This sheet on Genesis 49 was written by Steven Bayme for 929 and can also be found here
49:8- “You, O Judah, your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes; Your father’s sons shall bow low to you.”
Joseph’s flaws are considerable. To incur his father’s favor, he tattle-tales on his brothers (Gen. 37:2). He shares his dreams of aggrandizement. Last, he brings his father untold grief, failing to inform him that he yet lives. As Thomas Mann speculates in his epic, Joseph and his Brothers, Joseph resented being the “favored son” whom his father had thereby endangered.
Judah, too, is a flawed character, the architect of the sale of Joseph. Unlike Joseph, Judah is unable to restrain his sexual passions. After impregnating Tamar, Judah insists upon a cover-up.
Yet Judah matures. His Hebrew name “Yehuda” connotes “acknowledgment” – both of errors and as leader by his brothers (Gen. 49:8). Judah’s speech compels Joseph to confront three truths:
First, as Robert Alter notes, Judah underscores the family context in which Jacob favored two of his sons. In Judah’s words, Jacob had told the brothers, “You know that my wife bore me two sons.” The remainder held no such status.
Second, Judah’s speech stresses his responsibility for Benjamin. He offers to remain as Joseph’s slave and will not permit his father to die by yet another loss of a favored son.
Third, Judah appeals to Joseph saying he cannot return without Benjamin “lest I see the evil that will befall my father”. When he returned previously without Joseph and saw his father’s grief, he ought to have confessed but lacked the statesmanship to make that personal sacrifice. Now he is a changed man – one determined to maintain the family.
It is these tropes that “overcome” Joseph. He can only embrace his brothers and urge them to reunite with him. This rebuilding of family is prerequisite for building peoplehood underscored in Exodus.
Several implications lie embedded within this narrative. First, leadership requires the capacity to admit mistakes – as demonstrated by Judah. Second, as Joseph’s experience indicates, the leadership of the “court Jew” is only transitory – temporarily useful but no safeguard for Jewish security. Last, as the rivalry between Judah and Joseph suggests, Jewish disunity is all too often the norm of Jewish history, and efforts to create unity aberrational. Parallels to contemporary Jewish life are by no means difficult to identify.
Joseph’s flaws are considerable. To incur his father’s favor, he tattle-tales on his brothers (Gen. 37:2). He shares his dreams of aggrandizement. Last, he brings his father untold grief, failing to inform him that he yet lives. As Thomas Mann speculates in his epic, Joseph and his Brothers, Joseph resented being the “favored son” whom his father had thereby endangered.
Judah, too, is a flawed character, the architect of the sale of Joseph. Unlike Joseph, Judah is unable to restrain his sexual passions. After impregnating Tamar, Judah insists upon a cover-up.
Yet Judah matures. His Hebrew name “Yehuda” connotes “acknowledgment” – both of errors and as leader by his brothers (Gen. 49:8). Judah’s speech compels Joseph to confront three truths:
First, as Robert Alter notes, Judah underscores the family context in which Jacob favored two of his sons. In Judah’s words, Jacob had told the brothers, “You know that my wife bore me two sons.” The remainder held no such status.
Second, Judah’s speech stresses his responsibility for Benjamin. He offers to remain as Joseph’s slave and will not permit his father to die by yet another loss of a favored son.
Third, Judah appeals to Joseph saying he cannot return without Benjamin “lest I see the evil that will befall my father”. When he returned previously without Joseph and saw his father’s grief, he ought to have confessed but lacked the statesmanship to make that personal sacrifice. Now he is a changed man – one determined to maintain the family.
It is these tropes that “overcome” Joseph. He can only embrace his brothers and urge them to reunite with him. This rebuilding of family is prerequisite for building peoplehood underscored in Exodus.
Several implications lie embedded within this narrative. First, leadership requires the capacity to admit mistakes – as demonstrated by Judah. Second, as Joseph’s experience indicates, the leadership of the “court Jew” is only transitory – temporarily useful but no safeguard for Jewish security. Last, as the rivalry between Judah and Joseph suggests, Jewish disunity is all too often the norm of Jewish history, and efforts to create unity aberrational. Parallels to contemporary Jewish life are by no means difficult to identify.
Dr. Steven Bayme, is the Director of the Contemporary Jewish Life Department of the AJC
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