Miracles

Vayeshev

Gen. 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.”

            The inability to “speak peaceably” that we read about in this week’s text is a stark reminder of the current atmosphere in the American polity. I read today in the Washington Post an important column by the late Charles Krauthammer (who I was privileged to call “Charles”). In it, he talks about the miracle of our Constitution. He points, in fact, to three miracles: that there was a collection of political geniuses living on the edge of the civilized world that could have written it; that they created a system which still works after almost 250 years; and that Americans have a deep reverence for the document. He concludes his column with the following: “I would summarize by quoting my favorite pundit, Otto von Bismarck. He was not known for his punditry, but he is famously said to have said, ‘God looks after children, drunkards, idiots and the United States of America.’ I think He still does. I hope He still does.”

            As we approach Chanukah next week, may we rejoice in the miracles of Chanukah as well as the miracles Charles has articulated. And we should pray for one additional miracle: that we can remember how to “talk peaceably” to each other.

            [An aside: I began writing a weekly d’var torah because of Charles. He spoke about the fact that his father began sending him a weekly d’var torah when Charles went away to college, and his father continued writing him one each week for more than 30 years. As it happened, my son Dan was going way to college then, and I was inspired to write a weekly d’var, which I subsequently shared with my professional colleagues, family, and friends. When I told Charles that his father was my inspiration, he was deeply moved. May his memory be for a blessing.]