Torah Portion Genesis 37:1-40:23

Torah Portion Genesis 37:1-40:23


Material for this parsha comes from the JPS Tanakh, Midrash Rabbah and Torah study at Temple Beth Israel in Eugene. As I've mentioned before, this is a very dynamic group. Today both rabbis were present.

The parsha is named Vayeishev, "and he dwelled/settled". In Torah study, we talked about the Hebrew word meaning more that he rested/resided instead of making a permanent home and that there's a negative connotation to it. Rabbi Yitz and another gentleman chanted the opening lines of this parsha together in Hebrew. No doubt the other gentleman had never chanted this passage before, but they sang in unison, note for note. My fiance asked how and Rabbi Yitz said that there were small notations like dots under the letters, called Trope, that showed the musical form of the text, because the entire Torah was intended to be sung aloud. I remembered reading countless tales of how few written copies were available in Jewish schools throughout the ages, and that even four year olds learned by repeating word for word the changing of the school master. This continued into yeshiva (a Jewish school of higher learning). I was very impressed with the gentleman who without any warning, sang along so perfectly. My fiance and I decided in the car later that the ability to do that was one more good reason to learn Hebrew.

The second sentence of this parsha is: "This is the line of Jacob", but instead of naming all the children like the Bible typically does, it plunges right into the story of Joseph, as if Joseph were the only important child, which, of course, is the source of all his troubles.

At age 17, Joseph shepherded along with his brothers. The text is unclear; he may have worked with only the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's concubines, or he may have worked with all the brothers. The text says: "Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father." Perhaps he shepherded with all brothers and reported negative things of all of them. Perhaps they were making fun of him even then. But it could possibly be that he worked only for the sons of the concubines but still brought bad reports of the other brothers. In Torah study, I asked if the Hebrew clarified this. It does not. Rabbi Yitz said one Midrashic story casts Joseph's behavior in a very favorable light, saying that Leah's sons were mistreating the sons of the concubines so Joseph, in attempt to keep the family together, told his father.


It is no surprise that the same brothers who destroyed a town because of one man's behavior with their sister should be unreasonably angry with Joseph for telling on them and for being the favored son. Jacob had given Joseph a gift of an especially fine, colorful tunic with long sleeves. (Rabbi Maurice said that the word for tunic here is the same word used for the cloak of virgin brides. Later there are other references to Joseph's androgynous beauty.)

The brothers' jealousy became worse when Joseph told them of dreams in which it appeared he ruled over them. (The submission of all the brothers' sheaves of wheat to Joseph's is important, since it is for lack of food among the brothers that Joseph actually is able to rule over them. More on this later. It is also significant that the brothers' sheaves are together in a circle and Joseph's is alone.) Jacob does scold him, but apparently takes it seriously; "his father kept the matter in mind." Midrash says that Jacob was able to foresee the ffuture when this would come to pass. Perhaps Jacob, who seemed to lack prophetic visions unless God beat him over the head with them, remembered his own dream of the Stairway to Heaven and considered that dreams could mean much larger things than they seemed to. Rabbi Maurice said that Joseph seemed like an Asperger's child, brilliant but socially lacking, and that someone, Jacob preferably, but possibly Reuben, should have taken him aside and asked him to stop his big talk.


One day Jacob called Joseph, who answered hinieni, which means "I am here" or "I am ready" in Hebrew. This word is repeated throughout the Tanakh when God calls. Jacob told Joseph to go to Shechem, where he believed the brothers were pasturing sheep, but they had actually gone a little father, to Dothan. (Why Shechem again? Does Jacob want Joseph to find them because he believes only evil can come of going back to the town they destroyed?) Midrash says they are also tending to themselves; they did not follow their father's instructions.
Joseph does not find the brothers in Shechem, so he consults a man who tells them they said they were going to Dothan. Rashi and Maimonides both said the man was actually an angel sent by God. (Rashi specifies the angel Gabriel.) We could wish that Gabriel would protect Joseph from what happens next, but eventually everything works out well, as Joseph tells his brothers much later in Egypt. The brothers saw Joseph coming. They scheme to throw him into a pit. Reuben, however, the same one who had sex with his father's concubine, entreated the other brothers not to kill the boy. Reuben actually intended to save the boy himself later from the pit. (Midrash says that he was in sackcloth and repenting, when he was not present for the sale of Joseph, so maybe during his period of repenting having sex with his father's concubine, he learned some empathy.) The men took Joseph's tunic, threw him into a pit without water - and then sat down to eat!!! Judah had the idea of selling Joseph rather than killing him and the others agreed. Thus Joseph was taken to Egypt. Reuben rent his garment when he found Joseph missing. The other brothers slaughtered a kid, smeared it's blood on Joseph's tunic and took the tunic to Jacob, who put on a sackcloth and mourned. It's rather fitting that Jacob, who deceived his own father earlier, is now the deceived father.


Midrash Rabbah says that Jacob suspected Judah of killing Joseph because Judah supposedly brought the torn and bloodied coat to their father.

As we later learn, with Joseph gone, Benjamin, the other son of the departed Rachel, becomes the favorite. It may not be that Joseph was favored for any other reason than his mother. However, the hardship Joseph suffered because his mother died and his brothers hated him may have helped him become wise and strong. Midrash Rabbah says Joseph was lost to his father for 22 years, just as Jacob was lost to his father for 22 years.


The story temporarily leaves Joseph and moves on to Judah, who has apparently assumed leadership of the brothers after Reuben, Simeon and Levi (the first three born) lost the favor of their father for their immoral and/or violent conduct. Judah left home, found a wife and began to begat sons. The first son displeased the Lord and did not live long enough to produce offspring by his wife, Tamar. Judah asked his second son, Onan, to marry the wife, but Onan did not want to produce any children by her because the firstborn would count as his brother's, not his own. So he pulled out. The Lord killed him, also. (Per Monty Python: Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great! If one sperm gets wasted, God gets quite irate!) Judah asked Tamar to stay as a window in her father's house until the third son Shelah grew up, but he did not really want to give her to Shelah, for fear the third son might also die. (Apparently he considers her the likely reason the first two sons died rather than considering them to be at fault.)


Many years later, Judah came to the town of her father for sheep shearing. She covered herself with a veil and dressed as a harlot. Judah promised her a kid from his flock to pay for his services; she asked for his seal, cord and staff as proof that he would pay her. She conceived by him, put on her widow's garb again and went home. Judah did send a kid but could not find any harlot in town because there wasn't a harlot in town. When she was three months pregnant began to show, Judah was told that his supposedly chaste widow daughter in law was pregnant. He was angry that she should bring shame on the family and declared, "Let her be burned!" But she had his seal, cord and staff. He then admitted that he was at fault because he had promised her his son Shelah but had failed to keep his promise. Remember, this was a time when a woman must have a son in order to be guaranteed a secure future after the death of her husband.


Like Rebekah, Tamar had twins. The midwife tied a crimson thread on the hand that poked out the womb first, to signify that child was first born. But the child withdrew his hand and the other came out first. Peretz, whose name means break-through, one of the sons, was an ancestor in the Davidic line. (As an aside, Midrash Rabbah says that two women covered themselves with veils and had twins; the other being Rebekah.)


The story returns to Joseph. Joseph was purchased by the chief of Pharaoh, Potiphar. Because of Joseph, the Lord blessed Potiphar's household; Potiphar recognized this and made Joseph his personal attendant, in charge of everything he owned. Joseph again got a rather fine linen coat, as well as jewelry. (Midrash says that Potiphar wanted Joseph sexually.) Joseph was handsome, but thought nothing of Potiphar's belongings - or his wife. However, Rashi thought he was vain and that what happens next is punishment for his vanity. (Rashi actually wrote that Joseph curled his hair!)
 
Potifar's wife became increasingly a pest, bothering Joseph to have sex with her. One day she commanded, "Lay with me!"  She grabbed his fine coat and as he ran off, it tore. Like the brothers before her, she used his coat as evidence for a lie. She told everyone, first her servants and then her husband that Joseph tried to rape her, she screamed and he fled. Potiphar believed his wife and threw Joseph in the same prison where the king's prisoners were confined.  (Notice how this is the only woman whose desire for sex was stated outright rather than hidden in schemes or subdued while male family members decided whether to give her as a wife.)


The Lord favored Joseph in prison, too, where Joseph was given charge of all the prisoners. The Pharaoh's cup bearer and baker were jailed shortly thereafter. (A fly was found in wine and a stone in a loaf of bread.) Joseph showed concern for their feelings, which is one of the reasons people so love Joseph even today. His life was an exhaustive roller coaster ride, but he was kind, noticing they seemed downcast on one particular day. The cup bearer and baker were distraught because no one could interpret their dreams. Joseph said surely God could! And then he did. (The cup bearer is restored to his position but the baker is executed.) He asked the cupbearer, whose dream was favorable, to remember him when he got out, and to set him free, for he had done no wrong. Even though both of the dreams came true, the cupbearer forgot to set Joseph free. Midrash says that this is punishment for Joseph asking another human being to release him rather than asking God to.


Rabbi Yitz said this story is representative of the Jewish story, that Joseph is aware of his chosenness despite persecution and that he holds onto belief in his destiny as helping to bring the Messianic age. Rabbi Maurice says that Joseph is very accepting of the troubles that come his way. Torah often mentions others crying out, but there is no mention of this from Joseph when he is thrown into the pit, sold, or sent to jail. Rabbi Yitz also said that Midrash said that Jacob could not be comforted because he did not actually believe deep down that Joseph had died. You can not be comforted for the living.


I have to write a speech for my Speech 101 class. I am really impressed by how an event planned with evil intent led to the emotional growth of both Joseph and the brothers. By the end of the next parsha it is clear that they have all learned empathy and kindness.