It is very good to be sitting around this seminar table with learned Christian and Moslem colleagues to discuss the story of Joseph. Yet, this is hardly an esoteric subject -- even the person in the street, be it a street with Moslem, Christian or Jewish inhabitants, is acquainted with the topic of our meeting. As I am not a Biblical scholar but a pastor principally interested in the promotion of peace and justice with the help of the religious dimension in the lives of people, my aim in this presentation will be to share with you how your Jewish neighbors might read the Joseph story, and thereby to provide a wider basis of understanding based on a compelling universal story.

 

 

Do Jews consider the Joseph story to be religious literature?

 

The story of Joseph runs for 14 chapters in the book of Genesis, from chapter 37-50[i], making it, along with the stories of David, Samuel and Saul, one of the longest stories in the Bible. Yet, one may ask, in what way is this story  relevant to an observant Jew’s ritual life? Are there any reenactments of the story or holidays[ii] that recall its drama? The answer is no. One could say that the question is out of place, since the entire book of Genesis is narrative and is hardly used in a practical way in the oral tradition (Torah sheb’al peh). Yet the Joseph story is much different than the rest of Genesis, where the main characters -- Adam, Noah, Abr(ah)am, Isaac and Jacob -- as well many of the minor ones, such as Eve, Cain, Abel, Enoch, Sara(h), Hagar, Ishmael, Avimelech, Abraham’s servant and Rebecca all interact with God. Joseph does not speak with God, like a prophet, but rather about God[iii], and even that relatively sparsely.

 

One must conclude that according to the Bible, except for the story of his chastity in the face of temptation,[iv] Joseph cannot be considered a religious hero in any conventional sense. Yet he provides for the family-soon-to-be-nation[v], and thus, as the archetypal redeemer[vi] figure, he becomes a saintly[vii] character in rabbinic literature.

 

It should be pointed out that many Jews in Israel are almost completely unfamiliar with rabbinic literature, and rather unappreciative of it (thus the image of Joseph that we would pick up on the street would depend very much on the Israeli neighborhood we choose to walk down!). Furthermore, allow me to mention, since not everyone at this table follows the cultural discourse in Israel, that the historicity of the Bible is fiercely debated currently, and during all of the last century[viii], so that for many, Joseph is a literary figure, but not a historical one, and perhaps not one worthy of emulation.

 

Since the story of Joseph is primarily a family story with national ramifications, we might take a close look at the relations between Joseph and his immediate family, primarily between Joseph and Jacob[ix], and Joseph and his brothers:

 

When he finally discloses his identity and is reunited with his brothers, Joseph tries to give the entire saga some purpose and relieve his brothers' guilt for selling him into slavery by saying that God willed his descent into Egypt. But it is very hard to see Joseph's behavior towards his family as exemplary: he allows his father, whom he ostensibly[x] loves so much, to languish in mourning for him for many years, and the abuse to which he subjects his brothers seems much more like revenge for what Joseph himself endured than anything even approaching God's providence.

 

Many Israeli readers will thus see Joseph not as an exemplary figure, but  rather a troubled individual who is struggling with his past as a pampered child and an unloved, abused brother. They might see Joseph toying with his brothers not so much in order to prove that they have recognized their guilt and have become unconditionally loyal to a brother – thus another aspect of Joseph the righteous – but rather as his subconsciously maneuvering his brothers into the same situation of the potential abandonment of a younger brother, son of Rachel. It is as if Joseph is creating a psychodramatic reenactment so that he would find it psychologically safe to return to the same family setting as he left it, but this time assured that his brothers won't repeat their behavior.

 

Here, however, Joseph realizes the limits of his power, for with all his material and political status, he cannot bring his brothers or even his father to trust him. To the end[xi], they fear him rather than love him, and have to fabricate their father’s final testament[xii], while Jacob has to entreat[xiii] Joseph and bind to an oath[xiv] in order to have confidence that his last wishes will be carried out.

 

Not only on the family level is the happy end of the story more tragic than it seems at first; so, too, on the national level, the deliverance that Joseph brings Egypt and his family will soon sour. The quasi slavery[xv] and permanent economic oppression[xvi] to which Joseph reduces the entire Egyptian people will become Israel's fate, just as soon as a Pharaoh "who knew not Joseph[xvii]" arrives and turns the tables[xviii] on the favored Israelites. The text that describes the stages of impoverishment of the Egyptians parallels perfectly the stages of poverty described negatively in Leviticus 25[xix], where it decrees[xx] that the Israelites are not to be sold into slavery – they are rather God's slaves, and God's slaves only. The text of the Joseph story might be seen then as a universalizing text that raises the status of all people to that of the chosen people – we are all God's people, and no economic solution that abuses anyone can be considered God's will.

 

How many Israeli readers universalize the story? How many of them are capable of seeing the slavery around them in which both the dominated and the dominating are trapped in an unhealthy cycle of fear? Currently there may not be many, but it is my firm conviction that the power of good literature, and for me, that is what the Bible is, first and foremost, to bring out universal, eternal truths and bring us together into enlightenment and a better future should never be underestimated.