You may have asked why parshat Vayigash is a "cliff-hanger". That is, why does the story of Yosef and his brothers carry over from sedra to sedra, rather than being dealt with fully and completely in one parsha?
The fact is that all the Torah is a cliff-hanger and a continuum. It's really all one long story, with numerous chapters. That is why the vast majority of parshiyot in the Torah begin with the letter vav, which means "connection" or "hook"; they are all connected.
Consider: Vayigash is one of 19 straight parshiyot that begin with a vav.
So, let's look at the connecting sidrot, from Lech Lecha to the end of Sefer Sh'mot, which are all joined together by a vav. And let's try to see what the "bigger picture" is.
Avraham is told to leave his home in the Diaspora and to make Aliyah. He comes to Israel and sets down roots; he prospers. But it all comes at a great cost and sacrifice: he brings his son to the Akeida, he loses his wife. The family - Yaakov, Esav, the 12 Tribes - are wracked by disunity and dissension. Dina is kidnapped and raped.
A bit further down the line, Yosef ends up back in the Galut, in Egypt. He struggles, but then rises to a position of amazing power and prominence. He is wealthy beyond belief. He ends up bringing the "whole mishpacha" to Egypt and they, too, prosper there.
But then, things go south. The Diaspora turns ugly, and anti-Jewishness is released in all its savagery. Huge numbers of Jews die, the vast wealth evaporates into sand and our happy hosts turn into Hitlers. It takes our greatest hero, Moshe, to both convince us of our rightful destiny as Jews and B'nei Yisrael, and to extricate us from the Venus fly-trap of the Exile.
Does any of this sound familiar? The story is not an ancient one, but a modern microcosm of Jewish history.
We are reliving the tale, my friends. We came from Israel; we branched out among the nations in a hundred Diasporas; we experienced both the success and suffering that Exile offers; we witnessed the "glory" that can turn "gory" in a flash. And then, when the Shoah's fires finally petered out, when we were finally granted HaShem's gift of a return to holy Israel, we discovered it would take Moses-like strength to bring us all back here.
Yaakov said it to his sons in his last breath; Yosef made his brothers swear to it; Moshe prayed for it: bring me back to Israel!
Don't read the Torah as an ancient text; it's talking to us here and now. It's vav reaches across time and space and connects to each and every one of us.
The fact is that all the Torah is a cliff-hanger and a continuum. It's really all one long story, with numerous chapters. That is why the vast majority of parshiyot in the Torah begin with the letter vav, which means "connection" or "hook"; they are all connected.
Consider: Vayigash is one of 19 straight parshiyot that begin with a vav.
So, let's look at the connecting sidrot, from Lech Lecha to the end of Sefer Sh'mot, which are all joined together by a vav. And let's try to see what the "bigger picture" is.
Avraham is told to leave his home in the Diaspora and to make Aliyah. He comes to Israel and sets down roots; he prospers. But it all comes at a great cost and sacrifice: he brings his son to the Akeida, he loses his wife. The family - Yaakov, Esav, the 12 Tribes - are wracked by disunity and dissension. Dina is kidnapped and raped.
A bit further down the line, Yosef ends up back in the Galut, in Egypt. He struggles, but then rises to a position of amazing power and prominence. He is wealthy beyond belief. He ends up bringing the "whole mishpacha" to Egypt and they, too, prosper there.
But then, things go south. The Diaspora turns ugly, and anti-Jewishness is released in all its savagery. Huge numbers of Jews die, the vast wealth evaporates into sand and our happy hosts turn into Hitlers. It takes our greatest hero, Moshe, to both convince us of our rightful destiny as Jews and B'nei Yisrael, and to extricate us from the Venus fly-trap of the Exile.
Does any of this sound familiar? The story is not an ancient one, but a modern microcosm of Jewish history.
We are reliving the tale, my friends. We came from Israel; we branched out among the nations in a hundred Diasporas; we experienced both the success and suffering that Exile offers; we witnessed the "glory" that can turn "gory" in a flash. And then, when the Shoah's fires finally petered out, when we were finally granted HaShem's gift of a return to holy Israel, we discovered it would take Moses-like strength to bring us all back here.
Yaakov said it to his sons in his last breath; Yosef made his brothers swear to it; Moshe prayed for it: bring me back to Israel!
Don't read the Torah as an ancient text; it's talking to us here and now. It's vav reaches across time and space and connects to each and every one of us.