The Blogs: Vayeshev: Stranger(s) in the Field

In a seemingly inconsequential and short diversion from the main narrative of Vayeshev, the Torah briefly introduces us to an unnamed man who helps Yosef find his brothers and the flock at his father’s request. Apprehension filters through the text, readers already aware of the fractious relationship with his brothers, who find him falsely superior as he recounts his dreams. This man meets Yosef at a crossroads – he is lost in the fields, unable to find his brothers in Shechem, where they were thought to have been. He does not know which way to turn, and his story is at a brief pause. This man literally and metaphorically drives the narrative forward, his words paving the path along which Yosef will find himself in a pit and sold to merchants at the hands of his brothers. Tanach identifies him as איש, nothing more – he is merely a ‘man’ whom Yosef happens to cross paths with.

Of course, the plain meaning, the pshat, is clear – this man is a stranger, a passerby, an interpretation which Ibn Ezra puts forth.[1] Ha’amek Davar partially agrees with this idea, writing that there are two possibilities of who this man is – ‘either he was a well-known man to them in his importance, or, he recognised him as an angel or prophet who knew everything to do with his brothers’.[2] Leaning upon the latter concept of recognition, he writes that Yosef himself happened upon the stranger, something which could allow the text to ‘teach that the man was a messenger from heaven’ who helped Yosef on his continued path.[3] Ramban’s reading of the text reinforces this, the commentator writing that G-d ‘sent [Yosef] a guide without his knowledge in order to bring him into [his brothers’] hands’.[4]

Ramban goes on to say that this idea of the man as a guide is ‘what [the] Rabbis [of the Talmudic period] intended when they said that [this man was an angel], for these events [that followed] did not occur without purpose’.[5] The earlier biblical interpreters of Midrash tend towards this view, with Aggadah Bereshit questioning why it is that ‘the angel who was assigned by G-d to watch over [Yosef found] him wandering’, the text suggesting that this same angel appears before him later when Yosef recognises his brothers during the famine.[6] Bereshit Rabbah goes further, stating that the איש described is not one angel but three, an idea substantiated in the midrash by the idea that ‘if several angels escorted Eliezer, who was a slave of the household’ earlier in Torah it makes sense that Yosef, ‘who was the beloved of the household, all the more so’ had angels to escort him on his path.[7] The midrash states that ‘Rabbi Yosei said: Joseph was the youngest of the tribes and three angels escorted him’, the number extrapolated from the three instances in which the man is identified in the pesukim.[8] Firstly, וימצאהו איש, ‘a man came upon him’, then האיש לאמר, ‘the man asked him’ (both Gen. 37:15), and lastly, ויאמר האיש, ‘the man said’ (Gen. 37:17). Whether you read the איש of these passages as one figure or three, however, it is clear that this unidentified figure has a great impact on Yosef’s narrative and biblical journey, securing him on the path which sends him and his dream interpretation to Egypt, where his potential will be realised.

Some commentators delve deeper, seeking to be ever more specific in their identification of this man. In his commentary, Rashi uses the midrashim to evidence the reading that this figure is in fact ‘the angel Gavriel’, citing Bereshit Rabbah 84:14 and Midrash Tanchuma Vayeshev 2:3.[9] 17^th Century commentator Keli Yakar goes further, writing that ‘this man had been seeking [Yosef …] to warn [him] to be wary of his brothers’ but that Yosef never met the man who would warn him.[10] He writes that this man mistakenly believes that Yosef had ‘gone towards peace’, and therefore didn’t warn him of the dangers ahead.[11] How could a divine agent, an angel sent to guide Yosef, knowingly send him into the path of such danger? Keli Yakar poses the solution that this conundrum reinforces why this figure ‘must be an angel – he knew what was in [Yosef’s] heart’, i.e. that he did not believe his brothers to harbour such hateful thoughts and actions towards him.[12] What this figure does, in fact, is send Yosef on the path which will allow the truth of his heart – his understanding that his dreams and his ability to interpret them is important somehow – to come to fruition for good rather than friction.

If this reading of Tanach holds up, this figure shows himself to be divine through his omniscience – he knows what is in Yosef’s mind and his future in a way which does not logically make sense. This concept is reinforced by the interpretation of Da’at Zekenim, who also begins by noting that this figure is ‘the angel Gavriel’.[13] He chooses to pay more attention to the detail of the language in his interpretation of the phrase וימצאהו איש והנה תעה בשדה, ‘a man came upon him while he was lost in the field’ (Gen. 37:15), focussing on the word תעה. Exploring the gematria, the ‘numerical value’, of each letter, he writes that through his language the figure of Gavriel is giving Yosef a ‘hint of three exiles the Jewish people would endure’.[14] The first letter, ת, equalling 400, represents the ‘years of exile in Egypt’, whilst ע, equalling 70, represents the ‘years of exile in Babylon’; the last letter, ה, which equals five, represents the time until the ‘end of the exile commonly known as the Roman exile, till the coming of mashiach’.[15] The idea that such a figure could know of the future in this way, and know to communicate it to Yosef in language which is enshrined in Tanach, to be communicated to all that read his story, further highlights this interpretation of the man, the stranger, as a divinely imbued figure sent to guide Yosef on towards his brothers and the path that awaits.

Regardless of how we interpret this figure – as simply a man, a stranger in a field, or as an identifiable divine guide, an angel sent to ensure Yosef’s meets with his brothers – his presence is key. This short interlude in Vayeshev is, curiously, a vital cog in the narrative trajectory of Tanach. If Yosef never met with his brothers away from his father, they may never have had the chance to sell him, and he may never have reached Egypt to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and offset the effects of the famine. This man, mentioned over three small verses, impact the story immeasurably, ensuring it moves on, and the same can be said for every stranger we meet on the street in the trajectories of our own lives. One may never know the consequences of one’s small, seemingly inconsequential actions – like offering directions, or having short conversations with those doing you services in shops or at work – and how they can irrefutably impact another person’s life. This seemingly inconsequential man, with his seemingly inconsequential words, impacts the course of Yosef’s life, and the course of Tanach, utterly and completely, whether he did so as an angelic guide or not. We are all but strangers in fields; as we meet those around us, whether we know them or not, we should stand firm in the knowledge that we, too, can impact other people’s lives in this profound way.

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[1] Ibn Ezra on Genesis 37:15

[2] Ha’amek Davar on Genesis 37:15

[3] Ha’amek Davar on Genesis 37:15

[4] Ramban on Genesis 37:15

[5] Ramban on Genesis 37:15

[6] Aggadah Bereshit 73:7

[7] Bereshit Rabbah 75:4

[8] Bereshit Rabbah 75:4

[9] Rashi on Genesis 37:15

[10] Keli Yakar on Genesis 37:15

[11] Keli Yakar on Genesis 37:15