I love the Torah's "Joseph" story. It contains equal amounts of very real human behavior (good and bad), and divine action. Does the Torah wish us to focus on the human drama, or on God's overall plan? The linchpin to this question occurs early in the story.

 

After we learn that Joseph is Jacob's favorite son and that his brothers despise him for this fact (and for his tattling and dreaming ways), Jacob sends Joseph to search for his brothers and to bring back a report of their activities. (At the outset one must wonder how Jacob could, knowing that the brothers do not like Joseph, actually send his favored son to check on them. But this is a subject to be written about or discussed at another time.)

 

The Torah reports that Joseph was searching for his brothers in a field when a "man" found him wandering. Joseph asked the man if he knew where his brothers were and the man advised him that he heard them say that they were heading to Dothan. Joseph then goes to see his brothers, and it is there that he is thrown in a pit and subsequently sold as a slave in Egypt. The rest of the story then unfolds in all its narrative glory. (Come to Torah study or services this week and the few weeks to follow to hear the remainder of the story. If you cannot come to the JCC, then read the story in your Chumash, or on-line. If you don't want to read the story, rent a copy of "Joseph and Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". It is not the Torah story word-for-word, but it is close and the music is great.) At any rate, I have digressed from my main point.....

 

Let's get back to the "man" who mysteriously shows up to tell Joseph where his brothers are. Our great commentators questioned who, or what, this "man" was. Was he a man sent by God? Was he an angel sent by God? Or, was he a man who just happened to be there by chance, without any divine intervention?

 

Good arguments can be made for either of the choices; however, one truth remains certain. Without that man in the field, the story does not move forward. For this, he needs to be acknowledged. Without this stranger's input, Joseph does not end up in Egypt, Egypt is not saved from famine, Jacob and his family are not invited to stay in Egypt, the Israelites do not become slaves, God does not redeem those slave, and those slaves do not become a nation in a land given to them by God.

 

Answering the question I posed in the first paragraph, I think that the ambiguity between human action or divine intervention may be the point. Sometimes an angel is an angel, a human is a human, an angel is a human, or a human is an angel. What matters is not what the "being" in question is. Rather, what matters is that at that moment, when needed, the "being" is present, and helps.

 

The Joseph story moves forward in all of its pageantry because of the "man" in the field. From the seemingly innocuous action of one human/angel telling a young boy where his brothers are, a life is, and lives are, changed and history gets placed on a course that will end up with the creation of the nation of Israel. Can one person really have such an impact? In short, yes.

 

Look into your own life and you will recognize that individual who changed your story. Consider that individual without whom your life would have been different. Was it a person? Was it an angel? Did the person/angel appear in your life due to divine intervention? It does not matter. What matters is that the person/angel was there.

 

I raise this issue now because we appear to be living in an increasingly difficult time for Jewish Americans. A cursory view of daily news reports and recent surveys shows a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic activity. This activity is both symbolic, e.g. swastikas being painted, etched, or drawn in locations across the country, and physical, e.g., attacks on Jewish people. This evil activity is coming from both the right and left sides of the political spectrum.   This has also manifested itself in the increased ant-Israel/anti-Semitic activity that has been steadily growing on our college and university campuses.

 

While I am taking the position that we must vigilantly combat all of this anti-Semitic activity, as we enter into the Hanukkah season, I want to make sure that we remember that there are good people out there. People who care, people who help, and people who are loving. They are the people who somehow magically show up just when you need them. They have helped me, they have helped you, they have helped others, and they have helped the world.

 

On Hanukkah they are represented by the Shamash candle, the candle that lights all of the other candles. Without the Shamash, the other candles don't get the chance to brighten the world.

 

Is the man in the Joseph story a human or an angel? He could be one, the other, both, or neither. Either way, he is the person who made sure that the light that we call our "nation" was lit.

 

Look for, and recognize, each Shamash in your life.

 

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Urim Sameach - Rabbi Michael S. Jay