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.