Parshat Vayigash

This week’s haftarah is a selection taken from the latter part of perek 37 in the Book of Yechezkel. This chapter opens with the well-known prophetic vision of the valley of the dry bones, while our haftarah makes up the continuation of that chapter. But whereas the first part of the perek relates Hashem’s promise to bring the dry bones back to life, that is, to infuse the recently exiled people of Israel with feelings of optimism and hope for the future, as well as a guarantee to bring them back to their land, the message of our haftarah that follows describes the glorious future that awaits the people after their return.

In this latter vision, God commands the navi to take two sticks/branches and write the name of Yehuda, representing the Southern Kingdom, on one stick and the name of Yosef, synonymous with the Northern Kingdom (Efrayim) on the other stick. Yechezkel is then told to bring these two sticks together as one in his hand and then Hashem will miraculously fuse them into one stick. The powerful message to be taught to the nation is precisely a message we learn from the parsha itself. Recall how the rapprochement of the brothers that we read of in the outset of the parsha came about through the entreaties of Yehuda to Yosef. This reunion of the two “leaders” in the house of Jacob, of he who suggested the sale of his brother with him who was sold, led to the mending of the 22-year breach in the family.

Similarly, God teaches the exiled people that their return to the land, as essential as that would be, is not meant to be the final stage of their redemption. After the “dry bones” are brought back to life and returned to their land they still had to mend the tear that had divided the nation. And this repair could not be done by Hashem alone. God demanded that Yechezkel take the sticks and place them in his own hand and put them together. Only after the efforts to draw the sticks near to each other would God perform the miracle and combine the two. But without the efforts of the navi, no miracle would have taken place.

The message of both the parsha and the haftarah speaks loudly to us as well. Our return to our land was but a first step—an essential one, but only a beginning of our redemption. It is now our challenge to take the different “sticks” from all over the world and place them in our hand. Only when we make the effort to bring the disparate parts of our nation together will Hashem perform the miracle and make us truly one.

The House of Jacob could not become the Nation of Israel until Yehuda and Yosef agreed that they were part of one whole.

And the same is true of us today.

By Rabbi Neil N. Winkler

Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee and now lives in Israel.