Joseph's Leadership - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hey guys happy Hanukkah so I know that last year I talked about the end of the portion of vayigosh but it has not given me peace you know it seems the end of the portion seems like a train wreck the original plan when Joseph became the leader was as we you know it's a simple plan seven years of plenty seven years of drought so store the food in the good years and then have food in the bad years but by the time I get to the end of the portion it looks like the plan is not even working because people are crying out and telling Joseph that they're starving and little by little Joseph takes everything first he takes their money and then gives them bread then he takes their animals and gives them bread then he takes more land and gives them bread and then he moves them to the city and makes them work so last year what I was reading here what I you know what I shared with you guys was the propensity that we can see here for people during times of fear and uncertainty to just want to turn to the government and be like here make me a slave take my rights take my freedoms just give me that little bit of bread that little bit of security and I read it as such a you know it's like a real deep reflection and warning that people will voluntarily forfeit basically everything they have for that crumb of a feeling that the government has taken care of them and then little by little if the government even gives you back any of your you know freedoms even meager portions of the freedoms you used to have then you're so happy it reminded me of like you know what we were going through last year with within so many governments taking away basic Liberties like the ability to be able to travel or move freely or go to school and we were just happy to get a little bit back oh you know thank you for letting me out of my house until I go to my Supermarket um and so you know that's kind of how the portion spoke to me last year but this year when I was reading it again I still didn't have peace because in that reading Joseph kind of comes out like a tyrant like little by little taking the wealth of Egypt and centralizing it for the benefit of what a big government I mean it sure looks like that when you first read it like everyone has their own money everyone has land they have animals and by the end of the portion they've given it all up to Joseph that does seem a little tyrannical do we just kind of cringe and be like okay I guess like that's what he did it seems like he's sort of taking away everyone's Liberty and you know for me this shows how in different seasons of life you can read the same portion in different ways last year when we were in the midst of you know so much tyranny this felt like a giant warning sign and I think Perhaps it is you know a warning of how we can easily give up our freedoms but there's something here in the story that I think I was missing you know every year we grow in our reading and this year there were two points that jumped out of me and made me think that there's another level here that I was missing in this story I mean I'm sure there's a million levels that I'm missing in the story and they say there's 70 faces to every verse in the Torah but for me there was something that I needed to read so the first thing that I noticed this year in bread and grain first come to they keep asking for bread now why is that significant if there's a famine it means the land wasn't producing what use would they have for grain grain you need to plant more grain and then you can grow your own food to make bread so it doesn't say that they ask for grain acid meaning there was some sort of problem with the land but by the end they weren't asking for bread Joseph was giving them grain now that's super weird that only makes sense if the land went from being unproductive to productive because if the land was productive in the beginning of the story they just would have asked for grain and grown their own food from the grain storages that Joseph so wisely saved so how is it people suddenly began planting we don't see them asking for bread anymore towards the end of the story if it was just a story of tyranny then you know Joseph would want them to be dependent on him for bread every year second thing that jumped out of me was how happy the people are when they begin to plant again meaning they see Joseph is having saved them and they say that they love him and when he dies they know that all of Egypt mourn for him had he just been selling them food in exchange for basically all of their assets then I'm like okay at least we have food but they wouldn't have loved him he sort of took advantage of their misery here they love them they love him so how can we understand that as having done something unkind to them they see him as a savior so this is just really unclear what is going on here what was his plan how did this help the people when it seems to have not really been helping them and how did it make the land go from how did Joseph make the angle from being unproductive to productive so the key here is actually understanding how agriculture worked in Egypt and we've spoken about this in the past I'll just review um this was written about in the work of Professor mayor barilan first thing we need to ask ourselves is how could there ever have been famine in Egypt like we need to understand the situation before we analyze the verses the way agriculture worked in Egypt and we know this from so many biblical references is that people in Egypt were not dependent on rain they had the Nile so how could there be famine in Egypt you know Hashem always Compares Israel to Egypt and that we you know in Israel we don't have the Nile and so we need to call out to Hashem for rain all the time meaning the universe is true that Egypt they don't need to worry about rain so how could there be famine well the way it worked was that every year the Nile like a clock was always going to overflow that overflow would irrigate the field now what the Egyptians did wisely and that's what made them you know such a great Empire in the past was that they created this massive system of channels to direct the Overflow water to the surrounding fields that were even farther off from the Nile as well it was very Advanced and then the grain would grow from this moist rich soil all the minerals would come up from the Nile and and then it's you know the verse says the land you're coming to possess is not like the land of Egypt out of which you came where you sowed your seeds and watered by foot like a vegetable garden like you could just if you ever didn't have enough water in your field you could literally kick over kick over some rocks and open up one of these you know one of these canals into your garden and water your field there was Zero dependence on rain you could just take the water from the Nile and that was that so if that's the case in order to create famine you're doing a combination of a few factors as Professor barilon he says first of all you would need low Nile that could you know happen in a drought that the Nile instead of overflowing you know this eye only overflows that high meaning just the fields like right next to the Nile will get water but the fields that are farther away won't get any water now even then you shouldn't really have drought because you have all these canals but canals have a propensity to get blocked up they need a lot of upkeep because if you live in a Sandy deserty environment you know sand can build up and block these canals so you need a convergences of two problems low water and poor Canal upkeep but what is the problem with Canal upkeep mixing all the canals takes large-scale labor organization and physical effort if one person fixes the canals that maybe are going through his land as you know his neighbor is also going to fix them right so like you know everyone's like well I'm not going to fix mine if you're not fixing yours you need people to organize together now furthermore if you're hungry right you're just thinking about survival you're not thinking about preparing the canals for next year's overflow and how to you know organize ourselves to do this when people are desperate they're desperate now wait you have this multi-level problem of insufficient water flow in the canals and you don't have food but what else were the canals used for Professor Bobby line explains it was also used for Waste Disposal water would come and flow and wash away excrement of animals and of people so you have animals pooing everywhere people pooing no water nothing to irrigate this out and then add that with poor nutrition because there's not enough food this is a recipe for what for diseases bugs parasites I mean it's a nightmare if that's true and that seems to make logical sense like that seems to be the way that you would get to a famine in Egypt you have a plausible explanation for this really big problem now how do you solve it the only way to solve it will come into well you need a few little you know a few things to happen in order to solve it first of all you need people to have organization like it can't just be everybody working whenever they want you have to get to everyone together the people also have to have energy to do that job of you know fixing this situation and not only that you need to evacuate people from this dry disease people and animals from this dry and disease-ridden unclean area if all of that is true then when you go back and read the verses suddenly everything makes sense we see that Joseph is doing a few things first of all he nationalizes the land then he takes the animals evacuates all the animals evacuates all the people who live in cities wine cities we know from the portion of Meek hits that he was storing all the food in the city so he brings everybody close to where there's food gives people food then employs everyone as laborers now the Torah doesn't tell us why he employs everybody or what he put everybody to do but it's obvious that they weren't he wasn't taking them as like his personal slaves or his paro's personal slaves how do I know that because look at the outcome the land starts being productive again meaning in the beginning people didn't have any use for green and couldn't grow anything but by the end of the portion people are getting grain and not bred so that means that they have a use for the green that means that they're planting from that we see that his purpose wasn't to tyrannizing the people but somehow to fix the land maybe in a you know a difficult way everyone has to move but to fix the land make it safe make it productive and then have the people come back now what's interesting is he says energy concerning the crops the usual give a fifth to pharaoh and the remaining four parts they'll be yours to seed your fields for food for those in your houses and for your young children to eat so he says now you guys are able to be food independent yes you're gonna have to pay some taxes but the majority of what you grow is going to be for you and you will have you'll be able to produce your own you don't need to come back to me and they replied you saved Our Lives let us find favor in my Lord's eyes and we will be slaves to Pharaoh now what leader doesn't want to hear that people say will be slaves to pharaoh but then it's so fascinating in verse 26 Joseph makes a statute does he make a statute that now everyone's going to be slaves to Pharaoh nope he says that from now on everyone works on the Farmland but pays taxes to Pharaoh meaning he lets them stay free the burst makes sense because people are so grateful that they want to be slaves but just says no no no don't be slaves be food independent grow your own food make your own Farms pay Fair taxes but don't be slaves he leaves it's like so obvious that people are there's a warning here like you will want to be slaves people will offer them up themselves up to slavery in times of uncertainty but Joseph is wise enough to not take them up on it I think the Brilliance here what we see is of Joseph as a leader is that despite the people's propensity to give the freedom he doesn't take advantage of them and he encourages them to be able to organize themselves for the better of everyone fix the land and then go back and start growing their own food and so for me that sort of redeemed this portion there is this warning of what can happen when there's a disaster but also sort of this light that Joseph brings where he's able to organize the people into a community help them and make them independent once again and of course that connects for me for Hanukkah because we know that you know um historically the hashimonian uh Dynasty led to a great like Rejuvenation of farming in Judea there's a lot of archeology about how farming in Judea really developed during the time of the hashimonian kingdom and so you know because when you're a free people the natural instinct is to return to the land to return to farming to develop farming and of course that connects to our you know the Redemption of the land that's going on right now and the return uh to farming in Judea as we're seeing on our farm and in farms that surround us which is I think a really um important part of the returning to ourselves and returning to our freedom as the Jewish people in the land so with that I wish everybody a happy Hanukkah a great week and to continue growing in our Torah reading from year to year together bye guys