GENESIS XLVII:28-L:26

REASONS FOR IDENTITY RETENTION

The last chapters of Bereshit conclude in an atmosphere of tranquility for the patriarch. On his deathbed, the patriarch refers to each of his sons and shows that he recognizes them individually, knows what their defects and virtues are, unlike their father Yitzḥak (Isaac), who is deceived by a son in disguise. 

Yaakov (Jacob) has taken up residence in Egypt where his family has food that was scarce in the Promised Land. Yosef(Joseph), the son of his favorite but deceased wife Raḥel(Rachel), was the regent of the country, and therefore there was no reason to fear for the future. Was Yaakov willing to leave the land of his father and grandfather for the abundance of the fertile valley of the Nile? The patriarch had asked to be buried in Israel because he considered that Egypt will be more than an intermediate station. The destiny of their descendants was ineluctably linked with the land that God had promised to Avraham and his lineage. Even the successful Yosef insisted that his remains be included in the future exodus from Egypt.

How did the Hebrews avoid the natural process of assimilation? The Midrash suggests that they clung to several elements. They kept Hebrew, their native language, alive. They probably used Egyptian to communicate with the natives, but among them, they continued to use the paternal language. Language does not mean the simple substitution of table for shulḥan, for example. Language is a way of thinking, it includes values, priorities in life. Language reflects a culture. 

In Hebrew civilization there is no imperative to believe in God. The Torah never demands it and begins directly with the account of Bereshit, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” It is not required to believe in God, because God is an axiomatic postulate. The universe is inconceivable without the Creator. They were not infected by Egyptian idolatry because they felt God in their midst. 

The episode of Yosef’s “sale”  and its aftermath had deepened his certainty about the existence of God. Had not Yosef himself  made the argument that jealousy between the brothers had been the mechanism used by the Creator to ensure the sustenance of the family at the time of famine? The events were part of the destiny that God had designed for the Hebrew people.

The second element that prevented their assimilation was the retention of their style of dress. They did not succumb to the advanced Egyptian fashion. The Talmud, for example, insists that the scholar, the Torah scholar, must be jealous of his dress. Even in our cultures, uniforms represent investiture in the priesthood, police, and armed forces. 

The woman testifies that her humor and self-esteem, to a certain extent, is a function of her clothing. But there is something else;by retaining the original dress, the person externalizes his desire to retain his identity and transmits a firm message to others: the will to remain faithful to what he is and the unwillingness to change identity.

The retention of the name is the third element that ensured its fidelity to the ancestral tradition and prevented total assimilation into the Egyptian environment. In the United States, for example, it is difficult to recognize the Jew by name. For various reasons and not always of an assimilatory nature, many people suffered to change their name. Some did it out of fear, so as not to be easily identifiable by some anti-Semite. A long history of persecution can absolve this caution. However, it invariably leads to a loss, even if only partial, of identity.

The basic reason that allowed the resistance to assimilation in the negative sense of this concept, which is the loss of ancestral values, was the fact that Yaakov went to Egypt with his family. Had he remained away from his family, Yosef would have fully integrated himself into the environment that had finally welcomed him and forgotten his roots. Only thanks to the presence of the family, in its entirety, were they able to resist the temptations of the seductive Egyptian environment.

Judaism began as a family business with Avraham and Sarah. It was maintained through the ages despite the innumerable humiliations and persecutions because the basic nucleus, the family, was always well defined and constituted. On the contrary, adversity served as a catalytic agent to deepen these bonds that until now constitute the most important asset: the feeling of security and inclusion that means the existence of relatives in all parts of the planet.