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ny event joseph complies responding to the invocation of jacob s will with jacob s words to rachel 30 2 התחת אלהים אני hatahat elohim ani am i instead of god comforting his brothers וינחם אותם vay nahem otam and speaking to their hearts 50 21 perhaps he finally achieves that which his clairvoyance had always denied him there s more to the story that we don t know and questions of how to apply it here are my top three 1 what do we do with jacob s deathbed revelation of his violent amorite conquest gen 48 22 how does it fit with his condemnation of simeon and levi first stated in chapter 34 and expanded in chapter 49 rabbi yehudah s answer is to spiritualize the violence בחרבי ובקשתי במצות ובמעשים טובים b harbi uv kashti b mitzvot uv ma asim tovim for my sword and bow read commandments and good deeds genesis rabba 97 6 2 why doesn t jewish tradition use the joseph story to teach forgiveness jonathan sacks the exception who proves the rule http www chiefrabbi org thoughts vayigash5766 pdf brings maimonides to show that forgiveness can be granted without an apology 3 when people lack the ability to forgive they are unable to resolve conflict the result is division factionalism and the fragmentation of a nation into competing groups and sects that is why joseph s forgiveness is the bridge between genesis and exodus sacks ibid he jacob on his deathbed indicates that simeon and levi should be allotted such a position in the future jacob israel nation that political and military powers of decision should never lie in their hands it is of the most profound importance that here at once at the laying the foundation of the jewish nation a curse is laid on any and every transgression of the laws of morality and justice even if done in the interests of the public and the state all other states and nations justify themselves by the principle that public and state interests sanctify everything cunning trickery and force which in private life would be punished with prison and gallows are rewarded with civic honours and medals the laws of morality only exist for private life but in politics and diplomacy the only code recognised is the interests of the party or state the original testament for the jewish nation here lays a curse on all trickery and violence even if practiced for the most justified cause in the public interest and perpetuates the teaching that even in public life and in the public interests not only the ends but the means too must be pure in no case does the end justify the means s r hirsch on gen 34 25ff and 49 7 although these quotes could be the basis for polarizing questions i d rather leave them as unifying prayers posted for rabbi jeremy milgrom at 8 36 am no comments friday december 14 2007 netivoteha shalom on vayigash joseph of many colors joseph s intense family dynamics took over last week s column i couldn t wait to continue my quest into vayigash genesis 44 18 47 27 even while the torah scroll was still open at miketz 41 44 17 i dreamt last week i m being serious there s a lot on my plate but that s not what i thought netivoteha shalom was for and sure enough this week we re back to a wider inter ethnic perspective and with a vengeance unfortunately quite literally it seems that joseph s prediction of a seven year famine was a well kept secret known only to jacob s family and pharaoh s court and that while pharaoh prepared for it by stockpiling food during the seven years of plenty the egyptian people did not budget for it thus we learn gen 47 14 that they are starving but have no more money to purchase the food joseph has stored when they come pleading to him he tells them he ll feed them in exchange for their livestock after they have expended this resource they return to joseph saying we have nothing left but our carcasses and our land why should we die we and our land buy us and our land for food we and our land will be enslaved to pharaoh give us seed so that we live and not die and the land won t be desolate 47 18 19 joseph accepts this offer and implements the arrangement now all this is told within an envelope of preceding and following verses 47 11 13 and 47 27 that tell us that joseph is looking after his family settling them in goshen and feeding them and it ends with the formula ויפרו וירבו מאוד they were fruitful and multiplied greatly reminding us of the idyllic blessing of genesis 1 but more importantly recalling the language of exodus 1 which introduces the enslavement of joseph s descendents i began to wonder whether the connection between these two enslavements goes beyond the shared phraseology would it not add an unstated motive of revenge to the paranoia that is brought in ex 1 9 10 an online search of traditional commentaries i use and recommend the feinburg e collection at www spertus edu pulled up the following comment by siftey cohen הוגד לי בחלום שתם הכסף מארץ מצרים כדי שלא יהיה להם כסף כדי שלא יקנו בני ישראל וישאו ויתנו בהם ויעשו סחורתם ויקשה עליהם יציאתם מאחר שלקחום בדמים אם כשהיו בחנם רדפו אחריהם כל שכן כשהיו קנוים בדמים i learned in a dream that there was no money left in egypt verse 15 kept them from purchasing the israelites and trading in them which would have made the exodus more difficult as it was they pursued them but had they paid for them all the more so i found this comment striking in its perception of israelite vulnerability in a passage where joseph s family is living in the lap of privilege evidently the memory of our enslavement in egypt was so strong that it obscured the plain message of the text but if this statement required some indulgence what i found in the khumashim torah texts that we put in our congregants hands really threw me for a loop plaut the torah a modern commentary uahc 1981 provides the following introduction to this section p 293 we learn about the effects of the famine and so it seems to many the morally puzzling aspects of joseph s economic and political management israel now dwells in goshen and a new chapter in his people s history is about to begin he is somewhat more explicit in his expansive afterword page 298 because of the careful and unemotional accounting of the disenfranchisement of the egyptian people and the apparent approval of joseph s role in it this section has been made a show piece of anti semitic polemic von rad here is the bible it has been said jewry s sacred book and look at the morality that by its exaltation of joseph it obviously endorses e g gunkel plaut then proceeds to put joseph s behavior in the context of the proper functioning of a civil servant in ancient egypt which brings him to conclude p 299 to superimpose 20th century ideas of social and political morality on this story is therefore not helpful joseph served pharaoh in his struggle with the egyptian hierarchy in so doing he saved the multitudes from starvation and apparently this was worth any price to them including a mortgage on their freedom and it is altogether possible that they thought little of their freedom anyway jewish tradition sensed long ago that joseph s actions might not have met with the same success had the egyptians valued their freedom more highly the bible calls egypt the house of bondage not only because israel was enslaved there but also because its people accepted their own bondage as a normal condition of life in a footnote plaut gives a little in the other direction stating joseph s participation in bringing about this condition left later generations with a sense of uneasiness and cites examples of positive attitudes to egyptians elsewhere in the bible i am indebted to plaut for sending me to von rad who opened my eyes to a hint of irony in the egyptians proclamation in verse 25 you have kept us alive we are grateful to my lord for making us slaves to pharaoh but aside from that i m left bewildered i m very sorry that anti semites go to town on this text but this defence of the text and judaism reeks of racism and blame the victim and i can t find sources that corroborate his defamation of the egyptians sarna the jps torah commentary 1989 too seems ambivalent on the one hand joseph s actions cannot be measured by the moral standards that the hebrew bible especially the prophetic tradition has inculcated in western civilization p 322 but then he goes on to suggest that the author of this story comes from another literary tradition value system rather they must be judged in the context of the ancient near eastern world by whose norms joseph emerges here as a highly admirable model of a shrewd and successful administrator sarna jps pp 322 323 i don t doubt that the joseph story originates in wisdom literature but looking at the broader context not only the prophetic tradition but also the narrator here is indeed critical of joseph who saves one generation but enslaves many more serving pharaoh is not the same as serving god or in business terms ethical behavior is ultimately profitable when the egyptians plead for their lives למה נמות נגדך לעיניך why should we die in your presence before your eyes gen 47 15 19 we hear the echo of esau s desperate הנה אנכי הולך למות ולמה זה לי בכורה i m about to die what good will the birthright do me gen 25 32 made in trading his birthright for a stew yet that transaction had limited validity because otherwise jacob would not have had to deceive his father to receive esau s blessing it s shocking for joseph to be denying the lesson his brothers learned when they realized their heartlessness which led to his sale אשר ראינו צרת נפשו בהתחננו אלינו ולא שמענו we saw his desperation when he pleaded before us but we didn t listen gen 42 21 what it all boils down to is that we all find the joseph we need if we re looking for a devoted son and brother we ll find it in the text and even more easily in the midrash but it will also offer us someone struggling to find his place as a family member and who is still locked in destructive patterns of selfish behavior if it s a national savior we ll find that too but if we re wary of being too close to pharaoh in his many manifestations we ll also be able to see the long term effects of selfishness on a national level and the xenophobia that keeps us from commiserating and co existing with the other the text is a magical mirror to be handled with great care posted for rabbi jeremy milgrom at 8 03 am no comments sunday december 9 2007 zecharia speaks spirit to joseph s power ישימך אלהים כאפרים וכמנשה may god make you as efraim and menashe gen 48 20 for a name that is etched deep in the warmest memories of many jewish boys who received that blessing from their parents every friday night the name menashe doesn t fare too well in jewish tradition from the bible where the 7th c bce menashe is considered the worst judean king because he spilt innocent blood apparently not such a hard act to follow till modern jewish literature where menashe hayyim is the lead tragic character in agnon s great short story והיה העקוב למישור the crooked straight the bearers of this name face an uphill struggle the birth of joseph s children comes at the apogee of his family life sold into slavery by his brothers and mourned for dead by his father he has arrived at the opposite end of the spectrum of success in his new life the usual translation of menashe s name is one that insists on joseph s determination to put his canaanite past behind him כי נשני אלהים את כל עמלי ואת כל בית אבי god has made me forget all my troubles everything to do with my father s home the echo of these insightful words spoken by the one whose ability to predict the future has taken him from the pit to the pinnacle is still with us when the scene switches to jacob s household as his brothers are sent to egypt to purchase food from his storehouse if joseph understood his own words and realized his success was dependent on his leaving his past he could have just treated them as ordinary customers sold them grain and set them on their way but he doesn t he can t i d rather read menashe s naming this way god stripped away all my troubles just as my brothers stripped my father s coat off of me but he also took me completely away from my father s house but not forever so joseph procedes to bring his father s house in its entirety to egypt in stages first he manages to provoke the brothers into disclosing the existence of their additional brothers now notice how he forces them to bring benjamin first by holding them all captive except for the one who will fetch benjamin and then holding only one and having all the others struggle with jacob and recreate the scenes of his childhood which included tale bearing and declothing hence his accusations of spying and exposing nakedness the rabbinic texts follow the biblical text in its focus on the joseph s role as savior of the family and the people israel but do they extoll his role as savoir of humanity i haven t checked there are midrashic claims that joseph kept his brothers in a comfortable lock up and that he fasted didn t drink wine and sat in sackcloth i e mourned his father s absence throughout their entire separation cf encyclopedia judaica joseph indeed joseph the tsadik but can joseph possibly escape our censure for the thrice repeated statement of bereavement שכלתם שכלתי שכלתי that he puts on jacob s lips the most gripping point in the entire story which makes clear that the joseph story is really only the last chapter of jacob s life when he forces him to part with the last remaining son of rachel next week s joyous reunion will not be enough to sweeten jacob s summary of his life 47 9 as one of suffering jacob struggles with god and men and passes this down to joseph who never shaking off his father s house does the same but even better his vision doesn t only multiply flocks it nourishes all of civilization brought up in a home where children trick fathers he can outdo them all because he has a divine power that bestows upon him mundane power which he exercises while divining with the cup since as rachel s son he also uses the concrete to reach the intangible joseph s story is one of power but not of spirit which is the ultimate biblical story joseph will bring his family to him down to egypt like him they will go down into slavery and up to power and down again but what will count is spirit i was taught and would like still to believe that the rabbis of late antiquity didn t have much use for the legacy of the maccabees hanukkah their holiday is not even mentioned in the mishnah and is given only a few pages in the babylonian talmud these are the same rabbis who had us respond to this week s part of joseph s story with a haftarah that proclaims לא בחיל ולא בכוח כי אם ברוחי אמר ה צבאות not by might not by power but by my spirit said the lord ts va ot zecharia 4 6 shabbat shalom v hanukkah sameah posted for rabbi jeremy milgrom at 10 45 pm no comments labels miketz netivoteha shalom parshanut older posts home subscribe to posts atom stripped 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