2008

The story of Joseph demonstrates a classic historic pattern of the Jew in Diaspora.

by Rabbi Ken Spiro

Had Jacob married Rachel as he had intended instead of being tricked into marrying Leah Joseph would have likely been his first-born son. But, although he was Jacobs 11th son, Joseph dominates the biblical narrative of the 12 brothers, and in his story, we see a great many historical patterns. To begin with, the Bible tells us that Joseph had a key position in the family as a result of his being the long-awaited first child of Jacobs beloved wife. His father seemed to show him a considerable amount of favoritism for one thing he bought him a special coat and this engendered jealousy from his brothers. However, it would be a mistake to view their behavior simplistically, as typical of a dysfunctional family. While these people without a doubt made

mistakes, spiritually they were on an incredibly high level. So we have to look deeply at what happened here. Joseph was having portentous dreams, and he interpreted those dreams. As we learn later in the Bible, he had a special gift for dream interpretation, and his dreams and interpretations were accurate and prophetic. He told his brothers, for example, that one day they would bow to him (which did indeed happen many years later). But, to his brothers, his dreams appeared to verge on megalomania. And since they knew that they were the family that was meant to build a nation to change the world, they probably thought that he was endangering the whole future of humanity. They knew the family history that in each generation there was one bad apple first Ishmael, then Esau. It is possible that they concluded that Joseph must be the bad one in this generation.1 They contemplated killing him, but instead they sold him into slavery. They took his fancy coat, smeared it with goats blood and presented it to Jacob as if Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Meanwhile, Joseph was taken by a caravan of the Ishmaelites to Egypt, where he became a slave in the household of a nobleman named Potiphar.

Ancient Egypt
At this juncture, we have to consider what Egypt was like at this time in history when it was the second of the two great civilizations in existence. (The first was the Mesopotamian civilization which we described in class #3.) Geographically, Egypt was then mostly desert except for the Nile River. The Nile is the greatest river in the world, and if it didnt flow through Egypt the country would be just sand. In ancient times only 3% of Egypt was inhabitable, arable land.
1

See Sforno on Genesis 37:18.

A huge desert is a great natural defensive barrier, making Egypt totally isolated and virtually impossible to invade. (The Hyksos, invaded it once, the Assyrians also, then finally Alexander the Great. But thats only three times in 3,000 years.) Egypt was the longest-surviving civilization in human history and it changed very little over the three millennia that it lasted. You think about how little Egypt changed in 3,000 years and how much the modern world has changed in a few 200 years; its mind-boggling how stable that society was and to a large extent this was due to geography. Although we dont have exact dates for the beginning of the Egyptian civilization, it is believed to have started in the early period of the Bronze Age, over 5,500 years ago. It was a very sophisticated culture, considering the feats of engineering that the pyramids represent. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, known as Cheops, is the largest ever built, covering 13 acres and reaching a height of 500 feet; it is composed of over 2 million blocks of stone weighing more than 5 million tons; and it was built by people who did not have any iron tools. (It was also the tallest manmade structure in the world for more than 4,000 years!) Even with all of our modern technology, we would have a hard time duplicating such a feat today. The Egyptians obviously had tremendously sophisticated stone cutting techniques and engineering knowledge, enabling them to move large blocks of stone. They had pulleys, they had levers, and they had a lot of muscle power. It is estimated that Cheops took 100,000 men and 30 years to build. Why spend so much effort on building a tomb? Because the Egyptians were also spiritually sophisticated. It was a dark spirituality but not to be lightly dismissed. They were preoccupied with death, which is why they perfected mummification, and their holy book was called the Book of the Dead. Hows that for a lively read? They believed that the Pharaoh was a living god, he had absolute power, and that the Pharaohs position in the after-life would affect the prosperity

of Egypt. The future of Egypt was dependent on the Pharaohs proper entry into the after-life. So you had to make a really good tomb for him, and you had to give him the right gifts, and you had to make sure that he got into the after-life correctly, otherwise things would go badly for everybody. And this is why it was a national project of the entire Egyptian people to create such extraordinary tombs for the Pharaohs. Of course, this very sophisticated culture was antithetical to Judaism as is humanly possible, because it practiced idolatry. They worshipped an estimated 2,000 different gods in ancient Egypt. Gods with hippo heads, and falcon heads, and crocodile heads. This was a civilization that was idolatrous to the extreme very religious and spiritual in its own sense, and yet very idolatrous at the same time. They were not primitive or superstitious or stupid; they understood spiritual power and were a very sophisticated people who truly believed in the power of idolatry.2 This is a crucial point to understand about ancient civilizations. In our modern arrogance we often tend to look at the ancients as less sophisticated or even primitive. We have science and modern technology. What did they have thousands of years ago? The answer is: plenty. Ancient civilizations knowledge of engineering, math, astronomy, medicine, etc. was often very impressive. Spiritually, the contrast is even more extreme. Jewish tradition and archaeology both show that the ancients were much more spiritually connected than we are to today. Thousands of years ago there was real spiritual power, both idolatrous and pure, that could be tapped into. Today, we have largely lost this connection. This explains why ancient civilizations put so much effort into religion and religious construction, and why the idolatry portrayed in the Bible had such a powerful allure.

The fact that these ancient, sophisticated nations were so into idolatry is proof that there was really some kind of

power in it. Yet one of the most fundamental principles of Judaism is that there is no other power besides God that idolatry is an illusion. So where did idolatry get its power from? The answer is God, Himself. The essence of being human is to use free will to make choices, and the ultimate choice a person makes is to live with the reality of God. To make this choice meaningful there have to be other real options. God put real power into idolatry to enable humanity to exercise its free will in this most-meaningful of decisions.

Jewish tradition teaches that ancient Egypt, besides being a place of idolatry, was also a place of immorality a very licentious place.3 So to throw young Joseph into this environment was bad news. Very bad news.

Mrs. Potiphar
Separated from the monotheistic influence of his family at an early age (he was 17 when sold as a slave), Joseph had a further major disadvantage for a licentious society he was very handsome. And his masters wife, Mrs. Potiphar, found him very attractive. Besides that, Joseph had a lot going for him he was very smart and hardworking, and he rose from his position as lowly teenage servant to head of Potiphars household. This is the classic historic pattern of the Jews in the Diaspora which will be repeated over and over again for thousands of years they arrive impoverished in a foreign land, deal with a bad situation, work hard and very rapidly rise to the top. Now Potiphars wife was not happy that Joseph refused her advances. Eventually, she picked a time when everyone was out of the house attending a national celebration, and she tried to rip his clothes off. He ran away. Outraged, she screamed rape. Mr. Potiphar came home, and though he clearly did not believe her or else Joseph would have been executed on the spot, nevertheless to appease his wife, he had Joseph thrown into a dungeon.4 From head servant, Joseph wound up on the bottom again. This again is a model for the Jews in the Diaspora. They come into a country, they rise, they fall and have to start at the bottom somewhere else. Once in prison, Joseph rose quickly to become the head prisoner. (Even as a prisoner you cant keep a Jew down.) And this is where he encountered

3 4

See Rashi on Numbers 18:3. See Ibn Ezra and Ramban on Genesis 39:19-20.

the Pharaohs wine steward and the Pharaohs baker who had offended their master and been thrown into the same dungeon as Joseph. And it just so happened that both men had dreams. Now, as we know, Joseph was the master dream interpreter, and therefore, not surprisingly, he interpreted their dreams. He told the wine steward that the Pharaoh would reinstate him into his position, and he told the baker that he was going to lose his head. And thats exactly what happened. When the wine steward was being released from prison, Joseph asked him to put in a good word to Pharaoh, in the hope it would facilitate his own release. But the wine steward forgot all about him, and Josephs had to sit in prison for another two years. Even in this little detail there is a pattern for the future. Historically Jews have not been able to count on the non-Jewish world for help. It is the rare gentile who has come forward to help the Jews in their time of need.5

Pharaohs Dreams
Then the Pharaoh himself had a couple of disturbing dreams. He dreamt of seven fat cows coming out of the Nile and being devoured by seven thin cows. And then he dreamt of seven fat sheaves of wheat being devoured by seven thin sheaves of wheat. These dreams were real nightmares, and the Pharaoh was very disturbed. So, he assembled all his magicians and his soothsayers and his astrologers and demanded an explanation, but none of them could figure out what the dreams were about. And then, suddenly, the wine steward piped up, I remember, there was a Jewish kid in prison who interprets dreams...

Planted around Israels national Holocaust memorial -- Yad VaShem -- are approximately six-thousand trees. These trees are known as The Forest of the Righteous Gentiles. The trees were planted in recognition of non-Jews who helped Jews during the Holocaust, often at great personal risk. To date Yad VaShem has a compiled a list of approximately 21,000 people listed as Righteous Among the Nations. As beautiful as this is, it is also sad. 200s of millions of people lived in Europe during the Holocaust, yet only a fraction lifted a finger to offer assistance.

This proved to be the ultimate Jewish success story. Joseph was taken out of prison, given a shower and a shave, and brought before the Pharaoh. When he heard the dreams, Joseph told the Pharaoh: Theres going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. What should I do? asked the Pharaoh. And Joseph instructed, Youd better stockpile all the grain in Egypt so that when the famine hits, youll have what to eat. Joseph then outlined an entire plan to prepare for the famine. Impressed, the Pharaoh said, You thought of it, you do it. And this is how Joseph, at age 30, became the viceroy of Egypt for all practical purposes the most powerful man in the whole land in terms of infrastructure of Egypt, then most powerful empire in existence. Hows that for promotion from prisoner to viceroy. Here, too, we see important patterns for the future. Throughout history, when the Jewish people rise, this rise can be very dramatic. And the situation they find themselves in, for better or for worse, can change very rapidly.6 Joseph married Osnat, the daughter of Potiphar and had two sons, Menashe and Ephraim. To this day, observant Jews use Josephs sons names when they bless their male children every Friday night. Girls receive a blessing that they should be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah the great matriarchs of the Bible. One would assume that boys would receive the blessing that they should be like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the great patriarchs, but instead they are told they should be like Ephraim and Menashe. Why? First, unlike all the previous brothers in the Bible Cain and Abel, Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and even Joseph and his brothers they loved each other and there was no jealousy between them. As we travel through Jewish history, we will see that a significant weakness of the Jewish people is sinat hinam the causeless hatred of one Jew for another. This hatred has been one of the driving forces behind the disunity
See Sforno on Genesis 41:18. Examples of very dramatic changes for the worse can be seen in the expulsion edict of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and the Nuremberg Laws in Germany in 1935.
6

in the Jewish world until today; it is a flaw that has haunted the Jewish people throughout history. Its primary source is rooted in the rivalry and jealousy that constantly plagues the Jewish people. Ephraim and Menashe stand as a model for the unconditional love essential for Jewish unity and the success of the Jewish people.7 There is another extremely important lesson we have to learn from Josephs sons. Throughout history Jews have been rich and poor, free and enslaved, tolerated and persecuted, and it seems clear that it is much easier for Jews to remain Jews when things are bad. Its not the poor persecuted Jews that assimilate, but the comfortable, accepted ones. And more Jews have probably disappeared through assimilation than through persecution. This remains one of the great challenges of Jewish history how to stay Jewish when things are good. Ephraim and Menashe had the inner spiritual strength essential for Jewish continuity. These kids grew up as sons of the viceroy, they could have become totally assimilated, spoiled, Egyptian brats, yet its very clear that they grew up completely loyal to their family mission in an incredibly hostile environment. Once Joseph became viceroy the stage was set for his early dreams to come true, when he saw his brothers bowing before him. And this is indeed what happened next.

It is precisely for this reason that I am a huge advocate for all Jews, religious, secular or anywhere in between, to learn

the laws of lashon hara -- correct speech. The pen is mightier than the sword and the damage wrought by slander is incalculable. Correct speech is not just for Jews -- it lies at the foundation of all civil society.