Jacob was not exempt from the lot that falls to the share of all the
pious. Whenever they expect to enjoy life in tranquillity, Satan
hinders them. He appears before God, and says: "Is it not enough that
the future world is set apart for the pious? What right have they to
enjoy this world, besides?" After the many hardships and conflicts that
had beset the path of Jacob, he thought he would be at rest at last,
and then came the loss of Joseph and inflicted the keenest suffering.
Verily, few and evil had been the days of the years of Jacob's
pilgrimage, for the time spent outside of the Holy Land had seemed
joyless to him. Only the portion of his life passed in the land of his
fathers, during which he was occupied with making proselytes, in
accordance with the example set him by Abraham and Isaac, did he
consider worth while having lived,[1] and this happy time was of short
duration. When Joseph was snatched away, but eight years had elapsed
since his return to his father's house.[2]
And yet it was only for the sake of Joseph that Jacob had been willing
to undergo all the troubles and the adversity connected with his
sojourn in the house of Laban. Indeed, Jacob's blessing in having his
quiver full of children was due to the merits of Joseph, and likewise
the dividing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan for the Israelites was
the reward for his son's piety. For among the sons of Jacob Joseph was
the one that resembled his father most closely in appearance, and,
also, he was the one to whom Jacob transmitted the instruction and
knowledge he had received from his teachers Shem and Eber.[3] The whole
course of the son's life is but a repetition of the father's. As the
mother of Jacob remained childless for a long time after her marriage,
so also the mother of Joseph. As Rebekah had undergone severe suffering
in giving birth to Jacob, so Rachel in giving birth to Joseph. As
Jacob's mother bore two sons, so also Joseph's mother. Like Jacob,
Joseph was born circumcised. As the father was a shepherd, so the son.
As the father served for the sake of a woman, so the son served under a
woman. Like the father, the son appropriated his older brother's
birthright. The father was hated by his brother, and the son was hated
by his brethren. The father was the favorite son as compared with his
brother, so was the son as compared with his brethren. Both the father
and the son lived in the land of the stranger. The father became a
servant to a master, also the son. The master whom the father served
was blessed by God, so was the master whom the son served. The father
and the son were both accompanied by angels, and both married their
wives outside of the Holy Land. The father and the son were both
blessed with wealth. Great things were announced to the father in a
dream, so also to the son. As the father went to Egypt and put an end
to famine, so the son. As the father exacted the promise from his sons
to bury him in the Holy Land, so also the son. The father died in
Egypt, there died also the son. The body of the father was embalmed,
also the body of the son. As the father's remains were carried to the
Holy Land for interment, so also the remains of the son. Jacob the
father provided for the sustenance of his son Joseph during a period of
seventeen years, so Joseph the son provided for his father Jacob during
a period of seventeen years.[4]
Until he was seventeen years old, Joseph frequented the Bet
ha-Midrash,[5] and he became so learned that he could impart to his
brethren the Halakot he had heard from his father, and in this way he
may be regarded as their teacher.[6] He did not stop at formal
instruction, he also tried to give them good counsel, and he became the
favorite of the sons of the handmaids, who would kiss and embrace
him.[7]
In spite of his scholarship there was something boyish about Joseph. He
painted his eyes, dressed his hair carefully, and walked with a mincing
step. These foibles of youth were not so deplorable as his habit of
bringing evil reports of his brethren to his father. He accused them of
treating the beasts under their care with cruelty—he said that they ate
flesh torn from a living animal—and he charged them with casting their
eyes upon the daughters of the Canaanites, and giving contemptuous
treatment to the sons of the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, whom they
called slaves.
For these groundless accusations Joseph had to pay dearly. He was
himself sold as a slave, because he had charged his brethren with
having called the sons of the handmaids slaves, and Potiphar's wife
cast her eyes upon Joseph, because he threw the suspicion upon his
brethren that they had cast their eyes upon the Canaanitish women. And
how little it was true that they were guilty of cruelty to animals,
appears from the fact that at the very time when they were
contemplating their crime against Joseph, they yet observed all the
rules and prescriptions of the ritual in slaughtering the kid of the
goats with the blood of which they besmeared his coat of many
colors.[8]