You can join us either in person or on Zoom for Shabbat services and/or Torah study. If you are in the Bay Area, we’d love to have you join us in person. After Torah study, we enjoy a vegetarian potluck meal together and have an opportunity to deepen our connection with one another. If you are able, please bring a vegetarian dish to share with others. For those joining us online, we invite you to also bring food to eat after the service. We will keep the room open so folks can connect with each other after the service.

A peek into Torah study with us and the parsha this week
This week’s parsha, Vayigash, continues with the saga of Joseph and his brothers. Last week we read that Joseph hid his divination cup in Benjamin’s sack and then had him arrested, threatening to make him a slave. This week, Judah steps up and begs Joseph to let Benjamin go free and take Judah in his place. Judah’s pleas pierce Joseph’s heart and he exposes himself to his brothers. Joseph sends the brothers back to Jacob and their families to bring all of them and their belongings to Egypt to settle.

Meanwhile, the famine in Egypt continues and the people are going hungry. During the years of abundance, Joseph gathered all of the reserved grain from the people and during the famine he required them to buy back their grain. When they run out of money and can no longer afford to purchase the grain, they are required to sell their land and themselves as servants to get food for themselves and their families. In other words, Joseph has manufactured the situation such that the Egyptians become indentured servants to Pharaoh. This sets the stage for the enslavement of Joseph’s descendants generations later.

As we watch the ongoing manufactured famine in Gaza, along with the genocide, I cannot help but wonder how this horror today will impact future generations. What can we learn from our Torah to help us speak truth to power and challenge injustice so that we can shift from imposing and causing more harm and trauma to beginning the long, hard journey of tikkun––healing, repair, and reparations?

Organization: Beyt Tikkun