Rabbi Konigsburg's Blog

Oaths are a fascinating thing. In its simplest form, an oath is an agreement to fulfill certain actions and behave in a certain way. At the time the oath is made, the action has yet to be realized. Yet the power of the oath assures us that the action will in fact be carried out. We trust oaths.  And that is why we shun the practice of breaking oaths. If we can’t trust people to live up to their promises, then how can we trust people to follow the laws and customs that serve as the fabric of our society? After all, trust is at the center of our implicit agreement to the Social Contract. Therefore, we choose to trust others to live up to their words, and place a strong emphasis on only making oaths that we intend to keep.
 
In Parshat VaYechi, Jacob makes his son Joseph promise to bury him in the field of Machpelah, where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah were already buried. Joseph then makes an oath that he will fulfill his father’s wishes. Remarkably, Joseph makes this oath while uncertain if Pharaoh will let him leave Egypt to go bury his father. In a dramatic moment, Joseph asks Pharaoh to leave Egypt since he made this promise to his father. And of course, respecting the power of the oath, Pharaoh allows Joseph to leave with his brothers and fulfill this last act of honor for their father.
 
Like much of the Joseph story, I find this interaction between Joseph and Pharaoh to be so human. We all understand the power of our words, and how an oath to do something is almost as certain as if it is already done. Moreover, there is an urgency that arises from the fact that Jacob is on his deathbed and cannot nullify or release Joseph from having made such an oath. Intuitively, Pharaoh understands all of this, as do us readers of the Torah. We all want to see the oath fulfilled. We all speak the language of oaths.