Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

Joseph had everything going for him. " Genesis 37:2 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." He was following the family tradition of being a shepherd. He fitted into the mould, alongside his brothers. However, not all is well as we told in the same verse: Genesis 37:2 And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father." You would expect the Torah to tell us that Jacob admonishes Joseph for tale-bearing. Wouldn't that be the logical follow-on to this episode? However, strangely, the next verse informs us that: " Genesis 37:3 (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 coat of many colours." Chizkuni, a 13th Century French commentator explains that:   (The word פסים   -"of many colours" can be seen) as a 'compensation,' for being a h

What must it have felt like to be Yaacov early in the morning on the day he met Esav again? He had just endured a physically exhausting fight with a stranger - perhaps, according to Rashi, Esav's Guardian Angel, who assaulted him all the while, in the guise of a man. They've fought all night. Yaacov is no youngster either. He is close to 100 years of age. Dawn has broken and the only way the "man" can prevail is by aggressively kicking Yaacov in the thigh, to the point that he has dislocated his hip.  Yaacov has been renamed Yisrael and he has little time to think of the consequences because he's in pain. Deep, deep pain. Now, he walks wearily towards his twin brother who is standing across the plain accompanied by four hundred strongmen. The last time they were together, twenty-two years earlier, he was about to run for his life, escaping a death sentence.  Now, he has no idea how Esav, a volatile character, will react when they finally