Why or why not? 3:33-36. This article explores rabbinic traditions that see in the character of Joseph a figure of uncertain sexual orientation. He also references the Targum's interpretation that Joseph did Potiphar's accounting, , [Joseph] checked the books of [Potiphar]s accounts., 50. Tweet T he story of Joseph in the Old Testament is one that has been dramatized many times by the entertainment industry, both on screen and on Broadway. Whatever biblical evidence to the contrary contemporary readers might find in supporting this as a homoerotic relationship, ancient and medieval rabbis seem uninterested in it for almost any purposes. 17:6 to Isaiah 49:14 (ed. 117. 77. Man. Read More. For an account parallel to the Bavli, albeit with some nuanced differences, see Bereshit Rabbah 72:6 (Theodor-Albeck 2:845); and Tanuma, Va-yeeh 19, Solomon Buber, Midrash Tanhuma (1913; repr. This raises an additional layer of potential Oedipal ramifications in the rabbinic evaluation of Joseph's conduct. Ibn Ezra, who cites an unattributed opinion that Dinah was essentially Zebulon's twin ( , There are those who say that she [Dinah] was with Zebulon in one womb); Bekhor Shor concurs with this interpretation. See Kasher, Torah shelemah, 6:1498 n. 96. However, it does not appear to be the case; see e.g., Bereshit Rabbah 89:9; Kasher, Menahem, Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation, a Millennial Anthology (Torah Shelemah) [in Hebrew] (New York: American Biblical Encyclopedia Society, 1938), 6:153940Google Scholar. Islamic tradition, as well, reports that Joseph and Mrs. Potiphar (there, the wife of al-Aziz) intended to consummate their attraction for one another. )these are the thirty-two elders who voted in Lydda and declared it clean.. 3 (1999): 38594; Yair and Valerie Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012). 13. See The Marriage of Roman Soldiers (13 B.C.A.D. 43. Margulies notes in the apparatus, , its source has disappeared.. Joseph dreaded the night in this foul Egyptian hellhole. 31. "coreDisableEcommerceForElementPurchase": false, Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a long ornamented tunic. See also Bereshit Rabbah 86:3. 17. James L. Kugel extensively and brilliantly treated the postbiblical interpretive traditions and rabbinic expansive midrashim on Joseph: In Potiphar's House: The Interpretative Life of Biblical Texts (San Francisco, CA: Harper, 1990), 13155Google Scholar. The Authority of Interpretive Communities (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980)Google Scholar. 2. For at the crossroads she heard people saying: Rebecca has two sons, [and] Laban has two daughters; the elder [daughter should be married] to the elder [son] and the younger [daughter should be married] to the younger [son]. In rendering this biblical citation, and the next, I have followed Everett Fox, The Schocken Bible, vol. Rashi disagrees with this assessment, and (at Genesis 28:22) indicates that the resultant clause of the condition only begins with Jacob's pledge to build a shrine. For a contrary perspective, cf. The phrase "pride of life" is found only once in the Bible, in 1 John 2:16, but the concept of the pride of life, especially as it is linked with the "lust of the eyes" and the "lust of the flesh," appears in two more significant passages of Scripturethe temptation of Eve in the Garden and the temptation of Christ in the wilderness ( Matthew 4:. Nahum Sarna comments that Joseph fraternized, in particular, with Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher; Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, 255. With respect to Joseph, approaching the moment of climax, and seeing his father's image, Dalia Marx writes, It is hard not to notice an Oedipal undertone in the midrash about Joseph encountering the image of his father while he is in a woman's bed. I am grateful to my colleague, Ray Scheindlin, for this reference. Joseph's story is found in Genesis 3750. 61. Y. Horayot 46d offers a variant of this midrash, and adds: : , Said R. Abin: Even an icon of Rachel did he see; see Sussmann, Yaacov, ed. See Strack, Hermann Leberecht and Stemberger, Gnter, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash, trans. 108. A similar rabbinic narrative, redolent of the / language employed here, is found in Midrash Shir Ha-shirim 8:1: , Said R. Pinas: It happened with two siblings, one of whom was in Meron and one of whom was in Gush alav. See Colville, Jim, Poems of Wine & Revelry: The Khamriyyat of Abu Nuwas (London: Kegan Paul, 2005)Google Scholar, vii and n. 2; I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer who pointed me towards this source. 99. Lieber, Laura Suzanne, Yannai on Genesis: An Invitation to Piyyut (Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew Union College Press, 2010)Google Scholar, 659 n. 18. Surprisingly, the complete expression does not appear elsewhere in rabbinic literature (though elements of it do), but one may state that the sentiment behind Rashi's gloss animates virtually the entirety of midrashic enterprise with respect to biblical verses. See Edward L. Greenstein, Verbal Art and Literary Sensibilities in Ancient Near Eastern Context, in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Ancient Israel, ed. 72. 34 (1997): 269301CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Cultural Androgyny in Rabbinic Literature, 11940. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. When Joseph reported having dreams of his brothers, and even the stars and moon, bowing before him, their jealousy of Joseph grew into action. I am grateful to Marjorie Lehman for sharing this paper with me in advance of its publication. Susan Niditch (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2016), 47172. Bekhor Shor (at Genesis 28:21) sees the conditional clause as I have explained it here. 58. 51. See, e.g., Gesenius, Wilhelm, Kautzsch, Emil Friedrich, and Bergstrasser, Gotthelf, Wilhelm Gesenius Hebraische Grammatik (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1929)Google Scholar, 2:6c; Lambdin, Thomas Oden, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (New York: Scribners, 1971), 27982Google Scholar; Walsh, Jerome T., Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2001), 15559Google Scholar. See Menachem Cohen, Mikraot gedolot Ha-keter, 7. Rashi and the Priestly Benediction of Numbers 6:2227, in Birkat Kohanim: The Priestly Benediction in Jewish Tradition, ed. This observation remains true even accounting for the drum roll nature of the previous, interceding verse, Now God remembered Rachel; God heeded her and opened her womb (Genesis 30:22). For Joseph as representative of the northern Kingdom of Israel, see, e.g., Amos 5:6, 15; Zechariah 10:6; Psalms 78:67. Render date: 2023-07-09T17:56:32.555Z Send him with us tomorrow that he may eat well and play. 3) of the Leiden University Library with Restorations and Corrections, Midrash leka tov of R. Tobiah Ben Eliezer, Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, Rashi on the Torah: The Commentary of Solomon B. 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Genesis 37:3335: [Jacob] recognized it, and said, My son's tunic! Relying on the Lord for council and wisdom will always be the best place to start preparing for the future. This midrash explains Joseph's latent femininity. However, without referencing the expansive translation of the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, which explicitly mentions the switching of the fetuses (but even at that, not that the male fetus turned into a girl), she deduces implications from the Bavli that are not explicitly present in that text. The meaning of the idiom is not certain; literally, they would walk, heel at the side of big toe. A parallel text to B. Yoma 9b is found in Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, Va-tomer iyon, pis. Entitled Jonah God's love is unconditional Our behavior reveals our true nature 6. As earlier stated, Kugel, In Potiphar's House, 67, notes the rabbis are aware that the precise biblical description of Joseph's beauty is elsewhere only used of Rachel, although both he and they draw different conclusions from this connection than I do. Joseph's story begins in Genesis, chapter 37, when he is seventeen. Feature Flags: { Consider, for example, a homoerotic Hebrew poem by Isaac ibn Mar Saul that compares the beauty of a young boy to several beautiful male biblical characters, Joseph among them: / / / / / Beloved gazelle in Spain, crafted by Divine Master / who has enabled him to rule and master / Me / Beautiful of stature as the moon / like Joseph in his form; see Schirmann, Jefim, Studies in the History of Hebrew Poetry and Drama [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Mosad Bialik, 1979), 14546Google Scholar. So the brothers journeyed at the behest of their father to Egypt. I have cited the Hebrew text from Malkah Shaked, I'll Play You Forever: The Bible in Modern Hebrew Poetry, vol. Day after monotonous day passed with no sign of change. 34. This excerpt is but a small portion of a much longer commentary with which the exegete glossed 1 Samuel 1:1718. The question is asked many times "Are all sins the same before God?" Yes and NoYes in the sense that all sins are black, putrid, repulsive to a holy and righteous God. The Basic Bible Knowledge course book has been kindly produced by Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church and the digital copy is freely available on their church website as shown in the link above. Introduction. The Bible simply tells what Joseph said and did, which was to share God's revelation with others. 27. 3) of the Leiden University Library with Restorations and Corrections (Jerusalem: The Academy of the Hebrew Language, 2001), 1420Google Scholar. Indeed, he had no more children after that, and he remained celibate and removed from the ways of the world all the remaining days of his life, and occupied himself with the worship of God, as it says: And the LORD shall be my God [Genesis 28:21].) No analogous medieval commentary of which I am aware offers any remotely comparable interpretation of Joseph's lack of further progeny after Ephraim and Manasseh. See also the brief comments of Shinan, Avigdor, The Embroidered Targum: The Aggadah in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992)Google Scholar, 142 and n. 215. 126. We can be proud to be children of God. See Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, and the ways these verses have almost universally been interpreted in rabbinic literature (e.g., B. Sanhedrin 54ab; B. Yevamot 83b). 2. 41. Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, his first son through his favored wife, Rachel. On the subject of enabling original contextual meaning to inform contemporary religious sensibilities, see Simon, Uriel, The Religious Significance of the Peshat, Tradition 23, no. Alternatively, if one chose to read the variant , one would understand that Joseph touched up his eyes. On rabbinic portrayals of men resisting illicit or inadvisable sexual expression, see Satlow, Michael, Try to Be a Man: The Rabbinic Construction of Masculinity, Harvard Theological Review 89, no.