Rachel Lee – Year 7

Va Yeishev

Parashat VaYeishev discusses the Yosef saga, a tale of sibling rivalry, jealousy, immaturity and an inability to demonstrate awareness of others. Joseph was the adored youngest son of Ya’akov and Rachel. Yosef was spoilt and favoured as he was the son of Ya’akov’s favourite wife.

Ya’akov asked Yosef to check on the welfare of his brothers and their flocks. Yosef, being young and immature is not sensitive to the feelings of his brothers as the biblical scholar Avivia Zornberg writes:  “Joseph behaves with the narcissism of youth, with a dangerous unawareness of the inner worlds of others”.

Rashi and Rambam (medieval Rabbis) excuse Joseph’s behaviour because of his youth. However, Joseph was 17 years old and a shepherd and was not so young and innocent. He knowingly flaunted his multi-coloured coat that his father gave him thereby making his brothers jealous. This coat was to be Joseph’s undoing!

Re’uven, one of Yosef’s many brothers, persuades the others not to kill Yosef. Instead, they decide to sell him into slavery. But, these devious boys strip Yosef of his coat and dip it into blood as evidence that Yosef had been killed. So, the coat that Yosef showed off was the proof his father needed to believe that he was dead.

If Ya’akov had shared his love for his sons equally, perhaps he would have been spared the pain and suffering of “losing” a child.

I feel that the saying “what comes around goes around” is apt for this parashah as people behaved badly and were then punished as a result. This is a lesson for us that there are always consequences for our actions.

Perhaps the story of Yosef, his multi-coloured dream coat and his older brothers is a warning to everyone that they should treat their siblings with love and respect. Furthermore, parents should treat all their children equally and try their utmost not to show favouritism because the favouritism causes jealousy and sibling rivalry.   

With respect to Yosef’s immaturity and lack of awareness of others, it relates to our current generation of the “selfie generation”. Typically, we are self-absorbed, self-centred and only think of ourselves. We lack compassion and awareness for others. Our selfies, snapchat and instagram are specifically filtered so that we can portray our selfies in the best possible way.

To sum up, Yosef’s selfishness contributed to his brothers’ jealousy and hatred towards him. Had he been less self-absorbed, he may not have been sold into slavery and subsequently jailed.

Edan Amsalem – Year 11/12 2018

This week’s parashah is the story of Yosef, Ya’akov’s favourite son. To highlight his favouritism Ya’akov makes and gives Yosef a “techni-coloured” coat. Throughout the passage, Yosef, by means of presenting his dream, relates to his brothers that he will one day rule over them, causing them to become jealous and plot to get rid of him. Yehudah, one of the brothers, sells Yosef to the Yishma’elim, and ultimately he becomes a slave to the Pharaoh. At the end of the parashah, Yosef is in prison with two other workers of the Pharaoh, the baker and the wine butler. Both the workers have disturbing dreams, which Yosef interprets to mean that the butler will be spared or freed and that the baker will die. Yosef seeks assistance from the butler to negotiate his own release with the Pharaoh, however, once the butler is freed, he forgets all about Yosef. 

Life lesson: This parashah is very much about good vs evil, right and wrong and the evils of jealousy versus the gift of giving. Ya’akov had never intended to create a rift between his sons, but had offered Yosef more attention and love as a way of making up for him having lost his mother due to the birth of his younger brother, Binyamin. Ultimately, this special treatment of Yosef didn’t exactly work out… and Yosef’s brothers sold him. Yosef could have been bitter and angry at his brothers’ jealousy, and at first, he was. He then got over that and chose to forgive his brothers, creating opportunities to help others, even though his own situation was difficult. 

We see how Yosef really stuck up for what he believed in, even while in jail. As a prisoner himself, he certainly had many troubles and worries of his own. But when he saw two prisoners, the royal butler and baker, downcast, he approached them and asked how he could help them and make their day a little brighter. He reached out to help the prisoners, even when he himself was a prisoner.  

Yes, Yosef was not always the nicest person, telling his brothers and father repeatedly that they would bow down to him, and having a massive ego a lot of the time, but we need to learn from Yosef’s situation and not make the same mistakes he did.

We all have troubles and worries, and can use them as an excuse to think only of ourselves. But if we take a lesson or two from Yosef, we realise that we have the power to help others, no matter what, no matter where; we just have to reach out and lend a helping hand. It’s hard sometimes to think of others when we’re busy thinking of ourselves but if you have ever brightened someone’s day by doing a good deed, you will know how great that feels. We just have to look out for opportunities that arise and grab them with both hands.