Vayeshev: the cloak of betrayal 

This weeks parsha is dominated by betrayal and clothing.  In Hebrew, where the vowels are not (necessarily) explicitly written,  the word beged means clothing and bagad  betrayal, both are bgd, the second, third and fourth letters of the alphabet, in order. 

Overt  betrayals: the brothers plotting against Joseph, Judah failing Tamar, the mastser's wife falsely accusing Joseph of attempted rape  stand out.  In each instance, an article of clothing is prominent.  The tunic of pasim ( multicolored coat) is prominent in the first Joseph story; Tamar's veil allows for her seduction of Judah, and Joseph's robe is the false evidence of his advances.  There are additional, less notorious, betrayals, as well. 

In the second verse: 

אֵ֣לֶּה ׀ תֹּלְד֣וֹת יַעֲקֹ֗ב יוֹסֵ֞ף בֶּן־שְׁבַֽע־עֶשְׂרֵ֤ה שָׁנָה֙ הָיָ֨ה רֹעֶ֤ה אֶת־אֶחָיו֙ בַּצֹּ֔אן וְה֣וּא נַ֗עַר אֶת־בְּנֵ֥י בִלְהָ֛ה וְאֶת־בְּנֵ֥י זִלְפָּ֖ה נְשֵׁ֣י אָבִ֑יו וַיָּבֵ֥א יוֹסֵ֛ף אֶת־דִּבָּתָ֥ם רָעָ֖ה אֶל־אֲבִיהֶֽם׃

This, then, is the line of Jacob:
At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father.

Adolescent Joseph trash talks his older half brothers to their father.  The text makes a point of the negative speech by unusual word  דִּבָּתָ֥ם . The usual word for "talk" or "matter" is דָּבָֽר, davar. This word is missing the רֹ r, ( a letter that translates as "head") and remains with two letters, both of which are in bagad, betrayal. Joseph was informing on his brothers, his speech was causing trouble for them.  He could have dressed his speech better.  Does this behavior justify a revenge of selling him into servitude? When Joseph is a slave, his word will not stand against his master's ( or his master's wife's). 

Within the sale of Joseph there are deceptions. Reuben wants to  secretly save Joseph to re-establish his relationship with Jacob, his father, after experimenting with Bilha. He will cross all the other brothers to become the hero. Alas, the brothers acted too quickly, perhaps like he had with Bilha. 

Judah sees the opportunity to profit from selling Joseph to the Ishmaelite - Midianites. Of course: sell the favored younger son of Jacob (himself the  son of the favored, younger Isaac)  to the descendants of the  spurned older son of Abraham, Ishmael. 

Judah then 

וַֽיְהִי֙ בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֔וא וַיֵּ֥רֶד יְהוּדָ֖ה מֵאֵ֣ת אֶחָ֑יו וַיֵּ֛ט עַד־אִ֥ישׁ עֲדֻלָּמִ֖י וּשְׁמ֥וֹ חִירָֽה׃ 

About that time Judah left his brothers and camped near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah.

He had enough of this treachery, including his own.  He settled down to have a family, but the sins of Er, his first son, and the selfishness of Onan, who had been designated to give Er's  widow a child, seemed to impede a destiny that would generate king David and his most impactful descendants. Judah's betrayal of Tamar, failing to provide her with the promised husband, brings her to heroically clothe herself in the vail and seduce Judah.  This  deception is nuanced, mostly positive. 

Judah's reaction to Tamar's unexpected pregnancy ( which he fathered) is a caricature of  male tyranny: burn her ( and the babies she is carrying) ! When confronted by the evidentiary personal items, he relents and accepts paternity.  Had he not soaked the distinctive tunic of Joseph in goat's  (גְּדִ֣י gedi, two letters from bgd, betray; he had wanted to cover his act of lust with the payment of a גְּדִ֣י, gedi,goat) blood? Being convinced is a an act of will. 

Joseph is sold to the Butcher (executioner) of  Egypt.  Somehow, he becomes a corporate entity.  His master is usually not singular, but pleural. Perhaps the Egyptian system was like the Chinese: everything is jointly owned with the Pharaoh; or perhaps the master sold shares. 

Joseph was a phenom. 

And when his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD lent success to everything he undertook,

Joseph was the archetype of the superlative slave, the individual who succeeds despite assigned social status. This myth helps perpetuate oppression by arguing that the exceptional can rise despite the shackles and uniforms that they wear.  The rare truth adorns the ugly, overwhelming injustice. 

Although Joseph did not succumb to the overtures of his master's wife, he did consider them, reflected in the cantillation of his refusal: the long, ambivalent shalsheleth. Maybe he enjoyed the refusals. 

Joseph is betrayed by a false interpretation of how he came to leave his robe in the hands of his master's wife. But the interaction implicates Joseph's ambivalence.  How did he get so close to her that she could unravel his toga? Did he not understand the purpose of  giving all the other servants the day off? 

Clothing is the origin of deception.  The first thing Adam and Eve do after they eat from the forbidden fruit is make clothing from leaves. They have become enlightened to the fact that their bodies can betray their feelings, and they must cover up to let their  intellect dominate. Every communication will now be clothed, and thus have a potential  element of betrayal

Jacob's demonstration of special affection for Joseph was also a betrayal... of Joseph as well as his brothers.  Jacob's brother Esau had been their father's favorite.  Jacob and his family had just survived a potentially calamitous  confrontation with that favored brother. Jacob knew what (overt) favoritism wrought. Did he do it on purpose?  The story continues to be revealed.