"Never Give Up Hope."
Joseph has been sold into slavery.
His brothers dipped his coat in blood.
They bring it back to their father, saying:
“Look what we have found. Do you recognize it?
Is this your son’s robe or not?”
Jacob recognizes it and replies,
“It is my son’s robe. A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces.”
We then read: Jacob rent his clothes, put on sackcloth, and
mourned his son for a long time.
His sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
He said, “I will go down to the grave mourning for my son.”
There are laws in Judaism about the limits of grief –
shiva (7 days), sheloshim (30 days), a year.
There is no such thing as a bereavement for which grief is endless.
And yet Jacob refuses to be comforted because
he had not given up hope that Joseph was still alive.
There was no proof that Joseph was dead.
His grief lacked closure.
Jacob continued to hope that Joseph was still alive.
That hope was eventually justified:
Joseph was still alive, and father and son were ultimately reunited.
This refusal to be comforted is seen more than once in Jewish history.
The prophet Jeremiah says.
” This is what the Lord says: A voice is heard in Ramah, Mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children. Refusing to be comforted.
Because her children are no more.”
This is what the Lord says:
“Restrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,” says the Lord.
“They will return from the land of the enemy.
So, there is hope for your future,” declares the Lord,
“Your children will return to their own land.”
Jews are a people who refuse to be comforted –
meaning, we refuse to give up hope.
Jacob did eventually see Joseph again.
Rachel’s children did return to the land.
Jerusalem is once again the Jewish home.
Jews have a faith, a trust, an unbreakable hope that proves stronger than historical inevitability. Jewish survival is sustained in that hope.
That hope is seen in that simple phrase in the life of Jacob when
he refused to be comforted.
While we live in a world scarred by violence, destruction, death, poverty and injustice there are times when we must not give up hope and therefore not be comforted.
Much love,
Shabbat shalom,
Elissa
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