Mikkets
Where is the line between poetic justice and blind revenge? Just ask Joseph this week, as he finally gets the upper hand over his brothers. The only problem is, he has forgotten the grief of his father in the process by threatening the only son by Rachel he has left, Benjamin, and he is the most innocent person of them all. So beneath the pranks and practical jokes he pulls, there is also a deadly seriousness surrounding almost everyone here. One brother offers to kill his own sons if he can’t bring his other brother home, while dear old Dad sinks lower and lower each day from the weight of his grief and meanwhile–did we mention?–there’s a deadly famine going on that threatens to kill almost everyone in the entire region. And, after all that, this parsha ends on a cliffhanger worthy of any Hollywood blockbuster screenwriter, or is the other way around, that Hollywood aspires to write like Moshe and fails miserably? Either way, this crisis won’t be resolved, whether at the family or the international level, any time soon.
