Torah reading: Genesis chapters 37 to 40.
Haftarah reading: Amos 2:6 to 3:8.
I’ve been doing a fair amount of research lately on family dynamics and conflict, and the Joseph story appears to follow many of the patterns often observed in dysfunctional families. In particular, the main characters (Joseph, Reuben, Judah, and Benjamin) fall into the most common roles adopted by children in such families: the Golden Child, the Scapegoat, the Hero, the Rebel, and the Mascot. Throughout the story, we follow the characters as they shift between, adapt, and, ultimately, reject the roles that their family has chosen for them.
More below the fold.
Joseph begins the story in a strange double role. To his father, he is the Golden Child, the one who can do no wrong: the son of his favored wife, Rachel. Jacob singles him out for special attention and gifts (the “coat of many colors”), and it seems that even God favours him by sending him special dreams. To his half-brothers, though, he is the Scapegoat -- the epitome of all that is wrong in their family. The remaining brothers (Leah’s, Zilpah’s, and Bilhah’s sons), angry and upset that they are not equally loved, project all their resentment towards their father (and perhaps God!) onto the favored son.
Joseph, for his part, brings a “bad report” about Zilpah’s and Bilhah’s sons to his father. We don’t know if the report is truthful, but the fact it’s mentioned at all seems to hint it’s not. He likely senses that his father will automatically accept his “scapegoating” of Zilpah’s and Bilhah’s children -- the sons of the wives’ concubines, and hence automatically lower in status.
When Joseph approaches his brothers in the field, they sense their opportunity and decide to kill him...until Reuben intervenes. He is the Hero: the elder, responsible son, always striving to work hard and look good in his father’s eyes, yet never accepted as fully as the Golden Child. Reuben seeks a compromise solution, urging the other brothers to throw Joseph in a dry cistern (and secretly planning to save the situation by pulling him out later.)
However, while Reuben is offstage, a group of slave traders happens by. Judah senses a prime opportunity: no need to kill Joseph if they can send him off to Egypt and make a tidy profit into the bargain! Though selling his younger brother may be a better solution than killing him, in some ways it’s even more cold-blooded and calculating. Judah is the Rebel. He seeks to overturn the unfair status quo, bringing the Golden Child down to the level of a slave so he and the other brothers can now be the superior ones.
Of course, Benjamin isn’t present during this episode; presumably, he’s at home with his father. Though it’s unlikely he remained a little kid throughout the story, readers often picture him as a perpetual eight-year old, wide-eyed and rosy-cheeked. And this is inherent in the way the tale is told. Benjamin is the Mascot, cute and endearing, referred to continually as “the boy”; his father’s “son of my right hand”, “born to him in his old age.”
Over the course of the story, all four main characters are forced to grow up and, ultimately, to shed the roles that their birth family has assigned them. Joseph, the favored Golden Child, has a harsh awakening when he is sold into slavery. There will be no more special privileges given to him; he’s forced to learn responsibility and hard work in order to survive. Later, in the episode with Potiphar’s wife, he finds out what it’s like to be on the receiving end of an untruthful and unfair “bad report”. Even his “special” ability to interpret dreams doesn’t automatically help him out of his prison; it takes two full years before the cupbearer finally remembers his promise to Joseph. By the time Joseph becomes the highest in command next to Pharaoh, the spoiled Golden Child has turned into a wise, mature man capable of leading a nation through a seven-year famine.
For his part, Benjamin -- the sheltered Mascot -- is forced to leave his comfortable place by his father's side when it becomes clear the family will not survive unless he accompanies the other brothers to Egypt. As part of Joseph’s plan to reveal his own identity, Benjamin is first given the Golden Child status (extra portions at the feast) and then, in a dramatic turn of events, Scapegoated with the silver cup.
Reuben, the perpetual Hero of the family, must confront the fact that he cannot always save the situation. Despite his best efforts -- trying to persuade his father to let Benjamin go, pledging Benjamin’s safety with his own sons’ lives, and then (with the other brothers) trying to defuse the situation when the cup is found in Benjamin’s sack -- it is not Reuben but Judah, and ultimately, Joseph himself who prevents disaster. Responsible, careful Reuben is cast adrift, and his perpetual quest to gain his father’s love and blessing ultimately ends in failure (Genesis 49).
Perhaps, though, it is Judah who changes most. Once the Rebel seeking to do away with his Golden Child brother, Judah offers himself in Benjamin’s place when Joseph threatens to make Benjamin a slave for life. In so doing, he simultaneously acknowledges the futility of wishing his father would change -- recognizing that Jacob will always love Benjamin more -- and accepts responsibility for his earlier betrayal of his brother Joseph. I believe he offers himself in Benjamin’s place, not because he’s playing the Hero like Reuben, nor because he’s passively accepting the role of Scapegoat. Rather, he finally admits that he was wrong to sell Joseph into slavery, and that he himself must pay the price for having done so. In looking at his own actions from an objective viewpoint, he becomes a much more mature individual -- and his selfless offer ultimately brings about Joseph’s own decision to reveal his identity to the brothers. By stepping out of the roles that their birth family has assigned to them, Joseph, Benjamin, and Judah can at last move beyond the enduring conflict (between favored and unfavored wives, elder and younger brothers, “good” sons and “bad” sons) that has plagued their family through four successive generations.