Miketz: Joseph's Loyalty

Miketz: Joseph's Loyalty

 

Joseph is the exemplar of dual loyalty. He is loyal to Egypt and to his Israelite heritage.  I do not underestimate his loyalty to Egypt. He ultimately  enslaves his brothers!

 אֲשֶׁר יִמָּצֵא אִתּוֹ מֵעֲבָדֶיךָ וָמֵת וְגַם-אֲנַחְנוּ נִהְיֶה לַאדֹנִי לַעֲבָדִים.  י וַיֹּאמֶר גַּם-עַתָּה כְדִבְרֵיכֶם כֶּן-הוּא  אֲשֶׁר יִמָּצֵא אִתּוֹ יִהְיֶה-לִּי עָבֶד וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ נְקִיִּם. 

This is certainly before Jews became lawyers! The sons of Jacob give themselves away as slaves.

 

There are situations in which slavery is the best one can do.  It can save a person form starving.  A few years ago, a Holocaust survivor told me that he checked himself into a concentration camp to keep from starving!

 

The Ramban looks at these verses as representing different theories of collective responsibility.  Who was the thief? were they in a conspiracy?

 

But the offer of enslavement seems independent of guilt and depends only upon the discovery of the stolen chalice.  Does the subsequent Pharaoh ( who does not know Joseph, but may have a record of the previous deal) foreclose on the offer?

 

The story also has a great similarity to  Rachel's  (Benjamin's mother's) theft of the Trophim from Lavan ( the local potentate).  Perhaps Rachel's

other son ( Joseph) modelled his prank on that prior story.

 

Miketz: Fritz Haber

Miketz: Fritz Haber

 

Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream leads to a massive grain storage project.  There may be an element of self fulfillment in this prophecy.  The constant working of, presumably, all the land ( leaving none fallow, not even in the seventh year) may have led to the lands depletion and the consequent poor yield, resulting in the ensuing famine.  Thus, there is a connection between the  Joseph story and the tradition of the Sabbatical year, possibly instituted to prevent such crises.  Note also the relationship between the word for seven (sheva) and that for satiety ( sova), an ambiguity that is highlighted in Onkelos. 

 

Amassing the grain was not the only problem.  Preserving it  from decay, insects, rodents and other animals was also a major problem.  The science that the Egyptians are most noted for is embalming -a process that preserves the dead organic matter from decay.  The embalming process deals with many of the same problems as preserving grain.  Thus, presumably Joseph used Egyptian science for the great grain project.

 

IN moder time, the problem of the depletion of the land was solved by Fritz Haber.  His Haber process ( a method to chemically attach nitrogen to hydrogen) led to the production of synthetic fertilizers, allowing the land to worked continually and not left fallow.  His laboratory also produced Zyklon B. 

from Wikepedia article on Fritz Haber: During the 1920s, scientists working at his institute developed the cyanide gas formulation Zyklon B, which was used as an insecticide, especially as a fumigant in grain stores, and also later, after he left the program, in the Nazi extermination camps.^[4] 

 

Was Fritz Haber the anti-Joseph?

Vayeshev: Gd's plan

In Vayshev, the human characters are pawns in Gd's grand plan. Nothing can stop Joseph from getting to his brothers. He is lost in the fields - an Ish ( man, angel) directs him. His father sends him despite knowing that his brothers hate him - and that the hatred of a brother can be murderous ( Eisav) Imagine the guilt that comfounded Yaakov's mourning for Yoseph! When Jacob tries to protect his family from destruction by Esau, the most protected of all, behind everyone else, is Joseph

This is the unfolding of the interaction between between Jacob and Esau in the previous generation. Each brother feared the dominance of the other. Here, Joseph is designated the favorite by his father by the gift of the coat; and then proceeds to declare his destiny to be king through his dreams. The reaction that Jacob feared from Esau happens to Joseph; his brothers want to kill Joseph so that he will not rule over them. Yet Yaakov sends Joseph into the mouth if the lion ( Judah) ( poom aryivatha).

Gd's plan does not let the brothers kill Yoseph. The plan to kill him is deflected and Yoseph is sold to his Ismaelite/ Midianite cousins. This establishes the sons of Israel as people who sell their kin! A people from whom slaves can be obtained.( cf Africa in the 17th century). Does the slave mentality begin with Avraham when Gd tells him that his descendants will be slaves?
The remaining brothers sell Joseph to Ishmaelites, the decedents of the cast off son ( Call me Ishmael). The chosen son is relegated to the role of the outcast, just as Abraham had expelled his first born. Joseph is then resold to the decedents of Abraham's concubine ( Midianites and Midanites). Abraham re-enacts Noach: one descendent is the slave to another.

Gd makes no mistakes; a mistake is often an act of Gd.