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 Bread and Hate – Vayeishev

It has always bothered me that after the brothers threw Yosef in the pit they sat down to eat bread! What was their frame of mind that they could so mercilessly go about their business while Yosef was wailing and crying out in a pit filled with snakes and scorpions.

Beyond the emotional, “moral” issue, there is also a halachic issue. In the Gemara (Sanhedrin 63a) it discusses the prohibition for a Sanhedrin to sit and eat after passing death sentence on someone, as it says in the Torah –

לא תאכלו על הדם (ויקרא יט,כו)

If the brothers had just passed the death sentence on Yosef, which it seems they had, how could they immediately sit and eat bread of all things? If they were hungry, perhaps a small snack - but bread? That is already a סעודה that you have to wash for and say ברכת המזון afterwards. In the first part of ברכת המזון we say –

הזן את העולם כלו בטובו בחן בחסד וברחמים

They had just “executed” Yosef and they are saying בחן בחסד וברחמים?

  These are not חלילה some psychotic killers we are talking about, these are 9 or 10 of the 12 Tribes (Binyamin was not there and some מפרשים say also Reuven), the great pillars of our nation!

We need to place this incident into perspective and try to understand what was really going on here.

The brothers hated Yosef, it says so in the פסוקים -

וישנאו אותו (בראשית לז, ד)

ויוסיפו עוד שְׂנֹא אותו (בראשית, לז, ח)

What exactly does that mean they “hated” him?

We have two mentions of “hate” prior to this in the Torah. When Eisav discovers that Yaakov has “stolen” his blessing it says –

וישטם עשו את יעקב (בראשית כז, מא)

Here it uses a different word than the hate of the brothers - שטם versus שנא.

Later we have another פסוק regarding Yaakov’s “hate” for Leah -

וירא ה' כי שנואה לאה (בראשית כט, לא)

Are all these expression of hate equivalent? Let us examine the translations.

וישטם עשו את יעקב (בראשית כז, מא)

תרגום יונתן – ונטר עשו שנא בלביה על יעקב אחוי

אונקלוס – ונטר עשו דבבו ליעקב

 

וירא ה' כי שנואה לאה (בראשית כט, לא)

תרגום יונתן – וגלי קדם ה' ארום לא הות לאה

אונקלוס – וחזא ה' ארי סנואתא לאה

 

וישנאו אותו (בראשית לז, ד)

תרגום יונתן – ונטרו ליה בבי

אונקלוס – וסנו יתיה

 

ויוסיפו עוד שְׂנֹא אותו (בראשית, לז, ח)

תרגום יונתן – ואוסיפו תוב למינטר ליה

אונקלוס – ואוסיפו עוד סנו יתיה

There is consensus between Targum Yonatan and Onkelos that the “hate” of Leah was different to the hate of Eisav. In the case of Leah the translations are ארום and סנואתא respectively, which are unanimously different from נטר.

There is however a discrepancy between Targum Yonatan and Onkelos regarding the hate of the brothers.

Targum Yonatan uses the same expression for the hate of Eisav and the “hate” of the brothers נטר, hinting that the hate of Eisav for Yaakov was the same kind of hate that the brothers had for Yosef.

Onkelos on the other hand uses the same expression for the “hate” of Leah and the “hate” of the brothers סנו which was different to the hate of Eisav for Yaakov נטר.

So not all the expressions of hate in Breishit are equivalent, we have the hate of Eisav, the hate of Leah and the hate of the brothers. The only question is – Was the hate of the brothers the same as the hate of Eisav (Targum Yonatan) or was it the same hate as that of Leah (Onkelos)?

It is clear and undisputed that the hate of Leah was not like the hate of Eisav for Yaakov. In the case of Eisav, his hate was a seething, ongoing, cancerous type of hate for Yaakov (that continues to this day). The case of Leah being hated was not Eisav’s type of “hate”, it was more akin to the word “resented” In English than “hated”. Yaakov did not hate Leah for deceiving him, he resented her (initially).

The question is about the brothers – what kind of hate did they have for Yosef, was it a seething, ongoing, cancerous hate like Eisav or was it resentment?

Why did the brothers hate/resent Yosef in the first place?  The מפרשים give different reasons. Some say it was because they saw him doing immature things, like playing with his hair. Some say it was because he “squealed” on them to their father, i.e told לשון הרע. Others say it was because they thought he was trying to assume roles that were not his – he was given the firstborn status after Reuven sinned, Yaakov gave him a כתונת פסים that symbolized בגדי כהונה and he spoke in his dreams of the brothers bowing down to him, like subjects before a king, i.e they thought he was claiming the בכורה, כהונה ומלכות for himself, when they knew very well by רוח הקדש that the כהונה belonged to Levi and the מלכות belonged to Yehuda. Perhaps it was a combination of all of the above!

The מפרשים are split between how the brothers regarded Yosef.

One view says they regarded him as a continuation of the pattern of Yishmael and Eisav, that each of the Avot had part of their offspring that was not holy. They regarded Yosef as equivalent to Yishmael and Eisav and since there is a הלכה פסוקה that עשו שונא יעקב, their hate for Yosef was the same kind of hate as Eisav’s hate for Yaakov (Targum Yonatan).

The second view says that their relationship with Yosef was one of resentment, they resented him for telling לשון הרע and for “posing” in roles that were not his (Onkelos).

In the first case they regarded Yosef as a רודף and deserving of the death sentence. According to this opinion the act of throwing him into the pit, knowing there were snakes and scorpions in it - was the act of execution. The case of executing a רודף is not the same as a Sanhedrin executing a sinner, so the prohibition of eating immediately after did not apply to them and also explains their alacrity and total lack of remorse for such an action.

In the second case they regarded Yosef as  מורד במלכותand were not certain how to deal with him. Their first instinct was to kill him, but they were not certain. So they temporarily threw him in the pit and then sat down to deliberate what to do with him. A beautiful interpretation is given by the ספר נועם אלימלך that the brothers did not want to make a rash decision based on their initial gut feelings of resentment, so they sat down to have a סעודה and eat bread, which would calm them down so they could think more rationally on a full stomach. Indeed after they had eaten, their decision was less severe than their initial reaction – sell Yosef to the Yishmaelim, rather than kill him. What about the pit and the snakes/scorpions? Didn’t they fear that throwing him into the pit would kill him? Some opinions say the pit was more than 20 amot deep and they couldn’t see that far down (incidentally this is a Channukah connection and is the reason you cannot place a channukiya above 20 amot – because it is beyond the line of sight). Other opinions say that they knew Yosef had merits as well as shortcomings and they knew that Hashem would protect him from the creepy crawlies in the pit. In fact the end result was that Yosef did not die in the pit, so that was not the act of execution – so they could sit down immediately after that and eat bread, because they had not finally decided to execute him, nor had they- by throwing him temporarily into the pit.

Either way, the brothers were wrong!

Yosef was not perfect, he had shortcomings, like acting immaturely and being overly concerned with his appearance, which חז"ל say he paid for and repented during the incident of Potiphar’s wife.

Regarding the לשון הרע that Yosef told, the מפרשים say that he supposedly saw the brothers eating עבר מן החי, transgressing with גילוי עריות and demeaning the children of the שפחות and he told Yaakov his father about this. The מפרשים say that it may have appeared to Yosef that this is what they were doing, but appearances can be deceiving and in fact they were not transgressing anything at all, halachically speaking.

It may have been tactless for Yosef to relate the dreams to his brothers, but these were נבואות, not simple childhood daydreams, and in fact the מפרשים say that Yaakov saw them for what they really were and was anxiously waiting for them to actually come true! A נביא cannot suppress a prophecy he is obliged to tell it.

Yosef was not attempting to “steal” Yehuda and Levi’s roles in the future Nation of Israel, he was just relating the נבואות as they were revealed to him - they in fact did come true, but in the context of the famine in Egypt, not in the future Nation of Israel. The brothers didn’t think there could be another possible way these dreams could play out, aside from their narrow perception of them.

All the brothers, Yosef included, great as they were, were not flawless. It required the selling of Yosef to Egypt to “iron out” these kinks in their personalities and to elevate them all to the Twelve Tribes they eventually became. Both Yosef and the brothers eventually did תשובה so that this could happen.

There are two interesting insights we get from this whole story of the brothers eating bread after throwing Yosef in the pit.

The first (and this is not an advert for Saidel’s Bakery) – when you ever get into a fit of anger - eat bread before responding, it will calm you down. I suppose instead of eating bread and putting on calories, taking a time-out and putting things into perspective would also work. Imagine if the brothers had חלילה killed Yosef on the spot, history would have taken a completely different turn and Am Yisrael would perhaps not have resulted from Yaakov’s children, but from some future generation.

The second and to my mind, more important lesson – especially in our day and age - is not to believe that you have a monopoly on שכל.  Yosef’s dreams were prophecies that were correct and they came true, but not in the context that the brothers imagined. They couldn’t perceive any other possible explanation for them and did not have the humility to admit the limits of their perception. Yosef as well perceived that the brothers were transgressing severe sins and told his father, but this was also a mistaken perception on the part of Yosef. He should have clarified this with them before going to his father.

Am Yisrael is plagued today by too many factions believing they have a monopoly on שכל, that their perception of things is the only possible perception. This leads to מחלוקת and in many cases even to שנאת חינם. It is nice to believe that you and only you are right, but it is also arrogant. We all need a little more humility to respect others’ opinions even if they conflict with our own, because maybe, just maybe, they are right and we are wrong, or maybe we are both right but just in different time frames, like Hillel and Shamai. We all have to work more on our humility and respect for others’ opinions, even if we agree to disagree – respect is non-negotiable!

חז"ל say that the two brothers who wanted to kill Yosef were Shimon and Levi, the same Shimon and Levi that Yaakov castigated for being extreme, both in the case of Dina and also here in the case with Yosef. Even Reuven and Yehuda were scared of them and waited until they had calmed down (after eating a סעודה). Violent extremists are very dangerous and often manage to drag others down with them, because the silent majority is exactly that – silent, they are scared to stand up to the extremists.

This is a vital lesson of the brothers and their shabby handling of Yosef. All the brothers did תשובה and the result was Am Yisrael, but this episode has plagued us throughout history and we have not yet fully learnt from our mistakes. Re: the destruction of the 1st Beit Hamikdash and the episode of Purim which some מפרשים say was payback for the sin of the brothers sitting down to eat bread – that the decree for killing the Jews was issued during a סעודה between Achashverosh and Haman. Re: the destruction of the 2nd Beit Hamikdash because of - שנאת חינם. Re: the plague with Rabi Akiva’s students who lacked respect for one another. We have been punished by exile for 22 generations, one generation/gilgul for each year Yosef was in Egypt before being reunited with his father. If you can exactly define what a generation is, perhaps you could predict when exactly Mashiach will come - 80 years/generation? 90? 100? Whichever it is, we are in the last stretch.

Have we suffered almost 2000 years of exile so that we may again repeat the same error of Yosef’s brothers in our time? We are on the brink of the גאולה and the coming of the משיח. If we continue as we are now, with the destructive factionalism that abounds today, the גאולה may be delayed for a future generation because we are not yet ready and have not yet learnt the lesson of Yosef and his brothers. We are still letting loud, bullying extremists set the pace, instead of the moderate and silent majority in Am Yisrael, speaking up and taking charge.

We all need to do תשובה and be more respectful of others’ opinions, in our own families, our own communities and in our nation and …….. we need to eat more bread more often and calm down!

This parsha is mostly dark, with many negative incidents, but there is one light at the end of the parsha, the spark of משיח, the birth of Peretz, the forerunner of דוד המלך. All the פסוקים in the parsha except for 8 (according to the Rokeach), begin with the letter vav ו. This is another hint for Channukah in the parsha (there are many).

May the lights of the חנוכיה rouse HKB”H’s Divine mercy to annul the evil decree of our exile and may we merit lighting the lamps next year in the Beit Hamikdash, במהרה בימינו אמן.

 

Shabbat Shalom

Eliezer Meir Saidel

Showbread Institute

www.showbreadinstitute.com

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