Genesis 41:1-44:17

Aw Shucks, Pharaoh!

 

In this week’s reading we get a prolonged look at Joseph’s inner life—and what we see is rather surprising.

Almost from the beginning, Joseph’s various encounters with other people are full of difficulties. His brothers hate him (to the point of plotting to kill him) and are only dissuaded by one brother’s cold-hearted question, “How can we profit by doing that?” So instead, they decide to sell Joseph into slavery, and he ends up in the hands of some caravanners on their way to Egypt. Once there, Joseph is bought by a wealthy government minister, whose wife then tries unceasingly to seduce him. When all her initiatives fail, she accuses Joseph of attempted rape and he is thrown into prison, where he makes the acquaintance of two of his cellmates, ex-ministers of the king. Joseph’s talents as a dream interpreter ultimately come to the king’s attention, and overnight he is put in charge of grain distribution to all of Egypt.

What is surprising in this recitation of Joseph’s early life is not so much its many ups-and-downs but his utter equanimity in the face of misfortune. He never cries out in protest, never weeps or complains, and never—a crucial detail in the present context— prays for God’s help. It’s as if the Almighty had reassured him from the start that everything would end well, and Joseph had believed Him through all that followed.

True, Joseph does occasionally make reference to the Master of the world. He invites Pharaoh to tell him his dreams, saying “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Genesis 41:16). But in context this sounds more like false modesty, “Aw shucks, Pharaoh! I’ll do my best” (41:16) rather than any actual profession of faith. The same is true of his reassurance to Pharaoh, “God will make sure of Pharaoh’s wellbeing.” He does, in a single verse, mention the fact he was “stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I’ve done nothing for me to be put in prison” (Genesis 40:15). But this is part of Joseph’s complaint to Pharaoh’s cupbearer, not an appeal to God for divine help.

How to account for Joseph’s outlook? It would seem doctrinaire to label this an early form of determinism or predestination. Rather, having observed the world during his tender years, Joseph has apparently come to believe that divine intervention is rarely in evidence—or given to change once enacted. In fact, he seems to enjoy contrasting what his brothers believe God to have said or done—“What is this the Lord has done to us?” (Genesis 42:28), “Your God, and the God of your fathers must have put a hidden treasure in your grain sacks” (43:23), or “God has uncovered the crime of your servants” (44:16)—when Joseph himself knows perfectly well that all three of these questions have a single answer: “I did it myself.”

Shabbat shalom!