In Perek 37 of Bareishit we are exposed to a struggle between Yosef and his brothers. The jealousy between Yosef and his brothers is incredibly hard to understand - thereby making the whole Perek 37 impossible to explain. How can we claim that the brothers are Tzadikim when they want to actually kill their brother? Seemingly, the best we can do is justify their jealousy as zealousness for HaShem and what is best for the Jewish Nation. However, turning Jealousy into Zealousy is not so simple and does not completely set the story at ease. It seems to me that this is the beginning of a struggle to obtain the Right of the Firstborn, the same Right that allowed Yitzchak and Yaakov to inherit the Brit - Covenant - of Avraham and become the heirs to the Jewish Nation. This struggle presents itself between all of the Sons of Yaakov and will foreshadow events to come in the Ancient History of Israel.
As we have seen in earlier Parshiyot, there is always a struggle between the two sons of one of the Patriarchs to obtain the Right of the Firstborn, claim ownership of the Land of Israel, and become the next Patriarch of the Jewish Nation. Ishmael lost to Yitzchak; Esav lost to Yaakov; all 12 brothers want to be the 1 son who has the Firstborn Right and are afraid to be of the 11 who have nothing.
Before we look into the struggle between Yosef and the brothers, and explain what was previously said, we must first look at the second Pasuk of the Parsha, Bareishit 37:2. This Pasuk is incredibly difficult to truly understand, in my own humble opinion [and in the humble opinions of my friends]; however, I will try to give as much insight as possible in how to read this Pasuk. The main problem with the Pasuk is that it tries to describe all of Yosef in one sentence; this causes multiple permutations of combinations of the words, phrases, and parallels in order to understand what Yosef is all about - it is possible to understand Yosef in manny different lights. I will attempt to explain one way to understand Yosef, a way that will help me explain everything else in this one Perek, Perek 37.
Descriptions of Yosef:
(1) The Pasuk starts with אלה תולדות יעקב - This is the lineage of Yaakov. Usually this phrase is used to introduce the list of someone’s lineage, ex. This is the lineage of Ploni, Ploni had a son named Almoni, etc. However, in some instances, this phrase introduces the story of a specific son, in this case we are introduced to the story of Yosef. This implies that Yosef is connected to the Righteousness of Yaakov, thereby connecting Yosef to Yaakov’s Midot Tovot - Good Deeds. In the next Pasuk, Yosef is called the son of Yaakov’s old age, which the Netzeiv explains that Yaakov saw himself the most reflected in Yosef. Description 1: Yosef is a reflection of Yaakov’s actions and Righteousness.
(2) Skipping his age, the Pasuk refers to Yosef as רעה את אחיו בצאן - Shepherd of sheep with his brothers. However, to me it sounds like the Pasuk could be suggesting that Yosef would shepherd his brothers like sheep - i.e. Yosef commanded respect from his brothers. What is the practical difference? In the first interpretation Yosef is not anymore special than his brothers. Being a Shepherd, as a profession, is always a precursor to becoming a great leader in the Jewish Nation (See the Avot, Moshe, David). If all the brothers Shepherd together than no one is greater than the next. However, according to the second interpretation, Yosef was the shepherd of his brothers. He controlled, ruled, and commanded them. This second interpretation is the interpretation we will choose, and will also help us understand the next description. Description 2: Yosef had a sense of control and leadership over his brothers.
(3) The Pasuk then explains that Yosef was a נער את בני בלהה ואת בני זלפה נשי אביו - ‘Young Lad’ with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, the wives of his father. The Netzeiv explains that the word נער connotes subservience. Meaning, Yosef, while a Shepherd of his brothers, would humble serve, and look fairly upon, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah; he would not treat them like sons of maidservants, but sons of actually wives of Yaakov. Description 3: Yosef tried to make himself equal to his brothers.
(4) However, the Pasuk concludes with ויבא יוסף את דבתם רעה אל אביהם - And Yosef would come to speak bad words about them to his father. Up until now, Yosef is praised for having so many good attributes, but now we are introduced to his one flaw. With great power comes great responsibility; Yosef had power, and he claimed to be friends with even the “lowest subjects”, but he would end up using his power to tell his father all the wrong they did. How can Yosef claim to be equals with his brothers, but at the same time tell all the bad deeds they do to his father? It seems to me that Yosef wanted to make his brothers feel like they are equals, but this only manifested itself superficially. Yosef let his natural power and leadership tendencies to overtake him and end up steering his brothers the way he wanted them to be - like a Shepherd. Therefore, he would tell his father all the brothers’ flaws in order that Yaakov rebuke them. Description 4: Yosef is easily blinded with power and control.
Now that we understand Yosef, and his major flaw, we can now look into what exactly is going on between Yosef and his brothers. On the surface, it seems that the argument is solely based on the fact that Yosef would “tattle” on his brothers and use this as a way to suck up to Yaakov, thereby becoming Yaakov’s favorite son. We will now see the deeper meaning behind this. After Rachel dies, Reuven goes into Bilhah’s tent in order that Yaakov not take solace with Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, but instead become comforted with Leah, a true wife of Yaakov in Reuven’s eyes. Yaakov never responds to Reuven’s actions nor are they ever referred to except by Reuven’s Blessing, or lack of one, before Yaakov’s death. However, the Pasuk that tells us of Reuven’s drastic move ends telling us that Yaakov had 12 sons. This implies that Reuven, who is the Bechor, is now created equal to all 12 sons; no son has the special status of the Bechor anymore and, seemingly, it is up in the air for anyone to take.
Back to our Parsha. All the brothers want to be the Bechor - the Firstborn - and, thereby, have the Right to the Land of Israel. The assumption is that only one of them can have that Bechor, leaving the other 11 behind with nothing. The brothers observe Yosef’s rise in the eyes of Yaakov and become suspicious of his motives - Yosef seems to be trying to acquire the Firstborn Right. Their suspicions are heightened when Yosef tells them of his dreams of kingship; while Yosef believes them to be dreams with some prophetic message, the brothers believe that they are not dreams and instead they are merely the schemes of Yosef to take the Bechor for himself. Does it make sense that Yosef would try to take the Bechor by tricks? Yes. The brothers know that Yaakov got the Bechor by tricking Yitzchak into giving it to him, so it is very possible that Yosef is doing the same thing. The brothers are not happy that Yosef is making a move on the Bechor and this causes them to become incredibly angry and jealous.
To summarize, Yosef has a lot of good qualities, but he has one flaw of being blinded with power and abusing control. The Bechor is hanging in the air because Reuven lost it for himself. The brothers interpret Yosef’s rise in the eyes of Yaakov as a move on obtaining the Bechor, thereby isolating the rest of them from Judaism. Yosef cannot claim the Bechor because the Bechor is for true leaders and Yosef cannot handle power.
I would like posit that the Bechor is not meant to go to only one of the sons of Israel, but rather it was meant to go to all of 12 of them. By the Aigel HaZahav, the right to priesthood goes from the firstborns of every family to specifically the tribe of Levi. Every family was going to have a Priest; each firstborn would have the Right as a Firstborn to be a priest for HaShem. Each tribe would have their specific group of Kohanim. The original 12 brothers were supposed to realize that they should worry more about their own self-worthiness than obsess over devaluing the other 11 brothers in order to get a confidence boost. Meaning, if each brother focused on proving his own worth then each one of them would have merited a Kohanic sect of Firstborns in their own tribe; but, because they made the Bechira about one specific brother getting the Firstborn Right over the others that is what the Bechira became.
Ultimately the Bechira - Firstborn Right - was split into 3 pieces: (1) The immediate Bechira from Yaakov - Given to Yosef, (2) The Kingship of the Jews - Given to Yehuda, and (3) The Priesthood - Given to Levi. We know that Yosef, Yehuda, and Levi all gain a piece of the Bechira (I will explain each one in depth), but the question is why do they specifically get a piece of the Bechira and not other brothers, like Reuven? This is because Yosef, Yehuda, and Levi, within the story of the struggle between Yosef and his brothers, displayed a sense of maturity and development of leadership skills that were necessary for each one to obtain. Each specific leadership trait that these three brothers developed fix a flaw that each one had within them. Yosef’s, Yehuda’s, and Levi’s actions, development, and self-worthiness, set an example for their future children, which allows for them to be given the ultimate Bechira each tribe ultimately is deserved of. I will explain.
Yosef’s major flaw, as we outlined from the second Pasuk, 37:2, tells us that Yosef had an issue controlling his control issues. He felt that it was his job to use his power to control his brothers and steer them to be the people he thought they should be. A leader needs power, but he also needs to know when to use that power. Yosef, being the victim, has an easier time learning his character flaws. Being a slave in Egypt, Yosef becomes subject to someone else’s rule; he learns what it is like to have someone control him and to put pressure on him to due his master’s bidding. Therefore, when Yosef becomes viceroy of Egypt; and, when Yaakov dies; and, when the brothers come before him at the end of VaYichi, Yosef displays his new sense of self-control. He, as the viceroy of Egypt, has the brothers in the palm of his hand; Yaakov is dead and now Yosef can take revenge on the brothers for all that they did to him. However, Yosef offers the brothers very kind and reassuring words; he tells the brothers that he has no thoughts of exerting his power on them nor does he want revenge, he just wants everything to fine between them so that they can be true brothers. Yosef learns self-control and he learns to exert his power at appropriate times. Therefore, while Yaakov awarded Yosef Shechem, the physical double-portion of inheritance, HaShem gives Yosef a double portion in the tribes of Israel. There is no tribe of Yosef; rather, there are the two tribes of Menashe and Ephraim, named after Yosef’s sons. Furthermore, when the Jewish Nation is split up between Yehuda and the Northern Nations, Ephraim is attributed as taking hold of the Kingship of Israel. This was merited by Yosef’s own self-worthiness of the Bechira [even though the Kingship of Israel is soon lost to ancient history].
Next we will explain why Yehuda merited to have a piece of the Bechira. However, we must first understand why Reuven did not get a Bechira, and by contrast we can better understand Yehuda. Reuven, having lost the Bechira originally, tries to gain back the Firstborn Right throughout his Tribe’s history. When the brothers look to kill Yosef Reuven stands up before them telling them not to kill him directly. Reuven wants to save Yosef, but he does not have the spirit of a leader to stand up before his brothers and tell them to not hurt Yosef at all. Rather, instead of having the brothers kill Yosef directly, Reuven tells them to throw Yosef in a pit, which is empty and without water, causing Yosef to starve and dehydrate until he dies, indirectly caused by the brothers. Reuven figures that he will be able to save Yosef from this death, but if he does not make it back in time, and Yosef dies, at least this could boost his chance of being the Bechor. Ultimately this does not work for Reuven - Reuven gains no favor in the eyes of his father. Reuven’s tribe, so impassioned by their own mission of self-aggrandizement, band together with Korach in an attempt to retake the Bechor their ancestor lost - again this attempt fails. The whole tribe then decides that it would be better to live outside of Israel, in the Jordan. When amidst his brothers, Reuven looks bad due to his high potential, but low status - if Reuven moves to the other side of the Jordan River then he will seem to have more value in isolation, and possibly even control the tribe of Gad and half-of-Menashe. The story of Reuven is a sad, frustrating lack of growth; Reuven never learns how to fix himself and work amongst a Nation of brothers, instead of trying to always be better than them.
Yehuda is the exact opposite of Reuven. When Reuven decides to put Yosef in harm of an indirect death, Yehuda stands up before his brothers and demands that Yosef not be put in death’s way at all. Instead, Yehuda proposes, Yosef should be sold into slavery; in slavery, Yosef will be alive, but he will live as a slave - the opposite of what he claims he saw in his dreams. This proposition, whatever the motive (whether good or bad), starts Yehuda on a road to personal growth and worthiness. Immediately after Yosef gets to his final destination, Egypt, we are told that Yehuda gets married to a Canaanite woman, this obviously goes against all that his forefathers believed in. He then has a scandal with Tamar, who is righteous in-and-of herself (being that she is only referred to as Tamar and no other descriptionary title); long story short, Yehuda admits his guilt, defends Tamar, and rectifies the wrong by marrying her. This marriage between Yehuda and Tamar gives birth to the lineage of David, and of Mashiach. Later on, when the brothers are in Egypt before Yosef the Viceroy, Yehuda stands up for Binyamin before Yosef and displays his willingness to defend the people he cares about, keeping them out of harms way. For this Yehuda merits the Bechira of Kingship for all eternity in Jewish History.
Last to be discussed, and hardest to explain, Levi also undergoes a growth of self-worthiness that is reflected more in his children then in himself. As we know, Levi reaches his lowest point in Shechem, where he and Shimon wipe out the entire city. They are both scorned for doing so by their father and we see that they have a flaw of extremism for what they believe is right. Interestingly enough, however, when relaying the struggle between Yosef and his brothers, we never hear anything of Levi. Levi, who we would think would be the most vocal about killing Yosef, is never mentioned in this Parsha or the next. His ability to keep quiet is outstanding and goes against everything we know about him. However, when Yaakov blesses his sons at the end of his life, he curses Shimon and Levi, causing them not to have a portion of the Land of Israel. So when does Levi gain the Bechira of Priesthood? We alluded to the answer above. Originally, the Bechor of each family was going to be a Kohen; however, because of the mass sin of the Eigel HaZahav, the Bechorim were stripped of the Right to Priesthood and it was then given to Levi. Why? Because the tribe of Levi did not say anything, they kept quiet as their ancestor did by Yosef, and they did not preemptively wipe out all of the sinners amidst the intoxication of transgression. On the contrary, they kept away from sin, pledged allegiance to G-d when Moshe came down from the mount, and then they were allowed to display their extremism for G-d by killing the sinners in a controlled fashion. Because Levi was able to control himself, and themselves, and quiet down his extremist love for G-d, he was ultimately awarded with the head position of Avodat HaShem, the Priesthood.
*Note: I do not know how to explain Shimon. He also did not say anything about Yosef, which also shows his self-control. However, it must be that Shimon’s descendants never exemplified their leadership abilities like Levi’s children did by the Eigel HaZahav. If you have any insights on Shimon please Sumbit them to me. I would love to hear them.*
