January, 2004

On Emerging from the Pit
Rabbi Mordekai Shapiro

A few weeks ago the world was treated to the spectacle of a haggard looking, unkempt individual identified as Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, climbing out of the depths of an underground hideaway.  The irony of that picture as we began the week during which we read the Torah portion of Vayeshev cannot escape even the least curious.  As a reminder, Parshat Vayeshev opens with a description of the relationship between Joseph and his brothers and proceeds to the casting of Joseph into a pit.  As we know, Joseph was eventually hauled from the pit by a roving band of Arab merchants who sold him to a group of Midianites who later sold him to the Egyptians.

I have often repeated the comments of our sages that a Jew lives with the weekly portion, that is, there is always something in the weekly portion that hints at the events of the week.  Furthermore, there is nothing that happens in this world that is not found in our Torah.  So the pathetic site of the tangled mane and wild beard emerging from the depths of a hole in the ground had a surreal, almost prophetic look to it.  Saddam’s pit, like Joseph’s, was vermin-infested.  But unlike Joseph, Saddam had a cushion of cotton balls, a supply of candy bars and a loaded pistol.  The fact that he did not use the pistol to defend or martyr himself is a question only the cowardice and narcissism of the man can answer.  The fact that he offered to “negotiate” with his captors demonstrates his total lack of concern or remorse for the hundreds of thousands of people he is responsible for murdering. 

Joseph emerged from the pit and later from his imprisonment as a visionary, as the savior of a region ravaged by famine and destined for glory as the prototype of the survival of the Jew in the Diaspora.  Joseph’s pit is symbolic of the darkness and hopelessness that has been experienced by Diaspora Jews for 2,000 years.  He emerged from the pit into the hands of foreigners to uncertainty and improbability.  When he later emerged from imprisonment he did not allow his captors to rush him to the Pharaoh to interpret the dreams as an unkempt, imprisoned foreign slave. Rather he moved with a confidence and deliberateness buoyed by the message of Hashem to meet the Pharaoh as a well groomed, well dressed man in the service of the king.  Joseph’s sojourn in Egypt and his adult career as Viceroy and advisor to Kings in the halls and palaces of “movers and shakers,” never once flinching from his obligations and responsibilities to Hashem and his family, gives us the guidance we need today.  We live in an uncertain world marked by color-coded levels of (in)security.  Our beloved Eretz Yisroel is constantly scrutinized under a special world microscope reserved only for Jews and the Jewish State.  The European continent is once again bubbling with anti-semitism and we need to emerge from the pit of darkness to the glory days that await us.  We must prepare for them by taking the lessons of Joseph and renewing our sense of responsibility and commitment with vision and hope.