TORAH PORTION
for:
When Joseph Became
An Instrument Of God
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RABBI RICHARD HERTZ
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his week's sedra.
begins the reading of
the fabulous Joseph
story and occupies the rest of
the book of Genesis.
Jacob, the patriarch, now
has faded into the
background, though he con-
tinues to have an important
part in the unfolding of the
Joseph story. This sedra
serves as a prologue and deals
with Joseph as a teenager.
Nothing is related of his
childhood. But by the age of
17 Joseph has begun to tend
his father's sheep.
The Joseph story is by far
the longest and most com-
plete narrative in Genesis. It
is also a secular one with the
miraculous or supernatural
element conspicuously ab-
sent. Even God is scarcely
mentioned. Joseph never
becomes the religious figure
of an Abraham, Isaac or
Jacob.
Even though the Joseph
story is secular, there is a
sense of God's guiding hand
in directing Joseph and in-
spiring him. The name of God
comes to Joseph's lips at
critical moments in his life.
And the dramatic conclusion
of the narrative, "God has
sent me ahead of you to en-
sure your survival on Earth
and to save your lives in ex-
traordinary deliverance,
showed it was not you who
sent me here, but God."
Joseph, the brash teenager,
full of youthful conceit and
enjoying his father's
preference, is given to dreams
that make him the object of
his brother's envy. His
brothers fear the dreams are
self-fulfilling prophecy.
Joseph was not above being a
tale bearer. He brought back
bad reports to his father
about what his brothers were
doing in the fields.
Joseph also had a dream
that he insisted on telling his
brothers: How the sun, moon
and 11 stars all bowed down
to him. His brothers hated
him for such overbearing
conduct.
On one occasion Jacob in-
structed Joseph to search out
his brothers in the field and
report back on their welfare.
When the brothers saw
Joseph from a distance, they
hated him so intensely that
they wanted to kill him.
Rueben, however, suggested it
Richard Hertz is rabbi
emeritus of Temple Beth El.
would be better to throw him
in the nearby pit, secretly
hoping later to save Joseph
and bring him back home to
Jacob.
The brothers grabbed Jo-
seph and stripped him of his
coat of many colors which his
father, Jacob, had given him
as a sign of special love, and
threw him into a pit. That
robe had aroused the jealous-
ly of the brothers. It was a
sign of how their father
favored Joseph.
Once they had thrown him
into the pit, Joseph's brothers
went off and enjoyed a meal,
indifferent to their brother's
anguished pleas.
Meanwhile, a caravan of
Ishmaelites from Gilead pass-
ed by on its way to Egypt.
Vayeshev:
Genesis 37:1-40:23,
Amos 2:6-3:8.
Judah suggested selling
Joseph to the travelers for 20
pieces of silver. Reuben, who
had left momentarily, came
back and discovered what had
happened. He went to his
brothers and cried out, "The
boy is gone! Now what am I to
do?"
Judah said, "What do we
gain from killing him?"
So, the brothers sold Joseph
to the traveling caravan.
Then they slaughtered a kid,
dipped the tunic in blood and
went back to Jacob, their
father, saying, "We found this.
Please examine it. Is this
your son's tunic or not?"
Jacob recognized the coat of
many colors. "My son's tunic!
A savage beast must have
devoured him. Joseph was
torn by a beast."
Joseph was taken down to
Egypt and sold to Potiphar, a
courtier and chief steward in
Pharaoh's household. The
spoiled lad of 17, utterly alone
in a foreign land, Joseph now
matures and acquires great
strength of character. He is
given the opportunity to
develop strong administrative
talents and wins the favor of
his master until Potiphar's
wife finds him alluring.
With all the drama of a
Hollywood movie or an after-
noon soap opera, Potiphar's
wife attempts to seduce
Joseph. When she approaches
him, he with righteous in-
dignation, tells her, "Look,
my master has put
everything he owns in my
hands. How could I do this