Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Vayeshev/0/en
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Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Vayeshev
Did the brothers really sell Yosef?
Debate the approaches of Rashi and Rashbam regarding the culpability of the brothers in the sale of Yosef (see Who Sold Yosef?).1 While Rashi claims that all of the siblings (excepting Reuven and Binyamin) participated in the sale, Rashbam maintains that though the brothers planned to do so, the Midianites beat them to it.
- Do you think that Rashbam is motivated to read the story as he does due to textual reasons or from a desire to exonerate the brothers?
- Is someone who plans on committing a crime, and is only prevented from doing do due to technicalities, any better than a person who was able to carry out their initial intentions?
- What difficulties in the text does Rashbam solve through his reading of the story?
Marrying Canaanites
According to the simple reading of the verses,2 both Yehuda and Shimon married Canaanite women. Considering that Avraham had gone to great lengths to ensure that Yitzchak did not marry a Canaanite, how do you understand why Yaakov does not seem to share similar concerns when his children reach marriageable age?
- Is there a difference between the generation of Yaakov's sons and earlier ones, that now made the prospect of marrying a Canaanite less problematic?
- The text never explicitly condemns the brothers for their action. Can that be taken as evidence that they must have done no wrong? If so, are we to conclude that their Canaanite marriages were not problematic, or that despite the simple reading of the verses, no such marriage actually took place?
if Finally, are we to assume that Yehuda and Shimon were the exception or the norm?
