Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
Yaakov sends Yosef to check on his brothers, and someone finds him wandering in the fields and asks Yosef what he’s looking for.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֶת אַחַי אָנֹכִי מְבַקֵּשׁ הַגִּידָה נָּא לִי אֵיפֹה הֵם רֹעִים׃
וַיֹּאמֶר הָאִישׁ נָסְעוּ מִזֶּה כִּי שָׁמַעְתִּי אֹמְרִים נֵלְכָה דֹּתָיְנָה
Yosef said, “I am looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are pasturing.”
The person said, “They have traveled from this, for I heard them say: Let us go to Dotan.”
What does it mean that Yosef’s brothers have “traveled from this”? What’s the “this” that they traveled away from?
אֵין סָפֵק שֶׁנָּסְעוּ מִזֶּה הַמִּרְעֶה וְאֵין לְבַקְּשָׁם בְּאֶחָד מֵחֲלָקָיו.
They have certainly traveled from this pasture and it is not worth looking for them in one of these fields.
הִסִּיעוּ עַצְמָן מִן הָאַחְוָה.
They took themselves away from brotherhood.
- One of these commentators thinks the “this” is the place, and he’s saying that the brothers aren’t in this place anymore. The other commentator thinks “this” is their relationship as brothers, and they’ve moved on from acting like Yosef’s brothers anymore. Which is which? Can you find evidence for each “this” in Yosef’s statement in 37:16?
- How do you imagine the scene here? What were their tones of voice in the conversation? Did Yosef get the message he was supposed to get? How would Sforno answer these questions, and how would Rashi?
- Look at the first pasuk we quoted, when Yosef asks his question. If you follow Rashi’s interpretation, Yosef was saying: I’m looking for people who will treat me as a brother. And the response back to him was a painful truth: "They're not your brothers anymore." What would it be like to hear this response? What might it be like to look for brothers - for people to trust and love - but not to find them? How could this conversation help us better understand Yosef’s personality?
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