Vayeshev - Messiah ben Yosef

Vayeshev וַיֵּשֶׁב (and he lived)

Torah: B'reisheet/Genesis 37:1-40:23

                                                          

Haftarah: Amos 2:6-3:8

Apostolic Writings: Mattisyahu 1:1-6, 16-25

Summary:

(Aish)

This week's portion includes four stories: 

1) The selling of Yosef(Joseph) as a slave by his brothers -- which eventually positioned Yosef to be second in command in Egypt and enabled him to save the known world from famine 

2) The indiscretion of Yehuda (Judah) with Tamar (Tamar) ... 

3) The attempted seduction of Yosef by Potifar's wife, which ends with her framing Yosef and having him imprisoned 

4) Yosef interprets the dreams of his fellow prisoners, the wine steward (who was reinstated and forgot to put in a good word for Yosef) and the baker (who was hanged).

WEEKLY WORD 

"Messiah Ben Yosef " adapted from Vayashev commentary by R' Russ Resnik The book of the toledot of Yeshua the Mashiach, ben David, ben Avraham. Avraham fathered Yitzchak, and Yitzchak fathered Ya’akov, and Ya’akov fathered Yehudah and his brothers; and Yehudah fathered Peretz and Zerach by Tamar . . . (Matt. 1:1–3, DHE) Yeshua's genealogy in Matthew includes the names of four women before it even gets to Miriam, the mother of Yeshua, and none of these women makes the list because of pedigree. Backtracking from Miriam, we come first to the unnamed wife of Uriah who became the wife of David and bore Solomon (1:6); then Ruth, the impoverished Moabite widow who married Boaz and bore Obed (1:5); Rahab the harlot or innkeeper of the Book of Joshua, who bore Salmon (1:5); and finally Tamar the daughter of Judah, whose story appears in this week's parasha (1:3). And so, as one scholar notes, Yeshua's "birth to a woman who has conceived by the Holy Spirit (1:20) continues a pattern of God's work among outcast women in Israel" - Luke Timothy Johnson.  Tamar—one of these outcast women—stars in what seems like a sordid tale with little connection to the adventures of Joseph that take up the rest of the parasha. But if we look more closely, we'll see that this story, like Joseph's, is part of the fabric of Genesis, and helps complete its tapestry. After Joseph's brothers do all they can, short of murder, to get rid of him in Genesis 37, the narrative switches to Judah and his three sons; Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah finds a wife for Er named Tamar, but Er dies for his unspecified wickedness before they can have children, so Onan must marry Tamar and produce children through her to preserve Er's line. Onan tries to circumvent this duty and ends up dying early like his brother. Judah is a bit reluctant to give his only remaining son in marriage to Tamar. When she sees that Judah is stalling, she tricks him into sleeping with her himself, conceives, and has twins, Peretz and Zerach. Before Peretz can be born, Zerach's hand emerges from the womb and he is marked as the firstborn. Then he withdraws his hand and Peretz is born, but Zerach retains the title. You'll have to read all the details yourself, but this is the same Peretz who shows up in the pedigree of Messiah. OK, so the story of Judah and Tamar is included in the Torah because it is part of the genealogy of the Messiah to come. But how does it fit in with Joseph's story and the rest of Genesis? Joseph's story opens with the phrase, Eleh toldot Yakov, "These are the generations of Jacob" (Gen. 37:2). The classic Hebrew translation of Matthew by Franz Delitzsch opens with a similar phrase, Sefer toldot Yeshua, "The book of the generations of Yeshua." Eleh toldot, or "These are the generations," is a key phrase in Genesis, appearing ten times, with the beginning of our parasha being the final occurrence. The phrase serves as a sort of chapter heading within Genesis, but these are not ordinary chapters. Some are long, like the Joseph story, which makes up over 25 percent of the whole book, and others are short, just a paragraph or so. The key to understanding the structure of Genesis is to think of toldot as meaning "proceedings" or "what-came-forth." Thus, the first occurrence of the phrase is Genesis 2:4, "This is what-came-forth from the heavens and the earth." Genesis tells us what proceeds from the heavens and the earth after their creation, and traces the proceedings, the generations, of humankind that follow, which are raised up to fulfill God's purposes for the heavens and the earth. But, of course, these generations don't proceed in a simple, straight-line fashion, but through challenging and circuitous routes, some of which appear all wrong to our human understanding. And right away, almost as if to ensure that the generations don't unfold too smoothly, God introduces another theme into Genesis-the older shall serve the younger. In the drama of toldot, we'd expect the star to be the firstborn son, but God repeatedly chooses the second-born, or even younger. This theme is reiterated multiple times throughout the Joseph story, which will bring  Genesis to its conclusion and set the stage for the next book of the Torah, Exodus. Early in Exodus, God announces, "Israel is my firstborn son" (Ex. 4:22). Now, remember, this announcement is made in the court of Pharaoh, ruler of a nation far older and larger and more glorious than Israel, a nation with a far weightier claim to be the firstborn. But, as God reminds Israel, "It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the LORD set his heart on you and chose you-for you were the fewest of all peoples. It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors . . ." (Deut. 7:7-8). So perhaps Genesis emphasizes all the second-born chosen ones, and reaches its climax with the story of the young, unlikely, but chosen, Joseph, to prepare us for the story of the chosen people, Israel. The drama of the chosen not-first-born prepares us to accept God's choice of the people Israel, without which Exodus and the rest of Bible don't make sense. Furthermore, Genesis gets us ready to understand that God doesn't choose Israel, or anyone else, on the basis of our merit and might, but through his own free and loving desire. At the beginning of this week's parasha, we learn that Jacob loved Joseph above all his brothers because "he was the son of his old age" (Gen. 37:3). But why exactly does that make him worthy of being the chosen one, we might ask-as I'm sure his brothers asked. The answer is that we are not to question the father's choice, but to support it. Just to make sure that we get this, and that we never imagine God's plans to be dependent on human values, he chooses the line descended from Peretz, a low-status ancestor if there ever was one, to bear the Messianic promise. Joseph's brothers defy their father's choice of Joseph, and thereby defy Jacob. Later, Pharaoh will defy God's choice of Israel, and thereby defy God himself (setting the pattern for all who resent Israel's election from that day to this). The majority of the human race-including many who claim allegiance to the God of Israel-also defy God's choice of Israel and thereby defy God. At an October meeting of the Synod of Middle East (Catholic) bishops, Archbishop Boutros declared: "We Christians cannot speak of the ‘promised land' as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. There is no longer a chosen people-all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people" (http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-24/world/mideast.catholic.bishops_1_catholic-bishops-synod-foreign-minister-danny-ayalon?_s=PM:WORLD, accessed 11/23/2010). But if God chose the children of Israel permanently and everlastingly, as Scripture repeatedly says that he did, then the esteemed Archbishop is defying God, not only Israel, with his statement. The greatest defiance of all is to oppose God's choice of Messiah son of Peretz. But Peretz's father Judah provides some hope for all the defiant ones. He realizes that Tamar has become pregnant not because of harlotry, but because of his own refusal to do the right thing, and he says, "She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son" (Gen. 38:26). Judah demonstrates the ability to turn away from man-made devices and calculations and turn back to God's way of doing things. His turning in this story foreshadows an even greater turning-point later on, when he will offer to do whatever it takes to support his father's love of Benjamin, Joseph's younger brother. Judah's repentance is a sign of hope for all who have defied God, and in the end he shows signs of being chosen himself.

***

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"...All Israel Shall Be Saved..."

                  - Saul of Tarsus, Romans 11:26

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