Vayeshev/He Returned - Shabbat 11/27/10
Repeating his parents’ mistakes, Jacob favors Joseph over his other sons and gives him a colored tunic. Joseph has recurring dreams – which he readily shares - of his family bowing to him. If all that weren’t bad enough, Joseph is also a tattle-tale. The jealous brothers plot against Joseph and sell him into Egyptian slavery, where he serves Pharaoh’s adviser, Potiphar.
Repeating his parents’ mistakes, Jacob favors Joseph over his other sons and gives him a colored tunic. Joseph has recurring dreams – which he readily shares - of his family bowing to him. If all that weren’t bad enough, Joseph is also a tattle-tale. The jealous brothers plot against Joseph and sell him into Egyptian slavery, where he serves Pharaoh’s adviser, Potiphar.
The Torah takes a break* in the narrative to tell the story of Judah--one of the brothers--and Tamar (this is that chapter they skip in Hebrew School!). Judah chooses Tamar as a wife for his eldest son, but his son dies prematurely before having children. As per the custom, Judah’s second son then marries Tamar, but he dies also. Instead of marrying off Tamar to his third son, Judah tells her to wait. Many years go by as she is unable to start a family and is barred from marrying someone else. Finally, when Judah’s own wife passes away Tamar seizes the chance to achieve justice for herself. Dressed like a prostitute, she seduces Judah and conceives. When Judah hears that Tamar has become pregnant, he calls for her execution; but Tamar presents the items that he himself paid her with, and Judah realizes he has wronged her.
Meanwhile, Joseph impresses his master in Egypt – and his master’s wife, as well. When Joseph refuses her advances, Potiphar’s wife retaliates by accusing him of assault. Joseph is imprisoned and interprets the dreams of his fellow prisoners while in jail.
Among the colorful cast of characters in Vayeshev, perhaps the most significant is the one with no name. When Joseph cannot find his brothers at the beginning of the portion and gets lost in the fields, an anonymous man sees him wandering and helpfully points him in the right direction. The result is a chain of events that leads Joseph and eventually Jacob’s whole family to Egypt, a prelude to the Israelites’ redemption and encounter with God at Sinai. The powerful lesson this nameless character teaches is that we never know how the smallest deed can affect others. Performing acts of chesed (kindness) can have profound and far-reaching effects; indeed, they may even change the course of history. May we merit to change the world through our actions - one deed at a time.
* In our Continuing Education class we discussed whether this story was indeed a "break" from the Joseph narrative, or whether it was an integral part of the story, using different lenses of reading and interpreting the text. See here for the source sheet! https://sites.google.com/site/tassourcesheets/source-sheets/TorahthroughMultipleLenses.JudahandTamar.doc?attredirects=0&d=1
* In our Continuing Education class we discussed whether this story was indeed a "break" from the Joseph narrative, or whether it was an integral part of the story, using different lenses of reading and interpreting the text. See here for the source sheet! https://sites.google.com/site/tassourcesheets/source-sheets/TorahthroughMultipleLenses.JudahandTamar.doc?attredirects=0&d=1
