Reflections from Rabbi Ellis

Vayeshev is the ninth Parsha in the Beresheit, the first book of the Torah. The title of our Parsha means to settle, it refers to Yakov who, the Parsha tells us, settles in the land of where his forefathers lived. Yakov’s role in our Parsha is passive, the narrative by and large takes leave of him here. Yakov decides to settle in the land as opposed to settling the land. In doing so he stops being a subject of activity and becomes an object, someone that life happens to.

 The subject of this week’s Parsha are Yakov’s sons, the twelve young men that will form the nation of Israel. Our Parsha primarily focuses on two sons Yehuda and Yosef. Yehuda, while not the first born, is the de facto leader of the sons of Yakov. Yosef is the first born of Yakov’s favorite wife, while he insists that he is the natural leader of his brothers, the only people that seem to like him are those in positions of authority. There is a family crisis in our Parsha and in the end Joseph goes down to Egypt as a slave and Jehuda leaves his family in disgrace. The text then traces the misadventures of the brothers with foreign women. It sounds like the plot from a film I would have watched in high school, but our story is not a comedy.

Both Yehuda and Yosef face temptation. Yehuda gives in to his desires and hires a prostitute, while Yosef resists the advances of a married woman. Yehuda ends up with a wife and twin boy while Yosef ends up alone in a dungeon. While things do eventually get better for Yosef, see next week’s Parsha, at the end of our Parsha it would be hard for it to be any worse for him.

By the time that Yehuda sleeps with Tamar, the prostitute, he has already hit rock bottom. He left his family, married a non-Jew and two of his three sons were struck down by G!d for their immoral behavior. Going to a prostitute was just the natural next step. While it is clear from the text that this was his first time doing such a thing, it was not out of character with who he had let himself become. He lived in a debased world with no potential for holiness, so he performed a debased act bereft of holiness.

No matter where Yosef went he ended up as the boss. It was natural for him, at least this is what he told his brothers. When Yosef was sold as a slave to the house Potiphar he soon ran the whole house. Everyone saw that he was blessed by G!d and so too whatever he touched. Yosef wore his blessed status for all to see.

He was proud to make himself into an example for all to follow. Thus, when entered the bedroom of Potiphar’s wife he had already degraded himself and the G!d in whose name he called, regardless of what happened next. While it was good that at the last minute he resisted her seduction, still he had already given in to his own seduction. Yosef was so good at convincing people that he was better than everyone else that he even believed it himself.

It was wrong for Yehuda to buy sex and sleep with a woman that was not his wife, and it was right for Yosef to not sleep with a married woman. The immediate outcome of their actions however was based on their own judgment of their actions. Yehuda’s sin was in line with his character at the time and was not so hard to repair. Yosef’s sin was in putting himself in a situation that was in complete contradiction with the character that he always projected. The greatest betrayal we can commit is when we fail to live up to the standards we set for ourselves.

Shabbat Shalom!

Yehoshua