When you read “Vayeshev’’ enough times, the story starts sounding rather melodramatic and almost day-time-television-like: there’s sibling rivalry and betrayal, sexual harassment, false accusations and undue imprisonment, heart-broken fathers and in-laws who don’t keep their word, a woman who dresses like a prostitute—you name it. There is also a good brother and an evil one, although they are not twins separated at birth. The leading role, of course, belongs to Joseph if only because this portion is the beginning of a four-part arc leading up to the next book, Exodus.
The story of Joseph’s trials and tribulations in Egypt is suddenly interrupted by a seemingly unrelated account of the life story of Judah, one of his brothers, the one who, in fact, played the most instrumental role in selling Joseph into Egyptian slavery. So, why do we need to know how many sons Judah had and how he mistreated his daughter-in-law and how she bore him twins after entrapping him under the guise of a prostitute?
I think, Judah is a more human character, compared to Joseph. Among his twelve siblings, Joseph is the most beloved and spoiled by his father. He is handsome, dresses in chic clothes distinct from his brothers’, and gets attention and favors from powerful women and men. Good things, even in the worst of circumstances, happen to him without much effort on his part: as the portion states on several occasions, “the Lord lent success to everything Joseph undertook.” He is even quite arrogant: without hesitation or an afterthought he tells his parents and brothers his dreams where they all bow to him as their ruler. He comes off almost superhuman.
Judah, on the other hand, appears to be a deeply flawed man. It was his idea to sell Joseph to the Egyptians. He does not keep his promise to his daughter-in-law to let her marry his youngest son when she is widowed twice. He is not in big favor with the Lord, who takes lives of Judah’s two sons, presumably as a punishment for their father’s transgressions. On the other hand, we see him recognize his flaws and his mistakes: when the brothers want to kill Joseph, he dissuades them saying “after all he is our brother, our own flesh”; when Tamar gets pregnant from him, Judah acknowledges that she is more in the right than he is because he did not keep his word. And as such, to me Judah is not only more human but more sympathetic. As all of us, he struggles with his demons and often, although not always, overcomes his shortcoming. He ends up a righteous man but after years of inner struggles and blunders.
What is even more significant is the fact that he is the ancestor of the messiah. Emancipation of the Jews and entire humanity comes not so much from the perfect Joseph but from his brother Judah—despite or maybe precisely because of all his faults and imperfections and his efforts to overcome them.
