Beth Shalom
Oceanside Jewish Center

If God Had a 'Plan' for Joseph, How About Me?
December 14, 2002  -  9 Tevet 5763

Parshat Vayigash
By Rabbi Mark B Greenspan

One of the most fascinating aspects of the story of Joseph is the almost complete absence of God in the final chapters of Genesis. Unlike his ancestors, God never speaks directly to Joseph and he never appears to him in a prophetic vision. Angels don't inhabit the world in which Joseph lives and there are no ladders reaching from earth to heaven as we saw in the earlier chapters of Bereshit. God never tells Joseph what to do or not to do. He lives with uncertainty. He stumbles along - sometimes he's in the pits and sometimes on top of the world. In some ways, one might say that the story of Joseph's life is completely secular.

Even his dreams lack some type of divine revelation. Joseph sees sheaves of grain, stars and planets that bow down to one another but no God. He makes no covenant and keeps no promises. And he never prays! Joseph senses, however, that he has a special role to play in the world and in the life of his family but he cannot discern exactly what it is because God never tells him what it's going to be.

Joseph's story represents a turning point in the early history of our ancestors from the mythic to the mundane. The world has changed. God has become more distant and unknowable. Unlike the world of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the world which Joseph inhabits is more like yours and mine. The son of Rachel pursues a career, raises a family and struggles to come to terms with his unhappy family. Does his story sound familiar? Joseph lives a fairly regular life with all the intrigues, struggles, successes and failures that we experience but none of the divine elements or miracles which previous generations had come to know.

And yet God is not completely absent from the Joseph's life, either. At key moments in his life, Joseph invokes God's presence as a guiding principle in how he lives. When he interprets the dreams of others, he tells them that 'only God can interpret dreams.' And when his master's wife tries to seduce him, Joseph gains the strength to resist her overtures by saying, "How can I do this most wicked thing and sin before God?" God is silent in the final chapters of Genesis but Joseph is not. In fact he speaks about God far more often than the Patriarchs ever do. One might say that Joseph speaks about God but he doesn't speak to God. He comes to see God's presence in his life, albeit silently and in somewhat hidden ways.

In today's Torah portion, Joseph again invokes the presence of God. Having revealed his true identity to his brothers, Joseph sets aside all malice and anger that he might have felt and he tells them, "Do not be distressed or reproach yourself because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you."

It seems to me that this is an extraordinary statement! Not only does Joseph forgive his brothers for their cruelty but he tells them that this was really part of God's plan for him and for them; that all that has happened, has happened for a reason.

I wonder whether we could ever make such a statement about our lives.

One has to wonder whether this was an attempt to rationalize and explain away his painful past. After all, Joseph still carried the scars of rejection and hate. His brothers had tried to kill him! It's no accident that he never contacts his father during his many years in Egypt, or that he appears reluctant to even tell his brothers his true identity. He wonders what his life is all about. After all, this was the youngster who had dreams of grandeur in which his entire family would bow down to him and pay homage to him. Only now he's not sure that he wants it. Looking back, it didn't work out quite the way Joseph planned, even though he is now the most powerful man in Egypt with the exception of Pharaoh.

Life hardly ever works out the way we plan. So what can we learn from Joseph?

Joseph comes to understand what he has searched for all of his life: that God has a plan for him; that he is part of a great unfolding saga, and that it was not up to him to choose the path he would follow. Earlier in his life Joseph thought this saga was all about him; that it was all about self fulfillment. Only now, as a more mature man, does he come to understand that the plan was not about what he wanted but about how he would serve as an instrument of God's plan for the children of Jacob. Joseph is humbled by the realization that he is merely in the position that he finds himself in so that he could help others.

Reading the story of Joseph, I have to wonder, does God have a plan for me? Does God have a plan for each of us? Why are we here - I mean, here, in this world, at this time? Is it merely a matter of chance, an accident of biology? Is it about self advancement or personal pleasure, or is there some greater plan for which we have been placed in this world?

God obviously no longer communicates with us the way He communicated with our ancestors. But that doesn't mean that God is not present in our lives. Maybe the Holy One is hidden in the details of how we live, and it is up to us to discern the greater purpose for which we were placed here. Or maybe the plan is not one of great accomplishments or successes but the sharing of the small gifts we have been given.

It could be that God's plan for us is to show dignity in the face of failure, or to express compassion when others are cruel to us. Illness and pain may seem like a terrible punishment and an unfair destiny. But who are we to say that we weren't placed in this world to set an example for others by overcoming such obstacles and teaching others that we can live and find hope even in the face of the most difficult circumstances. Joseph never questions what happens to himself - he merely asks - what does God want me to do? How is God present in this moment?

The story of Joseph gives me great sense of hope. It suggests to me that wherever we find ourselves, we are there because God wants us to be there. If we can learn to see the world in this way - the way Joseph saw the world - then every moment offers us a chance to make a difference. Happiness and sadness are opportunities to perform acts of Kiddush Hashem, acts which sanctify the presence of God in the world. If we can live with dignity, integrity and honesty - no matter what our circumstances may be - then maybe we are fulfilling God's plan for us. Every set of circumstances, good and bad, offers us a new opportunity. We must ask ourselves. What will I do with these circumstances today, right now?

Joseph offers us a model of everyday spirituality, one deeply rooted in our world, in our reality. Maybe that's why the rabbinic tradition refers to him as Joseph, the righteous. Joseph wasn't necessarily better than others, but he struggled with his life and tried to make God's presence manifest in the world through his actions and choices. That is something we can each do.

Where is God, you ask? Sit quietly and think about your life. I suspect you'll find God in your own foot prints.

Shabbat Shalom