Parsha and Humanity: Vayeshev –Beresis the Book of Brotherhood

One day when my future father-in-law, Uriel Simon, was seven years old, he found himself at home alone. To pass the time, he started reading the book of Beresis. But when he reached the story of Joseph and his brothers, he burst into tears, saddened and shocked by the brothers’ cruelty. Maybe that was the day that he became destined to become a professor of Bible and write an award-winning and pioneering analysis of the Joseph story.

Simon points out that the book of Beresis as a whole focuses on relationships between brothers: Cain and Abel; Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and finally Joseph and his brothers. All of these pairs experience feelings of jealousy and  hatred. To an extent, this is only natural among close family. However, as Simon explains, the story of Beresis does not leave us in despair. While the story of Cain and Abel ends with a brutal murder, among the descendants of Abraham, there is reconciliation. All three stories – Ishmael and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers – end with a burial scene with the brothers coming together in a moment of fraternity and acknowledgement of shared origins and ancestry. But more importantly, Simon shows us that there is a progression from one story to the next. We find that Ishamel and Isaac come together to bury their father. But for Jacob and Esau it is more than that. As we discussed earlier, their hatred is overcome and turns even at some point to love.

Regarding Joseph and his brothers, the change is even more profound, as there is not only reconciliation but deep character growth. A careful reading of the story brings to light the failings of both sides and how they ultimately overcame them. For example, Judah’s jealousy leads him to sell Joseph. However, by the end of Beresis, Judah is able to accept that his father now loves Benjamin more than the others. Instead of being overwhelmed by jealousy of Benjamin, Judah is willing to sacrifice himself to save him and spare his father great pain. Simon’s reading teaches us that while tensions among siblings are natural, so too is there is a power and potential in family relationships to resolve them. This is the overarching message of the book of Genesis.

The next book of the Torah, Exodus, begins with an ideal brotherhood: Moses and Aaron, two brothers who work together and love each other, the brothers to whom many attribute the verse in Psalms “How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together.” Their fraternity is a living example of how the world should be, how the world could be.