Vayeshev

Joel Erwteman

Joel Erwteman lives in Amsterdam. He is the father of four children and presented at Limmoed Netherlands 2009.

This week’s parasha, Vayeshev, tells the first part of the story of Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob. Joseph is portrayed as a vain youth, the darling of his father, who pays for his vanity by being sold by his brothers into slavery - although he will end up as the viceroy of Egypt in next week's parasha. It is a fast-paced thriller, full of mirrors and parallels, deception and illicit affairs. The parasha even ends with a true cliffhanger: in the very last lines of the parasha we leave our protagonist, Joseph, in Egyptian captivity, unsure of what the future will bring him.

Amongst the parallels we find in the parasha is the fact that Jacob, who was not the preferred son of his father (which, arguably, led him to conduct himself in a way that complicated his life considerably), now repeats his father's mistake by ostensibly preferring Joseph over his other sons. Another parallel is that Jacob, who deceived his own father, is deceived by his children, who, in turn, lead him to believe that Joseph perished. And, to mention just another example, the vain Joseph who believes that he is so much more than his brothers and who is so enamoured with his fancy clothes, ends up naked in a pit in the desert to be sold as a slave.

All these parallels and high drama make the characters in this parasha recognizably human. They fall and stand up, stray and come back. But they also seem to be, much like the protagonists of the tragedies of the ancients, beholden to their destiny, unable to change and doomed to repeat the mistakes of their parents.

And yet the parasha can be understood to teach us the opposite lesson.

A key for understanding this parasha may be found in the moniker that is bestowed on Joseph by his brothers. As he approaches them in the field and they conspire against him, they say to each other: "here comes the man of dreams (ba'al hachalomot)" (37:19). It is a comprehensible characterization of Joseph. Up until that point in the story we know little more of him than that he has had certain dreams. It is also not meant to be a very flattering characterization. The dreams that Joseph had were derogatory to his brothers as he imagined them prostrating themselves before him, the youngest brother. And indeed, the brothers’ conversation continues: "come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, some evil beast has devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams." (37:20)

Towards the end of the parasha, however, the fact that Joseph is a "man of dreams" takes on a much more positive meaning, as it is through his mastery of dreams, his ability to explain the dreams of his fellow prisoners, that he is able to free himself from captivity (another one of the dizzying inversions of this story’s cycle). Joseph is, indeed, a man of dreams. It is through dreams that he gets into trouble and it is through dreams he gets out of trouble.

It shows us an important lesson: it is not our character that determines who we are, but what we do. Being a man of dreams can land you in a lonely pit, but it can also make you viceroy of Egypt!