Vayeshev | The Fulfillment of the Decree of Bondage in Egypt

In our parasha, we encounter the tense relationships that developed in the house of Yaakov. The story has a dynamic of its own, and it develops in accordance with the lines drawn by the characters who advance the plot. From a broader perspective, however, this plot has a second role. It begins with Yaakov's nuclear family in the land of Canaan, but in the end the members of Yaakov's family find themselves in Egypt, and from there the story progresses to servitude and slavery that continues for centuries. The patriarch Avraham had already been warned about this enslavement in the Brit Bein Ha-Betarim:

 

And He said to Avram, “Surely know that your descendants shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years.” (Bereishit 15:13)

 

At first glance, these appear to be two parallel processes, without any connection between them; they simply meet at the end. In this study, we will attempt to demonstrate that in the course of the narrative, which purportedly advances exclusively on the basis of human actions, Scripture indicates that God is tracking the events for the purpose of ensuring that the story will conclude with the fulfillment of His promise.

 

 

Scripture involves us in the development of the negative relationships in Yaakov's household. Yosef is given preferential treatment, which stirs up his brothers' jealousy. If that were not enough, he begins to share his dreams with his brothers, the apparent interpretation of which was anathema to them, and this adds fuel to the already burning flames of hatred:

 

 

The first time that the opportunity affords itself, the brothers express their hatred through action. Yosef is sent by his father to check on his brothers' welfare, but when he arrives, a shocking surprise awaits him, turning his world upside down:

 

 

In order to conceal their actions, the brothers come up with a cover story, and in order to substantiate their claim, they dip Yosef's coat in blood:

 

 

 

Yosef finds himself as a slave in the house of Potifar. Over time, it becomes clear that he excels in his work and gains his employer's trust:

 

 

But as it turns out this fact gets him into trouble, when his employer's wife sets her eyes upon him. When Yosef refuses her, she tries to take action, but once again she fails. This time, she exacts vengeance for his rejection of her advances:

 

 

The story ends sadly with the blame falling on the shoulders of the weak, and Yosef is thrown into prison by his employer:

 

 

From the continuation of the story, we learn that the prison is nothing but a pit, as it is described when Yosef is removed from it:

 

 

Thus, we see that over the course of time Yosef is twice cast into a pit. The first time he is cast into a pit by his brothers and then taken out of the pit when he becomes a slave, but owing to his life as a slave, he finds himself once again cast into a pit.

 

 

When we compare the background that brought Yosef to be thrown into the pit for the first time to the background of his being cast into the pit a second time, we find a surprisingly large number of parallels:

 

 

Before we consider what this all means, it should be noted that this phenomenon of two events with similar characteristics is found a second time in the vicissitudes of Yosef's life. This second pair of events begins with the pit into which Yosef was cast by Potifar. There he meets the butler and the baker, each of whom dream a different dream on the same night. Yosef is faced with a pair of dreams, and he offers himself to interpret them:

 

 

When he concludes his interpretation, he appeals to the butler, who will be restored to his position according to Yosef's interpretation of the dream, requesting that he help him to be removed from the pit:

 

 

To Yosef’s grave disappointment nothing happens. Two years later, Pharaoh dreams a pair of dreams and seeks someone who can interpret them. On this occasion, the butler remembers Yosef and offers his services to Pharaoh. Yosef is once again faced with a pair of dreams, and he declares once again that with the help of God he will interpret them:

 

 

And once again Yosef interprets the dreams to the satisfaction of the party who dreamed them. But this time, when he concludes his interpretation, he is saved and is rewarded with high position:

 

 

What we have here, then, is another pair of events – one in which Yosef is faced with a pair of dreams. He declares that with God's help, he will be able to interpret them; he offers interpretations that satisfy the person who dreamt them, and later they come true. The most striking difference between them is the final chord. The first time, Yosef asks the butler to help get out of the pit, but to no avail. But when he finishes interpreting the second pair of dreams, he achieves redemption. This difference will help us fully understand the significance of this phenomenon, which we find repeated in his life. This repetition implies that it is imbued with meaning.

 

It seems that the meaning of these pairs of events in Yosef's life lies in the differences found in each pair between its respective elements. To our surprise, we find that the fundamental difference between the two elements in each pair is the same.

 

Yosef is completely passive with respect to his being thrown into the pit; he is surprised by his brothers, who forcibly remove his coat and then throw him into the pit. In the second story just the opposite is true. Yosef essentially takes off his cloak in order to escape the grip of Potifar's wife. In so doing, he causes himself to be thrown into the pit. It might therefore have been argued that he was responsible for his being cast into the pit the second time, and for this we have the analogy to the first time he was cast into a pit. Seen from a very narrow prospective, Yosef is responsible for his having been cast into the pit the second time, but it should not be forgotten that the second casting was but a mirror of the first casting, for which his brothers were responsible. Therefore, from a broader perspective, their responsibility for his being cast into the pit extends to the second incident as well; were it not for their actions, Yosef would never have ended up in Egypt, and he would never have had to contend with his employer's wife. The repetition of the component of being thrown into a pit links the events in the form of cause and effect, suggesting that the first casting projects on to the second casting.

 

This is also the axis of the comparison between the elements of the second pair of events. The first time, it is Yosef who steps forward and offers his services as an interpreter of dreams, with the help of God. But the second time, it is the butler who recommends him to Pharaoh, and Yosef is altogether passive; he is removed from the pit without being asked what he wants. It might therefore have been argued that his removal from the pit was at the initiative of the butler, but both from the course of the plot and from the words of the butler himself, it appears that this is not the case. It is clear that Yosef's initiative to interpret the dreams of the two officers is what leads to the butler's idea to remove him from the pit. Thus, it can be said that ultimately it is Yosef who helps himself and brings about, albeit belatedly, his removal from the pit.

 

The conclusion is that the significance of the pairs is the same. The purpose of each one is to intimate that the party who is responsible for some initial event is also responsible for another event following from it. We will return to this conclusion below.

 

 

Before we bring this matter to a close, we must consider another matter. In the course of the narrative, God's name is mentioned many times by the various speakers, but the Tetragrammaton is mentioned only rarely:

 

1. When Yosef comes to the house of his Egyptian master:

 

 

2. When Yosef comes to the prison:

 

 

Tracing God's names over the course of the story paints the following picture: When the characters speak of God, they refer to Him by the name Elokim, but when Scripture itself describes God's part in the story, it refers to Him by the Tetragrammaton. This fact, more than it teaches us about God's presence in the story, highlights His absence. There is no verse that states, "And the Lord was with Yosef, and he correctly interpreted his dreams," or the like. The Tetragrammaton does not appear in the course of the human initiatives in the story, but only in the backdrop, from which they break out.

 

 

This point will bring us closer to our goal. For years, Avraham's descendants have been walking about with the decree of servitude “in a land that is not theirs” hanging over their heads. No one knows how to predict when and how it will be realized, but it is always somewhere in the collective memory of Avraham's family. However, the reader, who knows how the story will develop, knows that the story of Yosef takes place on two levels. On the simple and overt level of the plot, Yosef struggles for his survival in a foreign and threatening land. The second level is more hidden; on that level, the decree of bondage that will become fully realized at the beginning of the book of Shemot is slowly taking form.

 

The Rishonim struggled with the various aspects of the relationship between the actions of man and God in our world, the issue of "Divine knowledge versus free will." An examination of our story might contribute to our understanding of the issue.

 

It may be possible to learn from an analysis of the story that God is interested in directing the course of events in a certain way, but He is careful not to influence man's actions for this purpose. On the contrary, He acts in light of man's choices. A decree had been issued that the descendants of Avraham would go down to Egypt, but the manner in which this process would be realized depends on them. If the brothers "decree" that Yosef will be thrown into a pit, he will indeed be found there, and even if he manages to escape from the pit into which he was cast by the brothers, things will develop in such a way that he will once again be cast into a pit. Thus, the brothers determined the course of the descent to Egypt, but from that same pit Yosef would also rise up to rule! In this way, God integrates His hidden direction of the events in the actions taken by flesh and blood.

 

There is another aspect of this understanding of how God conducts the world. A person cannot absolve himself of responsibility for his actions, claiming that God has already decreed the process and that he was therefore only a puppet in God's hands to bring about the result that He sought.[2] The course of our parasha shows that it is man who determines the course of the story, but God follows after it from on high, making sure that His will is fulfilled in light of the path down which man directs the story.

 

Thus, it is possible to explain why the Tetragrammaton is absent from the stories describing human initiatives and is mentioned only when Yosef has already arrived in the house of Potifar or the prison, they being the "stationary states" of the plot. After man has spoken his word and performed his deed, God reveals Himself in order to direct the story to its destination, in light of the place and conditions set by man.

 

(Translated by David Strauss)