5786/2025
Parashat VaYigash brings the Torah’s most emotionally intense encounter, as Yehudah approaches the Egyptian ruler who holds Binyamin’s fate. Neither brother fully understands what this moment represents,yet it is the culmination of two long journeys of growth. Yehudah learns to become the brother he once failed to be, while Yosef learns to see his brothers not as rivals, but as people capable of Teshuvah.
Yehudah’s tale begins with moral distance. At Yosef’s sale, Yehudah proposes selling him rather than killing him. While this saves Yosef’s life, in the moment, it allows Yehudah to avoid his brother’s suffering. Yosef is now a problem to remove, not a person worthy of protection. We see this same pattern again in the episode of Tamar, when Yehudah avoids responsibility by withholding his remaining son, Shelah. Tamar forces Yehudah to take responsibility, and Yehudah responds with the words, “She is more righteous than I.” For the first time, Yehudah does not turn away from the consequences of his actions.
That lesson defines Yehudah in VaYigash. When Binyamin’s fate is in Yosef's hand, Yehudah takes the necessary action. He reverses his role in Yosef’s sale, making himself the object of punishment, offering to take Binyamin’s place. In a case where Yehudah would’ve sacrificed a brother, he now sacrifices himself to preserve a brother. Yehudah’s growth is not expressed through words alone, but through the willingness to stand in the place of another’s suffering.
Yosef’s growth takes a different path. As a young man, Yosef experiences brotherhood as hierarchy. His dreams placed him above his brothers, and he lacks the sensitivity to see how isolating that vision is. Betrayal forces Yosef into a sense of loneliness, molding him to be truly aware of others' vulnerability. When Yosef rises to power in Egypt, he gains control over others’ lives, yet remains emotionally unresolved.
Yosef’s tests of his brothers are not acts of revenge. Really, he requires them to determine whether the brothers have done Teshuvah. In Yehudah’s speech, Yosef sees what he once thought was impossible: his brother willing to suffer for the sake of others. In that crucial moment, Yosef understands that his brothers are no longer defined by their worst action. He cries and reveals himself, reconciling his relationship after so long.
VaYigash teaches that Teshuvah is proven not by Charatah, regret, alone, but by the transformations seen when faced with the same test. Yehudah completes his Teshuva by becoming the brother he once failed to be. Yosef completes his growth by allowing forgiveness to fix the past. Redemption begins when responsibility meets compassion, and when brothers learn not only to face each other, but to stand for each other.