Torah Study Blog

The biblical character of Joseph goes through many ordeals in the book of Genesis. The one we looked at last week was when the wife of Potiphar, Joseph’s owner, sexually assaulted Joseph. She claimed it was he who assaulted her, which resulted in Joseph landing in jail. The inspiration for this story comes from an Egyptian story that was recorded in the 12^th or 13^th century BCE.

The story, known as The Two Brothers, tells the tale of Anubis and Bata. Anubis was the older brother to Bata. Bata tended the cattle and did the plowing and harvesting of his beloved older brother Anubis and Anubis’s wife.

Like Joseph, Bata had gifts from God. Joseph was able to interpret dreams, which helped to predict the future. One of those dreams involved cattle. Bata was able to speak with cattle, who shared information invaluable to Bata’s success.

One day Bata was in the house alone with his sister-in-law. The sister-in-law suggested that she and Bata should have sex. Bata became angry and said that his brother, her husband, was like a father to Bata. Then Bata said never to speak of it again.

Anubis’s wife feared that Bata would expose her brazenness and told her husband that it was Bata that had attacked her and demanded that Bata be killed. Anubis, like Potiphar in the Joseph story, readily believes his wife and sets out to punish Bata. Joseph was thrown in jail in his story. Anubis seeks to kill Bata, but the cattle speak to Bata and tell him to run away.

In the Joseph story, Joseph stays in jail until his next ordeal. The Bata story does not end as well. With the help of a god, Bata and Anubis are separated by water big enough to keep them apart so Anubis cannot kill Bata, but small enough that Bata can call across it. Bata proves his own innocence by inflicting bodily harm upon himself and, thereby, casting doubt on Anubis’s wife. Anubis goes home to kill his own wife.

A Midrash, or a retelling or interpretation by the Rabbis of old, embellished the story to emphasize that Potiphar’s wife might not have been able to control herself. We are told in Genesis 39:7 that “Joseph was well-built and handsome.” The Midrash says word of Joseph’s beauty had gotten out. Potiphar’s wife invited a group of women to come and see Joseph for themselves. To make it look like the women were doing an activity together, she gave each woman a knife so they could appear to be peeling citrons. When Joseph came into the room, all the women cut their fingers because they were so distracted by the beauty of Joseph.

Another Midrash says that Joseph might have been tempted by the wife, but Joseph envisioned his father’s face which quelled Joseph’s urges. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, picked up on this Midrash in that retelling of the Joseph story. The Qur’an says that Joseph did desire the wife, but god diverted “evil and indecency away from him.”

Also, in the Qur’an, Joseph immediately denies the charge and his innocence is proved. Although the wife was chastened, nothing else happens to her. But the gossip gets out and the wife wants to prove her tough situation, so she invited a group of women to her home for a banquet. When the women saw Joseph, they are so astonished by his beauty that they used the knives at the table to cut their own hands.

Knowing that the Joseph story existed in Egypt before the Bible story may make it seem less “truthful.” When taking into account the entire Bible, does that matter? The difference between truth and faith needs to be balanced, with an eye toward what the writers want to emphasize. Which is a great segue into the Hanukkah story!

Most people grew up with some version of the story that Antiochus, who ruled the Jews in the 2^nd century BCE, suppressed the practice of the Jewish religion, converted the Temple into a pagan shrine, and plundered the treasury. The Maccabean Revolt happened in reaction to these restrictions and the Jews were successful. When they went to re-consecrate the Temple, there was only enough oil for one day. But re-consecration takes eight days and, in a miracle, the oil lasted the eight full days and that is why we celebrate eight days of Hanukkah. And the connection to oil is one of the reasons Jews eat so much fried food at Hanukkah.

Rabbi Jaech told us that the actual history has some disturbing facts. Alexander the Great lived in the 4^th century BCE and created one of the largest empires of the ancient world. Upon his death, his empire was divided into smaller empires, with the Ptolemy and the Seleucid empires in periodic battles over the course of 100 years for control of Jerusalem.

When Antiochus came to power in Jerusalem, there was a battle for power between the ruling oligarch families and the hereditary High Priests of the Temple. The oligarchs, like many of the people living in Jerusalem, liked the Greek system. It is helpful to remember that the Greek’s had one of the most advanced societies at the time. But the priests of the Temple wanted to wrestle back control.

According to the Book of Maccabees, which is part of the Catholic Bible, but not part of our Hebrew Bible, the Hasmoneans (also known as the Maccabees) were a pious family of priests who wanted to bring ritual back. However, closer inspection calls their piety into question. The Maccabees fought on Shabbat, they forcibly circumcised their enemies, by the third generation their offspring were given Greek names. In a decidedly Greek tradition, the Maccabees established Hanukkah as a way to celebrate their military victory. The Hasmoneans were also the dynasty that sought out a relationship with Rome; a relationship that did not end well for the Jews.

Centuries later, the Rabbis needed to reconcile the desire of people to bring light into the dark days of winter, with the questionable behavior of the Maccabees. Holidays are generally about identifying the trait you want to celebrate, and then finding a story to fit it. The Rabbis created and built upon the story of the miracle of the oil.

Rabbi Jaech pointed out that history is complex and messy, but she finds reassurance in education. The world has always been messy and complicated yet it continues to thrive. So, no matter how bad things may seem, history proves that we survive.

misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Jaech taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter