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. 37:14-17 “And he
(Jacob) said to him (Joseph), ‘Go and see how your brothers are and how the
flocks are faring, and bring me back word.’ So, he sent him from the valley of
Hebron. When he reached Shechem, a man came upon him wandering in the fields;
the man asked him, ‘What are you looking for?’ He answered, ‘I am looking for
my brothers. Could you tell me where they are pasturing?’ The man said, ‘‘‘They
have gone from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’’’ So, Joseph
followed his brothers and found them in Dothan.”
We see
here a most unusual aspect of Torah text. Joseph encounters “a man.” While
speakers are usually identified, this “man” is unknown (at least in the text). The
Sages offer a variety of explanations: Rashi says he is the angel Gabriel.
Maimonides also assumes that the stranger is an angel, just as the unnamed
“man” struggled with Jacob/Israel. Nahama Leibowitz suggests that this brief
dialog is here to show that God is working behind the scenes, so that the rest
of the story could unfold.
But what
if the “man” was simply a “man?” The traditional analysis is to the contrary,
but let’s assume that the man was simply a stranger who Joseph encounters. His
action – telling Joseph where to find his brothers – is a critical element in
the development of the story, and, eventually, in the history of the Jewish
People. This suggests that random encounters and random acts of kindness can
have incredibly long-lasting impacts. Whether we are involved in congregational
leadership, in family activities, or (perhaps even more important) in our interactions
with strangers, we should remain mindful of the potentia impact of a small act of
kindness to another.
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