The Torah characterizes the era of Noah with the following phrase: ki yétser lev haadam ra mineurav, “from his youth, the inclination of the heart of man is evil.” Why? Because no one wanted to listen to the warnings of Noah who took 120 years to build the ark, giving enough time for many people to rethink their attitude and choose to save themselves from the flood that was approaching evermore. In fact, that penchant for evil manifested itself when Kayin murdered his brother Hevel, and a replay almost occurred in the case of Esav, who vowed to kill his brother Yaacov for having taken away his father’s blessing through a stratagem.
We read in these chapters about another possible murder: the brothers plan to kill Yosef. Why? For his dreams. This is what the Torah tells us that when the brothers perceive Yosef from afar, they exclaimed: “Here comes the dreamer” and immediately plan his murder.
In the case of Kayin and Hevel, the Torah does not detail what the quarrel or verbal fight between the brothers consisted, an event that culminated in the death of the youngest of them. In Yaacov’s case, Esav felt that he had been betrayed by his twin brother who, through deception, took away the fatherly blessing. When analyzing what happened between the brothers who would later become the parents of the twelve tribes of Israel, how can murder be justified as a reaction to a dream? The brothers throw Yosef into a well to starve from hunger and immediately sit down to a hearty dinner. The irony of the facts shows excessive cruelty.
It must be remembered that Yaacov’s children came from different mothers, and there surely developed a marked rivalry between the children of Leah and the children of Rachel. Didn’t the children know that Lea was the one who was despised, the woman who was imposed on the patriarch through deception, a ploy similar to the one Yaacov had used a few years ago to obtain the father’s blessing? There was no doubt that the patriarch had transferred his love for the late Rachel to Yosef and Binyamin. In later chapters, the Torah will testify to Yehudah’s willingness to take Binyamin’s place in prison, because he knows that the father will never be able to bear the pain that will produce the absence of the young man who was born at the time Rachel expired.
Natan Aviezer interprets Yehuda’s noble action in offering his willingness to take Binyamin’s place in jail as a clear demonstration that he was aware of the difference in affection. The father had shown clear preference for Rachel’s sons and it was opportune that Yehudah stays in prison instead of Binyamin. Even when Shimon is imprisoned, the brothers do not suggest that the father send Binyamin. Only when supplies are about to run out, do the brothers think that the young man should accompany them on their next trip to Egypt.
Yosef’s dreams were the trigger for the brothers to act against the unjust preference of the father for Rachel’s children. Didn’t they have the same father? Why did the father buy a multi-colored tunic only for Yosef? Years later, when the father lay on the deathbed, all the brothers exclaimed in unison: Shema Israel …, “Listen father Israel, HaShem our God, HaShem is unique.” The message of monotheism had been internalized by the brothers, but Yosef acted just as if he were Yaacov’s sole spiritual heir.
When the brothers threw Yosef into the empty well, did they just want to scare him, or did they really want to eliminate him? When the brothers agree to sell Yosef to slave traders, they show that although they wanted to get rid of the young man, they were not willing to spill his blood. Although slavery represented a death sentence of prolonged agony, there was always the possibility that Yosef would be saved.
We are at the beginning of the creation of the Hebrew people and our ancestors will make mistakes and commit errors. What is important and decisive is the direction of their actions and desires. Over the years, the reckless initial steps will give way to concrete – and often heroic – acts of those who with their energetic personalities set the course and forged the character of a nation that survived the outrage and injustice, to appear with renewed vigor in the arenas of history with the creation of the modern State of Israel.
