Although the name of the parshah refers to Jacob, the story is Joseph's.
Joseph is the firstborn son of Jacob's beloved and deceased wife, Rachel, and Jacob favors him above his brothers, giving him a beautiful coat. Joseph doesn't help his case-he tattles on his brothers to their father and tells them of his dreams which involve them bowing to him. Aside from his little brother Benjamin, he is the youngest, a mere 17 years old. His brothers are grown men with wives and families of their own. Reuben is the oldest; Judah will father the line of Hebrew kings; Levi's offspring will be the priests of the people-who is Joseph to say that they will bow to him? Joseph's brothers come to hate him. Even Jacob rebukes Joseph for the audacity of his dreams.
The ten eldest brothers have taken the flocks far afield and Jacob sends Joseph after them to check on them. When they see him coming, his brothers decide to kill him. But Reuben steps in. Knowing that his brothers will not agree to spare Joseph completely, he suggests that rather than kill the boy they throw him in a pit. Reuben's plan is to wait until the others have left, then rescue Joseph from the pit and return him to their father. Reuben exits the scene momentarily and in his absence the others sell Joseph to some passing merchants. Upon his return, discovering what has happened, he upbraids his brothers, asking what they are to tell their father. Reuben seems to be the only one to have considered the pain they will cause their father. The brothers decide to take Joseph's coat, tear it, and dip it in goat's blood. The present this to their father, and assuming Joseph has been killed by a wild animal, goes into a mourning that will last the next 22 years. He cannot be consoled.
Jacob deceived his own father using the skins of goats to cover his arms when he pretended to be Esauv. In return, he is also deceived by his children using goats-in this case the blood of goats.
Now the parshah takes a detour to follow Judah. It had been Judah's idea to sell Joseph to the merchants and now seeing the devastation their deceit has brought their father, the brothers blame Judah and turn against him. Judah leaves his family and goes off on his own. He marries and has three sons. He finds a wife for the first, a beautiful woman named Tamar. Tamar's new husband doesn't wish to spoil her beauty by getting her pregnant, so spills his seed. This violates the very first commandment in the Torah-be fruitful and multiply-and God causes him to die. Since they had no children, the next son marries Tamar, to have children with her in his brother's name. But he feels the same as his brother and commits the same crime-and gets the same punishment. The third son is still a child; Judah tells Tamar to return to her father's house and wait for the boy to grow up.
Time goes by and the boy becomes a man and Tamar realizes that she has not been called back to marry him. Perhaps Judah blames her for the death of his first two sons and doesn't want the same fate to befall his youngest. So Tamar finds out where Judah is going, and lies in wait for him at a crossroads, dressed as a prostitute. Judah doesn't recognize her and hires her services. He offers her a kid from his flock as payment, but must send for it. Tamar asks for a guarantee that he will pay and demands his ring, his staff, and his sash. This is a brazen request, but he agrees and goes on his way. Tamar returns to her father's house, and resumes her widow's clothing. Judah is unable to find her to give her payment and retrieve his property. He hushes up the affair in order to preserve his dignity.
Tamar has gotten pregnant from Judah and word gets back to him. Now, she's supposed to be living as a widow in her father's home and should not be getting pregnant. Judah is told and he orders her to be brought out and burned as a harlot. As they bring her out, she sends the ring, staff, and sash to Judah along with the message that the owner of the items is the father of her child. Tamar doesn't shame Judah by announcing this publicly. She knows that Judah might choose to not recognize his property, and then she will die. But she chooses this over publicly shaming him. Tamar is quite a woman.
Luckily, Judah recognizes his property and admits that she is telling the truth. Tamar is saved and later gives birth to twins.
An extremely good question is why does the Torah interrupt the dramatic story of Joseph to follow Judah down this less-than-flattering path? Why does the Torah do what Tamar wouldn't, and publicly shame Judah for all generations to come? The Torah doesn't waste a single word, and there is a good reason for including this story. From Judah will come the line of kings, including King David, and eventually the Mashiach himself. And this line of kings will be born from the union between Judah and Tamar. The Torah doesn't hide this embarrassing fact from us.
How are we supposed to feel about this? The Hebrew royal family, King David the writer of psalms, the Mashiach are descended from prostitution, near-incest, and deceit. How can we be proud of this? The fact that the Torah tells this story tells us that there are important lessons to be learned here. For one, it shows us that it doesn't matter where you come from-the offspring of the lowest union can become a king. You are not held back by the stories of your fathers. Your story is your own. We should be proud of this story, proud that our God judges each man on his own merits, that we believe anyone can overcome the circumstances of his birth to rise to greatness.
But the story should also keep us humble. No matter how great our greatest men were, they were still human, born of humans. They made mistakes and they sinned and they repented and the lived. We should never make the mistake of thinking a human being can ever be more than human. Humans make mistakes. We screw up royally. And God loves that about us.
Having covered David's ancestry, the Torah returns to the story of Joseph. Joseph is now in Egypt where he has been sold as a slave to Potiphar. Joseph is smart, handsome, charismatic, and most of all, competent and he rises quickly in the ranks of his master's house. Eventually he is running the house single handedly. Potiphar is delighted with him, and trusts him implicitly. Potiphar's wife is also delighted with him, but shows it a bit differently. She dogs Joseph constantly, trying to seduce him. He refuses out of respect for his master, and out of respect for himself. One day when he comes to work in the house, no one is home but Potiphar's wife and she redoubles her efforts to get him into bed. He refuses and runs away but not before she pulls his shirt off. Angry at his rejection, she shows the shirt to her husband, claiming that Joseph came to rape her but she screamed and he ran off, leaving his shirt. Potiphar has Joseph thrown in prison.
But even in prison, Joseph's abilities shine and he quickly becomes a favorite of the warden, even helping to run the prison. When two of the Pharaoh's servants displease him and are thrown in prison, they come to Joseph to tell him about their dreams. He interprets their dreams to mean that in three days time one of them will be reinstated in his place in Pharaoh's palace, but the other will be killed. His prediction comes true. Before the lucky servant leaves prison Joseph begs him to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf. The man agrees, but forgets and Joseph stays in prison another two years. Joseph should have been trusting in God alone, and prayed to be rescued; by asking a man to intervene on his behalf with a mortal king he misplaces his trust. If Joseph stays in prison, it will be because of God's wishes, not Pharaoh's.
Joseph grows up in this parshah. He starts out as an unlikable, spoiled child, alienating his brothers and flaunting his favored status. His intentions may be good but he sure doesn't understand subtlety-or anything, really. After his brothers turn on him and he is sold as a slave, and then after rising high is brought low again and sent to prison, it would not be surprising at all if he were bitter, selfish, self-serving. But Joseph never develops the mindset of a slave. He is an entrepreneur. He works hard and rises high. And he doesn't let it get to him-he could have Potiphar's wife in a moment (remember, he is still quite a young man. Raging hormones and all that) but he restrains himself. He respects his master, he respects himself. He no longer speaks of himself highly, but he acts in an admirable way. Joseph learns humility but without it destroying him. It's hard to like Joseph at the beginning of the parshah. By the end, you admire him.
And what of his brothers? All grown men, with children of their own, wouldn't they know to discount the childish pride of their little brother? These men will father the nation of Israel, they were holy men; how could they act in such an evil way? Was it the pain of their father having a favorite? Was it the rivalry between Rachel and Leah living on in their children? Perhaps Leah's sons felt that this was further disrespect to their mother-not only was her sister loved more, even her children were less favored than Rachel's. I've heard many, many explanations of this bit of Jewish history. Some speak more to the human, fallible side of the brothers. Some are much more wrapped up in divine inspiration and destiny. Some satisfy, some don't. I have always found this story distressing, no matter the explanation.
But everything happens for a reason. Jacob and his family must go down to Egypt. God sends Joseph first, to pave the way, and to draw them there. Without events unfolding the way they did, the next piece of Jewish history could not have unfolded.
