Authors: Elie Wiesel
“So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.” Rashi wonders why the verb is in the singular. Because he was alone. One after the other, the four hundred men who had been with him, deserted him.
As for Jacob, he comes out of the ordeal, arriving in Shechem “whole.” Rashi’s commentary: “whole in his healed body, whole in his wealth, and whole in his faith.” Odd: here Rashi does not mention his family.
• • •
Dina, Jacob’s only daughter, is raped by Prince Hamor’s son Shechem. Hamor tries to make up for the misdeed and proposes to the victim’s brothers and their father Jacob that the two youths marry. After a long discussion, Dina’s brothers suggest
be-mirmah
, with cunning (like Jacob with Isaac), that they could come to an arrangement providing all the men in the tribe get circumcised.
Once again, as in the first instance, Rashi translates the word as “wisdom or intelligence.”
On the third day after the operation, when the men opposite were most sore, Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, attack the city and kill all the males.
Like Jacob later, Rashi does not justify their act of revenge. He says: why does the text mention that they were Jacob’s sons? Because they were. But they behaved as though they were not: they did not seek his advice.
“And Jacob dwelt… in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old …” The proximity if not the continuity of these two verses arouses Rashi’s interest. Several commentaries. Let us cite two:
The aim of the text is to emphasize the great resemblance between Jacob and Joseph. First of all, physically.
But also in another way: they had the same destiny. One was hated, the other too. One had a brother who tried to kill him, the other too.
The text also aims to show that, at this stage of his life, Jacob wished to live peacefully and then the story of Joseph befell him. It is as though the Holy One, Blessed be He, had said: really, all these Righteous Men, is it not sufficient for them that they will have their share in the world to come, that they wish to live peacefully in this one too?
As though Rashi, here, wished to explain the suffering of Israel in exile….
“And he is a lad (or adolescent).”
Rashi’s commentary: Joseph behaves like an immature adolescent. He dresses his hair, touches up his eyes; he does everything to look handsome.
Rashi’s portrait of Joseph is not attractive. Admittedly he keeps company with the servant girls’ children, but he has no hesitation about undermining the existence of Leah’s children. He tells their father unpleasant things about them: that they eat meat carved out of the flesh of living animals, that they mistreat the servant girls’ children, call them slaves, and engage in all kinds of sexual acts.
He will be punished for these three things.
• • •
And the brothers, annoyed by Joseph’s grandiose dreams, decided to kill him: “and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”
Rashi: Rabbi Yitzhak said: the verse must be divided in half. The part dealing with the decision belongs to the brothers; the last part to the Holy Spirit. It is God who says; do what you wish, and we’ll see what will become of it.
Rather than kill him, on Judah’s advice, the brothers decide to sell Joseph into slavery.
(Rashi: Joseph will be sold several times: first to the Ishmaelites, who sold him to the Midianites, who in turn sold him to the Egyptians.)
The brothers kill a goat and dip Joseph’s beautiful coat in its blood. Seeing it, Jacob cries out: “It is my son’s coat; an evil beast hath devoured him.”
Rashi is surprised: why didn’t the Holy Spirit—on whom Jacob usually depended until then—reveal the truth to him? Because the brothers put a ban on anyone who would. Question: Isaac was still alive and he knew; why didn’t he put his son’s mind at rest? Because he said to himself: if God doesn’t reveal the truth to him, by what right can I? Consequence:
they each certainly had their reasons, but the unfortunate Jacob mourned for twenty-two long years.
“And all his sons and all his daughters (in the plural) rose up to comfort him.”
Rashi wonders: where do these daughters come from? (Jacob has only one, Dina!) He quotes Rabbi Yehuda: the founding father of each tribe had a twin sister. Rabbi Yehuda says: these daughters were the Canaanite women whom the sons had married—daughters that were really daughters-in-law.
“And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren.”
Rashi is surprised: why is the story of the selling of Joseph interrupted to tell a story that is unrelated to it: the affair of Judah and Tamar? The answer: the text teaches us that the brothers resented Judah for the advice he had given them; he really should just have told them to bring their brother back home.
Indeed, the Talmud also has a low opinion of Judah: depriving a man of his freedom is a serious transgression.
• • •
The story of the widow Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, is remarkable. As she sits by the wayside and her face is veiled, Judah mistakes her for a whore. He has no money on him, so he gives her his signet and bracelets as a pledge. Then she discovers she is pregnant. A public scandal: Judah’s daughter-in-law is guilty of adultery! She is sentenced to be burned. So she sends the signet and bracelets to her father-in-law and says: I am pregnant by their owner.
Rashi’s commentary: why didn’t she name him? To avoid humiliating him. Indeed, she was prepared to die in the flames rather than humiliate him. Hence the saying of our Sages: it is better to throw oneself into a furnace than shame someone in public.
And because Tamar behaved with so much dignity and modesty, some of her descendants will be kings of Israel.
“And Joseph was well favored …” in the home of Potiphar, the chief steward of Pharaoh, in which he was a slave.
Rashi: as he thought of himself as important and in power, he began to indulge in food and drink, and fixed his hair with care. So the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: your father is mourning and you strut about…. Fine, I’ll send a bear upon you.
The bear of desire, of instinct … Potiphar’s wife falls in love with him. The opportunity arises on the day when
everyone is at the fair except Potiphar’s wife and Joseph: she pretends to be unwell. And Joseph has work to do in the house.
Rashi cites a nice discussion between Rav and Shmuel. One says: he really had work. The other says: of course not, he was going to give in to his lust. He was about to … but suddenly his father’s face appeared before his eyes. This saved him.
Rejected by Joseph, she complained to her husband and accused the Jewish servant of trying to rape her. And her husband believed her? Yes, says Rashi, she told him about it while they were making love.
However, Potiphar does not disappear from the scene.
Several passages later, Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams has taken him from prison to the court of Pharaoh, where he is already enjoying quasi-absolute power when a certain Potipherah, priest of On, gives him his daughter Asenath in marriage. Rashi then identifies Potipherah as Potifar and says: he was given this new name because he became a eunuch for having tried, in turn, to seduce Joseph.
And what about his brothers in all this? And Jacob?
They are suffering. All the inhabitants of Canaan are suffering. A dreadful famine is devastating the land. The only place where people have food is in Egypt. Jacob knows what to do. The text says: “Joseph’s ten brethren went to buy corn in Egypt.”
Rashi’s commentary: why “Joseph’s brethren” and not “Jacob’s sons”? Because they had repented; they regretted having sold him. They are now determined to love him and buy him back for as much money as is asked of them.
They are arrested and brought before Joseph. He recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him: the last time they saw him he had no beard. Is it to punish them? He doesn’t reveal who he is. He accuses them of being spies. They protest: “we are all one man’s sons; we are true men.”
Rashi: though the brothers don’t know it, it is the Holy Spirit that is speaking through their lips: indeed, they have the same father.
They tell him the truth: we are twelve sons, “the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not.”
Rashi cites a Midrash: “And if you find him and are asked a large sum of money in order to free him, would you pay it? Yes, they said. And if you’re told that he’ll never be returned to you, what would you do? We came to kill or be killed, they said. Ah, didn’t I say so? You came to kill the people of this city, said Joseph. In fact, I have divined by my goblet that two of you destroyed the great city of Shechem.
He “took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.”
Rashi: why does the text say in front of his brothers? Because once they left, he was freed and given food and drink.
Joseph demands that they fetch their youngest brother, Benjamin. Jacob refuses to let him leave. Reuben insists: “Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee.”
Rashi: Jacob says, my eldest son is a fool. He tells me to slay his sons, but aren’t they also mine?
But the famine is severe, and Judah convinces Jacob to let them return to Egypt for more food. Once there, however, Joseph plays a trick on them and takes from them Benjamin, the other son of Rachel. The brothers beg Joseph to free their younger brother. Joseph finally felt pity for his brother, and he went alone to his chamber and wept.
Rashi pinpoints the moment of pity: Joseph questions Benjamin: do you have a brother by the same mother? I had one, said Benjamin, but I don’t know where he is. Do you have children? Yes, says Benjamin. I have sons. What are their names? Joseph asks. All their names are related to the name of my absent brother, says Benjamin. This is when Joseph feels tears coming to his eyes.
It all ends well. A moving reconciliation scene. Joseph sends off his brothers to bring back their father. He warns them: do not quarrel on the road.
For Rashi, thinking like a rabbi, this injunction not to quarrel means “do not discuss
halakhah
, Jewish law”—as if to say that to discuss Jewish law is to argue about it. But
then he prefers the simpler interpretation; Joseph is afraid that they’ll start blaming one another: it is you who maligned him … it was your idea to sell him … you who incited us to hate him …
“And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years.”
Rashi: At the end of his life Jacob wished to reveal to his children the end of exile, of all exile, but he could not.
“And Israel beheld Joseph’s sons, and said, Who are these?”
Rashi: he tried to bless them, but the
Shekhinah
, God’s feminine attribute, left him because Jeroboam and Achav (impious kings) will be born from Ephraim and Jehu and his sons from Menasseh.
Yet nonetheless he will bless them later: judge Gideon will be born from one and Joshua from the other.
In his farewell blessings, once again, Jacob tried to reveal to his children the secret of redemption. And once again the
Shekhinah
departed from him.
So he spoke of something else.
After Jacob’s funeral, the brothers say to Joseph: “Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto
Joseph, Forgive … the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin.” But this is not true. Jacob never said any such thing.
Rashi’s commentary: it was for the sake of peace that they didn’t tell the truth. Since then, the Talmud imposed this rule: one has the right to lie if it is for the sake of peace.
R
ashi believes, following all the Midrashic literature, that the people of Israel live and act at the center of the history of men and of nations. A feeling of superiority? No, of singularity.
Why does the city of Hebron hold a special place in the biblical geography? Its name is Kiryat Arba, the city of the four. Four couples have their graves there: Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, in other words the fathers and mothers of humanity.
God gave the prophets to Israel alone. This was Moses’s wish. He requested it of the Lord. Who granted his wish? Balaam? Balaam, says Rashi, was a visionary, not a prophet. “The
Shekhinah
depends on the prophets only thanks to Israel.” Why did the angel take a live coal and burn the lips of the great prophet Isaiah? Because he said too many unkind things about his people.
• • •
Why the choice of Israel? Is it because of the alliance with Abraham and God’s promise to him, to him and his descendants? Is it because of his faithfulness even during his trials? Is it because of the fact that the Lord offered the Torah to all the nations of the earth (including the children of Ishmael and Esau), but they all turned it down, except Israel? Rashi considers all these possibilities and actually includes them all.
God loves his people, says Rashi, citing, as always, Talmudic sources. His biblical commentaries, especially the Song of Songs, are bristling with this conviction, as are his commentaries on the Talmud.
God’s true suffering? It comes from seeing Israel and the
Shekhinah
in exile, which is the worst of trials. Though suffering is the consequence of sins committed against Him, He loves Israel in spite of everything. The God of Abraham vowed to never abandon his descendants; he vowed never to substitute Israel for another people, for the people of Israel are never entirely guilty even in their worst sins.
Example:
During the episode of the Golden Calf, the text says: “He (Aaron) received them (the golden earrings) at their hands, and … made it a molten calf: and they said: These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” Why “thy gods” and not “our gods”? Rashi quotes
the Midrash: we can deduce from this that a mixed multitude had left Egypt and gathered against Aaron. It is these people (and not Israel) who fashioned the golden calf and incited Israel to follow it.
In general, Rashi did everything he could to defend his people.
“God comes from the Sinai”: it is like a fiancé who goes to meet his chosen woman.