CHASSIDIC PEARLS ON THE PARSHA BY RABBI LAZER BRODY PARSHAS VAYIGASH

"And the men are shepherds, for they've always been herdsmen" (Bereishit 46:32). Yosef (Joseph), when describing his brothers to Pharaoh, tells him that they are "shepherds, for they've always been herdsmen." This passage seems redundant indeed, for if we know that the sons of Yaakov (Jacob) are shepherds, why must we also learn that they're herdsman as well; isn't one term synonymous to the other? Also, why did so many of our most important ancestors and national leaders – Avraham (Abraham), Yitzchak (Isaac), Yaakov (Jacob), Yaakov's sons, Moshe (Moses), Shmuel HaNavi (Samuel the Prophet), and Dovid HaMelech (King David) – choose to be shepherds? Our holy forefathers found four distinct advantages of being shepherds: First, tending sheep is a relatively easy vocation that doesn't occupy a person's thought process; therefore, one can tend flocks and simultaneously think about other loftier endeavors. Second, sheep are profitable in that they yield wool, milk, and offspring; if the sheep graze on open land, then the flock owner has virtually no overhead. Third, one who tends flocks spends most of his time far away from other people, and therefore avoids committing a large list of transgressions including slander, gossip, swindling, and forbidden sights, just to name a few. Fourth, this vocation helped our forefathers to maintain their holiness by guarding them from assimilating with their Egyptian hosts, since shepherding was an anathema to the ancient Egyptians.