Vayeshev: The Process of Becoming וַיֵּ֣שֶׁב Genesis 37:1 - 40:23

(1) Now Jacob was settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan.(2) This, then, is the line of Jacob: At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father.

(3) Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons—he was his “child of old age”(4) And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him.

(5) Once Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him even more.(6) He said to them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed:(7) There we were binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf stood up and remained upright; then your sheaves gathered around and bowed low to my sheaf.”

(8) His brothers answered, “Do you mean to reign over us? Do you mean to rule over us?” And they hated him even more for his talk about his dreams.(9) He dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”(10) And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father berated him. “What,” he said to him, “is this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you to the ground?”(11) So his brothers were wrought up at him, and his father kept the matter in mind.

(12) One time, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem,(13) Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “I am ready.”(14) And he said to him, “Go and see how your brothers are and how the flocks are faring, and bring me back word.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. When he reached Shechem,(15) a man came upon him wandering in the fields. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?”(16) He answered, “I am looking for my brothers. Could you tell me where they are pasturing?”(17) The man said, “They have gone from here, for I heard them say: Let us go to Dothan.” So Joseph followed his brothers and found them at Dothan.

ויבא שכמה AND HE CAME TO SHECHEM — A spot foredestined to be the scene of misfortunes: there the sons of Jacob sinned (by selling Joseph), there Dinah was maltreated, there the kingdom of the House of David was divided, as it said (1 Kings 12:1) “And Rehoboam went to Shechem etc.” (Sanhedrin 102a).

נסעו מזה THEY HAVE JOURNEYED HENCE — they have departed from all feeling of brotherhood.

נלכה דתינה LET US GO TO DOTHAN — “let us go to seek some legal (דתות) pretexts” to put you to death. According to the literal sense, however, it is the name of place, and Scripture never really loses its literal sense (Shabbat 63a).

(18) They saw him from afar, and before he came close to them they conspired to kill him.(19) They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer!(20) Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we can say, ‘A savage beast devoured him.’ We shall see what comes of his dreams!”(21) But when Reuben heard it, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let us not take his life.”(22) And Reuben went on, “Shed no blood! Cast him into that pit out in the wilderness, but do not touch him yourselves”—intending to save him from them and restore him to his father.(23) When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he was wearing,(24) and took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.(25)Then they sat down to a meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, their camels bearing gum, balm, and ladanum to be taken to Egypt.

(26) Then Judah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood?(27) Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed.(28) When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph up out of the pit. They sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt.(29) When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he rent his clothes.(30) Returning to his brothers, he said, “The boy is gone! Now, what am I to do?”(31) Then they took Joseph’s tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood.(32) They had the ornamented tunic taken to their father, and they said, “We found this. Please examine it; is it your son’s tunic or not?”(33) He recognized it, and said, “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Joseph was torn by a beast!”(34) Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days.(35) All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” Thus his father bewailed him.(36) The Midianites,

had sold him into Egypt to Potifar, Pharaoh’s court-official, the Chief of the [Palace] Guard.

(1) When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his prefect bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.(2) יהוה was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he stayed in the house of his Egyptian master.(3) And when his master saw that יהוה was with him and that יהוה lent success to everything he undertook,(4) he took a liking to Joseph. He made him his personal attendant and put him in charge of his household, placing in his hands all that he owned.(5) And from the time that the Egyptian put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, יהוה blessed his house for Joseph’s sake, so that the blessing of יהוה was upon everything that he owned, in the house and outside.

It is, however, also legitimate to interpret the verse (39:3) ‘And his master saw that the Almighty was with him and that God caused all that he did to succeed’ as follows: sometimes merchants make healthy profits from their merchandise, but this is attributable solely to the deceitful (commercial) practices to which they resort: as Scripture indeed informs us elsewhere: (Hosea 12:8): ‘Canaan (i.e. the merchant) holds in his hands scales of deceit; he loves to defraud’); but Joseph did not act in this fashion, as God’s presence was permanently in his thoughts and before his eyes; hence he would never commit a wrong, nor would he ever resort to deceitful language – but nonetheless, the Almighty allowed all his dealings to prosper. It was due to this that his master elevated him to a higher status. Until now, he had been serving in his master’s home, but not inside his ‘inner sanctum’; he had not been attending upon his master in his inner chamber. But at this juncture, he (Potiphar) elevated his working status in three ways: first, he (Joseph) ministered directly to his master, by dressing and feeding him – this is what is meant by the phrase ‘and he ministered to him’; secondly, he appointed him in charge of his entire household, i.e. that he (Joseph) could henceforth command all the servants employed there to carry out such tasks as befitted them: thirdly, he handed over control of all his possessions to Joseph, by creating him guardian of his treasures and his riches.

(6) He left all that he had in Joseph’s hands and, with him there, he paid attention to nothing save the food that he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome.(7) After a time, his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Lie with me.”(8) But he refused. He said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands.(9) He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except yourself, since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing, and sin before God?”(10) And much as she coaxed Joseph day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her, to be with her.(11) One such day, he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside,(12) she caught hold of him by his garment and said, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside.(13) When she saw that he had left it in her hand and had fled outside,(14) she called out to her servants and said to them, “Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud.(15) And when he heard me screaming at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside.”(16) She kept his garment beside her, until his master came home.(17) Then she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew slave whom you brought into our house came to me to dally with me;(18) but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and fled outside.”(19) When his master heard the story that his wife told him, namely, “Thus and so your slave did to me,” he was furious.(20) So Joseph’s master had him put in prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. But even while he was there in prison,(21) יהוה was with Joseph—extending kindness to him and disposing the chief jailer favorably toward him.(22) The chief jailer put in Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in that prison, and he was the one to carry out everything that was done there.(23) The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because יהוה was with him, and whatever he did יהוה made successful.

(1) Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt gave offense to their lord the king of Egypt.(2) Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,(3) and put them in custody, in the house of the prefect, in the same prison house where Joseph was confined.(4) The prefect assigned Joseph to them, and he attended them. When they had been in custody for some time,(5) both of them—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—dreamed in the same night, each his own dream and each dream with its own meaning.(6) When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were distraught.(7) He asked Pharaoh’s courtiers, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, saying, “Why do you appear downcast today?”(8) And they said to him, “We had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” So Joseph said to them, “Surely God can interpret! Tell me [your dreams].”

DO NOT (‘HALO’) INTERPRETATIONS BELONG TO G-D? Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained it as saying that “future events destined to come as indicated in dreams belong to G-d, for He alone brings on the dream and lets the future be known, and it is He who makes peace, and creates evil, but in my speaking to you there is neither benefit nor loss.” This he said so that they should not punish him if evil should befall them, or so that they should tell him the dreams and not scorn him.
But if so, there is no sense for the word halo (do not) in this context. Perhaps its meaning is the same as that of the word hinei (behold). Thus Joseph is saying, “Behold, to G-d alone belong interpretations, but not to man the interpreter.”
In my opinion the correct interpretation is that Joseph is saying; “Do not interpretations of all dreams which are obscure and confined belong to G-d? He can make known the interpretation of your dreams. Now if it is obscure to you tell it to me; perhaps He will be pleased to reveal His secret to me.”

(9) Then the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph. He said to him, “In my dream, there was a vine in front of me.(10) On the vine were three branches. It had barely budded, when out came its blossoms and its clusters ripened into grapes.(11) Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”(12) Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: The three branches are three days.(13) In three days Pharaoh will pardon you and restore you to your post; you will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, as was your custom formerly when you were his cupbearer.(14) But think of me when all is well with you again, and do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh, so as to free me from this place.(15) For in truth, I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews; nor have I done anything here that they should have put me in the dungeon.”

(16) When the chief baker saw how favorably he had interpreted, he said to Joseph, “In my dream, similarly, there were three openwork baskets on my head.(17) In the uppermost basket were all kinds of food for Pharaoh that a baker prepares; and the birds were eating it out of the basket above my head.”(18) Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation: The three baskets are three days.(19) In three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale you upon a pole; and the birds will pick off your flesh.”(20) On the third day—his birthday—Pharaoh made a banquet for all his officials, and he singled out his chief cupbearer and his chief baker from among his officials.(21) He restored the chief cupbearer to his cupbearing, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand;(22) but the chief baker he impaled—just as Joseph had interpreted to them.(23) Yet the chief cupbearer did not think of Joseph; he forgot him.

וישכחהו AND HE FORGOT HIM afterwards. Because Joseph had placed his trust in him that he should remember him he was doomed to remain in prison for two years. So it is said (Psalms 40:5) “Happy is the man who maketh the Lord his trust and turneth not to (רהבים) the arrogant” — i.e. doth not trust in the Egyptians who are called arrogant (Genesis Rabbah 89:3 cf. Isaiah 30:7).