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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Wrestling with Our Ancestors and Our Selves
They threw him in the pit! How could the brothers gang up on the youngest one and treat him with such cruelty? Of course, you know the story: the coat of many colors, the doting father who transferred his obsession with Rachel onto Joseph [and, later, Benjamin], the resentment and jealousy ("look who's coming - the dreamer! Let's see what becomes of his pitiful delusions when we kill him!"). The dramatic cycle of stories is a powerful set of images that conjure up age-old questions about treachery, favoritism, destiny, revenge... Previously, I've spoken and written about the fateful conversation between Joseph and the stranger ("...a man found him [Joseph] wandering, lost in the fields. He asked him, "what do you seek?...") This is clearly a pivotal scene [see the pdf below].

In this drash I'd like to focus upon the brothers. Vayitnaklu oto l'hamito - [Genesis 37:18] They conspired to kill him. The writer [or Writer] is blunt about the brothers' intent. Premeditated [almost] murder - why? Because they hated him. So I consulted the commentary of Sforno (Italian sage, born circa 1470), and found an insightful reference to the Midianite plot to seduce the Israelites into worshipping Ba'al P'eor [...asher niclu lachem al d'var p'eor -wherewith they have beguiled you regarding P'eor [Numbers 25:18] This citation reinforces the notion of the cruel plot in the minds of the brothers. Then Sforno [like many traditional commentators] burnishes the image of the brothers. Contrary to the straightforward sense of the narrative, through some clever, yet forced grammar, he projects the brothers' plot into the mind of Joseph. The brothers [mistakenly] thought that Joseph meant to kill them. His dreams were an ominous warning to them. Their actions, however misguided, were in self-defense [!] Even the casting of Joseph into the pit is recast by Sforno as somehow less damning that actively shedding Joseph's blood. "Joseph deserves death; he is a false prophet. However, let us not shed his blood. Someone wicked should dispatch him. We'll merely facilitate the just punishment he deserves."

What motivates this forced reading of the text? The notion - strongly embraced even today, by many a reader - that the brothers [like any of our "good guys" must be seen as thoroughly righteous. If the narrative suggests otherwise, amend it to serve our over-riding need for 100% good role models who possess only pure motives. I quote Sforno in order to argue against this reading. 

Going in the opposite direction, I refer to Rashi's commentary on a nearby verse. You will recall that the brothers fake Joseph's death by dipping his striped tunic in goat's blood and presenting it to Jacob: We found this. Do you recognize it, is it your son's tunic? How's that for cruelty compounding cruelty? Rashi tells us that Jacob remained in mourning far longer than the usual custom. How long? For twenty-two years; until he reunited with Joseph in Egypt. Why is this span of mourning so significant? Rewind the story to Jacob fleeing his brother's wrath to the safety of Laban's home. His mother, Rebecca says, "you'll stay with Laban for a few days or so until your brother's wrath cools. " Jacob pursued other plans. He amassed a fortune and built a family - and stayed away from home, out of touch with his parents for twenty two years. His selfish motives [whatever else you say about Jacob, he was clearly a self-centered man] unnecessarily caused his parents to mourn his absence. Rashi's point is that Jacob stays in mourning because he grasps [belatedly] the depth of the pain he caused his parents. Reinforcing the idea of "measure for measure [mida k'neged mida], Judah - the cruel ringleader whose actions plunge his father into grief - is punished for his deeds with the untimely death of two of his sons [Er and Onan]. Whatever we may think about the theme of measure for measure, we probably entertain a related notion: what goes around comes around. 

Finally I'll enlist the aid of Pinchas HaKohen [I found this poem within The PenguinBook of Hebrew Verse, edited by T. Carmi. I hurriedly searched for some biographical info regarding this early [pre-10th century] poet. No luck, my apologies. I'll work on it...], by quoting a snippet from one of his poems, set as a verbal sparring match between Joseph and his brothers: the perfect setting is in parashat vayigash, as Judah, on bended knee, begs for Benjamin's release. The poem is called "Ach b'n'aaleichem - (You sold) A Brother (for the Price of) - Your Shoes"  [NOTE- if you'd like the entire poem, let me know]

'You sold a brother for the price of shoes. Full of hate, you set upon him to shed his blood. Deceitfully, you slaughtered a kid. You pained your father's heart, you plotted to delude him. Woe to you from the judgement of the Revealer!' said Joseph to them.

'O far be it for you to do such a thing! We are amazed to hear all this from you. Lift your eyes to heaven; do not reveal the secrets [of our past]. It is our crime that has brought this trouble upon us. My lord, your words have filled us with trembling!' - said Judah to him....

'You have merited an unnatural death. You blocked the old man's way to the prophetic spirit. May God, in His heavenly abode, forgive you. Now come, all of you, to Goshen; it was the Revealer who sent me ahead to save men's lives.' And he said: 'I am your bother Joseph!'

They shuddered at his words. They shook, dumbfounded, and could not answer him. Then he wept aloud. Ad afterwards his brothers talked with him.

So what's the take-home, Rabbi?
Part of the great power of the Biblical narrative lies in the honest portrayal of its conflicted characters. The writers who keep air-brushing the biblical portraits are [unwittingly] reducing the narrative to caricature, to a cheap thrill at Disney-world. The bold lines which set apart hero and villian might make things easier - or more comfortable - to certain readers. But the simplified portraits are lies. Fast forward to the modern moment. We have not yet abandoned this lamentable tendency to reduce the story to a caricature. Contemporaryy politics [pick your venue] are ridiculously reduced to a shoot-out at the OK corral or a horse-race. Jewish identity becomes Holocaust-Western Wall-Moshe Dayan-Ride a Camel-Float in the Dead Sea... you get the picture. Nice photo-ops, great time had by all. But if that's as far as we can get, we've turned a rich and complex [and conflicted] narrative into Disney-world. 

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