Before the Jews travel to Egypt Judah has to set up the infrastructure of a Jewish society. This will allow the Jews to live according to their ways while in Egypt.
Jacob learns that Joseph is alive through a special message Joseph sends him. According to the Midrash, the news is broken to Jacob very gently, because Jacob has been in deep mourning for years, believing Joseph to be dead. Now, not only does Jacob discover that Joseph is alive, but that he is the viceroy of Egypt. Joseph asks the family to come down to Egypt to survive the remaining five years of famine.
Joseph plans to settle the family in Goshen, and Judah is sent ahead to prepare the area. The Midrash explains that Judah’s role is not merely logistical, but spiritual and societal: to establish yeshivot and create the infrastructure necessary for Jewish life. Joseph understands Egyptian society from the inside. He knows that close assimilation would be harmful, so he deliberately places the family in Goshen, separated and protected.
This model has repeated itself throughout Jewish history, especially in the Diaspora. Jews naturally gravitate toward their own neighborhoods where they can build schools, communal institutions, and systems of mutual responsibility. By maintaining this internal infrastructure, Jewish society preserves its moral and ethical character—ideally becoming a model that others can observe.
We see echoes of this today. Despite accusations and hostility directed at Israel, when examined honestly, what emerges is a society that strives to act justly and care for its vulnerable—values deeply rooted in Torah. Jewish continuity depends on this commitment to moral responsibility, justice, and self-built communal structure.
As David Ben-Gurion famously said: It doesn’t matter what the non-Jewish world says; it matters what Jews do. That is something worth thinking about.
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