The most powerful moment in this week’s parsha is Joseph’s reconciliation with his brothers, but the most poignant moment is his reconciliation with his father.

Jacob believed that Joseph was long dead — he had the bloodied cloak as evidence. Now he learns that not only is his son alive, but that he rules over Egypt. “Enough!” he exclaims. “I must go and see him before I die.” We do not hear a word of reprimand to the sons who had deceived him. Jacob, the arch-deceiver, is familiar with the art of deception.

On the way, God appears to Jacob in a vision by night. God reassures him: Jacob should not fear to go down to Egypt for he will become a great nation there. Then comes this strange note: “I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back.” But Jacob will die in Egypt: “Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes.” Indeed, Jacob does die in Egypt, but he is buried in the Holy Land in the cave next to Abraham and Isaac.

Why was Jacob afraid to go down to Egypt? Why does he have to be reassured? For good reason. He realizes that he may discover what really happened to Joseph years earlier and that his own culpability and that of the brothers will be exposed. Note also a second interesting omission, this time in God’s words: There is not a hint as to what will eventually transpire to this “mighty nation” in Egypt, though the years of suffering will begin only after his and Joseph’s death.

But what does it mean to suggest that God will “go down” with Jacob to Egypt and that God will “bring you back.” The Etz Hayim commentary sees this as a metaphor for God’s protection on the journey and in Egypt, but the text knows how to refer to God’s protection, and it doesn’t use that language here. It says that God will “go down” to Egypt.

First, of course, God doesn’t “go anywhere” — not literally at least — for God is not in space. And second, the implication is that God remained in Egypt with Jacob and his family. That is a fascinating suggestion.

That God dwelt with Israel in Egypt, even during their enslavement, is a familiar notion. In the midrash to the mysterious passage in Sh’mot 24:9, when Moses, Aaron, Nadav, and Avihu and 70 elders “see” the God of Israel, we are told that under God’s feet was “the likeness of a pavement of sapphire.” The Hebrew word for “pavement” is “livnat,” the identical term used for the “bricks” that the enslaved Israelites were forced to make in Egypt. (Shemot 5:7) The midrash concludes that God used the bricks from Egypt to build God’s heavenly palace.

The proof text is Isaiah 63:9, “In all their troubles, God was troubled….” God suffers with Israel. As God was with Israel in Egypt, so did God later accompany Israel into exile, and so, Holocaust theologians have taught, was God with God’s people in the extermination camps.

There is no satisfying theological justification for Israel’s suffering through the generations. But the notion that God suffers with Israel provides a trace of consolation. It may be the most we can expect to have.