Jacob’s beloved son Joseph committed some inexplicable acts, raising many questions, such as whether we consider him a good man.
- Many Jews call Joseph Yosef Hatzadik, meaning “Joseph the righteous one.” Is this accurate? A minority of “pious” people apply terms like “holy” and “righteous” to people and items when the majority feel otherwise. We do not find monikers for Moses the righteous, King David, or Rashi, but we find it with the mystical book Zohar called “The Holy Zohar” and the mystic Ari as “The Holy Ari.” It reminds us of Shakespeare’s statement in Hamlet, “The Lady doth protest too much methinks.” He is saying that the overemphasis shows what is said is untrue.
- Why did Jacob love Joseph so much and with such enthusiasm that he made his other sons jealous? Among much else, he gave Joseph a coat that he wore and caused envy whenever his brothers saw it. Was it because he loved Joseph’s mother more than Leah and his two concubines? Didn’t Joseph provoke even more jealousy by telling his father and brothers that he dreamed he would reign over his brothers? Was he thoughtless?
- Did not all of Joseph’s dreams and interpretation of dreams not transpire precisely as he predicted? While true, this should be no problem since Sigmund Freud stressed that “every” dream is meaningful, no matter how nonsensical it or some of it seems or how little of it we remember; in fact, Freud stresses that most dreams contain wrong elements. He taught that even if in dreams things go wrong, are impossible, contain matters we know are incorrect, or do not make sense, dreams should not be taken at face value as if thoughts were a fulfillment of wishes.
- What was Joseph’s wish? If it was to be the ruler over his family, where did he get this idea? Was it from the way his father treated him? Is Jacob to blame for Joseph’s behavior? Was he thinking of ruling over the world? Did this affect his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams? Did he think that giving an explanation that Pharaoh liked would prompt Pharaoh into telling him to take care of it?
- Does the Bible not hint that Joseph decided to give in and have sex with his master’s wife but stopped at the last moment? He visited the wife of his overseer when he knew that she was alone at home. Rabbis in midrashim accept this view and suggest that he abandoned the sex only when he had a vision of his father.
- When Joseph ran from his overseer’s wife, he hurriedly left his coat. Does this coat remind us of the one his father gave him? Does it hint that he abandoned his dad’s teachings until the last moment?
- Is it ironic that Josephin Hebrew means “more” and “add to” since it is arguable that this was Joseph’s goal?
- Why did Joseph not notify his father for some twenty years that he was still alive? This is especially troubling since there were seven years of plenty in Egypt when Joseph served as second to Pharaoh, and it would have been easy for him to contact his family. Is there a relationship between the twenty years Jacob was absent from his parents when he was with Laban and Joseph’s stay in Egypt? Rabbis in midrashim thought so. Shouldn’t we explain the rabbinical view as a parable told to teach a lesson rather than as a fact? God certainly did not control Joseph and stop him from telling his father that he was alive because God wanted to punish Jacob for staying away from his parents for twenty years. This notion would depict God as being cruel.
- Does the prediction of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine relate to the ubiquitous usage of the number seven well over a hundred times in scripture, including the Shabbat?
- Why did Joseph persuade his father and family to come to Egypt and abandon the land God had promised Abraham’s descendants? It was not because Jacob’s family worried that the famine in Canaan would continue indefinitely. Should we consider Jacob and his family’s decision to settle in Egypt until they died a failure to acknowledge God’s view that Jews should live in Israel?
- Why did Joseph live only 110 years, ten years less than Moses did? And why, although he was a younger son, did his death come before the deaths of his brothers? Was it a punishment?
- Why was he the only son of Jacob who did not want burial in Egypt and requested his brothers to arrange his burial in Canaan? Why did the brothers and their families not care about burial in Israel? What does this tell us about many Jews today preferring to be buried in Israel?
- Why bury Joseph in Shechem and not the Cave of Machpelah? What does this tell us about the Cave of Machpelah and burial generally?
Professor Yoel Bin-Nun suggests that Yoseph thought his father and brothers had plotted together to get rid of him, and only when they confronted him about Binyamin did he realize his father was innocent.
I am familiar with this view by Rabbi Bin-Nun. I am a fan of him. He is very bright. I read all of his books. His idea why Joseph did not consult his father makes sense.
Thanks for sending it to me.
Israel
Dear Rabbi Israel Drazin ! Please allow me one more thought: No, Joseph did not have unnatural powers. However, there are interpretations in the Talmud that suggest his actions were guided by divine influence to set certain events in motion for future generations. For instance, when he gave Benjamin five portions of food and five garments, this was seen as a symbolic act influencing the future for Mordechai, who would later wear five royal garments. Such interpretations suggest that Joseph’s actions were part of a divine plan, rather than being a result of his own unnatural powers. Best: stephen
Again, Stephen. You may be right. Wiser people than me had these ideas. But I do not think God works in this way. Although I know nothing about God, I think God lets the world work through the laws of nature that God created or formed.
I agree with you. I would only add that I understand the word holy means distinct, different than other things. The Shabbat is holy as you said only when it is distinct from other days of the week and observed properly. The Bible is holy as you said only when it is treated differently from other books and its lessons followed.
I think Joseph had some good points and some bad. He should have informed Jacob of his whereabouts earlier. Why did he wait for twenty years? He was aware that Jacob loved him most of all his children. Wouldn’t it please his father to know that he was alive, and ruler of Egypt only second to Pharaoh?
I like your idea that whenever people are overemphasizing an item such as the Zohar, it is untrue. Many pious people felt they had to apply the term “holy” to Zohar, calling it “The Holy Zohar” or “The Holy Ari” because the authenticity was disputed. We agree that the overemphasis shows that what is said is untrue. I am convinced that the Zohar is a pious forgery.
However, some Christians call the Bible “The Holy Bible.” Is this another case of overemphasizing? I don’t think so. Maimonides and Spinoza felt that nothing is inherently holy. Holiness does not exist in anything. An item is made holy or, “virtuous” in Greek when it is used properly–or fulfilling the telos for which the item was created. For example, a watch is virtuous if it tells the time properly; a horse is virtuous if it properly pulls a cart. Thus the Bible is only holy and its words Divine so long as it stirs men to devotion to God: but if its teachings are totally neglected or ignored, it becomes nothing but paper and ink. So while the case does not apply to the Bible it does to the Zohar.
Dear Rabbi Israel Drazin ! From a Jewish perspective, Joseph is considered a righteous man, despite the questionable actions noted in the context. The actions and decisions made by Joseph can be seen in different perspectives according to various interpretations in the Jewish tradition. For instance, his preferential treatment of his brother Benjamin can be seen as a way to manipulate the future for Mordechai rather than repeating the same mistake their father Jacob made. Other actions can be seen as part of the divine plan leading to his eventual rise to power in Egypt. Therefore, while certain actions may be questionable when viewed in isolation, within the broader context of his life and the narratives around it, Joseph is regarded as a good man.
Best.: stephen
I agree. Many Jews see positive things about Joseph. And they may be right.
I do not go along with the idea that Joseph had the unnatural power to do things that would affect the future Of Jewry. But I agree that I may be wrong.