Leaders of 90 nations gathered in a Johannesburg stadium last week to pay their final respects to Nelson Mandela. And thousands of South Africans braved a heavy downpour to attend the memorial service. Millions more around the globe followed the proceedings on television.
The first speaker at this august gathering was a familiar figure to Mishpacha readers: Rabbi Warren Goldstein chief rabbi of South Africa. As the television cameras panned the stadium during his speech those watching at home saw rows and rows of Mandela family members and senior government officials listening with rapt attention to the young chief rabbi.
Rabbi Goldstein found the perfect analogy in the Torah for the events of Mandela’s extraordinary life: the suffering endured by Yosef Hatzaddik and his subsequent elevation. Just as Yosef was separated from his father for 22 years many of them spent in prison so Mandela served 27 years of a life sentence not knowing if he would ever be freed. Just as Yosef “emerged from the pit to become a leader and head of government of a mighty nation ” so Mandela emerged from prison to become the first president of post-apartheid South Africa.
Yosef did not use his newly conferred power to exact revenge upon those who had wronged him. He did not permit himself to become twisted and deformed by hatred. Instead he reconciled with his brothers and accepted them in love: “‘Fear not … for am I in the place of G-d? Although you intended me harm G-d redirected it for good: in order to accomplish — as is clear this day — so that a vast people should be kept alive. So now fear not I will sustain you and your ones.’ And so he comforted them and spoke to their heart” (Bereishis 50:19–21).
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