Vayeshev
Genesis 37:1 - 40:23
Précis: The story of Joseph begins with the words, “And Jacob dwelt (vayeshev) in the land of his father’s travels.” We learn that Joseph is Jacob’s favorite son. Joseph receives the famous coat of many colors, and dreams strange dreams and relates them to his brothers and father, creating additional concern (jealousy) on their part. The sons conspire to do away with Joseph, but before he dies, they sell him into slavery. Jacob is devastated when the sons present evidence of Joseph’s “death.”
We then have an intervening story about Judah. He marries off his first son to Tamar. The son soon dies, and, the next son is married to the widow (“levirate marriage.”) The second son (Onan) dies, and Judah is loath to offer the third son. The widow dresses as a harlot, seduces Judah, becomes pregnant, and reveals herself to Judah as a woman wronged. He acknowledges her as a rightful daughter.
The scene shifts back to Joseph, who is now a servant in the household of Potiphar, an Egyptian official. Potiphar’s wife attempts to seduce Joseph but he refuses her advances. She accuses him nonetheless of attempted rape, and Joseph is tossed into prison. There, he meets jailed servants of Pharaoh, for whom he interprets dreams successfully. When the chief butler is restored to his post, he promises to “remember” Joseph, but the parasha ends with the words, “but he forgot him.”
Gen. 37:4 “And when his [Joseph's] brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.”
As we all know, the Book of Genesis is filled with stories of sibling rivalry (Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and here among the sons of Jacob). Joseph is given a special coat by his doting father, and is sent out to report on (spy on?) his brothers. The phrase here which merits closer inspection is the Hebrew “lo yachlu” (they could not speak peaceably with him). What does this mean?
Rashi suggests that they simply held their silence. Other commentators state that they spoke to him roughly and angrily. But the phrase certainly means that the brothers were agitated with Joseph and his favored status with their father. Joseph has not helped his own case by acting in a condescending and prideful manner (as he tells them of his dreams of dominance over them). This barely-contained emotional hatred by the brothers is an appropriate prerequisite for their subsequent plot to kill him, although they wind up selling him into slavery instead.
Our text speaks to the pressures and strife of familial relationships. When we give in to our anger (even when justified) we reject our ability to see or act peaceably. The brothers could not speak peaceably to Joseph, and allowed their hatred to rule their actions. Even though the story works out well in the end (when Joseph says, in effect, “it was all God’s plan”), the family experiences grief, pain, and guilt. All could have been avoided by thoughtful and peaceable communications. But such communications were largely impossible in the context of antagonism which had its roots in familial favoritism.
We need to be on guard at all times to avoid taking actions which interfere with or prevent our ability to communicate with others openly, freely and without fear of reprisal.
