Vayigash / And He Drew Near
Genesis 44:18-47:27
HafTorah Portion Ezekiel 37:15-28
Brit Chadasha Luke 6:9-16

     From Genesis 37 to Genesis 50, Joseph seems to be the main character. The story begins and ends with him as we witness his descents and ascents. He was the favorite child, spoiled, arrogant towards his brothers, thrown into a pit, sold to the Midianites, became a slave in Egypt, a prisoner and then ascends to the second most powerful man in the greatest empire of the ancient world.  At every stage, the chapters revolve around him and his impact on others since he is the major character in these last Torah portions. 
     We witness the change in Joseph as he ascends from a spoiled child to the second in command under Pharaoh. Through the phases in his life, he continued to give glory and praise to Adonai, even after being forgotten in prison. 
     Yet there is another brother who dominates these Torah portions as well: Judah. He was the brother who proposed to sell Joseph. His suggestion was not, however, for the well-being of Joseph but rather for the benefit of himself and his other brothers - ‘What will we gain…?’ It was a self-serving suggestion, one that the other brothers agreed to. 
     However, Judah like Joseph evolves.  Like Joseph, who’s change in character began years before, Judah’s did too. It was paramount when he had the encounter with Tamar and admitted his guilt, stating, ‘She has been more righteous than I…’ Callousness has been replaced with concern and compassion. Indifference to his brother’s fate has been transformed into courage on his behalf. He is willing to suffer what he once inflicted on Joseph so that the same fate should not come upon Benjamin.   It is at that moment ‘…take me, release our brother Benjamin…’ that Joseph revealed his identity to the brothers.  It was a time of change.
     In this parsha, the meeting of the two brothers, Joseph and Judah, is told as a somewhat calm yet emotional encounter. However, the Scroll of Yasher reveals that the encounter between Joseph and Judah was anything but. Judah was consumed with anger, exhibiting brute force and super natural physical feats. There were threats against each other, swords drawn, stones being crushed and screams of rage. 
     In the end, however, after Joseph revealed his identity to the brothers, the business of preparing for the famine and securing their fate was at hand. Genesis 45:17-20 ‘And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan. 18 Bring your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. 19 Now you are commanded—do this: Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives; bring your father and come. 20 Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’
     The tribe of Judah represents the Jewish people, keepers of the Torah, strength, consistent with God’s Torah, and steadfastness during adversity. Judah, יְהוּדָ֑ה is the fourth son of Jacob by Leah who took a leading role among his brothers early in life and was promised leadership and tribal stability, and ultimately kingship through David and the Messiah. The name Judah in Hebrew is Yehudah. It is based on the word root “Hodaah” connoting “Give Thanks, Praise” and “One who finds God all sufficient”. 
    In Torah portion Vayechi he is likened to a lion. ‘Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
Genesis 49:8-10.
     Judah was the southern kingdom of the two kingdoms of ancient Israel. After the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BCE, the kingdom of Judah became the sole remaining Israelite kingdom. Judah continued to exist as an independent kingdom until it was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. Judah was the kingdom in which the prophet Jeremiah lived and preached. It was also the kingdom in which the Babylonian Exile occurred.
     Judah;  who is strength, is a lion, keeper of the Torah, defender of Israel and lineage of the Messiah.
     Psalm 78:67-68 ‘He rejected the tent of Joseph; he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loves.’  
     Romans 3:1-2 ‘What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.’ 
     The tribe of Joseph is Ephraim.  Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob and was born to Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel in Paddan-Aram after she had been barren for seven years. Joseph is the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, blessed by Jacob in Genesis 48:14 ‘Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.’
     Jacob, in Vayechi blesses Joseph, preparing the future for The Stone of Israel. Genesis 49:22-24   ‘Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; his branches run over the wall. 23 The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him and hated him. 24 But his bow remained in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel) …’
     Ephraim was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and in 930 BC led the Ten Northern tribes in a successful revolt against the south, establishing  the Kingdom of Israel with Jeroboam, an Ephraimite as king. The seventh king of Israel, Ahab (reigned c. 874–c. 853 BC), was also an Ephraimite. His generally peaceful reign was marred by the worship of the Canaanite god Baal by his wife, Jezebel. From about 745 BC, the northern kingdom was often referred to as the Kingdom of Ephraim, a reflection of the tribe’s importance. Assyrian conquerors overran the kingdom in 721 BC, dispersing some of the inhabitants yet most assimilating into the nations.  There are two thoughts into the character of Ephraim. One being that Ephraim was modest and not selfish. The other claiming that Ephraim, being headstrong, left Egypt thirty years prior to the Exodus and on arrival in Canaan was subjected to a disastrous battle with the Philistines as told in the Scroll of Yasher portraying Ephraim as a rebellious child against God.
     Joseph/Ephraim is strong, powerful, called the first born, rebellious, and assimilated. 
     Hosea 6:10 ‘In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim's whoredom is there; Israel is defiled. 
     Jeremiah 31:9 ‘With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.’
    Ephraim and Judah play a major role in the fundamentals of prophecy as we see in Ezekiel 37:16 ‘Son of man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.’ 
     Peter/Kefa was originally named Simon, but in John 1:42 Yeshua changed his name to Kefa, meaning rock.  In Acts 10 Peter has a vision that most Christians refer to the eating of unclean foods, now clean. However, we know as we continue reading that Acts 10 is about the Gentiles/Nations coming into the ways of Adonai. Peter is to meet Cornelius which changes his thought on the righteous people of the nations coming into the ways of God. The Jew, Peter has to accept the people of Ephraim who were willing and wanting to come into God’s ways.  Peter was not told accept the nations and their ways, nor to convert to their pagan ideology, but rather the gentiles were to embrace the holy ways of Adonai.         Acts 10:44-45 ‘While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.’
   Both Judah and Joseph had to get out of their comfort zone and change.  Judah is to share and teach the Torah, the ways of Adonai – teach and share to willing participants embracing the holy ways of God. Ephraim is to come into the God’s Torah with humility and abandoning their previous pagan ways, not trying to convert Judah into a Hellenistic way of life but rather showing Judah the trueness and joy of the Messiah.