Genesis-and-seven-laws-of-noah.com
• BLASPHEMY and DESECRATION of God’s Name
• Anything that diminishes God’s Honor in the world
• G-d’s Honor comes from His KINGSHIP
• He intervenes in the world affairs
• And in our personal life
• We commit BLASPHEMY
• by cursing the Holy Name.
• when a Torah scholar misbehaves
• People would attribute the bad behavior
• to the failure of the Torah he has learned
• The opposite is Sanctification of God’s Name
• By increasing His Honor
• By building Temples in the physical world or in our hearts
• By our good behavior , being good example for others
• By surrendering our lives for His Name
• Selling Joseph by his brothers
• The story is written under the Name ELKM (Judge)
(Besides very few mentioning of YHVH
• ELKM, since the Heavenly Court was about
• to fulfill the ancient decree to Abraham
• That his children would end up living in Egypt for 400 years
• Jacob and his sons would go down to Egypt one way or another
• Every individual lives and moves in his little circle
• Unaware of where the HC is leading
• A rare opportunity to see how the King rules His World
• The King and his Honor is the essence of the story
• “Jacob settled in the land
• in which his father had sojourned
• In the land of Canaan”
• He wished to settle peacefully in peace
• In the Land that Isaac lived
• Isaac never left the Holy Land
• But Jacob would leave it
• Jacob and his sons are tested on the things they had achieved
• On Brotherhood
• On Abduction
• On Circumcision
• On Holiness
• On Justice
• On chanting with El
• On zealousness
• He had seen in his Ladder Dream
• That people climb up on the former step
• That the previous achievement serves as a base for the new trial
• Isaac had set up the trial
• In the blessing he gave to Jacob
• Isaac blessing to Jacob
• “Let ELKM give you the dew of the Heavens
• and the fatness of the earth
• And plenty of corn and wine
• Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you
• Be lord over your brothers
• and let your mother’s sons
• bow down to you
• Cursed be those who curse you
• And blessed be those who bless you”
• Isaac blessing to Esau
• “and he said to him: behold, thy dwelling shall be
• of the fatness of the earth
• And of the dew of the Heavens from above
• And by the sword shall you live
• And you shall serve your brother
• And it shall come to pass
• When you shall have the dominion…”
•
• Both got almost blessing
• But Jacob received is in the Name of ELKM
• While Esau received is blank, without the holy name
• Jacob receive the blessing on condition under ELKM judgment
• Esau receive is unconditionally
• Receiving blessing unconditionally is humiliating
• Receiving by merits is honorable and lasting
• Israel receives blessings by merits
• Esau by “kindness”
• That explains Jewish history
• “These are the generations (history) of Jacob
• Joseph, being seventeen years old,
• was feeding the flock with his brothers
• And he was a lad with the sons of Bilah
• and with the sons of Zilpah his father’s wives,
• And Joseph brought to his father their evil report”
• Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children,
• because he was the son of his old age
• And he made him a coat with long strips
• And when his brothers saw that their father
• loved more than all his children
• they hated him
and could not speak peacefully with him
• Having won all of his external opponents
• Jacob-Israel wished to dwell peacefully in the Land of Canaan
• He was supposed to chant “3 times Holy” along with the Angelic Choir
• But “there is no peace for righteous people in this world” (Rashi)
• After all, we are born to withstand a life-long trial
• Jacob’s family fell apart
• Joseph was gossips in his father’s ears about his brothers, raising their hatred
• He told his father about their errors and sins
• THAT THEY EAT MEAT FROM A LIVING ANIMAL (Rashi)
• This predicts BLOODSHED
• And how they spoke badly about each other
• Leah’s sons look down at the sons of the maidens
• Instead of sanctifying God’s Name
• Jacob’s family filled with hatred towards each other
• Jacob himself is partially responsible or the family breakdown.
• By listening to Joseph
• By showing the he preferred him
• The one who listens to bad mouth is as guilty
• As the one who speaks it
• Jacob poured gasoline on the fire of hatred and jealousy
• By giving Joseph an expensive striped-shirt
• Moreover, Joseph told his brothers about two dreams he had
• “And he said to them: hear I pray you,
• the dream which I have dreamed
• For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field
• and lo, my sheath arose and also stood upright
• and behold, your sheaths stood around about
• and bowed down to my sheath
• And his brothers said to him:
• will you indeed reign over us?
• Or will you have dominion over us?
• And they hated him yet even more
• Fore his dreams and for his words
• Everything in the story revolves
• around honor and kingship
• And he dreamed yet another dream
• And told it to his brothers and said
• Behold, I’ve again dreamed a dream
• And behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me
• And he told it to his father
• And to hiois brothers
• And his father rebuked him and said to him
• What is the dram that you have dreamt
• Shall I And your mother and your eleven brothers
• indeed come to bow down ourselves to you to the ground?
• And his brothers envied him
while his father kept the matter in his mind
• Would Joseph inherit Jacob’s blessing
• That he would rule over his brothers?
• The sages said that Joseph resembled his father
• both physically and spiritually
• Rabbi Soloveizick, Blessed his Memory, explained
• The first dream predicted Joseph rule as an economic provider
• The second dream foresaw him as a king
• The story comes to an ugly climax when Jacob dispatches Joseph to his brothers who are grazing in the field with their herds.
• Joseph gets lost, and he encounters a ‘man’ who directs him to his brother’s location.
• Our sages explained that this ‘man’ was an Angel sent by G-d to bring Joseph to his brothers
• And his brothers went to feed their fathers‘ cattle in Scehem, and Israel said to Joseph
• Do not your brothers feed their flock in Shehem? Come and I will send you to them and he said to him Here I am
• And he said to him Go, I pray you, see whether it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks and bring me the words. And he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he came to Shehem
• And a man found him
• and behold he was wondering in the fields
• and the man asked him saying
• what seeks you ?
• And he said I seek my brothers
• Tell me, I pray you, where they feed their flocks?
• “And the man said: they are departed from her,
• for I heard them say Let us go to Dotan
• And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dotan”
• The Man was an Angel
• Sent by the King to manipulate history
• And when they saw him fram afar even before he came near
• They conspired against him to slay him
• And they said one another Behold this dreamer comes!
• Come now, therefore, and let us slay him
• And cast him into some pit, and we will say
• An evil beast has devoured him
• and we shall we what will become of his dreams
• And Reuben heard it and he delivered him
• out of their hands and said let us not kill him
• And Reuben said to them shed no blood
• but cast him into the pit that is in the wilderness
• and lay no hand upon him
• That he might save him out of their hands
• to deliver him back to his father
• In Shehem they had behaved like zealots
• And killed the citizen
• From thereafter they had to prove that they remain zealots
• Therefore their behavior was scrutinized
• If they fail, they would be condemned also for the slaying
• Of the city of Shehem citizen as well
• They had to be especially careful about their behavior because
• Jacob’s blessing came on condition
• Jacob and his family chants 3 times holy
• Because they had behaved like zealots
• “And it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brothers
• That they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his strip coat,
• And they took him and cast him into a pit
• And the pit was empty, there was no water in it
• And they set down to eat their bread”
• They would be punished by lacking bread
• And they lifter up their eyes and looked, and behold,
• A company of Yishmelites came from the Gilaad
• And their camels bearing gum, balm and ladanum
• Going to carry it down to Egypt
• Amd Judah said to his brothers
• What profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
• Let us sell him to the YIshamelites
• And the brothers hearkened to him
• Then they were passed by Mydianites merchants and they drew and lifted out Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Yishmalites for twenty pieces of silver
• And they brought Joseph down to Egypt
•
• And Reuben returned to the pit and behold,
• Joseph was not in the pit
• And he rent his clothes and he returned to his brothers
• and said the child is not and I where shall I go?
• And they took Joseph’s coat and killed a kid of the goats
• and dipped the coat in the blood
• and they sent the stripped coat
• and they brought it to their father and said
• this is what we found. Know now whether it be your son’s coat or not?
• And he knew, and said: it is my son’s coat,
• an evil beast has devoured him.
• Joseph is no doubt torn into pieces
• And Jacob rent his clothes and put sac clothes on his loins
• and mourned for his son for many days
• And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him
• but he refused to be comforted
• and he said For I will go down to my son mourning into the Sheol
• And the Mydianites sold him to Egypt to Ptifar,
• Pharaoh’s chamberlain
• a Capitan of the guard
• So here we have a rare opportunity
• to see how the Heavenly decree works
• While each of the many participants acts
• according to his or hers Free will
• the heavenly Court pushes Jacob and his family to Egypt
• The King executes His Verdict
• The brothers committed not only a sin of
• abduction and injustice
• but also an act of BLASPHEMY