So, that was part 1 of a history of the alef-bet. More to follow on that shortly.

In the meantime, consider this week’s parsha, when Yosef is reunited with his father after twenty years’ absence. His father has thought him dead all this while.

Check out Genesis 46:29 in Hebrew for me. Yosef has sent his brothers to bring his father Yaakov to Egypt, where there is food. When Yaakov is approaching, Yosef rides out to meet him, and this is what it says:

וַיֵּרָא אֵלָיו וַיִּפֹּל עַל צַוָּארָיו וַיֵּבְךְּ עַל צַוָּארָיו עוֹד

If you don’t know any Hebrew, take this as another nudge to go get started on learning.

Once you know a bit of Hebrew, you might be struck by the weirdness of the word “od” there. Translation’s roughly “He appeared to him [Yosef to Yaakov, probably] and he fell on his neck, and he wept on his neck od.” עוד usually means “again” or “more” or something like that, but how is that possible here when they’ve not seen each other in twenty years?

Well, I asked Rashi, and Rashi thought it was odd too, so to speak. But Rashi says “od” sometimes carries connotations of great profusion, which is why we get translations like “he wept on his neck for a long time”. (You can find Rashi’s commentary translated online here.)

Then Rashi adds that while Yosef was weeping on Yaakov, Yaakov was not weeping on Yosef.

Rashi says that Yaakov was reciting the Shema (rabbinically, this is what you do when you’re convinced you’re about to die, and Yaakov does say “If I die right this second I’ll be happy now I’ve seen you,” or words to that effect), but I don’t know. While writing this story, I’ve been thinking, really Yosef? Would it have killed you to write home, let them know how you’re doing?

And I sort of think maybe that’s what Yaakov’s thinking. Okay, maybe you couldn’t have written because maybe all you know is hieroglyphs and maybe Yaakov’s an illiterate shepherd or maybe he doesn’t know hieroglyphs, but all this time you were rich and successful and you couldn’t send a messenger?

I better go call my parents…shabbat shalom.