminology, so he knows exactly what it means to be a father. He revealed his essential love for Joseph to give us a lesson for posterity that this type of love exists, but then our duty is to express this type of love to each and every one of our children, regardless of whether they resemble us or not.
Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben David
We know that there are two Messiahs in our tradition: Mashiach the son of Joseph and the Mashiach the son of David. One of the differences between them pertains to our topic. The Mashiach son of Joseph is like his forefather, Joseph; he grew up in as a spoiled child in his parent’s home—spoiled because of his parents’ treatment.
The Mashiach son of David is exactly the opposite. He too takes after his forefather. What was David’s upbringing like? Among his brothers, David was considered the black sheep of the family—he was ostracized. He had the opposite type of life from Joseph’s. Where Joseph felt that he was chosen and special, David felt left-out and unwanted.
Nonetheless, it is the Mashiach son of David who will rectify favoritism. How so? Once the essential and substantial love was given to Joseph, it set a precedent and the Mashiach son of David’s role is to ensure that every child be given the same type of love, the same type of attention that Joseph received. One of the great principles regarding Mashiach is the verse, “He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents” (וְהֵשִׁיב לֵב אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים וְלֵב בָּנִים עַל אֲבוֹתָם). What David achieves is to have the same level of love, and even higher, Yishai (David’s father), be given to him. The letters of David’s father’s name, Yishai (ישי) are the initials of the phrase, “together, the Tribes of Israel.”
