Listen.
Wikipedia: “Vaychi, or Vayhi (וַיְחִי — Hebrew for “and he lived,” the first word of the parashah) is the twelfth weekly Torah portion (פָּרָשָׁה, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the last in the Book of Genesis. The parashah tells of Jacob’s request for burial in Canaan, Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh, Jacob’s blessing of his sons, Jacob’s death and burial, and Joseph’s death. The parashah constitutes Genesis 47:28–50:26.”
* Why do Jews like Joseph keep rising to the top of gentile societies?
* I wonder if Jews in ancient Egypt ran the banks and the media. Did they develop the Egyptian dream? Did they lecture on the meaning of Egyptian identity? Did they write op-eds about how as Egyptians, they supported this or that? Did they push multiculturalism? How did the Egyptians feel about all this?
* Ties of blood and soil seem to be the essence of Torah and of gentile nationalisms.
* It is an important exercise to try to see things from the other person’s point of view. For instance, for me to try to see my life from the perspective of my father or mother pr brother or sister or ex-gf or ex employer, etc. What about seeing the Torah from the perspective of Egyptians or Amalekites or other non-Jews? What is good for one group is often bad for other groups as all groups are competing for scarce resources.
http://www.lukeford.net/blog/?p=67695 Luke Ford talks to Robert Stark about the following:
* If I Were A Gentile White Nationalist, How Would I Feel About Jews?
* If I Were A Black Gentile, How Would I Feel About Jews? http://www.lukeford.net/blog/?p=67680
* If I Were Born An Orthodox Jew, How Would I Feel About Converts Like Luke Ford? http://www.lukeford.net/blog/?p=67671
* If you were a Muslim, how would you feel about Jews? http://www.lukeford.net/blog/?p=67647
Forward:
Kahanist Won’t Defend Montana Jews Against Neo-Nazi March
Supporters of the far-right Jewish Defense League, an extremist group angling for a resurgence in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, say they are sympathetic to the white nationalism of the “alt-right” — and have no plans to push back against an anti-Jewish march planned in Whitefish, Montana by a neo-Nazi.
At a New York event for the late JDL leader Meir Kahane, organizer Jonathan Stern told Haaretz that “alt-right” figurehead Richard Spencer was “a white nationalist who stands up for white people and there is nothing wrong with that.”
Kahane sympathizer Stern called the activist group in Whitefish “a liberal organization” that was “intimidating” Spencer’s mother. “I think that was very low,” he said.
Stern said that there was no budget for Kahanist activists in New York to get there and said there have been no attempts to reach out to Jews in Whitefish.
“So they provoked this guy, and now there is all this response, by white people, and white supremacists, and neo Nazis, and they want to march in the Jewish Community,” Stern said.
“And so I’m trying to figure out what is going on, because if Jews are being targeted, we need to stand up for them. But if this is a response to a liberal organization, it’s a different story,” Stern said. “They started it, let them deal with the consequences.”
* Chapter 49 is Jacob’s revenge on his kids as he lets loose what he really thinks.
* After Joseph dies, he is “gathered to his people.” If you said a Christian was gathered to his people, what would that mean?
* Casey: “Why is Jacob too good to be buried in Egypt? When he prophesies that Judah will tie his donkey to the finest vine or whatever… is that a sycophantic thing, or by merit? Historical question: what year was all this happening–I’m wondering if it coincides with the diminishing of Egypt–that is, did welcoming the Jews into their society turn out to be a bad move (if not, why did the next pharaoh start killing them all?)”
Luke: Because blood and soil matter. Jews have a special relationship with a certain section of land — Israel. Jacob wanted to remind his children that Egypt was not their home. The Jewish commentator Meshech Chochmah wrote of the assimilated Jews of the 19th Century: “They substituted Berlin for Jerusalem.”
Judah is praised for his merits.
Wikipedia: “Judah offers himself to Jacob as surety for Benjamin’s safety, and manages to persuade Jacob to let them take Benjamin to Egypt. When the brothers return, Joseph tests them by demanding the enslavement of Benjamin. Judah pleads for Benjamin’s life.”
Egypt declined about 3000 years ago:
It’s strange to think that during Egypt’s New Kingdom period 3,500 to 3,000 years ago, this same nation was one of the most advanced on the planet. Egypt was an ancient superpower whose reach extended from Sudan in the south to the edge of modern Turkey in the north, with a powerhouse economy and masterful builders and artists. Historian Amelie Kuhrt has described the Egypt of that time as “unrivaled in wealth and pomp.”
Empires decline when they bring people into them who are of different genetic stock than those who made the empire great.
Dennis Prager says that Jews are alive and that the Egyptian empire is dead because Judaism has God and ancient Egypt did not. A genetic explanation would say that Jews have been more careful about who they let into their gene pool than the ancient Egyptians.
Atheist Kevin MacDonald read the Old Testament and concluded that the “God” of the Bible is the Jewish gene pool.
Does bringing Jews into a society always create prosperity or problems? I think the answer is all about time and place. Jews aren’t an awesome addition to every society. A society structred along the lines of race and religion is likely not a good fit for Jews because they have neither racial nor religious ties with the majority. On the other hand, Jews have prospered and never been slaughtered in WASP countries.
* In Egypt, if you interpreted a dream correctly, you were credited with not just predicting the future, but with helping to carry it out.
* Torah is clear that the land of Israel belongs to the people Israel.
* What shapes moral character? What happens when your religious faith grows or declines? I think faith binds and blinds. It strengthens your in-group identity.
My past show notes:
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “The book of Bereshith ends this week on a seemingly upbeat note. The family of Yaakov, united and now more numerous, live in an apparently friendly Egyptian environment, rather smugly protected by their political influence and their growing wealth.”
“The 130 years of good times in Egypt enabled the Jews to somehow survive the eighty years of slavery and persecution. Spanish Jewry enjoyed a “golden age” of centuries before its three century decline into expulsion and forced apostasy. Polish Jews also enjoyed hundreds of years of autonomy and governmental favor and protection before declining in the three centuries which ended with its destruction.”
* Rabbi Berel Wein writes: “As troubling as it is not to know the future it is perhaps even more troubling to know it. It is only the ignorance of the future that allows humans somehow to exploit the present and live a productive life.”
* I learned in daf yomi (Talmud study) that while it is generally a bad idea for somebody to immediately marry after the death of a spouse or after a divorce, in certain circumstances it is acceptable. For instance, if you need a wife to look after your kids. I heard about one rabbi who buried his wife in the cemetery and then immediately married another wife in that same cemetery that same day.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “How easy and understandable it would have been for any of our patriarchs and matriarchs to have become disappointed and disillusioned by the events of their lives. Yet their ultimate faith, that truth will survive and triumph, dominates the entire narrative of this first book of the Torah. Bereshith sets the pattern for everything that will follow.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “From all indications in the Talmud and in Geonic literature, borrowing books for studious use was very commonplace in Jewish life. In fact, the rabbis spoke out against those who refused to lend their books to others, seeing in this protectiveness of ownership a hindrance to the spread of the study and knowledge of Torah. Rabbinic responsa is replete with issues and liabilities regarding borrowing books and the respective problems that surely emanate from such a policy of liberal lending of books to others.”
I’ve always been careful to return borrowed books in good condition. It shocks me that if you lend a book or anything to somebody, most of the time you don’t get it back. I remember lending some movies to a guy after shul, a fellow Australian, and he never returned them! I appeared in one of the movies! It was my only copy. And every time I would run into him, he would joke about being sorry for not returning the movies and by this time, I did not want to be reminded that I had ever lent him such movies. I was ashamed. And to have lent them to him after temple! Oy vey!
Rabbi Wein writes: “The greatest book borrowers from the Jewish people have been the two other major monotheistic religions, Christianity and Islam. Christianity borrowed the so-called “Old Testament” whole cloth from the Jews. It is ironic in the extreme that the gratitude shown by the borrower to the lender of this basis of monotheistic belief and worldview has been expressed in unending centuries of enmity, discrimination and persecution. While Islam never borrowed our book totally it certainly borrowed its contents.”
“The Koran and Moslem beliefs generally – as distinct from its practices and rituals – are based almost entirely on the values and ideas of the Torah. It has also, over the centuries, shown a great reluctance to acknowledge that a large part of its library consists of borrowed books. In fact, this is true about a great many of the principles of Western Civilization. There is nothing wrong in borrowing books, ideas, culture and knowledge. The wrong comes when the borrowing is not acknowledged, recognized and/or appreciated.”
* Rabbi Wein writes: “Sometimes in life, the greatest gift and blessing that a parent can give to a child is the criticism of that child’s traits and weaknesses so that these faults may yet be corrected and improved upon.”
That’s what I appreciate about Rabbi Rabbs. He’s not afraid to point out to people their faults.
* I had a girlfriend. I always wanted on Friday nights to make the blessing over her that fathers make over daughters but she was not into it. Nor would she call me daddy. She wouldn’t let me tickle her either. No wonder things didn’t work out between us.
* Rabbi Wein writes: “One of my great teachers in the yeshiva that I attended long ago defined success in life to us as follows: If your grandparents and your grandchildren are both proud of you and your accomplishments, then you can claim success in life.”
