Vayeshev:  Ruthless. 

This is a parsha of the fight for ascendancy. Who would rule? Who is the favorite?What rights are conferred by acts that are declared emancipatory?¹

Jacob has conferred a uniquely privileged position of  leadership upon Joseph, marked by the coat of many colors.  When Joseph relates his dreams, the envy and hatred precede the information. Joseph tells his brothers that he had a dream, and they already hate him more.  When they hear the content of his dreams of  subjugation,  the hatred, that was already present, is justified. The hatred of envy precedes the rational justification.  When Cain killed Abel, he just wanted to talk with him..

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר קַ֖יִן אֶל־הֶ֣בֶל אָחִ֑יו וַֽיְהִי֙ בִּהְיוֹתָ֣ם בַּשָּׂדֶ֔ה וַיָּ֥קָם קַ֛יִן אֶל־הֶ֥בֶל אָחִ֖יו וַיַּהַרְגֵֽהוּ׃

Cain said to his brother Abel … and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him.

The kindness was gone, talk could not dissuade the murder of Hevel, nor the abuse of Joseph. 

Joseph was thrown into a pit.  The pit is a character  in the parsha.  Jacob talks about descending to the pit of death in mourning.  After his sale as a slave to the Egyptian executioner, Joseph descends to the pit of prison because of the false accusation of his master's wife. 

Two years ago I visited the pit that was at the crux of my parent's survival.  The remnant of a hole in the ground, the hiding place my parents used to escape their pursuers.  Like the Joseph story, it was their alternative to death. 

What does it mean to live in a pit?  It means something akin to be being buried alive.  The insects and rodents see the person as a source of food that has invaded their space, fair game.  The moisture and the dirt are part of the integration of the body into a circumstance below human dignity, acceptable only because of the lack of alternatives. Cold. darkness, dirt, rodents, insects, pain and itch are the new normal.  The supporters and the sustainers agree that the pit is the best alternative, under the circumstances.  Now the coat is  the many colors of filth. 

The pit cannot be forgotten. Its memory forever colors the sweet purification of  the ascent.  

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1 see reports on Marc Lamont Hill ^↩