Torah Study Blog

This week we begin the Joseph narrative. At 13 chapters, Joseph’s story is the longest and most coherent narrative in the Torah. Joseph was the 11^th son of our patriarch Jacob, and the first-born son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel.

Let’s start with a very quick summary of the Joseph story: Because he was a child of Rachel, Jacob favored Joseph over all his brothers and his brothers were jealous. In addition to being the “pet” child, Joseph had an ability to interpret dreams, which made him a bit of a know-it-all. Joseph’s brothers were annoyed by Joseph’s smugness and they considered killing him, however it was decided that it would be better to sell Joseph into slavery. The Ishmaelites bought Joseph and sold him in Egypt to be a slave to “Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward.” (Genesis 37:36)

Potiphar took a liking to Joseph and Joseph did well in the household. Apparently, Potiphar’s wife liked Joseph, too! Potiphar’s wife sexually harassed Joseph and he ran away from her. In a fit of vindictiveness, the wife told Potiphar that she was attacked by Joseph and Potiphar had Joseph thrown in jail.

While in jail, Joseph was able to use his gift of interpreting dreams for Pharaoh’s chief cup bearer, who had also been thrown in jail when he offended Pharaoh in some way. The chief cup bearer, back on duty for Pharaoh after his release from jail, remembered Joseph when Pharaoh needed a dream interpreted. Joseph was released from jail and went to work for Pharaoh.

Joseph rose in stature in the Egyptian royal house and became a very important person in Egypt. There is more to the story, but that is enough to get us started on our Torah Study session today.

In 586 BCE the Babylonians invaded Judah and expelled the leaders of the community. Many went to Babylon, but some when to Egypt. A cache of documents from the 5^th century BCE has been found in Elephantine in Egypt, which attests to a thriving Jewish community in the area. The story of Joseph contains a lot of Egyptian realia which has led some scholars to conclude that the Joseph story may have been a contribution from the Jewish community at Elephantine.

In our English translation, as was noted above, Potiphar is said to be a “courtier.” But a better translation from the Hebrew is “eunuch.” The same word is translated in the Book of Esther as eunuch, so it is not as if the translators were unaware of the proper usage. A eunuch is a male who has been castrated so that less testosterone is produced, and these people were thought to be more reliable servants in a royal household.

Given that Potiphar was a eunuch, there may be good reason that Potiphar’s wife assaulted Joseph. It is also noted in the Torah that “Joseph was well built and handsome” (Genesis 39:6) so perhaps she just had the hots for him. Whatever the reason, Rabbi Jaech remarked upon the resonance this story has during our current #MeToo movement.

The Joseph story has struck a chord with people and has been retold many times in other traditions. Rabbi Jaech pointed out to us that, in our Torah, Potiphar’s wife is a very one-dimensional character. She has no name and she simply serves as a vehicle to throw Joseph into jail where he will meet the cup bearer and eventually come to live in Pharaoh’s household. Next week we will look at some of the stories from those other traditions

Rabbi Jaech finished with an observation that was shared with her many years ago: Our tradition says that the Jewish people came from our patriarchs Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. The tradition goes on to say that Jacob had twelve sons, who originated the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Around 922 BCE, the tribes divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. In the Northern Kingdom, the House of Joseph made up the dominant group. In the 8^th century BCE, the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom of Judah remained and that is why we are called Jews, and not Joes!

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter