Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
What's your tax rate, and where does your money go? Where did the idea of governmental taxation begin? Parshat Vayigash gives us perhaps the first formal government tax plan. It was a plan formulated by Yosef Hatzadik Hatzadik to save the Egyptians from starvation and to benefit Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
After Yosef Hatzadik had interpreted Pharaoh's dreams and warned him that the approaching years of overflowing abundance would be followed by years of immeasurable famine, Pharaoh appointed Yosef Hatzadik as his viceroy to implement a plan for the survival of the country.
The Torah goes into great detail in describing the plan as it progressed. First, during the years of plenty, Yosef Hatzadik was to collect one fifth of all the crops of the people and give it to Pharaoh. The people would retain a full four fifths of their produce. Collecting this grain over seven years of plenty provided enough grain to feed the people of Egypt as well as the people of the surrounding, famine stricken areas during the years of famine.
When the years of famine hit, even the Egyptian population was hard hit. After exhausting their personal supplies, they came to Yosef Hatzadik to purchase grain from the government storehouses. In the first year, the people paid for the bead with money, which Yosef Hatzadik immediately transferred to Pharaoh. In the second year, they paid with their livestock. Again Yosef Hatzadik collected it and transferred it to Pharaoh. The following year, again being threatened with starvation, they gave up their land and their freedom, becoming serfs to Pharaoh.
Now the plan was in full force. Since the land no longer belonged to the people but to Pharaoh, Yosef Hatzadik resettled the Egyptian population from their original lands and cities to areas across the country. Only the priests were not resettled or taxed, as they lived off a stipend from the king.
Here we have an example of how Hashem orchestrates everything for the benefit of Bnei Yisroel. In Shaarei Tuvya, Rabbi Weiss zt”l explains that the seemingly superfluous detail that the priests were exempt from these taxes and decrees was paving the way for the Levites' exemption from slavery when Bnei Yisroel would descend to Mitzrayim. Further, notes Rashi, since the entire population had been relocated, everyone was a stranger in their new location, and therefore the Egyptians were not much different in their particular homes than Bnei Yisroel in this land.
Rabbi Broide zt”l in Letitcha Elyon, points to how Yosef Hatzadik served as a model of sensitivity to the honor of his brothers. Even though his brothers sold him as a slave into a strange land, even though they deserved to feel the pain of being strangers and slaves, Yosef Hatzadik eradicated any feelings of revenge from his system. The Torah further validates Yosef Hatzadik's integrity, adds the Ramban zt”l, by reinforcing Yosef Hatzadik's giving everything to Pharaoh at each step, keeping nothing for himself. Yosef Hatzadik maintains this trustworthiness throughout, as evidenced by Pharaoh sending carriages to transport Yosef Hatzadik's family to Mitzrayim from Canaan, for Yosef Hatzadik would not have taken the carriages on his own without Pharaoh's permission, adds the Zichron Meir translation of Onkelus. For someone to be considered righteous and upright, he must be equally careful with what belongs to another human being as he is in his relationship with Hashem. Yosef Hatzadik was an ish emunah, a trustworthy man of integrity in all aspects of his life, adds Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz zt”l.
This is a major theme in the entire Sefer Bereishit. We see this, for example, when Avraham muzzles his sheep lest they graze on private property, and we see it again when Rivkah sends Yaakov to take two goats from the herds of her dowry rather than from Yitzchak's herds, and when Reuven takes wild flowers to present to his mother, Leah.
Among the questions we will be asked when our soul ascends to heaven will be did you conduct your business transactions with emunah/honesty? As Chazal say, the money of your friend should be as precious to you as your own. Moshe Rabbenu understood this implicitly. When Yisro advised him to appoint judges to assist him, Yisro suggested the appointed judges adjudicate the minor questions of law while Moshe Rabbenu himself should resolve the major lawsuits. While Moshe Rabbenu gratefully accepted Yisro's advice, he changed the details; it would not be major or minor, meaning how much was involved in the dispute, but rather the complexity of the case; sometimes a dispute over a rather insignificant amount of money may have many details that make it extremely complex. If you conduct your business with integrity, you have emunah/faith that Hashem runs the world.
After the land was given to Pharaoh and the people were resettled as serfs on new land, Yosef Hatzadik, in Pharaoh's name, gave the people seed to plant. At the harvest, Yosef Hatzadik divided the crop so that the workers would give one fifth to Pharaoh and the people would retain four fifths, similar to the division in the years of plenty. Rabbi Pincus sees in this division a forerunner to the Torah law of tithing. Rabbi Pincus zt”l does an accounting. After one buys seeds and other materials and expenses, expends his personal effort, his net profit is actually about twenty percent, or one fifth. Then by giving half to Hashem and retaining half for himself, he is partnering with Hashem, the King of kings, and Hashem will provide him with all he needs. However, if his faith in Hashem is so strong that he gives the full fifth, both his share and Hashem's share, to Hashem, Hashem will not only provide for his needs but also enrich him -- aser ta'aser/ you will surely tithe [tithe tithe, double] then te'asher/ Hashem will enrich you. But since the Egyptians had enslaved themselves to Pharaoh, they could not enter into partnership with him; the mandate was to give the king the full fifth, two tenths.
In Toras Chesed, Rabbi Chanan suggests a historical reason for giving a fifth to Pharaoh. As we've said, Hashem orchestrates world history with Bnei Yisroel as the fulcrum around which it all revolves. In the Covenant between the Pieces, Hashem told Avraham Avinu that his descendants would in the future be strangers for 400 years, be oppressed, and leave with great riches. Doing the math, strangers in a strange land actually began before this vision, when Avraham Avinu was commanded to leave his homeland, making a total of 430 years. The actual enslavement and severe oppression began with the birth of Miriam, hence her name MaRiam/bitter, and lasted 86 years until the exodus. [Those dates are calculated from the ages of Moshe, Aharon and Miriam. Miriam was six years older, and Moshe Rabbenuwas 80 years old at the time of the exodus.] The "fifth" to Pharaoh is 86 years, after which Hashem redeemed us with great riches, the riches Egypt accrued from nations buying their food during the famine.
That Yosef Hatzadik's life and work would represent the history of Bnei Yisroel is further alluded to in the dream of the chief wine steward. The three vine branches of his dream represent the three leaders of Bnei Yisroel at the time of the redemption, Moshe, Aharon and Miriam; the redemption will come quickly, the word כוס /cup is repeated four times, and its numeric equivalent is 86. Interestingly, the dreamer and the interpreter call it a kos, not a gaviya, the ritual cup of the king, for our verse says, "Kos yeshuos eso/I will raise a kos/cup of redemption..." We drink four cups of wine at the Seder to commemorate our redemption.
But Hashem did not forgive us completely. Our redemption was only one fifth of a full redemption; we were still to go through four additional national exiles.
We have seen how Yosef Hatzadik himself acted as an intermediary, collecting the money first and then transferring it to Pharaoh. Why could not Pharaoh and his Egyptian representatives do the collecting? Eliminating a step may even have been a more efficient system? The Nesivot Shalom provides a mystical interpretation for this process. Everything that exists has both a physical form and an energy that flows through it. [On a scientific level, we can perhaps think of the energy inherent in every atom, energy that has the potential to be released and unleashed. CKS] We believe there is a sacred, spiritual component within every "atom" in the world. This energy is a sacred spark waiting to be released. It requires a spiritual catalyst to transform and elevate it. Even in the most depraved society of Egypt, these sparks of the Divine exist, but they needed to go through a purifying agent to release them. Only with some of the depravity destroyed and some sanctity released would Bnei Yisroel be able to survive in this environment. By going through Yosef Hatzadik, these materials went through a purification process. As the Nesivos Shalom explains, Jews are scattered throughout the world to collect these hidden sparks.
In a very esoteric idea, the Slonimer Rebbe, citing the Baal Shem Tov, suggests that when we are hungry, it is the hidden sparks within the food and drink calling out to us to elevate them, to raise them from the inanimate and incorporate them into the higher, human form of creation. What Yosef Hatzadik was doing was destroying the evil, negative elements, and influences and elevating the wealth in Egypt so it would be compatible for use by Bnei Yisroel. Adapting the talks of the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt”l, Yanky Tauber explains how the chamor/donkey, representing all of chomer, the material world becomes elevated and sanctified. Avraham Avinu loaded the chamor with all he needed for the akeidah, the binding of his son; Moshe Rabbenuused the donkey to transport his family to Egypt in anticipation of the redemption; at the end of time, Moshiach himself will ride upon a donkey and raise the world to a new level of sanctity. Each material item we use in the performance of a mitzvah elevates it until we ourselves are transformed and elevated. Yosef Hatzadik was part of this process.
When Yosef Hatzadik collected all the good of Mitzrayim, he was collecting more than just material goods. Yosef Hatzadik understood that even in the most depraved, there exists a spark of good, some positive quality. It was these sparks of good that Yosef Hatzadik searched for and found in the Egyptians and in Canaan. We too must search out the good in others rather than focus on the negative, writes Rabbi Eisenberger in Mesillot Bilvovom.
Yosef Hatzadik is called Yosef Hatzadik, the Righteous, the pure, characterizing yesod, the sacred foundation of the world. Rabbi Eisenberger continues with an in depth discussion of character traits. He suggests three facets to every characteristic. First there is the definition of that characteristic. Then, is that an innate characteristic within a person? Finally, how does that characteristic manifest itself within the actions of the individual? What is evident from this discussion is that any particular characteristic, whether or not it is a natural tendency within an individual, can be worked on and developed, or can be sabotaged, both positively and negatively.
A tzadik, then, is someone whose every action is for the sake of Heaven, who connects everything to the spiritual, who finds the good in everyone and everything, and elevates it. This is what characterized Yosef Hatzadik both in Mitzrayim and in Canaan.
What was the point of contention between Yosef Hatzadik and his brothers? Although sovereignty belonged to Yehudah, when Bnei Yisroel would be in exile, leadership would go to Yosef Hatzadik. That is what Yosef Hatzadik's dreams seemed to signify. But a ruler needs to see the positive in others. When Yosef Hatzadik brought negative reports to their father, the brothers rejected his leadership. Yaakov's terminology in sending Yosef Hatzadik is to seek shalom achichem and shalom hatzohn, look for the wellness, the good within your brothers and of the sheep [which always represents Bnei Yisroel], and to ‘hashevenu davar’ to report back to him. On a deeper level, he was telling Yosef Hatzadik to do ‘teshuvah’ for this failing.
Yosef Hatzadik had to go down to Mitzrayim to work on himself to develop this trait of seeing the good in others. He saw goodness even in the Egyptians, and therefore, even though he took everything from them, they loved him.
We are living in the pre Messianic era. It is time for us to do teshuvah, to bring everyone together by searching for the positive in others rather than focusing on the negative. In this diaspora, we need to work on the mission of malchut Yosef Hatzadik, the realm of Yosef Hatzadik, and create love and unity within our nation. The negativity of loshon horo has been so greatly expanded with electronic media that it is difficult to uproot it, but we implore Hashem to implant within us the power to see, and report, only the good in others. Let the character of Yosef Hatzadik work within us, let it bring unity to our people, and Moshiach ben Dovid speedily in our day.