In this weeks Parasha “Vayeishev” a very troubling thing happens. Joseph’s brothers decide that Joseph is the black sheep of the family. Joseph has had some dreams where he portrays his brothers bowing down to him. Because of this and other things he said about them to their father Yaakov, they assume that Joseph is wicked. Just as Abraham had a good son (Isaac) and a wicked son ( Ishmael) and their grandfather Isaac had a good son(Yaakov) and an evil son (Eisav) they thought that Joseph was evil, so they decide to kill him. Reuben the oldest brother tells them not to kill him, that they shouldn’t have blood in their hands and instead they should throw him into a pit and let his future be decided by G-d. Reuben leaves hoping to come back later and take Joseph out of the pit.Meanwhile a caravan of gypsies carrying spices come and the brothers sell their brother Joseph as a slave to be taken down to Egypt.
The brothers were considered righteous individuals so this makes the saga even more enigmatic and troublesome. The Torah is not a history book that is recounting chronological historical events, the Torah is first of all our family album and also is a psychological compendium of intricate different human emotions that run our lives and how even the most righteous individuals also have a yetzer hara “evil inclination” and a yetzer hatov ” good inclination. The Torah is teaching us how to behave and how to not behave, what is right and what is wrong in all this stories which if we look closely sometimes they are very similar to our own feelings and behaviors towards our own siblings and family.
We will continue with this Saga in the next days to see how it unfolds and what else we can learn so we don’t repeat our families past mistakes and finally can come to do Tikun Olam and repair the world!
