“And he (Yosef) embraced Binyomin his brother and wept, and Binyomin embraced him and wept as well.” (Bereshis 45:14) This is the Torah’s depiction of the reunification of Yosef and his brother Binyomin, after having been separated for 22 years. Rashi quotes the Talmud (Megillah 16b) which explains that Yosef was crying for the two Batei Mikdash (Temples) that would be built in Shevet (the tribe of) Binyomin’s territory and subsequently destroyed, and that Binyomin was crying for the destruction of the Mishkan, which would be located in Shevet Yosef’s land.

Why did Chazal (our sages) interpret the emotional reunification of Yosef and Binyomin in this light? Were their tears not just natural expressions of personal emotion, reflecting their brotherly love? Of course, Chazal’s interpretation does not negate the text’s literal meaning, but it seems so removed from the reality at hand.

Chazal tell us that “Ma’aseh Avos siman la’banim” – “The deeds of the Patriarchs are a sign – an omen – for their descendants.” This does not only imply that the actions of the Avos (and Imahos – the Matriarchs) serve as lessons for the Jewish nation to emulate. The deeper meaning of this principle is that the actions, values and characteristics of our forefathers actually defined and molded the future qualities of Bnei Yisroel. The chesed – kindness – associated with Avrohom Avinu was implanted in his descendants, to the extent that Chazal state that one who lacks the trait of chesed should be suspected of not being from Avrohom’s seed; Chazal relate that the enmity experienced by Yaakov (from Eisav) was an omen of eternal anti-Semitism, such that it is an inherent part of the world that plagues the Jewish people in all ages (and cannot be rationalized away or truly resolved); Yehuda’s leadership role in dealing with Yosef, in which Yehuda undertook to redeem Shimon and subsequently represented the brothers when confronting Yosef, reflected a leadership quality that was bestowed upon his shevet forever, for it was decreed that the King of Israel must be from Shevet Yehuda; Shimon’s unwarranted militancy and belligerence, as seen from his involvement with the maraud on Shechem and the sale of Yosef, were foreboding traits that came to the fore again in the incident with Zimri and Pinchas. The specific qualities of the Avos and what transpired in their lives became implanted in a very real way in their descendants, both as a general group and in each particular shevet. Chazal also relate that the Avos were aware that their deeds and experiences would impact and reflect upon their future offspring.

In this vein, we can understand why Yosef and Binyomin wept about the destruction of the Batei Mikdash and the Mishkan, as they knew that their personal tears symbolized the future tears of the nation, and that the grief that these two estranged brothers had experienced was to be repeated in the time to come by their children and offspring.

When Yaakov was finally reunited with Yosef, we read, “…and he (Yosef) embraced him (Yaakov), and he cried further as he embraced him.” (46:29) Rashi (ibid.) quotes the famous Medrash that explains that only Yosef embraced and kissed his father at that point, but that Yaakov did not reciprocate at the moment, as he was reciting the Shema (and one cannot communicate with others while reciting the Shema). Why in the world was Yaakov reciting the Shema at such a time? Could it not have been done earlier or later?

Based on the aforesaid, it may be explained that Yaakov knew that his reunification with Yosef – which completed Yosef’s reunification with his family – was an omen for the future reunification of the Jewish people as a whole. Yaakov established that the unification of Klal Yisroel must be based on commitment to God, and that belief in Hashem and His commands has to be the core of Jewish unity and nationhood. (Jewish unity as a cultural or secular national theme is meaningless, as is “Jewish identity” in a vacuum, without Torah and mitzvos.) Yaakov therefore stifled his personal emotions upon meeting Yosef and proclaimed “Shema Yisroel” and its concomitant verses of belief and adherence to the Torah, as he insisted that his personal reunification – which he knew would be reflected in his descendants in real terms – be based on commitment to Hashem and His mitzvos.