Joseph and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

 Dear Rabbi,

There is an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” where after watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with Sheldon, his girlfriend Amy ruins Sheldon’s favorite movie by telling him that although it was a “nice” film, Indiana Jones’ role in the outcome of the movie is irrelevant. Sheldon thinks she hasn’t even watched the movie, but she points out to him that with or without Indy, the Nazis find the ark, open it, and die. Sheldon’s jaw drops and he tells his fellow nerds what Amy described and after futile attempts to prove her wrong, they agree with her conclusion.
Well we are at the end of the saga of Joseph as well as the end of Genesis, and to me the parallels to what Amy said to Sheldon are amazing as it applies to Joseph. To get to where I am going a little history is in order.  
 
In Genesis 15:13 G-d said the following to Abraham:
 
“And He said to Abram, "You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years.”
 
So we know at a much earlier time than when Joseph is the center of attention, of Torah parshahs wherein it was preordained that Abraham’s family would become enslaved.
 
As another example, there is an earlier famine in the land of Canaan and G-d then instructs Isaac the following in Genesis 26:2:
 
“And the Lord appeared to him, and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land that I will tell you.”
 
So Jacob’s grandfather and father are given visions of what was to happen and what not to do.
 
Here is where it gets very interesting. Last week in Vayigash we learn that Jacob and his entire family left Canaan and headed to Egypt because of the current famine. On the way, they stopped in Beersheba, where the following exchange between G-d and Jacob takes place in Genesis 46:3 and 4:
 
“And He said, "I am G-d, the G-d of your father. Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.”
“I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up, and Joseph will place his hand on your eyes.”
 
How his people would be made into a great nation and what it meant by Joseph placing his hand on Jacob’s eyes are not elaborated.
 
So if we can assume Jacob had some understanding of what was told to his grandfather and father, Jacob’s thinking is somewhat clouded, maybe by G-d or maybe by Joseph when he places his hand on Jacob’s eyes. Leaving Canaan was fraught with danger and Jacob knew it. How do I come to this conclusion? Well one of the most telling things Jacob ever said is found in the First Aliyah when Jacob, as Israel, states the following:
 
“When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, "If I have now found favor in your eyes, now place your hand beneath my thigh, and you shall deal with me with loving kindness and truth; do not bury me now in Egypt.”
 
To me, Joseph is nothing more than a conduit in the history of Judaism and what was going to occur to our forefathers was going to happen regardless of what Joseph did. He was merely the agent or tool needed for all that was predicted, to play out.
 
If I may go back to Raiders of the Lost Ark for an analogy of what took place during the Joseph saga, the concept of the movie came from the mind of George Lucas.  What he wanted to pay tribute to, was to make a movie in the manner of the Saturday afternoon serials Mr. Lucas so loved in his boyhood, which would have one spine tingling adventure after another, that always ended in a cliff hanger to bring you back the next week. That was Indiana Jones’ contribution to what is one of the most exciting action movies ever made.
 
Well look at how Joseph plays out. First he is thrown in a pit and sold into slavery which is how the first parshah ends. Next we find our hero in the house of a top Egyptian official but is thrown in jail because his good looks and charisma drive the Egyptian official’s wife into trying to seduce Joseph but because he refuses her advances, she creates a false story that he attacked her. Somehow in prison, he is protected and has the run of the place and his ability to interpret dreams comes in handy when Pharaoh’s butler is told he will be out in three days. But this chapter ends with the butler getting out as predicted but Joseph is forgotten and is still in jail. In the next chapter in the life of Joseph, Pharaoh has a dream that only Joseph can interpret and because of this, he becomes the second most powerful person in all of Egypt. The next chapter ends with one of his brothers being thrown in jail and will stay there until the others bring Benjamin to Egypt so that Joseph can see him. Next we have a staged robbery by Joseph to keep Benjamin in Egypt and finally Joseph reveals himself to his brothers so that he can get his father down to Egypt.
 
 What a set of cliffhangers, all packed with action and intrigue, which brought us back week after week to see what would happen next, but if Joseph did not exist, would what happened to our forefathers not have occurred? I think it was predetermined and would have taken place anyway.  
 Here is the real question as Genesis draws to a close. If Joseph  is really to be considered a hero in Judaic folklore, why after the seven years of famine, don’t he and his relatives return to their promised land? I do not want to get too ahead of myself, but Joseph’s “protection” dies when he does, and what happens is a 400 year journey into slavery that is never really explained. Why did we have to become slaves? Could it be to pay back for some of the acts committed by our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, especially Jacob?
 
I will say this much for Jacob. He knew how important it was to go back to the land promised to us and made his son Joseph give his vow that his remains go back to the Country he and the rest of us of the Jewish persuasion think of as home. More on this later
 
Let’s go back to what I first asked when I gave my thoughts about Joseph. Is Joseph a Hebrew? I guess that would be a yes just because of who conceived him. But there are signs along the way that leave some doubt. Are either Ishmael or Esau considered Hebrews? Even I can answer that one with a no. In Vayeshev (Genesis 40:15) when Joseph asks the butler to get him out of prison, he states the following:
 
For I was stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and here too, I have done nothing, for which they have put me into the dungeon."
 
Why doesn’t he refer to himself as a Hebrew as opposed to saying he was from the land of the Hebrews? For that matter, who is the "they"?

 In Miketz (Genesis 41:45) his identity is changed by Pharaoh when it is stated:
 
“And Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath Pa'neach, and he gave him Asenath the daughter of Poti phera, the governor of On, for a wife, and Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt.”
 
To me this is a man that is getting quite comfortable with his new life as one of Egypt’s elite and does not protest this decision.
 
Is Joseph an Israelite? Well he asked that his remains go back to Canaan but it was not stated in the same way as when Jacob made Joseph take an oath that he was to be buried in Canaan and not to be buried in Egypt. What is stated is somewhat peculiar in the Seventh Aliyah as follows:
 
“And Joseph adjured the children of Israel, saying, "God will surely remember you, and you shall take up my bones out of here."
“And Joseph died at the age of one hundred ten years, and they embalmed him and he was placed into the coffin in Egypt.”
 
So what we have is Joseph telling his descendants to take his “bones out of here” yet he never states that he is not to be buried in Egypt where in fact he remained for 400 hundred years. Could it be that he wanted to lie near his father but did not accept where he originally came from? Both he and Jacob tell their relatives that all will be well in the end, but neither explains the pain of enslavement.
 
Is he a Jew? I leave that to others more wise than me to answer, but there are so many unanswered questions. As I just stated both he and Jacob knew something was up but neither revealed what they knew to the others. When Jacob died, he had been in Egypt for seventeen years so the famine that brought his family there had ended by the time he had died. Why hadn’t he left earlier? When he died there was a large funeral procession back to Canaan but why did his family not stay when Jacob died? The other burning unanswered question is what did the Jews do to lead to a 400 year enslavement? If I may completely go on a tangent, couldn’t the same question be raised about what the Jewish people did to deserve the Holocaust?
 
To add to my questions as it relates to Joseph and being Jewish, could it be said that Joseph was more like Noah than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Noah is told by G-d to build an ark because G-d is about to destroy the world as it then existed, and Noah never asks any questions about why, he just does as he is told. Noah is not considered a Jew. Joseph is thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, placed in a prison and winds up the second most important man in the most powerful country at the time, Egypt. Not once does he ask why any of this is happening to him as opposed to his great-grandfather, grandfather and father questioning G-d during their time, why G-d acted the way G-d did. Questioning why things are asked of us is part of our heritage.
 
One final thought as it relates to Jacob. I have been tough on him as it relates to why he is a Patriarch but as he nears death, he reminds all those that come after him that are a part of his religion of the importance of the land that G-d gave to us and how it is to be cherished. In a sense he is the first Zionist. He made Joseph give his vow that Jacob was not be buried in Egypt. A vow between a father and a son is about as solid a promise as can be made and one that will be fulfilled if it is within a son’s power, which in the case of Joseph was possible.
 
The land of Israel is our gift from G-d and it is to be thought of as the place we all should eventually wind up. If my trips to Israel left me with anything, it was a feeling that this will be my homeland no matter what may happen to me in any other place that I may dwell.
 
CHAZAK, CHAZAK, V’NIT’CHAZAK, on to Exodus.

Shalom,

Mordecai

Dear Mordecai,
Here in particular, I can see the lawyer in you as you build a case. 
 
Your case rests on Genesis 15:13, and the prophecy Avram received from G-d about the exile and slavery of his descendants. The key point in your argument is when you write, "What a set of cliffhangers, all packed with action and intrigue, which brought us back week after week to see what would happen next, but if Joseph did not exist, would what happened to our forefathers not have occurred? I think it was predetermined and would have taken place anyway." As you know, I've added the italics. You then posit a theory of history that rests on the idea of predetermination. What follows are a series of questions: 
  1. If Joseph  is really to be considered a hero in Judaic folklore, why after the seven years of famine, don’t he and his relatives return to their promised land? 
  2. Why did we have to become slaves? 
  3. Could it be to pay back for some of the acts committed by our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, especially Jacob?
Joseph is a hero and a very different hero than Jacob. Jacob's heroism is his frailty. Joseph's is in natural talent, genius. It's not that "we" have to become slaves. There were slaves all over the world at the time of the Exodus. We just happened to be the ones that were freed by Him. 
 
If anything the punishment of slavery was for the sale of Joseph.
You know as well as I that these are difficult questions. 
 
You then return to the issue of whether Joseph was a Hebrew, and you seem to suggest that he himself does not think he is based on 40:15. You ask, "Why doesn’t he refer to himself as a Hebrew as opposed to saying he was from the land of the Hebrews? For that matter, who is the 'they'"?
 
Furthermore, you write of Joseph, "To me this is a man that is getting quite comfortable with his new life as one of Egypt’s elite and does not protest this decision." This I couldn't agree with more. This is our dilemma in the USA.
 
Your reading of Joseph's request to be buried in Canaan and Jacob's to be buried in Canaan is nothing short of rabbinic! It is a careful reading that identifies a textual problem. This is the method I'll employ tomorrow in my sermon. Joseph is a conflicted person. He is between Egyptian and Hebrew just as we are between American and Jew. 
 
You contend that Joseph "knew something was up," but I disagree. What in the Torah indicates that Joseph knew about the impending slavery? Joseph knew that he was living out G-d's plan but did not know what would eventually happen as Jacob did, or at least not the particulars. 
 
You then add another barrage of questions:
  1. Why hadn’t [Jacob] left earlier? 
  2. When he died there was a large funeral procession back to Canaan but why did his family not stay when Jacob died? 
  3. The other burning unanswered question is what did the Jews do to lead to a 400 year enslavement? 
I wouldn't be certain that although he lived seventeen years that Jacob was strong enough for another trip. I've wondered the same thing about why they returned to Egypt. Perhaps that's why the entourage came so that they would have no choice to return. What the Jews did is chose to be the people the G-d who freed us from slavery covenanted with. 
 
Your final question for this section is about the Final Solution and "what the Jewish people did to deserve the Holocaust?" But this question is not the right one. The question is why did the Germans do it? Or why did members of the nations help them? And why did the USA stand by?
 
Your definition of a Jew hinges upon the following: "Questioning why things are asked of us is part of our heritage." That seems to be your primary barometer, and it's a good one. The comparison of Noah and Joseph is intriguing. I like that you see Jacob's merit as being connected to his remembrance of the Promised Land. 
 
I feel the EXACT same about the land of Israel. Have you considered making aliyah?

Shalom,
Rabbi 


Dear Rabbi,
 
Rabbi, unless you are attempting to recreate history or more precisely the Torah, how can you conclude that Joseph, in some way, can be interpreted as a "hero". If you do not subscribe to my theory that Joseph was irrelevant to what was going to happen to our forefathers, then it was Joseph that led us into slavery. I assume the "Him" you refer to in your "hero" paragraph is G-d or else you really have our history mixed up. Yes, Joseph may have been a "genius" who was given a natural talent that most of us cannot possess, but so what. The same can be said of anyone that is gifted intellectually, or in the arts, or in sports, but who gave someone the capacity to be a genius. I submit it came from a "Higher Authority" and was not something that may have been earned. 
 
I again respectfully disagree with your comment that the dissent into slavery was caused by the "sale of Joseph". I cite the Torah for my "preordained theory" what is your reference? 
The entire saga of Joseph was destiny. He is sold so that he could get to Egypt. He is thrown into prison so that he could "show off his power" of interpreting dreams to gain favor with Pharaoh. His interpretation comes true which leads to Jacob and his family having to go to Egypt in order to survive the famine. I am totally missing the heroism in all of this. I ask what you describe as "difficult questions", to draw out your responses. You seem to get your answers from midrashim, which you are entitled to do based on your training as a rabbi, but a "midrash" does not have to end with former rabbis' interpretations. I will discuss this further in my thoughts as to the first parshah in Exodus. 
 
If my observation of Jacob not wanting to be buried in Egypt but instead in Canaan as opposed to Joseph not caring that he may be buried in Egypt and then later his bones being transported to Canaan "is nothing short of rabbinic" then maybe my explanation is some sort of "midrash" which is nothing more than a commentary on part of the Hebrew scriptures, attached to the biblical text. The earliest Midrashim come from the 2nd century ad, although much of their content is older. I have not studied biblical text to qualify to give a midrash, but commentaries did not stop during the time of ancient rabbis. 
 
Finally, I take tremendous exception to your statement that my question of the Holocaust and what Jews did to deserve it was misdirected. Your come back with the following: "The question is why did the Germans do it?" With all due respect, your logic is misplaced. If what you pose is true then the question as to what caused our enslavement should be why did the Egyptians do it or more precisely why did Pharaoh do it? Your question along with why other countries like the USA went along with it is easy to answer. Anti-Semitism is as old as what we have read and will read in the rest of the Torah. It is only when it is given official sanction through those that rule that we suffer from it. Hitler was a latter day Pharaoh and those with anti-Semitic feelings were encouraged to act on their thoughts through the maniac that carried it out. My question is more appropriate. If I may be so bold as to posture that we as Jews think G-d looks out for us, where was the All Mighty from 1939 through 1945? What did the Jews do to G-d to deserve this fate? This is a question that could be asked throughout Jewish history and the signs in this Country at the present time are frighteningly similar. Although, he is on his way out, our current president has given a "legitimacy" for those that have always harbored anti-Semitic thoughts to act on them. 
 
In answer to your question as to whether I have considered making aliyah, I was born in this Country and consider it a privilege to live here. My profession dictates that I be proficient in the English language and what I have learned and applied has served me well. It would be difficult to move to another Country, learn the language sufficiently to do what I do and benefit from it. That being said, I am getting on in years and do not know how much longer I will carry on with my profession. I watched a movie a number of years ago made from the novel "The Winds of War" by Herman Wouk. The movie was interesting as it it related to Jews during WWII and a line from the movie that always stuck with me was a response from one of the Jewish characters as to whether he thought of himself as safe in America. His answer was "a Jew should always keep his passport current". I love this Country and feel safe here, but if the time came when I had to do what many of my predecessors had to do, I always keep my passport current and there is only one place that I can go to without any reservation, the land of Canaan or as it is referred to today, Israel. 

Shalom,
Mordecai 

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