Miketz: Framed

Miketz: Framed

The parsha ends with a cliffhanger. The 11 brothers have left Egypt on their way back home to Canaan.But Joseph's (magical) chalice has been planted in Benjamin's sack. When they are stopped and searched ( ala Jacob leaving Lavan), they  say what  Jacob said to Lavan: let the thief be put to death! But the chalice is found in the sack of  Benjamin, the only remaining son of Rachel  (like mother, like son?)

The brothers, recalling their guilt for selling Joseph, ( and we) are confused by the justice of the situation. They are guilty of a previous crime for which they have not (yet) been punished.  Now they are on the threshold of reproducing that crime (selling [out] their brother), but now they will have to confront their father on this issue, and they have sworn that it would not happen..

 

 I have heard that many people in prison are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted, but actually deserve their sentence (and often worse) for other crimes that they got away with. Is this how divine retribution works? Forced into sin so that we pay for the transgressions we committed voluntarily?

 

[When the gemarrah (Shabbath 22a) talks about the Chanukah lights, it mentions the Joseph story.  It expounds on  Bereshith 37:24.  The pit into which the brothers threw Jacob was empty, it did not have water, he was not thrown into the pit to drown.  But the pit had snakes and scorpions. The brothers did not want to kill Jospeph, but it would be OK if he were envenomated. 

 

Usually Chanukah is an antidote to the coincident winter holidays of the Goyim.  Holidays in which Christians  might see a parallel perfidy, selling the brother to the dominant temporal power.   This year Chanukah is associated with the American winter holidays: Thanksgiving ( appropriate) and Black Friday ( not).]

When the brothers' beasts are taken by Joseph's servant, they fear that -   לְהִתְגֹּלֵל עָלֵינוּ

 

translated by JPS as he may seek occasion against us. But the word evokes the idea of gigul shevuah, the rolling oath.  When a person is forced to take an oath, he can then be forced to swear about anything, no matter how irrevelevant. 

כא  וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל-אָחִיו, אֲבָל אֲשֵׁמִים אֲנַחְנוּ עַל-אָחִינוּ, אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ צָרַת נַפְשׁוֹ בְּהִתְחַנְנוֹ אֵלֵינוּ, וְלֹא שָׁמָעְנוּ; עַל-כֵּן בָּאָה אֵלֵינוּ, הַצָּרָה הַזֹּאת. 21 And they said one to another: 'We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.' 

 

Brothers keepers, losers weepers.