Yosef, His Brothers, and the Descent to Egypt
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
PARASHAT VAYESHEV
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This shiur is dedicated in memory of
Israel Koschitzky zt"l, whose yahrzeit falls on the 19th of Kislev.
May the world-wide dissemination of Torah through the VBM be a fitting
tribute to a man whose lifetime achievements exemplified the love of Eretz
Yisrael and Torat Yisrael.
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Yosef, His Brothers,
and the Descent to Egypt
By Rav Michael
Hattin
Introduction
As
Parashat Vayeshev opens, the focus of the Book of Bereishit converges on the
story of Yaakov's children. Although Yaakov will continue to play an important
role in the narrative, until his death at the conclusion of the Book, it is
Yosef and his brothers who will henceforth occupy the central stage of the saga. With a page evidently rent from the
story of many families, the Torah describes in glaring and glowering terms the
deep-seated animosity among those children that threatens to tear the nascent
tribe apart.
Ripped by
dissension and driven by strife, the fabric of Yaakov's family almost unravels
as the brothers quarrel among themselves for the coveted office of tribal
leader. Yosef, the most gifted and
arrogant among them, the favorite of his father and the firstborn of the beloved
Rachel, sees in his dreams intimations of greatness and leadership. His bid, however, is cut short by his
brother's jealousy; they contemplate fratricide, but in the end content
themselves to sell him into slavery to distant Egypt. There, after many setbacks and
struggles, he realizes the prominence that he always knew would be his lot. Eventually, Yosef comes to understand
that the cause behind his accomplishments is not simply an accidental confluence
of fortuitous events, nor the exclusive result of his own effort and skill, but
rather bears the distinct imprint of Divine involvement for the realization of a
more exalted purpose.
The Two Dimensions of the Narratives -
#(1a) Yosef and Providence
When we
embark on the study of the narratives of Yosef, we must bear in mind that there
are in fact at least two distinct dimensions to the tale. On the one hand, the Torah endeavors
to describe the personal story of the protagonists, their foibles and faults, as
well as their successes. From this
perspective, we see the primary story of Yosef's coming of age. His immaturity, evident at the outset
of the account as an extreme form of narcissism, causes the arousal of his
brothers' ire. Catapulted to a
faraway land by their menacing machinations, alone and penniless, Yosef
unexpectedly finds himself in the service of Potiphar, Pharaoh's minister.
Showing
himself to be a talented and industrious servant, Yosef quickly rises through
the ranks to eventually assume responsibility for all of Potiphar's affairs. Flushed with success, Yosef
erroneously believes that he has been the exclusive author of his own
achievements. When the attempts of the wife of Potiphar to seduce the dashing
administrator fail, she falsely accuses Yosef of impropriety. Quickly, his
fortunes are reversed as his master summarily casts him into prison. There, condemned to an uncertain
future of perhaps permanent incarceration, Yosef begins to ponder, for the first
time, the course of his life. From
the experience of imprisonment in that dark dungeon, helpless and hopeless, the
first glimmer of an idea of a Higher Providence enters his mind. Slowly, the nebulous notion takes
shape, until Yosef is able to formulate for himself with startling conviction
that ever since he first dreamt of sheaves and stars, of dominion and rule, God
has steered his steps so that he could fulfil his as-yet indeterminate destiny.
Once in
possession of this remarkable insight, the route out of prison is a conceptually
short but chronologically prolonged one. Unexpectedly, two of Pharaoh's
servants, the butler and the baker, are cast into prison, and Yosef is ordered
by the warden to attend to them. The
two, one night, have disturbing dreams and Yosef offers an interpretation that
proves to be precisely correct.
Pharaoh soon exonerates the butler, just as Yosef had forecast, but the butler
forgets Yosef's kindness. It is not
until two more years elapse, when troubling inexplicable images upsets the sleep
of Pharaoh himself, that the butler remembers Yosef's unusual proficiency and
recounts it to Pharaoh. Quickly, he
is fetched from prison, offers a most plausible reading of the dreams, and is
promptly appointed as Viceroy! The
personal dimension of this unfolding series of events is quite evident, for it
encapsulates Yosef's long and turbulent struggle to achieve trust in God as he
comes to recognize His guiding hand.
#(1b) The Brothers and 'Teshuva'
Parallel
to this story is the secondary strand of the brothers' 'teshuva,' or repentance. Initially, we are introduced to their
jealous rage and unfeeling cruelty, as they first cast Yosef into the pit and
then sell him into slavery. Having
committed the treacherous deed, they proceed to deceive their aged father Yaakov
into believing that a wild beast has consumed Yosef. Rationalization yields to
sublimation, as the brothers bury the painful memory of their diabolical deed
under successive layers of self-denial.
In the
meantime, famine strikes Canaan and the surrounding lands, just as Yosef had
foretold Pharaoh. Incapable of
facing the truth that they have in all probability caused Yosef's untimely
death, the prospect of descending to Egypt (the scene of the crime) in order to
purchase grain, fills the brothers with dread.
But go they must, there to stand before the Viceroy to request provender. Yosef, clothed in royal attire,
immediately recognizes his brothers, but they fail to recognize him. Able to ascertain that they have
never confronted their act of twenty-two years earlier, Yosef sets into motion a
complex orchestration of events that forces the brothers to relive the crime. This time, it is Binyamin the
youngest who is cast as Yaakov's favorite, whom the brothers must defend and
protect rather than surrender to the tyrannical Viceroy's clutches. In the end, the brothers are finally
able to express sincere and complete contrition, and, neatly closing the circle
of their lives, Yosef reveals to them his true identity.
The Two Parallel Tracks of Yosef's
Realization, and the Brothers' Teshuva
It is
striking indeed that here, Yosef's role is to impel their act of
self-realization by synthesizing a series of episodes that for the brothers is
at first incomprehensible, but in hindsight is perfectly lucid. Their initial maltreatment at the
Viceroy's hands, his unreasonable demands to deliver Binyamin and the unjust act
of their imprisonment, his taking of Shimon as a hostage and the unexpected
discovery of their returned money, are all cause for apprehension. As the nightmare unfolds, the
brothers search in vain for a meaning behind their unreasonable fate, until
their collective memory is finally jolted, and thoughts of their lost brother
Yosef flood into their minds. When
he reveals his true identity, all of their doubts, misgivings, and uncertainties
melt away, and the true purpose and meaning of their tribulations at his guiding
hands emerges.
In quite
similar fashion, we traced above the process of Yosef's spiritual maturation, in
the course of which God had painstakingly stripped away the strata of Yosef's
complacency and shallowness to reveal to him the blinding truth of His
overarching Providence. Suddenly,
all of Yosef's tribulations, from the time that he had been unceremoniously sold
at the hands of his brothers, to the unjust accusation and his extended
imprisonment by Potiphar, became comprehensible links in the chain of God's
involvement. Here too, a revelation
of sorts takes place, for in the aftermath of that blinding realization, Yosef
is divinely inspired to interpret dreams.
In both
instances, the account of Yosef and the account of his brothers, it is the
personal element that is highlighted, as the Torah presents us with two
fundamental insights: (1) God is directly and intimately involved in our lives
and guides us towards a purpose, and (2) we are capable of overcoming even
heinous mistakes, so long as we can experience true contrition and have sincere
resolve to change our conduct.
Additionally, the two are shown to be interrelated, for the possibility of the
second is often conditioned by the realization of the first.
The Two Dimensions of the Narratives -
#(2) The Descent to Egypt
At the
same time as the personal story of Yosef and his brothers unfolds, however,
another epic takes shape. This
second dimension of the narratives has little to do with the personal
development of the protagonists, for it actually transcends the lives of
individuals. It is the national
story of the descent to Egypt and the beginning of the enslavement. First introduced as a Divine fiat to
Avraham at the Covenant Between the Pieces, it was there indicated to the
trembling Patriarch in cryptic and ominous terms, as the darkness of night began
to fall:
"You shall surely
know that your descendents will be sojourners in a land not theirs, in servitude
and oppression, for a period of four hundred years. As for the nation that they shall
serve, I will exact judgement from it.
Afterwards, they will go forth with great substance..." (Bereishit
15:13-14).
Yosef's
descent to Egypt, his eventual rise to position of Viceroy, and the famine that
envelops Canaan, are all indispensable elements in the emerging canvas of the
family's relocation. Although the
brothers speak to Pharaoh of returning to Canaan after the drought, insightful
Yaakov knows better. The brothers
and their children, and their children's children, will be long dead before they
will emerge from Egyptian subjugation to head home.
The
commentaries disagree concerning the initial justification for God's startling
imposition of servitude, but in retrospect the purpose of the experience is
self-evident. It will not be, of
course, as a family that Yaakov's descendents will return to their land, but
rather as a nation. Tempered in the
crucible of oppression that will simultaneously dissolve noxious personal and
tribal rivalries, a national character will be shaped. Through the common experience of
slavery, the descendents of Israel will first come to feel a shared destiny and
future. The formulation of a
national purpose and set of objectives is only possible in the aftermath of
overcoming national adversity, for the act of self-definition that must take
place is always a response to externally imposed pressures.
Thus, the
personal story of Yosef and his brothers is here transcended by the national
story of Bnei Yisrael.
Significantly, however, it is through the agency of individuals and their
autonomous choices that the national dimension is realized. Again, the Torah emphasizes the
direct involvement of God in the process. Although the protagonists remain
blissfully unaware of the far-reaching consequences of their petty actions,
those actions are being carefully combined and collected to together yield the
desired outcome. Each act is
insignificant in its own right, but taken together, its indispensability for the
unfolding of the process becomes evident.
It is as if the Torah allows us a privileged view behind the scenes of
God's mysterious concealment in order to appreciate what is actually His
comprehensive and active participation in the world. If it is God's will that Yaakov and
his descendents go down to Egypt for a purpose that He has determined, then they
shall go, and no human act will be able to thwart that Divine design.
The Common Outline of the Two Dimensions
Considering the matter further, the two dimensions can be shown to share a
common outline. We may restate
Yosef's personal saga as an archetypal Biblical theme of exile. At home in Canaan but estranged from
an awareness of God, Yosef must be driven to the distant shores of the Nile. In that state of separation from
homeland, and due to the difficult circumstances of his exile, he will
rediscover the God of his ancestors, and come to finally comprehend his role in
the world. Eventually he will return
to his homeland to be reunited with its earth.
Similarly, Yaakov's descendents will be cast out from Canaan by famine, and will
find their new abode in Egypt.
There, they will suffer mightily until they cry out to the God of their
ancestors to save them. In the brick
pits, the people of Israel will experience their first inkling of a national
destiny and purpose, and this dawning realization will be key to their eventual
exodus.
The
themes of exile and redemption that permeate much of the Hebrew Bible are thus
indicated to have a personal as well as a national scope. By drawing together
the dual themes, the story of Yosef and his brothers as well as the story of
Bnei Yisrael, our Parasha makes a conscious and profound statement concerning
their common basis. When stripped of
their extraneous trappings and distilled to their basic, elemental essence, the
twinned ideas of exile and redemption are shown to be binary facets of the same
truth. Geographical exile is only an
expression in concrete reality of spiritual exile, of estrangement and distance
from God and from the self. The
redemptive process, often triggered by the crisis of faith that 'exile'
engenders, begins to unfold when the person or the people can confront their
alienation from God and from the true meaning of their lives. Redemption accelerates with the next
phase of self-evaluation and re-definition, and culminates with the act of
'return' to God, oneself, and the Promised Land.
A Third Dimension to the Narratives the
Eschatological
As we
have seen, the narratives of Yosef address not only the individual lives of the
protagonists, but their national lives as well.
The themes of exile and redemption emerge as universal axioms that aptly
describe our ongoing relationship with God.
The Ramban (13th century, Spain) takes matters a step further,
for he sees in the story of Yosef a tale of cosmic proportions.
"I have already
mentioned that the story of Yaakov's descent to Egypt alludes to the third
national exile, namely our present state in the aftermath of the Roman conquest
of Jerusalem. We are still suffering
the effects of this exile."
"Did not Yaakov's
own children initiate the process by selling Yosef their brother? It was acute famine that drove our
Patriarch Yaakov down to Egypt, and he sought refuge with his beloved Yosef,
whom Pharaoh treated as a son. The
family expected to return to Canaan at the conclusion of the drought, but they
were not able to do so, and their state of exile continued for a lengthy period
of time. Eventually, Yaakov perished
in Egypt, but his bones were taken back to Canaan, borne by an honor guard of
Pharaoh's most important ministers."
"We, too, have been
exiled by Rome, and our own brothers initiated the process. It was the Jewish kings of the
Hasmonean House that invited Roman intervention, as a result of a bloody
dynastic struggle between brothers each vying for the throne. Agrippas, the final king of the
Second Temple Period, fled to Rome to enlist their help. The city of Jerusalem was eventually
besieged and famine struck down its inhabitants.
The resulting exile has stretched on interminably, for its end is nowhere
in sight. We, in the meantime, have
become likened to the dead, for our bones have become dry and our hope is lost. In the end, however, we will return
to our land, and our oppressors shall perish.
May God establish our people so that we may again stand before Him..."
(commentary to Bereishit 47:28).
Significantly, Ramban detects in the story of Yosef and his brothers, the enmity
and cruelty that brought about his exile, our national story as well, for the
Roman conquest was precipitated by divisiveness and hate. The sojourn in of Yaakov in Egypt,
oppressive and lengthy, foreshadowed not only the enslavement of Bnei Yisrael,
but the long and bitter exile from which we have yet to completely emerge. The lessons of the Ramban's
remarkable insight are clear: the way back to the Promised Land will be barred
as long as we are consumed by petty and profound animosities that cloud our
vision, and refuse to let us see the meaning of our personal and national
missions. No amount of treaties and
agreements can fill the empty void created by the willful neglect of our
historical destiny and our precious legacy to become 'a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation.' When Yosef is mature
enough to realize that God's guidance has animated every one of his steps, he
can no longer remain indifferent to that reality.
It transforms him, his objectives, and the history of his people forever.
Shabbat Shalom