Parshas Vayigash: The Promise of Unity in a Divided World

In this week’s Torah portion, Vayigash: Bereishit (Genesis) 44:18 - 47:27, Jacob reunites with his son, Joseph, and relocates his 70 family members to Egypt. Jacob has concerns that his family’s monotheistic integrity will suffer among pagan Egyptian society.

The Almighty Protects His Faithful Servants

At the oasis of Be’er Sheva on his way to Egypt, God appears to Jacob saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father; fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again.”

With this reassurance, Jacob establishes a spiritual refuge in Egyptian pagan society. Over time, his family increases in number and wealth. They prosper under the patronage of a Pharaoh appreciative of Joseph’s contribution to the health and welfare of the Egyptian state. Jacob's family members remain dedicated to the God of Abraham and to the holy lifestyle demanded of this commitment. 

The story of Jacob demonstrates that positive participation in public life and God centered religious personal observance are the two keys to Jewish survival in a spiritually unfinished world. When Jewish public servants endorse policies that increase the health and welfare of a nation, public approval of Jews increases.

When Jewish policy makers endorse policies that undermine the health and welfare of the nation, animosity towards Jews rises. When Jews maintain personal allegiance to God’s ways we enjoy His protection and care. When Jews abandon personal allegiance to God’s ways in favor of fashionable alternatives, we lose His protection and care in a hostile world.

Ezekiel confirms this binary approach in Jewish experience and goes beyond it in our Haftarah portion this week, Yechezkel (Ezekiel) 37:15-28. The prophet explains that the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Ephraim will ultimately merge into one holy Kingdom of Israel in which politics will cease, children in the womb will become future generations, and a united revelation of God’s presence will transform Israel and the world. 

The State of the Nations

Until then, we endure inflammatory public accusations of conspiracies and anti-semitism from so called politically conservative influencers. Both sides claim moral authority as they defend their positions either for Israel and the Jews or for America first interests. The more conservatives argue, the more their advertising revenue and profits grow.

Obviously, business motives underlie claims of moral authority and patriotic virtue. And while we need and appreciate public defense of Israel, we recognize that a true test of allegiance to America and support for the Jewish state would be to speak against the ongoing legal slaughter of babies in the womb here and in Israel.

In the US, over 1 million babies die from abortion homicide annually. For a country whose founding documents guarantee a right to life, this is unacceptable. In Israel, 20,000 babies die from abortion homicide annually. For a nation whose future depends on fulfilling a holy mandate, this is dangerous, indeed.

Chemical abortion now accounts for 63% of all abortions. Pills offer customers easy access to baby slaughter while abortion providers profit from price gouging and lower brick and mortar overhead. Lack of informed consent before purchase and use leads to 10.93 percent of women experiencing sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or  serious adverse events within 45 days following a mifepristone abortion.

Beyond dangerous and criminal and unacceptable, legal abortion undermines the demographic sustainability and cultural integrity of both Israel and the United States; yet, this threat goes unexpressed by politicians and pundits. Self interest prevails as long as business interests define content and speaking for our unborn innocents hurts the bottom line.

At the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation, we will never abandon the voices of the most vulnerable human beings in the womb, who cannot platform themselves with votes, ad revenue or donations. They remain the key to our survival and the spiritual salvation for all of us.

And they shall no longer defile themselves with their idols, with their detestable things, or with all their transgressions, and I will save them from all their habitations in which they have sinned, and I will purify them, and they shall be to Me as a people, and I will be to them as a God. And My servant David shall be king over them, and one shepherd shall be for them all, and they shall walk in My ordinances and observe My statutes and perform them. And they shall dwell on the land that I have given to My servant, to Jacob, wherein your forefathers lived; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their children and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever. Ezekiel 37:23-25.

Please share this post on your social media to amplify our message in this troubled world. Thank you.

Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

Cecily Routman is the founder and president of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation. She opposes abortion homicide in general and among Jews in particular and laments secular policy making in Israel that results in loss of Jewish life and delays the messianic redemption. Cecily envisions a Torah based holy Land of Israel and a world that respects the life of every human being from conception.

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