Achva-Brotherhood: With a Touch of Sibling Rivalry

(1) A song of ascents. Of David.
How good and how pleasant it is
that brothers dwell together.

(1) Another comment upon the verse And the Lord said to Aaron: “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses” (Exod. 4:27). Scripture says elsewhere in reference to this verse: O that thou wert as my brother (Song 8:1). The Israelites said to the Holy One, blessed be He:, O that thou wert as my brother, yet you find that all brothers hated each other. Cain hated Abel, as it is said: And Cain rose up against Abel his brother (Gen. 4:8). Ishmael hated Isaac, as is said: And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne unto Abraham, making sport (Gen. 21:9). Making sport implies, in this instance, that he wanted to kill him, as it is said: Let the young men, I pray thee, arise and make sport before us (II Sam. 2:14). Esau hated Jacob, as is said: And Esau said in his heart, etc. (Gen. 27:41). And the tribes hated Joseph, as it is said: And they hated him (Gen. 37:4). But in this instance the Israelites asked of the Holy One, blessed be He: Do you mean like Moses and Aaron, of whom it is said: Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Ps. 133:1)? They loved and cherished each other. At the time that Moses took the kingship and Aaron the priesthood, they bore no resentment toward each other. In fact, they rejoiced in each other’s exalted role. (2) A proof of this is that when the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses to go to Pharaoh as His messenger, he replied: O Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt sent (Exod. 4:13). Put out of your mind the thought that Moses was distressed because he was not willing to go. That is not so. He actually was concerned about Aaron’s prestige. Moses said: Before I was designated (to go), my brother Aaron prophesied in Egypt for them for eighty years, as it is written: And I made known to them in the land of Egypt (Exod. 20:5). How do we know that Aaron prophesied for them in Egypt? We know this from the verse: And there came a man of God unto Eli and said unto him: “Thus saith the Lord: Did I reveal Myself unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt?” (I Sam. 2:27). It was for this reason that Moses said: Throughout all these years my brother prophesied, and if I should now intrude into his area (of service) he will be deeply distressed. That is why Moses did not wish to go. The Holy One, blessed be He, replied to Moses: Aaron will not be offended. In fact, not only will he not be displeased, but he will rejoice. You know this is so, for He said to him: And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart (Exod. 4:14). It does not say “he will be glad with his mouth” or simply “he will be glad,” but rather, he will glad to see him, in his heart.

(3) R. Simeon the son of Yohai said: The heart that rejoices in the importance of his brother will ultimately rejoice in his own role, and as it is said: And thou shalt put on the breastplate of judgment, the Urim and Thummin; and they shall be put upon Aaron’s heart (ibid. 28:13). Therefore, Behold, he cometh forth to meet thee implies that when he told him that (Aaron would be glad) he agreed to go. Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself unto Aaron and said to him: Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. Hence, O that thou wert as my brother refers to the kind of brothers Moses and Aaron were to each other. When I would find thee without, I would kiss thee (Song 8:1) indicates that he met him at the mountain of the Holy One, blessed be He, and kissed him.

(3) In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil; (4) and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. The LORD paid heed to Abel and his offering, (5) but to Cain and his offering He paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell.

(9) Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing. (10) She said to Abraham, “Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” (11) The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his. (12) But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed over the boy or your slave; whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you.

(5) Rebekah had been listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau had gone out into the open to hunt game to bring home, (6) Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I overheard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying, (7) ‘Bring me some game and prepare a dish for me to eat, that I may bless you, with the LORD’s approval, before I die.’ (8) Now, my son, listen carefully as I instruct you. (9) Go to the flock and fetch me two choice kids, and I will make of them a dish for your father, such as he likes. (10) Then take it to your father to eat, in order that he may bless you before he dies.” (11) Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “But my brother Esau is a hairy man and I am smooth-skinned. (12) If my father touches me, I shall appear to him as a trickster and bring upon myself a curse, not a blessing.” (13) But his mother said to him, “Your curse, my son, be upon me! Just do as I say and go fetch them for me.” (14) He got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared a dish such as his father liked. (15) Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau, which were there in the house, and had her younger son Jacob put them on; (16) and she covered his hands and the hairless part of his neck with the skins of the kids. (17) Then she put in the hands of her son Jacob the dish and the bread that she had prepared. (18) He went to his father and said, “Father.” And he said, “Yes, which of my sons are you?” rvants, and sustained him with grain and wine. What, then, can I still do for you, my son?” ...

(41) Now Esau harbored a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing which his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, “Let but the mourning period of my father come, and I will kill my brother Jacob.”

(1) Now Jacob was settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan. (2) This, then, is the line of Jacob: At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father. (3) Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him an ornamented tunic. (4) And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him. (5) Once Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him even more.

(1) Some time afterward, Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. (2) When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to see you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. (3) And Jacob said to Joseph, “El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and He blessed me, (4) and said to me, ‘I will make you fertile and numerous, making of you a community of peoples; and I will assign this land to your offspring to come for an everlasting possession.’ (5) Now, your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine no less than Reuben and Simeon. (6) But progeny born to you after them shall be yours; they shall be recorded instead of their brothers in their inheritance. (7) I [do this because], when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, while I was journeying in the land of Canaan, when still some distance short of Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath”—now Bethlehem. (8) Noticing Joseph’s sons, Israel asked, “Who are these?” (9) And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” “Bring them up to me,” he said, “that I may bless them.” (10) Now Israel’s eyes were dim with age; he could not see. So [Joseph] brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them. (11) And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see you again, and here God has let me see your children as well.” (12) Joseph then removed them from his knees, and bowed low with his face to the ground. (13) Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand—to Israel’s left—and Manasseh with his left hand—to Israel’s right—and brought them close to him. (14) But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head—thus crossing his hands—although Manasseh was the first-born. (15) And he blessed Joseph, saying, “The God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day— (16) The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm— Bless the lads. In them may my name be recalled, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, And may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth.” (17) When Joseph saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it wrong; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. (18) “Not so, Father,” Joseph said to his father, “for the other is the first-born; place your right hand on his head.” (19) But his father objected, saying, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Yet his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations.” (20) So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying: God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh. (21) Then Israel said to Joseph, “I am about to die; but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.