Difference between revisions of "Who Sold Yosef/2/en"
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<point><b>"כִּי גֻנֹּב גֻּנַּבְתִּי מֵאֶרֶץ הָעִבְרִים"</b> – Shadal's cousin reads these words of Yosef as a reference to the Midianites stealing him from the pit. Shadal, though, thinks that Yosef is referring to his brothers stealing him from Yaakov, and that this statement merely reflects Yosef's own erroneous assumption that his brothers had sold him.</point> | <point><b>"כִּי גֻנֹּב גֻּנַּבְתִּי מֵאֶרֶץ הָעִבְרִים"</b> – Shadal's cousin reads these words of Yosef as a reference to the Midianites stealing him from the pit. Shadal, though, thinks that Yosef is referring to his brothers stealing him from Yaakov, and that this statement merely reflects Yosef's own erroneous assumption that his brothers had sold him.</point> | ||
<point><b>Why Yosef never sent to Yaakov?</b> R"Y Bekhor Shor notes that Rashbam's approach has the greatest difficulty explaining why Yosef did not send to his father, given the fact that he had not even been sold by his brothers.<fn>Shadal above would answer that Yosef himself mistakenly thought that the brothers had sold him, and was unaware that they were uninvolved.</fn></point> | <point><b>Why Yosef never sent to Yaakov?</b> R"Y Bekhor Shor notes that Rashbam's approach has the greatest difficulty explaining why Yosef did not send to his father, given the fact that he had not even been sold by his brothers.<fn>Shadal above would answer that Yosef himself mistakenly thought that the brothers had sold him, and was unaware that they were uninvolved.</fn></point> | ||
− | <point><b>Yaakov's Blessings</b> – | + | <point><b>Yaakov's Blessings</b> – In contrast to other exegetes, <multilink><a href="RashbamBereshit49-9" data-aht="source">Rashbam</a><a href="RashbamBereshit49-9" data-aht="source">Bereshit 49:9</a><a href="RashbamBereshit49-23" data-aht="source">Bereshit 49:23</a><a href="R. Shemuel b. Meir (Rashbam)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Shemuel b. Meir</a></multilink> maintains that none of Yaakov's blessings in Bereshit 49 make reference to the brothers' sale of Yosef.  <multilink><a href="ShadalBereshit49-23" data-aht="source">Shadal</a><a href="ShadalBereshit49-23" data-aht="source">Bereshit 49:23</a><a href="R. Shemuel David Luzzatto (Shadal)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Shemuel David Luzzatto</a></multilink> notes that this is consistent with Rashbam's view that the brothers were not the ones who sold Yosef.  Thus, Rashbam opts to interpret "וַיְמָרְרֻהוּ וָרֹבּוּ וַיִּשְׂטְמֻהוּ בַּעֲלֵי חִצִּים" as referring to Mrs. Potiphar's attempts to harm Yosef, rather than the brothers.  For elaboration on Rashbam's reading of the blessing to Yosef, see <a href="Yaakov's Blessing of Yosef" data-aht="page">Yaakov's Blessing of Yosef</a>.</point> |
<point><b>Did Yaakov ever find out the truth?</b> Shadal raises the possibility that, according to Rashbam, until the end, Yaakov never realized the extent of the brothers' hatred or the role they played on the day of the sale. The brothers might have never shared with Yaakov their guilt in throwing Yosef into a pit.</point> | <point><b>Did Yaakov ever find out the truth?</b> Shadal raises the possibility that, according to Rashbam, until the end, Yaakov never realized the extent of the brothers' hatred or the role they played on the day of the sale. The brothers might have never shared with Yaakov their guilt in throwing Yosef into a pit.</point> | ||
<point><b>What did Binyamin know?</b> Shadal suggests that Binyamin, too, never learned the true story.  He explains that when Yosef revealed himself to the brothers as "Yosef whom you sold to Egypt" Binyamin was not within hearing range.  He points out that immediately beforehand, Yosef said to the brothers, "גְּשׁוּ נָא אֵלַי", asking them alone to come close,<fn>The phrase is otherwise difficult, since Yosef would seem to have no reason to ask the brothers to approach if he had been talking to them already.  Others explain that Yosef did not want the Egyptians to overhear that his brothers had sold him.</fn> so that Binyamin would not overhear.<fn>Since Binyamin was the one of accused of theft, it is very possible that he was in custody and stood somewhat at a distance from the rest of the brothers who spoke to Yosef in his defense.</fn></point> | <point><b>What did Binyamin know?</b> Shadal suggests that Binyamin, too, never learned the true story.  He explains that when Yosef revealed himself to the brothers as "Yosef whom you sold to Egypt" Binyamin was not within hearing range.  He points out that immediately beforehand, Yosef said to the brothers, "גְּשׁוּ נָא אֵלַי", asking them alone to come close,<fn>The phrase is otherwise difficult, since Yosef would seem to have no reason to ask the brothers to approach if he had been talking to them already.  Others explain that Yosef did not want the Egyptians to overhear that his brothers had sold him.</fn> so that Binyamin would not overhear.<fn>Since Binyamin was the one of accused of theft, it is very possible that he was in custody and stood somewhat at a distance from the rest of the brothers who spoke to Yosef in his defense.</fn></point> |
Version as of 05:54, 1 January 2016
Who Sold Yosef?
Exegetical Approaches
Overview
The story of Yosef's sale focuses on the actions of two brothers – Reuven and Yehuda, and four groups of foreign nationals – Yishmaelites, Midianites, Medanites, and Egyptians. Commentators disagree about the internal relationships among both the brothers and the foreign parties, and the extent of the interaction between them. This has significant consequences for reconstructing the sequence of events in this episode as well as evaluating the brothers' character.
Bereshit Rabbah views the brothers as acting in unison to sell Yosef, with Reuven being the lone holdout. It also maintains that there were numerous unrelated groups of foreigners and multiple transactions, with the brothers' sale to the Yishmaelites being merely the first in a series. In contrast, R. Yosef Bekhor Shor portrays the brothers as divided between the two factions of Reuven and Yehuda, and the foreign nationals as all being part of the same caravan. According to him, half of the brothers sold Yosef to the foreign conglomerate which then proceeded to take him to Egypt. Finally, Rashbam presents all of the brothers including Reuven as one entity which was not responsible for Yosef's sale. He posits that the transaction was instead conducted between the different foreign groups themselves.
All of the Brothers (Except for Reuven) Sold Yosef
Yosef's brothers were the ones who sold him, but Reuven was elsewhere when the sale occurred.1
- According to Rashi, all three verbs are unconnected to the Midianites, but rather refer back to the brothers who were the subject of the previous verses. The brothers pulled and raised Yosef from the pit and then sold him to the Yishmaelites precisely as they had planned. This position, though, is problematic, as the mention of the Midianites at the beginning of the verse becomes seemingly irrelevant and out of place.5
- In contrast, the Ma'asei Hashem6 suggests that though the brothers are the ones who sold Yosef to the Yishmaelites, it was the Midianites, playing the role of porters and intermediaries in the sale, who pulled him out of the pit. This proposal easily explains the mention of the Midianites in the first clause of the verse, as they are the subject of what follows.
- Separate and equal – Bereshit Rabbah understands these to be two totally separate groups of merchants.7 The Yishmaelites bought Yosef from the brothers, and the Midianites subsequently bought him from the Yishmaelites and then marketed him in Egypt.8
- Separate but unequal – R. Tam and the Ma'asei Hashem also view them as two distinct groups, but suggest that the Midianites played the role of middlemen in facilitating the sale of Yosef by the brothers to the Yishmaelites.9
- Same caravan – On the other hand, Ibn Ezra,10 R. Avraham b. HaRambam, and Ramban maintain, that they were part of the same caravan.
- Ibn Ezra asserts that these are simply two names for one group of people,11 but does not explain why sometimes they are referred to in one way and sometimes in another.
- Ramban, in contrast, suggests that the Yishmaelites were the camel drivers12 while the Midianites were the slave owners.13
- R. Avraham b. HaRambam's position is some place in the middle as he proposes that both the Yishmaelites and Midianites were distinct members of the caravan, but maintains that their names are sometimes interchanged as they shared a common lineage and features.14
- Distinct – It appears15 that Bereshit Rabbah understands them to be two different groups. R. Avraham b. HaRambam also maintains that they were two distinct peoples, but says they were part of the same caravan.
- Identical – Most of the medieval commentators16 identify the Midianites and Medanites with one another.17
- Two – Most of these commentators maintain that there were only two sales: by the brothers to the caravan of Yishmaelites18 and by the Yishmaelites to Potiphar.
- Three – Tanchuma (Buber)19 and Rashi on Bereshit 37:2820 assert that there were was a total of three sales: Yosef's brothers sold him to the Yishmaelites, the Yishmaelites sold him to the Medanites or Midianites,21 and the Medanites or Midianites sold him to Potiphar.
- Four or five – R. Yudan and R. Chona in Bereshit Rabbah take the extreme position that Yosef was sold four or five times, with every (or almost every) group mentioned in the story participating in the series of transactions.22
Only Some of the Brothers Sold Yosef
One group of Yosef's brothers (led by Yehuda) sold Yosef, while another group of the brothers (headed by Reuven) were not present and did not participate.
None of the Brothers Sold Yosef
While Yosef's brothers planned on selling him, they never actually succeeded in doing so, as the Midianites preempted them by abducting Yosef from the pit.
- According to most of these commentators, the brothers intended to sell Yosef to the Yishmaelites, but their plans were foiled when the Midianites beat them to it.38
- R. Azariah Figo and Malbim, however, go a step further. They suggest that Yehuda never intended for the brothers themselves to sell Yosef. Rather, he persuades his brothers to leave the vicinity of the pit so that the Yishmaelites would find the abandoned Yosef and, of their own initiative, sell him as a slave.39
- Rashbam and Shadal's cousin identify the Medanites as the Yishmaelites, with Shadal's cousin suggesting that all of the sons of Avraham (besides Yitzchak's line) can be referred to as Yishmaelites. This is how they eliminate the contradiction between 37:36 and 39:1.
- Shadal and Malbim, in contrast, identify the Medanites with the Midianites. They propose that 37:36 is not saying that the Medanites physically brought Yosef to Egypt (as that would contradict 39:1), but simply trying to suggest that they were the main cause of Yosef's going to Egypt, as they were the ones who originally drew him from the pit.47