People make mistakes, some more costly than others. In this week's sedra, parashat Vayeshev, we see perception and choices have consequences. Even more so, we see how those consequences are not always favorable. Therefore if Jacob did not make Joseph the c’tonet pasim, a coat of many colors, would his brothers have been as angry as they were or would things have turned out differently in the end? Answer: maybe, but who knows.
At the very beginning we read regarding the brothers that “Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father” (Gen. 37:2). In a Midrash (Gen. R. 84:7) we are told that has to do with their poor treatment of the animals, or as the Talmud teaches (Bava Batra 123a) maybe the teenage Joseph knew he had his fathers favor and took advantage of dad’s blind spot? Perhaps as Sfrono suggests it was about his brother's “professional competence,” which caused Jacob financial losses. The fact is we really do not know, although we do know the brothers were unhappy with Joseph, but also their father who they felt did not love them equally. Whatever the reason, the result: the brothers of Joseph sold him into slavery and misled their father.
On this Shabbat, the first Shabbat of Hanukkah, for the Haftarah we read Zechariah 2:14-4:7 as opposed to Amos 2:6-3:8. We read from Zachariah because at the very end it talks about the Lampstand, or Menorah in Jerusalem, which burns brightly to remind us that our Chanukiyot (Hanukkah Menorahs) should always burn bright as well. Amos is about the sins of Israel that speak to the judges who took bribes to sell the innocent (Rashi) reflecting on the sins of the brothers who would sell the innocent Joseph into slavery and lied to their father. In this Haftarah the prophet writes, “You alone have I singled out of all the families of the earth. That is why I will call you to account for all your iniquities.” Amos is saying that there are consequences for our wrongs. But revenge can be wrong as well.
Much later on when Joseph has the opportunity he chose not to be mad or get even for what his brothers did, a lesson with deep implications. In this parasha not once, but twice, we read that Joseph's brothers dislike him (Gen. 37:4 and Gen. 37:10). Here, the disconnect is plain: “they did not speak one thing with their mouth having another thing quite different in their hearts” (Rashi). So bad was their disdain for their brother that, וְלֹ֥א יָכְל֖וּ דַּבְּר֥וֹ לְשָׁלֹֽם, they could not even speak with (him) in peace. Once again we turn to Amos who wrote, “Can two walk together Without having met,” or how can they resolve their dispute if they cannot sit together? The brothers were hurt by the actions of their father that made them dislike Joseph. I wonder if Joseph knew that? I wonder how important the concept of forgiveness and family love was? I wonder if when he shared his dreams with his family that Joseph was able to assess the temperature of his brothers, unlike his father Jacob who failed to really know Esau’s when they met after 20 years?
Of course we are dominated and emotionally entangled with the Israel-Gaza war right now. Regarding this ongoing dispute I have questions that I also wonder about. I wonder how things might have been different today if the early Zionists included the Arabs from Palestine in conversations about their intent for the land instead of just the British? I wonder how things might have looked if all the Arab nations accepted the UN partition of Palestine as a two-state solution in 1947? I wonder how things might have turned out if the Arabs of Palestine did not reject a Jewish presence from the beginning and opened their arms to a Jewish state; wow can you imagine, two people living side by side in peace? Likewise, I wonder how things may be different if both sides can lay down their nationalist intentions and work together for a better world? Israel is doing what they must, they need to win this war and remove Hamas from the picture so both Jews and the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza can live in security that will allow the two to live side by side in peace. Maybe if Israel was allowed to win their wars in the past instead of having ceasefires pushed on them we might not have this problem today? Like Amos said “Can two walk together Without having met;” something that I just can't see happening until the desire to rid the world of Israel stops, which is the primary ambition of Hamas, so the Palestinians can have a place to call their own.
The consequences of the brothers destroyed their family, and you know it never quite worked itself out in the end, but that's another story for another parasha. If Israel cannot defeat Hamas, who will clearly not change, while at the same time the need for nationalism is stronger than a desire to live together, then I am afraid the consequences will be; same song, different verse. May the lights of this season be a reminder to never give up our child-like sense of wonder that believes miracles can still happen, therefore peace is attainable.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Chanukah Sameach,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
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