Miketz is read rarely, as it is almost always either Shabbat Chanukah, either the first or the second.
But this is one story that everyone knows: Mishpat Shlomo, The Judgment of Solomon:
Linear annotated translation of the Haftarah of Miketz
The Haftarah gives us insight into Yosef’s behavior in Parshat Miketz: Wise and Perceptive
Filed under Miketz, Sefer Breishit
To understand the Haftarah and what it teaches us about the Parsha, we need to step back a few verses. Earlier in the same chapter, we read about Shlomo’s prophetic dream, where God offers him to bless him with anything he needs. Instead of asking for power or wealth, he requests wisdom to judge his people. God approves of his request and grants it, using this phrasing:
הִנֵּה נָתַתִּי לְךָ לֵב חָכָם וְנָבוֹן אֲשֶׁר כָּמוֹךָ לֹא הָיָה לְפָנֶיךָ וְאַחֲרֶיךָ לֹא יָקוּם כָּמוֹךָ
…I will give you a wise and perceptive heart, the likes of which has never existed before you, and after you, will not occur again. (Melachim I 3:12)
The Haftarah of Miketz begins by describing his waking up from this experience and realizing that it is a dream.
וַיִּקַץ שְׁלֹמֹה וְהִנֵּה חֲלוֹם
Shlomo woke up, and it had been a dream. (Melachim I 3:15)
This is followed immediately by a story that demonstrates the wisdom and perceptiveness that he had been granted, the famous “Mishpat Shlomo” (Solomon’s Judgment). Two women, prostitutes sharing a home, come to the king for justice. The plaintiff claims that the defendant’s baby died in the night, and she switched the babies, claiming the live one as her own. The defendant denies it. Shlomo commands to bring a sword and cleave the baby in half. One of the women pleads to spare the child, and the other says, “Neither one of us will have it!” Shlomo declares the true mother of the child to be the one who was willing to give the baby up to save his life, and “the Judgment of Solomon” becomes a by-word forever after.
We are so familiar with this story that it is hard for us to imagine not knowing how it ends. But let us put ourselves for a moment in the court of the inexperienced young king. Imagine the reaction of the onlookers when he said, “Bring me a sword.” Imagine the shock when he said, in all seriousness, “Cut the child, and give half to one and half to the other,” as if it were a monetary dispute that can be resolved that way. They did not think that he was bluffing. They thought he was going to murder the child and claim that it was justice.
It was the stress of this shock that caused the women to drop their defenses and reveal their true feelings. Shlomo intentionally set up the circumstances for that shock and manipulated them into dropping their guard. This showcased the “wise and perceptive heart” that G-d had promised him in his dream.
The term “wise and perceptive” appears also in Parshat Miketz, as do dreams. Pharaoh dreams of the fat and skinny cows and fat and skinny sheaves, after which we are told:
וַיִּקַץ פַרְעֹה וְהִנֵּה חֲלוֹם
Pharaoh woke up, and it had been a dream (Bereishit 41: 7)
As a result of that dream, Pharaoh meets Yosef, who advises him:
וְעַתָּה יֵרֶא פַרְעֹה אִישׁ נָבוֹן וְחָכָם וִישִׁיתֵהוּ עַל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
Now, let Pharaoh see to finding a man who is perceptive and wise and place him over the Land of Egypt. (Bereishit 41:33)
The dream leads Pharaoh to appoint Yosef to be the “wise and perceptive man” overseeing all of Egypt.
Surprisingly, the Parsha spends very few verses showing how Yosef, in his wisdom, overhauls the economy of Egypt and saves its population from starvation. In contrast, it spends entire chapters describing how Yosef manipulates his brothers, causing them stress and shock. From accusing them of beings spies, to jailing Shimon, from demanding that they return with Binyamin, to replacing their money in their bags, from seating them in age order, to accusing Binyamin of having stolen the goblet, it looks like Yosef is toying with them, and it is not clear why.
One of the solutions offered by the commentaries is that Yosef felt it necessary to make his original dream, the one with all his brothers bowing down to him, come to pass, which could only happen if all eleven of his brothers did so, including Binyamin. Other commentaries question this idea. Even if there is value in making dreams come true, could that justify what appears to be cruelty on Yosef’s part?
We can learn more from looking at Yosef’s reaction to Pharaoh’s dream. When Yosef interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, his first thought was how to ameliorate its ill effects. He did not worry about making it come to pass, he worried about fixing the trouble it foretold. If that was his concern for Pharaoh’s dream, it was probably his concern for his own dream, too. Yosef searched for a way to ameliorate it, to take out the potential ill will, jealousy, and hatred that comes from having to bow down to a member of your own family. When he saw his dream coming to pass in part, he did not think, “Oh, one brother is missing, how do I get him to come?” He thought, “Oh, they will never be able to look me – or each other – in the eye, how do I get us to be a family that can survive living in exile in Egypt?”
This where the “wisdom and perception” comes in. Like Shlomo, Yosef created situations where his brothers’ defenses came down, and their true feelings were revealed.
In that process, they expressed their remorse at what they had done to Yosef:
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל אָחִיו אֲבָל אֲשֵׁמִים אֲנַחְנוּ עַל אָחִינוּ אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ צָרַת נַפְשׁוֹ בְּהִתְחַנְנוֹ אֵלֵינוּ וְלֹא שָׁמָעְנוּ עַל כֵּן בָּאָה אֵלֵינוּ הַצָּרָה הַזֹּאת:
They said to each other, “But we are guilty toward our brother, that we saw his anguish when pleading with us, and we did not listen; that is why this trouble has come upon us.” (Bereishit 42:21)
They took responsibility for Binyamin:
אָנֹכִי אֶעֶרְבֶנּוּ מִיָּדִי תְּבַקְשֶׁנּוּ
I will vouch for him; from my hand you will demand him … (Bereishit 43:9)
They were willing to put themselves in danger rather than leave Binyamin alone in Egypt:
הִנֶּנּוּ עֲבָדִים לַאדֹנִי
… we will all be your slaves.. (44:16)
And, finally, they expressed their concern for their father’s reaction to the loss of his favored son:
כִּי אֵיךְ אֶעֱלֶה אֶל אָבִי וְהַנַּעַר אֵינֶנּוּ
“How can I go up to my father, and the boy is missing?!” (34:44)
Did Yosef know, when he first saw them, that they had this in them? Most likely, they themselves did not know. Until it was expressed, through words and actions, their sense of family unity and mutual responsibility had been uncertain. Yosef manipulated them, shocked and stressed them, so that what they revealed would be their innermost truth. It was not easy for any of them, and caused much grief and many tears, but ultimately, they bowed down to Yosef, fulfilling the dream of his youth, without rancor and with hope for reconciliation.
It is this achievement that showed most clearly that Yosef, like Shlomo after him, was a “man who is perceptive and wise.”
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my parents, Peter & Nella Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ואמי מורתי חנה בת זעליג ז”ל
Filed under Connections, Miketz
The Haftarah of VaYigash begins with the reconciliation of Yehudah and Yosef:
טז) וְאַתָּה בֶן אָדָם קַח לְךָ עֵץ אֶחָד וּכְתֹב עָלָיו לִיהוּדָה וְלִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל חֲבֵרָיו,
וּלְקַח עֵץ אֶחָד וּכְתוֹב עָלָיו לְיוֹסֵף עֵץ אֶפְרַיִם וְכָל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל חֲבֵרָיו:
יז) וְקָרַב אֹתָם אֶחָד אֶל אֶחָד לְךָ לְעֵץ אֶחָד וְהָיוּ לַאֲחָדִים בְּיָדֶךָ:
16) You, son of man, take one branch, and write on it “For Yehudah, and for the children of Israel, his partners” and take one branch, and write on it “For Yosef, the branch of Ephraim, and for all the children of Israel, his partners.”
17) Bring them together into one branch, and they will become one in your hand. (Yehezkel 37)
Yechezkel describes the reunification of the two political entities of the Jewish People during the time of the First Temple: the northern kingdom, Israel, also known as Ephraim or Yosef, and the southern kingdom, called Yehudah. According to the Haftarah, this reunification will be one of the first steps of Redemption; ultimately, the Jewish People will all be one nation with one country. While this might sound obvious, in truth, it is far from trivial.
The Haftarah is not just talking about uniting two different countries called “Yosef” and “Yehudah”; but rather, untiting two different fundamental prototypes within the Jewish People, represented by the terms “Yosef” and “Yehudah”.
Near the end of Parshat VaYigash, Yaakov sends Yehudah to Egypt to prepare for the family’s migration. The Midrash states the following:
ואת יהודה שלח לפניו זש”ה המשל ופחד עמו עושה שלום במרומיו (איוב כה) …א”ר שמעון כל הרקיע של מים והמלאכים של אש ומשרתיו אש לוהט ואין המים מכבין את האש ולא האש שורף את המים יהודה ויוסף זה ארי וזה שור אתמול מתנגחין זה עם זה ועכשיו הוא משלחו אצלו שנאמר ואת יהודה שלח לפניו הוי עושה שלום במרומיו.
And Yehudah he sent before him: It says, “Oseh Shalom Bimromav – He makes peace in His Heavens” (Job 25)… R’ Shimon said: the sky is made of water and the angels are made of fire, but the water does not put out the fire, and the fire does not burn up the water. Yehudah and Yosef: one is a lion, the other is an ox. Yesterday, they were attacking each other, and now Yaakov sends one to the other, as it says, “And Yehudah he sent”?! Thus: “He makes peace in His Heavens.” (Midrash Tanhuma VaYigash 6)
According to this Midrash, Yehudah and Yosef are polar opposites; getting them to cooperate is so difficult, it is comparable to the peace that G-d makes in the Heavens between fire and water.
Not only are Yosef and Yehudah opposites, they are even hostile, “attacking each other.” According to another Midrash, at the beginning of this Parsha, when Yehudah approached Yosef, he was prepared to use violence to achieve his goal of rescuing Binyamin:
ד”א ויגש אליו יהודה…ר’ יהודה אומר הגשה למלחמה, היך מד”א (שמואל ב י) ויגש יואב והעם אשר עמו למלחמה
Yehudah approached him: …R’ Yehudah says, “approach” is for war, as it says, “Yoav and his army approached for war”. (Breishit Rabbah VaYigash 93)
What makes Yehudah and Yosef so different, why is it so difficult to get them together, and why does the Haftarah list their unification as the very first step in the stages of Redemption?
Yosef is driven, from the very beginning, to provide for others. He excels at making the most of all possible resources at his disposal. He speaks all languages, can participate in any culture, can function at the highest levels in government, in economics, and in the sciences. His goal is the betterment of the Jewish People, and of mankind as a whole.
Yehudah, in contrast, represents the inward-facing aspect of the Jewish People. For him, family comes first, and he will do anything to protect them. In his zeal to do so, he sometimes makes mistakes (erring on who is considered “family” and who is not), but he acknowledges these mistakes, takes responsibility and learns from them. King David, Yehudah’s most illustrious descendant, is the ultimate expression of this trait – his definition of “family” included all of Israel, and his life’s goal was to gather them all under his protection. Yehudah has a strong spiritual side: it was King David who composed Tehillim (Psalms), which reflect our unique and personal connection with G-d.
Yosef, then, represents our ability to participate in the world at large; Yehudah represents our unique spiritual contribution as the Jewish People.
These two very different mindsets have been competing within the Jewish People throughout our history. When we work toward the betterment of humanity, as Jews are driven to do, should our contributions be material, or spiritual? Are we a nation like others, or are we a family that needs to protect itself from outside forces? Do we face outward, like Yosef, or inward, like Yehudah? There are practical ramifications to these questions, and over the centuries, it has caused actual conflict. The two sides fight like an ox and a lion, and get along like fire and water.
The Haftarah tells us that in order to bring about Redemption, Yosef and Yehudah need to come together and become one. We need Yosef’s talents and abilities, and we also need Yehudah’s emphasis on our uniqueness. We need to be cosmopolitan and universal, contributing to the world, and we also need to be insular and inward-facing, devoting ourselves to our own connection with G-d.
May G-d, who makes peace in the Heavens between fire and water, also make peace between the different attributes and strengths within the Jewish People, so that we can all flourish and “become one in His hand.”
For more on the differences between Yosef and Yehudah, and a discussion of Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben David, see R’ Kook’s eulogy of Theodore Herzl. I’m not aware of an English translation, but for partial translation and more analysis based on R’ Kook, see http://ravkooktorah.org/VAYISHLACH-69.htm, and https://www.google.co.il/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yehatzvi.org%2Fshiurim%2Fparasha%2FMiketz%2520%26%2520Chanuka%2520-%2520Ambivalent%2520Joseph_12_06.rtf&ei=S6ugUumYDaSp4AS0iIDgDQ&usg=AFQjCNG9MrALsT4u6ztcMwuF38VTf9odDg&sig2=rUpwpMKOa5vb4cb5hkbmmA&bvm=bv.57155469,d.bGE
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל
Filed under Connections, Sefer Breishit, VaYigash
The Haftarah of VaYeishev is from Amos, one of the smaller books in Trei Asar.
Often, VaYeishev comes out on Chanukah, and the special Chanukah Haftarah is read instead.
Linear Annotated Translation of the Haftarah of VaYeishev
The main connection to the Parsha is based on the first verse of the Haftarah, which Chazal interpret as referring to the sale of Yosef.
Filed under Sefer Breishit, VaYeishev
The Midrash in Yalkut Shimoni Vayeishev 142 says:
וימכרו את יוסף לישמעאלים בעשרים כסף כל אחד ואחד מהם נטל שני כספים לקנות מנעלים לרגליהם שנאמר על מכרם בכסף צדיק ואביון בעבור נעלים
“They sold Yosef to the Yishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver”. Each one of them took two pieces, to buy shoes for their feet, as it says (Amos 2), “For selling out the righteous for money, a pauper for a pair of shoes.”
According to this Midrash, Yosef’s brothers sold him for two pieces of silver each, and used the money to buy themselves shoes. The Midrash bases this on a verse in the Haftarah, which talks about the sin of selling a “Tzaddik,” a righteous person, for a pair of shoes. In our tradition, “the Tzaddik” is Yosef’s title; just as we say “Avraham Avinu” and “Moshe Rabbeinu”, Yosef is “Yosef HaTzaddik”. Therefore, “selling a Tzaddik” refers to the sale of Yosef.
However, this is very difficult to explain in the context of the Haftarah itself, which is not actually about Yosef and does not make any other references to his story. It also doesn’t make sense for the prophet Amos, who was addressing the Kingdom of Israel, to blame them, Yosef’s descendants, for the sale of Yosef. Therefore, the Midrash is not suggesting that Amos was actually referring to the sale of Yosef when he delivered his prophecy. Rather, the Midrash wants us to take what the Haftarah says about selling a Tzaddik for money, and use it to better understand the sale of Yosef.
Let us see what the Haftarah can tell us about that very difficult and painful topic.
In the original context of the Haftarah, the Jewish People are accused of having judges that were so corrupt and so easily bribed that they would take the price of a pair of shoes as their payoff. What kind of a person would falsely convict an innocent man for a pair of shoes?
In general, everybody has a price. Any human being can be made to betray his principles if the temptation is high enough, or if the cost is too great. But when a person accepts an inexpensive everyday object as a bribe, then perhaps the betrayal, too, is a minor everyday occurrence. If so, it can no longer even be called betrayal; it is simply a reflection of his actual value system. To such a person, money is far more important than justice.
According to the Midrash, this was also true for Yosef’s brothers. They were obsessed with money, and it was more important to them than anything else. We can see this from their reaction to Yosef’s first dream:
וְהִנֵּה אֲנַחְנו ּמְאַלְּמִים אֲלֻמִּים בְּתוֹךְ הַשָּׂדֶה וְהִנֵּה קָמָה אֲלֻמָּתִי וְגַם נִצָּבָה וְהִנֵּה תְסֻבֶּינָה אֲלֻמֹּתֵיכֶם וַתִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶיןָ לַאֲלֻמָּתִי.
Here we are making sheaves in the field; and my sheaf rose up and stood and your sheaves surrounded it and bowed down to my sheaf. (Bereishit 37:7)
In this dream, Yosef sees sheaves of grain that represent himself and his brothers. However, the family business was not farming; it was herding. As a lifestyle, herding is very different from agriculture. A shepherd is free to go wherever he wants and depends on no man. In contrast, a farmer is land-bound, and dependent on the civilization around him. Shepherds bow to no one; farmers bow to everyone. What infuriated Yosef’s brothers about the dream was not only that they would bow down to their arrogant younger brother. It was the implication that they would abandon their life style, become farmers, and as a result of that be forced to bow down to their arrogant younger brother. The dream implies the destruction of their livelihood, their “parnassa”. It is as much about money as it is about power.
The issue of money is mentioned explicitly when they decide to get rid of Yosef’s threat to their pocketbooks by getting rid of Yosef himself. As they contemplate how best to do so, Yehudah makes the following suggestion:
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוּדָה אֶל אֶחָיו מַה בֶּצַע כִּי נַהֲרֹג אֶת אָחִינוּ וְכִסִּינוּ אֶת דָּמוֹ,לְכוּ וְנִמְכְּרֶנּוּ לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִים.
Yehudah said to his brothers, “Where is the profit in killing our brother, and covering his blood? Let us sell him to the Yishmaelites.” (Bereishit 37:26)
When Yehudah says “where is the profit?” he shows very clearly what his priorities are. There must always be a profit; it doesn’t matter how much, as long as there’s a profit. So they sell him into slavery and almost certain death from malnutrition and abuse, for the grand sum of twenty pieces of silver, split ten ways.
As the Midrash points out, by accepting a minimal price for their brother’s life, they show that their obsession with money warped their sense of right and wrong. Ironically, it also blinded them to Yosef’s potential for contributing to the family’s financial well-being.
The brothers were sure that Yosef was ignorant of the power of money. However, the Torah goes out of its way to point out the key role that money played in Yosef’s life. It tells us many times that everything Yosef touched would prosper. He had a talent for managing resources; he could administer any economic system, and create new ones when needed. Ultimately, “Yosef collected all the money that was in Egypt” (Bereishit 47:14). What did he do with it? What was its importance to Yosef? The Torah tells us: “Yosef provided for his father and his brothers, food for the entire family” (Bereishit 47:12).
To Yosef, money was simply an effective tool to ensure that people have what they need. He never gave it power over himself, and never allowed it to cloud his sense of right and wrong. Throughout the many stories that the Torah records of Yosef, we see that he never compromised his principles under any circumstances. That is why he is called Yosef HaTzaddik.
To the brothers, who sold Yosef HaTzaddik for just enough silver to buy a pair of shoes, money had become a compulsion, a value in and of itself, an end that justified any means.
When they asked, “where is the profit”, they showed that they had neither principle nor profit.
Copyright © Kira Sirote
In memory of my father, Peter Rozenberg, z”l
לעילוי נשמת אבי מורי פנחס בן נתן נטע ז”ל
Filed under Connections, Sefer Breishit, VaYeishev
