Vayeshev

Do not go gentle into that good night, Rage, rage against the dying of the light - Dylan Thomas The Rabbis learned: When Adam saw the days getting shorter and shorter, he said, 'woe is me, perhaps it is because I sinned that the world is becoming dark, and will return to chaos and disorder, and this is the death sentence that was decreed upon me from heaven'. He went and sat and fasted and prayed for eight days. When he saw the winter solstice arrive, and the days began getting longer and longer, he said, 'it is just the way of the world'. He went and made an eight-day holiday. - Tractate Avodah Zara (Idol Worship), 8a The Rabbis learned: The Mitzvah of Chanukah is the light, the person, and his home. - Tractate Shabbat, 22a Rav Kahana said: Rav Natan bar Minyumi taught in the name of Rabbi Tanchum: The Chanukah light which was placed higher than twenty cubits is unacceptable... - Tractate Shabbat, 22a,b '...Is Unacceptable' - Because the eye can not see it. - Rashi's explanation The above halacha, about the permissible height of the Chanukah lights, is only one of many laws pertaining to the visibility of the Chanukah Menorah. Strangely, and famously, this one is followed in the Talmud by another lesson, about the pit into which Joseph's brothers threw him, taught by the same exact Sages: "And Rav Kahana said: Rav Natan bar Minyumi taught in the name of Rabbi Tanchum: What is meant by the verse [from this week's parsha, Vayeshev] 'and the pit was empty, there was no water in it'? From the fact that it says 'and the pit was empty' , don't I already know that 'there was no water in it'? But, rather, what does it come to tell us? Water wasn't in it, but snakes and scorpions were in it."  READ MORE »

Over the last few weeks, many of the stories in the Torah have centered around lies - Yaakov lying to his father Yitzchak in order to steal from him the blessing he intends to give to his brother, Esav. Lavan lying, in turn, to Yaakov, and giving him Leah in marriage rather than Yaakov's beloved Rachel. Two of Yaakov's sons, Shimon and Levi, lying to the people of Shechem about their intention to allow Shechem to marry their sister Dinah after he raped her, and actually tricking and killing them all. This week, we begin the long story of Joseph and his brothers, and it, too, is full of lies. When the brothers throw Joseph into a pit, and he is then sold to merchants who take him to Egypt, they lie to their father, pretending not to know what happened to the missing boy, and disingenuously hypothesize that perhaps he was killed by a wild animal. Next week, Joseph will lie to his brothers, when they come to Egypt seeking food during a famine, by not revealing himself to them as their brother. The climactic end of the Joseph story comes when the truth is finally told; the brothers admit, to Joseph, the crime they committed against him years earlier, and Joseph reveals himself to them as their wronged, but forgiving, brother.  READ MORE »

This week, we begin the story of Joseph and his brothers. The story begins with what looks like an obvious error in parenting on the part of Jacob - now named Israel - the father of at least 13 children. "And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, for he was the child of his old age, and he made for him a striped coat." What happens next is to be expected - "And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him." We all know how it turns out. The brothers decide to kill the hated Joseph, but, in the end, due to the lobbying of some of the brothers, they sell him to a caravan of traders, and he ends up as a slave, in Egypt. Jacob's love for Joseph, and its consequences, is similar to something we have seen before in Genesis. It was Isaac's love for Esav, as opposed to Jacob, which seems to have led to the rivalry and hatred between the twin brothers. Jacob's love for one of his wives, Rachel, as opposed to his other wife, Leah, was at the root of years of marital discord and rivalry. And, here again, it is an act of love which sets into motion the horrible act of brothers selling their brother into slavery. It would seem that the Bible, while privileging and celebrating the emotion of love, and recognizing it as a powerful and central motivating force, also sees it as having the power to divide, to disrupt, to lead to hate. The Torah seems to be warning us of the destructive power that love can have, and how careful we therefore must be in expressing our love.  READ MORE »