Pemikiran Yahudi Kejadian 49:8: Akeidat Yitzchak

Some problems in the text of our story: 1) Since the brothers were all superior people who would neither ruin their father's old age nor heap guilt upon themselves, why did they treat Joseph as they did? This is especially puzzling since we know from Gittin 52, that dreams as a way of foretelling future events may be discounted, disregarded even? 2) Since the brothers appear to have feared that Joseph would rule over them, why did they reverse their intention and allowed Joseph to live? Surely this kept the chance of his dreams coming true alive? 3) Why did the brothers have to resort to subterfuge to get rid of Joseph? Why did they not simply kill him and bury him? Why did they so readily consent to changes in plan, such as Reuben's suggestion to throw him into the pit, and Yehudah's suggestion to sell him to the caravan of Midianites? From their entire behavior, it seems they wanted to avoid bloodshed and were only afraid of what Joseph could do to them if he remained alive and free at the same time. 4) Why did the Torah not report explicitly how the brothers were punished for their treatment of Joseph? In fact, it appears that they had heavenly assistance in carrying out their plan (Bereshit Rabbah 84). They appear to have been beneficiaries of their misdeed, getting the V.I.P. treatment in Egypt during the famine in later years, ensuring their own and their families' survival and well being. We seem to find here a classic case of the chote veniskar, the sinner who is rewarded for his sin. All these arguments lead one to believe that their actions might have been involuntary, pre-ordained and therefore not culpable, if we had not already explained previously that this was not the case. 5) If Joseph's reports to his father about his brothers' wrongdoing had been factual, he should have received a reward for alerting his father to actions which their father would not have been able to correct unless someone had told him about them. Why was he punished for this? If, on the other hand, his reports were not factual, the Torah should have written, "He made up evil reports," not "He brought home evil reports" (37,2)! 6) Hatred by the brothers is mentioned three times. We hear the word "jealousy" only in connection with the second dream, when there is no mention of the word "hatred." Why is this? Why are the words "to rule" and "to reign" used separately? What is the difference between them? 7) What prompted Jacob to send out Joseph to check on the welfare of the brothers on this of all days? Why did Joseph get lost? Why did the man whom he encountered tell Joseph about his brothers' plans to relocate? 8) Why did the brothers select a wild beast as their alibi instead of claiming that robbers had killed Joseph and that they had buried his remains? Why did Jacob not send a search party to find Joesph's bones to bury what was left? 9) What had been in Reuben's mind when he said "Do not shed blood?" His plan too would have resulted in Joseph's blood being spilled. Why did he say in his brothers' presence, "What will happen to me since the lad is gone!" Surely, this statement revealed to the brothers that he had intended to rescue Joseph? What is Rashi trying to say when he writes, "The holy spirit spoke here?" Even Yehudah's advice allowed for the chance of Joseph surviving and ultimately revenging himself. Why the confusing statements about the Midianites and the Ishmaelites? 10) Why did Jacob refuse to be comforted (see Moed Katan 27, that one must not grieve for the dead excessively)? The statement should have read, "Jacob was unable to accept comfort." 11) Why is the sequence of the story interrupted by the affairs of Yehudah and Tamar? Why does the Torah have to tell us the name of Yehudah's first father-in -law? What do the names of his three sons denote, and why are we interested in reading about Yehudah's whereabouts at the time Sheylah was born? 12) Since Yehudah's two older sons seem to have died for sins that gentiles are not culpable for, namely the deliberate wasting of semen, how could they have been guilty of the death penalty not even having been aware that there was a prohibition? What did Onan mean by saying that the issue would not be his? 13) Why did Yehudah delay marrying off Sheylah seeing that the reason he gave, "Maybe he will die too,” would apply for the remainder of his entire life? 14) How did Tamar know that Yehudah would want relations with her even if he did encounter her at a place where harlots customarily stationed themselves? Having encountered him, why did she set such a high price on her favors that she endangered her whole plan? Why did she become pregnant with twins? Why does the Torah give such a detailed report about the strange behavior of the infants during their birth? 15) What do our sages in Sotah 7 mean when they heap praise on Yehudah for his honesty in saying, "She is more righteous than I" i.e. that he publicly confessed without considering that by doing so he degraded himself in public? Either a harlot had been permitted for a man to lie with before the Torah had been given, or he could have married her as a partner in a levirate marriage. In either case, what was the great admission he made? How did he expose himself to public disgrace by admitting to conduct which was perfectly legal? If on the other hand, Tamar was legally as out of bounds to him at that time as she would be after the Torah legislation had been revealed to the Jewish people, he had committed a shameful act by living knowingly with a harlot, or he had engaged unknowingly in a forbidden incestuous relationship with his daughter-in-law, and a continuation of such relations was certainly out of the question? Besides, who had appointed Yehudah both judge and jury in the case of his daughter-in-law, that he had the right to execute her? Since when does a judge preside over a case in which he has a personal interest? 16) It is strange that Potiphar's wife should make a public issue of her involvement with Joseph, a revelation which would reflect discredit upon her regardless of the appearance of her having been wronged. She could have waited for Joseph to weaken at a later date. Why did Joseph leave his clothing behind when he ran out of the house?