Words of Wisdom - Vayeshev

Cue the orchestra! Curtain going up! This week's Torah Portion, Vayeshev, has all the drama and action of a Broadway production. In fact, Vayeshev and the following two Torah Portions, Miketz and Vayigash were the basis for the Broadway musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat." Andrew Lloyd Webber's music and Tim Rice's lyrics tell the tale of Joseph's fall and rise - from the pit to Pharaoh's favorite. Prophetic dreams, sibling rivalry, tragedy, seduction (?), prison - the Torah tells it all in Vayeshev. Vayeshev describes Joseph's boastful dreams which anger his brothers. The brothers throw Joseph into a pit and then decide to sell him to a caravan of Ishmaelites traveling to Egypt. In Egypt, Joseph becomes household manager for Potiphar. Joseph prospers until he spurns the advances of Potiphar's wife. The scorned Mrs. Potiphar falsely accuses Joseph of taking advantage of her. Joseph ends up in prison where he accurately interprets the dreams of two fellow prisoners. What a plot!

As they say on HBO, "Only three more episodes left." In the next three weeks, we'll read more about Joseph and his family in the final dramatic Portions of the Book of B'reishit. Stay tuned!

Words of Wisdom for Vayeshev come from Tim Rice's lyrics to the song, "Joseph's Dreams," from the musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat."
Joseph: "I dreamed that in the fields one day
The corn gave me a sign
Your eleven sheaves of corn
All turned and bowed to mine
My sheaf was quite a sight to see,
A golden sheaf and tall
Yours were green and second-rate
And really rather small"

Brothers: "This is not the kind of thing
We brothers like to hear
It seems to us that Joseph and his
Dreams should disappear"

But, seriously, folks -
In A Torah Commentary for Our Times, Harvey J. Fields presents several interpretations of the relationship between Joseph and his brothers and provides this summary comment:
"So what went wrong between Joseph and his brothers? Our interpreters offer several considerations: (1) Joseph's arrogance, his vanity, his self-centeredness, his lies about his brothers, his foolish declarations of superiority over his family; (2) Jacob's favoritism of one son over another; and (3) the brothers' isolation of Joseph, their insensitive treatment of a fearful and lonely young boy. Could it be that all these factors combined to spell tragedy for Jacob and his sons?"

Shabbat Shalom - Rest and Renew