“Luke, I am your father.” With these infamous words, the classic movie Stars War reached its apex. These words are reminiscent of a similar apex moment in the Torah. After three weeks of dramatic, psychological and familial twists and turn, the Joseph story reaches its apex moment. Having hidden his true identities from his brothers, Joseph finally comes clean with the immortal words, “I am your brother, Joseph, he whom you sold in Egypt.”

Like Darth Vader’s words, Joseph’s statement triggers immediate shock and fear. Unlike Vader however, who is in a fierce light saber battle with his son, Joseph immediately puts his brothers at ease by sharing that their actions, while horrendous, were part of God’s larger plan and were necessary in order to save his father’s tribe from famine.

Often in life we see and imagine the events in front of us and the words that we hear in a particular and narrow focus. Through our own ears and lenses we filter this information through the prism of our preconceived ideas of what was “truly” meant. More often than not, our perceptions and understandings may truly be absolutely incorrect.

Joseph’s brothers imagined the worst. They feared that once Joseph revealed himself they would immediately be either sold into slavery (like he was) or put to death. Joseph, however, saw the big picture. He innately knew that sometimes we must come through difficult and challenges experiences in order to survive and achieve greatness.

Judaism does not understand pain to be a virtue, but it does recognize that out of bad can come good. While Joseph’s brothers didn’t understand this – Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel (who themselves had seen goodness arise from darkness), embraced this divine message.

It is a message we should all remember at the end of what has been a challenging and difficult year. Just as Jacob felt tremendous despair when he left home to escape his brother’s murderous wrath, and just as he must have daily longed for over 14 years for the embrace and love of his beloved Rachel, and just as his heart was torn asunder at the news of Joseph’s murder, Jacob knew, through his faith that in the end the darkness would turn to light and his descendants would become a great nation.

There is much darkness that envelops the world around us. We can despair or we can fight through it to find joy and happiness. In the end, Joseph’s revelation reunited a family and laid the foundation for a great nation. Darkness did lay ahead (slavery for 400 years), but even that did not dim the light of what would one day exist. Am Yisrael Chai – the Jewish people live.

Have a wonderful and joyous New Year. Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi Louis Feldstein