Yosef Still Lives

 אֲנִי יְשֵׁנָה, וְלִבִּי עֵר
"I am asleep, but my heart is awake..."
-Shir HaShirim 5:2

The whole process of redemption is like a person waking up from a long slumber.  When the nation of Israel is without its own Land, it has no hope of awakening from its slumber, yet it's heart still beats.  In the Land of Israel our National awakening begins to occur.  At times we wish to fall back asleep and other times the beating of our heart is loud enough to stir us awake.

"I am Yosef..."

When Yosef, could no longer contain himself and in reality conceal himself he wailed and told his brothers who he was.  He embraced his brother Binyamin, crying.  In a sense Yosef, who had all but turned Mitzri (Egyptian) in look and speech was representative of the concealed Jew, the Jew  whose heart beats deep down, but appears asleep to everyone else.  When the brothers told their father "Yosef still lives," it had a dual meaning.  In one sense they were relaying that Yosef was physically alive, but on a much deeper level they wanted their father to understand that despite Yosef's descent into the impure levels of Egypt, his heart beat alive as a member of Am Yisrael.

Netanyahu's Speech

The Prime Minister's speech given in the halls of Congress seemed to be something out of the ordinary.  Binyamin Netanyahu spoke in a way that few Prime Ministers before him had spoke. On the outside he appears asleep, almost in a daze, but when he spoke his heart beat aloud awakening the Nation from its slumber.  We know that the heart is connected to the faculty of speech and it is this faculty above all else that Netanyahu has mastered.

In many ways Bibi Netanyahu is playing the part of Yosef.  He appears Western and assimilated.  He speaks in modern terms, referring to democracy and ethical principles, yet he said what no other Prime Minister ever said before: Judea and Samaria is our historical homeland. He was adamant that this Land is ours.  "This is the Land where Abraham brought the idea of One G-d to the World."

After all, the Land of Israel was promised for all time to the children of Israel.  The heart of the Prime Minister could not forget this and by linking our connection to the Land with Abraham, the truth of that statement revealed where Netanyahu is at his core.

In a sense every Jew can come back.  We each have a beating heart, no matter how far we appear to have fallen asleep.We learn in Devarim 32:9:

כִּי חֵלֶק יְהוָה, עַמּוֹ:   יַעֲקֹב, חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתוֹ.
For part of Hashem is his Nation; Yaakov, is a cord of his inheritence.

We are told a cord is made up of three strands woven together.  These three strands represent the Avot (Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov). Our eternal connection to the Land of Israel is by way of the Avot.  It is not something religious within us, but rather something innate and natural.  It is this connection that still beats with our Nation no matter how asleep we seem to be and it is by the way of the Avot that we awaken from our long slumber.  Just like Yosef so many years ago shrugged off the outward layers of assimilation to announce to all that he in fact still lived, so too Am Yisrael lives eternally as the Prime Minister confirmed in front of the entire world.

We must pray and hope the Prime Minister continues to awaken from his "sleep."