VAYIGASH

Who are we?  Maybe we are defined by how we relate to each other.  Here was a confrontation between Joseph and his brother Judah.  Joseph had been sold by his brothers and after many misfortunes including imprisonment, he was released to interpret  pharaoh’s dreams warning him of an impending environmental disaster.  Joseph became viceroy assigned to deal with the oncoming famine. When his brothers came down to Egypt for supplies, Joseph imprisoned the youngest brother Benjamin to see how his brothers would now react to a similar situation they had perpetrated on him.  Judah demanded the release of Benjamin, not knowing that Joseph was his brother.  He stomped the ground so firmly that Egyptian structures collapsed.  As he was about to reach for his sword, Joseph warned him of his own more powerful strength.  In the Midrash Judah, with hairs bursting from his heart and a grinding a copper coin to increase his power, he is compared to a lion.  Joseph is compared to an ox and  bull.