THIS SERIES:
This sheet accompanies Isn't It Time for Rereading Exodus podcast and blog. Related free, downloadable booklet and links to the full paperback text are found at Rereading4Liberation.com. Subscribe to the podcast and contribute to discussion -- see Thinkific platform.
TEXT NOTES:
Wherever possible without changing the meaning, translations below are slightly adapted to avoid unnecessarily gendered language. Some old-fashioned expressions and grammatical forms are also updated. In a few cases, as noted, translation is provided by another Sefaria user. In addition, I use "Mitzrayim" and the invented "Mitzrayim-ites" along with Yisrael and Yisraelite to emphasize that references are to biblical places and people, not any nation, ancient or contemporary.
ואתם חשבתם עלי רעה, you had mistakenly considered me as a רודף, someone threatening your very lives. Had you not erred, your actions would have been perfectly justified.
See Genesis 37 wherein Joseph's brothers physically attack him, sell him to passing traders, and report him killed.
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This following scenario is based on Jacob's deathbed blessing to Judah: "...Your father’s sons will bow down to you." (Gen 49:8).
Also of note -- an earlier eating scenario: During the famine, when the brothers came into Mitzrayim to beg grain but still didn't recognize Joseph, who was second in command at the palace, Joseph sat apart from them (Gen 43:32).
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ואתם חשבתם עלי רעה אלקים חשבה לטובה. בזה הענין הראה הש"י איך היה באפשר להביא השבטים בגלות מצרים ועיקר היה הפירד שהתחילו להפרד, כי בעת שישראל באחדות לא יוכל לשלוט עליהם שום דבר. והענין בזה היה שפירש יוסף מן השבטים,
... ישב בפני עצמו ולא עם השבטים,
והשבטים דנו אותו שעשה זאת מחמת שנאה ולכך נענשו להיות בגלות כי היה להם לדונו לכף זכות,
וגם ליוסף נחשב לחטא על אשר הניח להם מקום לטעות בו, כי באמת היה לו להתנהג שהוא ישב בראש מאחר שלעת עתה הוא מלך, אך בלבו היה צריך לידע כי יהודא גדול ממנו.
[Note: translation from outside Sefaria]
“You thought evil of me, but God thought it for good ….” (Bereshit, 50:20)
In this chapter God demonstrates how it was possible to bring the Tribes into the Mitzrayim exile [Note: "Exile = loss of intimacy"]. The chief component was the separation and disconnection that sprung up between them. ...What happened here was that Joseph disconnected from his brothers.
[After learning the blessing to Judah, Joseph couldn't decide if he, as leader in Mitzrayim, should sit at the head of the table, or allow Judah, as head of the family, to sit there.] So
Instead, Joseph chose to sit by himself and not with his brothers.
And because his brothers assumed Joseph was acting out of hatred and resentment they were punished with Exile, for they should have given him benefit of the doubt.
Joseph's behavior, in creating the gap for misunderstanding and misinterpretation to enter, is also considered a sin. Frankly, he ought to have behaved differently. He should have sat at the head, as he was still the king, while holding in his heart the awareness that Judah was greater than him.