Portion 9 Va-Yeishev Genesis 37:1-40:23
Judah and his brothers sell Joseph into slavery
Joseph squeals on his brothers and is appointed overseer by his father. The coat with long sleeves that his father gives him indicates class distinction. It would be difficult for him to perform the manual labor that his brothers do in such a getup. Joseph sticks his high position in the face of his brothers by recounting his dreams of domination to them. He even recounts such a dream to his father, which shows the same desire to transgress the boundaries between heaven and earth and dominate over his father and brothers that has been a recurrent theme since Ham’s attempt to dominate his brothers by displacing his father Noah.
Joseph’s brothers neglect their pasturing duties and head towards the city of Dotham. They are probably less motivated to work hard since, given family history and the dreams that Joseph recounted, they have good reason to presume that Joseph, perhaps with the help of their father, will conspire to steal their birthrights and blessings.
Joseph’s brothers see him spying on them and Like Cain’s murder of Abel, conspire to kill him because of his favored status. However Rueben intervenes, and planning to rescue him later, convinces his brothers to cast him in a pit instead of directly murdering him. They strip him of his overseer’s garb, symbolically stripping him of overseer status. But the fact that they are not drawing blood themselves does not make the sin any less severe. They are still guilty of the sin of Cain, of playing God and taking vengeance into their own hands. Rueben is also guilty of deception because he did not openly work for reconciliation. Could it be that several of Rueben’s brothers, perhaps a majority, were contemplating similar thoughts to rescue their brother but none dared to speak up? How much evil is done by people who rationalize their participation in immoral structures, convinced that they are waiting for the right moment or waiting for when they will have achieved enough power, to make things right? But that moment is always pushed off into the future as they continue to benefit from the privileges of their positions today. How many votes for the Iraq war were made from this kind of reasoning?
Upon seeing Ishmaelite traders, Judah comes up with the idea of profiting by selling Joseph into slavery. He even rationalizes it because it is better than leaving his brother to die of starvation. Institutions and people are often able to justify their wicked actions by comparing them favorably to actions that are even more wicked. I once heard an Israeli consulate spokesman in Chicago justify Israel’s bombing of a village on the grounds that it was a restrained response compared to the U.S fire bombing of German cities and the atomic bombing of Japan during WWII. Joseph will later make precisely the same rationalization as his brother Judah when he will rationalize his participation in the enslavement of the Egyptian population to Pharaoh because it is better than leaving the population to die of starvation.
Just as Jacob deceived his father Isaac by impersonating Isaac’s favorite son Esau by means of a goat, Joseph’s brothers now deceive their father Jacob by impersonating Jacob’s favorite son Joseph by means of a goat.
Jacob indirectly accuses his sons and himself when he says “a savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn (from his family) by a beast.” The beast is both Joseph’s brothers’ desire to take vengeance into their own hands and their father’s impositions of inequitable social relations onto his family that engendered jealousy and resentment.
Judah and Tamar
Judah marries a Canaanite. Given the racist attitudes of the Israelites, as demonstrated by their rape of Shechem, how did Judah treat his wife, who isn’t even deserving of a name?
Although it is not stated, it is probably assumed that Tamar (an ancestor of King David) is Canaanite as well. Could it be that Er is extremely abusive to Tamar and that is why God takes his life?
The social tradition in this story is believed to predate Levirate marriage requirements in Deuteronomy. So we are somewhat free to guess what the operative rules are on the basis of context and social relations of other societies.
In certain African polygamous societies, a young man’s first wife can be the wife of a deceased older brother. In this marriage the woman is not expected to have intimate relations with the brother and is effectively the leader of the household and gets to choose her husband’s other wives. If the older brother died before leaving heirs it is possible that the younger brother would have been required to provide them, but that sexual intimacy would not have been required of the wife afterwards.
Could it be that Onan, Shelah, and Judah object to the equality with Tamar that the obligations of marriage to the widow of a deceased relative would have required of them? Is this refusal to accept a woman as equal what God was displeased with Onan about?
Perhaps, under the social rules of the time, Judah was obliged to marry his son to Tamar or to marry Tamar himself. When Judah refuses the former, Tamar uses Judah’s lustfulness and disregard for women to trick him into the latter.
While Jacob impersonated his older brother, to appropriate higher status for himself, Tamar impersonates someone of lower status to achieve equality.
Judah, after selling his brother into slavery, is now required to accept marital equality with a Canaanite woman, whom he had previously treated like a slave.
Joseph the overseer
Joseph rapidly rises in the house of Potiphar, to overseer. A midrash says that Joseph was vain and was flirtatious with his master Potifar’s wife. This is consistent with Joseph’s dreams of domination and the sin of Ham, the primary way that Genesis has expressed this desire for domination. Again Joseph is sent into the pit (the dungeon) because of his overseer’s garb.
Joseph becomes the overseer of the other prisoners. Prisons are houses of scarcity. When one prisoner gains power over others, the temptation is very great to take advantage of one’s position to meet one’s dire needs at the expense of others. Could it be that the reason that the cupbearer forgets Joseph is that Joseph had fallen victim to these temptations and had not left a favorable impression on the cupbearer aside from his ability to interpret dreams?
Judah and his brothers sell Joseph into slavery
Joseph squeals on his brothers and is appointed overseer by his father. The coat with long sleeves that his father gives him indicates class distinction. It would be difficult for him to perform the manual labor that his brothers do in such a getup. Joseph sticks his high position in the face of his brothers by recounting his dreams of domination to them. He even recounts such a dream to his father, which shows the same desire to transgress the boundaries between heaven and earth and dominate over his father and brothers that has been a recurrent theme since Ham’s attempt to dominate his brothers by displacing his father Noah.
Joseph’s brothers neglect their pasturing duties and head towards the city of Dotham. They are probably less motivated to work hard since, given family history and the dreams that Joseph recounted, they have good reason to presume that Joseph, perhaps with the help of their father, will conspire to steal their birthrights and blessings.
Joseph’s brothers see him spying on them and Like Cain’s murder of Abel, conspire to kill him because of his favored status. However Rueben intervenes, and planning to rescue him later, convinces his brothers to cast him in a pit instead of directly murdering him. They strip him of his overseer’s garb, symbolically stripping him of overseer status. But the fact that they are not drawing blood themselves does not make the sin any less severe. They are still guilty of the sin of Cain, of playing God and taking vengeance into their own hands. Rueben is also guilty of deception because he did not openly work for reconciliation. Could it be that several of Rueben’s brothers, perhaps a majority, were contemplating similar thoughts to rescue their brother but none dared to speak up? How much evil is done by people who rationalize their participation in immoral structures, convinced that they are waiting for the right moment or waiting for when they will have achieved enough power, to make things right? But that moment is always pushed off into the future as they continue to benefit from the privileges of their positions today. How many votes for the Iraq war were made from this kind of reasoning?
Upon seeing Ishmaelite traders, Judah comes up with the idea of profiting by selling Joseph into slavery. He even rationalizes it because it is better than leaving his brother to die of starvation. Institutions and people are often able to justify their wicked actions by comparing them favorably to actions that are even more wicked. I once heard an Israeli consulate spokesman in Chicago justify Israel’s bombing of a village on the grounds that it was a restrained response compared to the U.S fire bombing of German cities and the atomic bombing of Japan during WWII. Joseph will later make precisely the same rationalization as his brother Judah when he will rationalize his participation in the enslavement of the Egyptian population to Pharaoh because it is better than leaving the population to die of starvation.
Just as Jacob deceived his father Isaac by impersonating Isaac’s favorite son Esau by means of a goat, Joseph’s brothers now deceive their father Jacob by impersonating Jacob’s favorite son Joseph by means of a goat.
Jacob indirectly accuses his sons and himself when he says “a savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn (from his family) by a beast.” The beast is both Joseph’s brothers’ desire to take vengeance into their own hands and their father’s impositions of inequitable social relations onto his family that engendered jealousy and resentment.
Judah and Tamar
Judah marries a Canaanite. Given the racist attitudes of the Israelites, as demonstrated by their rape of Shechem, how did Judah treat his wife, who isn’t even deserving of a name?
Although it is not stated, it is probably assumed that Tamar (an ancestor of King David) is Canaanite as well. Could it be that Er is extremely abusive to Tamar and that is why God takes his life?
The social tradition in this story is believed to predate Levirate marriage requirements in Deuteronomy. So we are somewhat free to guess what the operative rules are on the basis of context and social relations of other societies.
In certain African polygamous societies, a young man’s first wife can be the wife of a deceased older brother. In this marriage the woman is not expected to have intimate relations with the brother and is effectively the leader of the household and gets to choose her husband’s other wives. If the older brother died before leaving heirs it is possible that the younger brother would have been required to provide them, but that sexual intimacy would not have been required of the wife afterwards.
Could it be that Onan, Shelah, and Judah object to the equality with Tamar that the obligations of marriage to the widow of a deceased relative would have required of them? Is this refusal to accept a woman as equal what God was displeased with Onan about?
Perhaps, under the social rules of the time, Judah was obliged to marry his son to Tamar or to marry Tamar himself. When Judah refuses the former, Tamar uses Judah’s lustfulness and disregard for women to trick him into the latter.
While Jacob impersonated his older brother, to appropriate higher status for himself, Tamar impersonates someone of lower status to achieve equality.
Judah, after selling his brother into slavery, is now required to accept marital equality with a Canaanite woman, whom he had previously treated like a slave.
Joseph the overseer
Joseph rapidly rises in the house of Potiphar, to overseer. A midrash says that Joseph was vain and was flirtatious with his master Potifar’s wife. This is consistent with Joseph’s dreams of domination and the sin of Ham, the primary way that Genesis has expressed this desire for domination. Again Joseph is sent into the pit (the dungeon) because of his overseer’s garb.
Joseph becomes the overseer of the other prisoners. Prisons are houses of scarcity. When one prisoner gains power over others, the temptation is very great to take advantage of one’s position to meet one’s dire needs at the expense of others. Could it be that the reason that the cupbearer forgets Joseph is that Joseph had fallen victim to these temptations and had not left a favorable impression on the cupbearer aside from his ability to interpret dreams?
posted by ross at 6:21 PM
1 Comments:
What do you think, please, of Obadiah Shoher's interpretation of the story? (here: samsonblinded.org/blog/genesis-37.htm ) He takes the text literally to prove that the brothers played a practical joke on Yosef rather than intended to murder him or sell him into slavery. His argument seems fairly strong to me, but I'd like to hear other opinions.
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