Torah Study Blog

In 722 BCE, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians. The defeat resulted in what is popularly known as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The Assyrian nation had a policy of forced relocation of the defeated citizens. That reality is reflected in one of the traditions in our own Bible.

The story in 2 Kings 17 is that all the Israelites were deported from their homeland and forced to resettle in Assyria. Then, the king of Assyria forced people from other conquered territories to relocate to Israel. The Assyrians used this method of largescale upheaval and displacement as a way to maintain control over the population.

Images we see on television today showing people displaced because of war might give us the merest inkling of just how disruptive, and heartbreaking, displacement is. The Torah portion for this week recounts a story of when one of the heroes of our tradition, Joseph, mandated the displacement of groups of people.

The Joseph story is the most complete story in the Bible, and it reads as almost a novella. Unlike other parts of the Bible, there are not many contradictions in the Joseph story, leading scholars to believe that the story came from just one writer. It is possible that the story came out of an Israelite community that was located in Egypt. In the Nile River, there is an island known as Elephantine where a trove of documents spanning 1000 years, dating from as long ago as the 5th century BCE, was found in a former Israelite temple; attesting to a thriving Jewish community there. The temple is located very close to an Egyptian temple to the deity Khnum, who was the god of the Nile and whose image was presented with the head of a sheep.

As background, recall that Joseph had been tricked by his brothers and was sold into slavery in Egypt. During his time in Egypt, Joseph came to the attention of Pharaoh as someone who could successfully interpret dreams and Joseph took the necessary steps to ensure that Egypt would be in a good position during the famine that would come. Joseph was elevated in Pharaoh’s court and was put in charge of Pharaoh’s land.

When the famine came, Pharaoh’s land was prepared, but the people living in Canaan, which included Joseph’s brothers, suffered and traveled to Egypt seeking relief. The brothers reconciled with Joseph (a longer story that we have covered in the past and will not go into here) and Joseph was able to forgive his brothers. Being in charge of all Pharaoh’s land, Joseph installed his brothers in the land of Goshen, which was a fertile area and was perfect for their shepherding occupation.

Now we get to the forced relocation: According to Genesis 47, the famine that had struck Canaan expanded and the people throughout all parts of Egypt began to suffer. People brought their money to be able to buy bread from Pharaoh, but the famine continued. Then people brought their livestock to trade for bread, but the famine still continued. Finally, in Genesis 47 the people agree to give themselves up and their land in order to have bread to eat. All the land, all the livestock, and all the people throughout Egypt became the property of Pharaoh. And Joseph, “removed the population town by town, from one end of Egypt’s border to the other.” When the people were resettled where Joseph put them, Joseph instituted a 20% tax that would be owed to Pharaoh. Because it kept them alive, the people readily agreed.

This story shows off the prowess of Joseph. Joseph is responsible for creating all of Pharaoh’s wealth. The fact is that the Egyptian pharaohs exercised centralized power throughout their kingdom. This could be an origin story for how the pharaohs became so powerful, but this story gives full credit for that power to the Israelite, Joseph.

It is unsettling to think of our ancestors as taking advantage of people who were starving to death. But the Bible is our sacred text and these stories need to be addressed. Rabbi Jaech had us look at passages from Talmudic sages to learn what they had to say.

The Rabbi Rashi was a medieval rabbi in the 11th century CE. Rashi acknowledged that Joseph’s forced removal was an attempt to break any connection that people may have had with their land. But, Rashi put a positive spin on the story by suggesting that, since Joseph’s brothers had already relocated from Canaan to Goshen, Joseph was simply trying to take away the stigma of “exile” from Joseph’s brother by putting everyone on the same playing field and making everyone an exile.

Rashi’s grandson, Rashbam, a sage from the 12th century CE, was not as willing to whitewash the situation. Rashbam simply stated that Joseph was trying to make sure people could not reestablish their claim to land later. Rabbi Jaech took this opportunity to point out to us that disagreement among the sages is common, but the disagreements were done respectfully.

Rabbi Shai Held, a 50-year-old intellectual today, has noted that other translations of the Bible offer a different version of the story. The Masoretic text, which was created around the 9th century CE and provides our current translation of the Bible says that Joseph forced the removal of the people. But the Septuagint, a much older version, actually says that Joseph made serfs of the people and did not force their relocation.

Another observation by Rabbi Held is that, in this story, Joseph displays remarkable power as an administrator. Joseph places his brothers in the prime, fertile land of Goshen. But, ultimately, Joseph ends up unleashing forces that degrade the Jews because the Jews end up as slaves to Egypt.

Rabbi Jaech is not advocating that the status of serfdom is significantly better than forced relocation. She is trying to point out to us that there are passages in the Bible that are troubling. Our job is to read them and to decide if we can glean anything meaningful from them. What makes sense here? Does it make more sense that Joseph would have relocated all the people, or that the people would have stayed in place become serfs? Or, maybe this is just a story and there was no Joseph, anyway.

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