Creative Conundrums: Vayeshev

The Curious Word

וַיָּבֵ֥א יוֹסֵ֛ף אֶת־דִּבָּתָ֥ם רָעָ֖ה אֶל־אֲבִיהֶֽם And Joseph brought evil report/words to their father

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And his brothers envied him; but his father kept the matter (davar) in mind.

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וַיֹּ֣אמֶר ל֗וֹ לֶךְ־נָ֨א רְאֵ֜ה אֶת־שְׁל֤וֹם אַחֶ֙יךָ֙ וְאֶת־שְׁל֣וֹם הַצֹּ֔אן וַהֲשִׁבֵ֖נִי דָּבָ֑ר

And [Jacob] said to [Joseph], Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brothers, and well with the flocks; and bring me word (davar).

Isn’t this word, davar, quite peculiar in this context? Could it read as if Jacob sent Joseph out to bring back more loshon hora?

If so, could that help explain why Jacob endlessly mourns for Joseph? Might Jacob blame himself for Joseph’s loss?

More than this: we know the consequences of loshon hora is damage to relationships (see examples in the Torah of Moshe and Miriam when they had tzaraas for speaking loshon hora). Does not Jacob lose his relationship with Joseph for decades, and with Yehudah for a similar period?

Does Jacob not also suffer harm in his connection to G-d? After all, the Torah does not tell us that G-d spoke to Jacob from their conversation at Bet El until Jacob leaves for Egypt, many decades later?!

Might this also be a consequence of listening to loshon hora? That we lose our ability to hear G-d’s voice?

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Jacob: Middoh k’neged Middoh?

It has been pointed out that Jacob was deprived of Joseph, his favored son, for as many years as he deprived his mother of his own company. It is one middoh k’neged middoh, a measure-for-measure consequence.

Are there others?

And they took Yosef’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;

Using this coat they deceived their father.

It sounds a little familiar, does it not?

After all, doesn’t Jacob use izim, goats, to deceive his own father?

Is Jacob deceived using a dead animal as a middoh kneged middoh, measure-for-measure, because he had done the very same thing to his own father?

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Was Potiphar also Joseph’s Jailer?

Potiphar is named, repeatedly, as שַׂ֖ר הַטַּבָּחִֽים .

When Joseph leaves Potiphar’s home, he is jailed, under the authority of the שַׂ֥ר הַטַבָּחִ֖ים, who then puts Joseph in charge of the butler and baker.

In the entirety of the Torah, only two people are identified with this title: Potiphar, and the Jailer. The title is used for one or the other no fewer than seven times in all! But nobody else is ever called this title.

Are Potiphar and the Jailer the very same person? If so, doesn’t it put the story of Potiphar (and then the marriage of Potiphar’s daughter to Joseph) in an entirely new light?

If they are NOT the same person, then why does the Torah use the same language for both of them – and for nobody else?

How can we understand the meaning of this title?

Let’s look at elsewhere the word is found in the Torah.

וַיַּ֨רְא יוֹסֵ֣ף אִתָּם֮ אֶת־בִּנְיָמִין֒ וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ לַֽאֲשֶׁ֣ר עַל־בֵּית֔וֹ הָבֵ֥א אֶת־הָאֲנָשִׁ֖ים הַבָּ֑יְתָה וּטְבֹ֤חַ טֶ֙בַח֙ וְהָכֵ֔ן כִּ֥י אִתִּ֛י יֹאכְל֥וּ הָאֲנָשִׁ֖ים בַּֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃

When Yoseif saw Binyamin with them he said to the one in charge of his house, Bring these men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for these men shall dine with me at noon.

כִּ֤י יִגְנֹֽב־אִישׁ֙ שׁ֣וֹר אוֹ־שֶׂ֔ה וּטְבָח֖וֹ א֣וֹ מְכָר֑וֹ חֲמִשָּׁ֣ה בָקָ֗ר יְשַׁלֵּם֙ תַּ֣חַת הַשּׁ֔וֹר וְאַרְבַּע־צֹ֖אן תַּ֥חַת הַשֶּֽׂה׃

If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and then slaughters or sells it, he must pay five oxen for each ox, and four sheep for each sheep.

שׁוֹרְךָ֞ טָב֣וּחַ לְעֵינֶ֗יךָ וְלֹ֣א תֹאכַל֮ מִמֶּנּוּ֒ חֲמֹֽרְךָ֙ גָּז֣וּל מִלְּפָנֶ֔יךָ וְלֹ֥א יָשׁ֖וּב לָ֑ךְ צֹֽאנְךָ֙ נְתֻנ֣וֹת לְאֹיְבֶ֔יךָ וְאֵ֥ין לְךָ֖ מוֹשִֽׁיעַ׃

Your ox [will be] butchered before your eyes, and you will not eat of it; your ass [will be] robbed in your presence and will not return to you; your flocks [will be] given to your enemies, and you have no savior.

What are Potiphar and the Jailer in charge of? Slaughtering animals? People?

More importantly, what are we supposed to learn from their job titles? Does it matter that meat in Egypt was reserved for high status?

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The Dreams: A Bigger Picture

Is it possible that the dreams of the butler and baker have multiple layers of meaning?

After all, Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world (hence the connection to chometz). So wouldn’t it make sense that the baker’s dream is actually also about the future of Egypt? After all, in 300 years, Egypt would be plagued from above, and its head would be cut off.

Could the butler’s dream have also been about the future of the Jewish people?

A vine was before me. And on the vine were three tendrils: and it was as though it budded, and its blossoms shot forth; and its clusters brought forth ripe grape. And Pharoah’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.

Aren’t the Jewish people compared to the grapevine? In those 300 years, did we not grow like this grapevine, multiplying and growing fat – and then, in the end, were we not “squeezed out” and delivered into G-d’s hand?

Might this explain why the Torah explains the entire story instead of merely saying, “the butler and baker had dreams, and Joseph interpreted them.” Is there a better explanation for why the text gives us so much detail about the dreams of minor characters?

If these interpretations are valid ways to understand the text, were the dreams supposed to be messages not merely for the butler and the baker but also for Joseph himself?

Might this also explain why we drink cups of grape juice or wine when we remember the Exodus? Isn’t this the only reference in the Torah that seems to connect the Exodus to grape juice or wine in a cup?

Indeed, if … Karpas is a reminder of the ketones passim, Joseph’s coat, that arguably was the beginning of the descent to Egypt… AND The butler’s dream tells of the end of our time in Egypt … then doesn’t Joseph’s own story seem to foretell these major elements of the Pesach seder? Is this another case of the refuah coming before the Makkah (the cure before the travails)?