Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Vayeshev #2: Dibatam Ra'ah: from last year, edited, plus an update

The second pasuk in the parasha (Bereishit 37:2) states


אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב, יוֹסֵף בֶּן-שְׁבַע-עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת-אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן, וְהוּא נַעַר אֶת-בְּנֵי בִלְהָה וְאֶת-בְּנֵי זִלְפָּה, נְשֵׁי אָבִיו; וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת-דִּבָּתָם רָעָה, אֶל-אֲבִיהֶם.

My own free translation:

"These are the Toldot of Yaakov; 17 year old Yosef would shepherd with his brothers sheep, and he would נַעַר with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpha the wives of his father, and Yosef brought their bad Dibah to their father."


אֶת means with, so רֹעֶה אֶת-אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן means he would shepherd sheep with his brothers. נַעַר could mean that he was raised with them (children of Bilhah and Zilpah), if indeed Rachel had already passed on (see my previous dvar torah on this), or else נַעַר could mean something else.

נַעַר means to be youthful, to shake off, to discard, according to Rav Shamshon ben Rephael Hirsch, so I suggest perhaps it means he hung out with them and was youthful with them, but reported his brothers misdeeds to his father.

Also, נַעַר does not only mean youth. It sometimes means servant, as by the Akeida, Avraham left the נערים with the donkey, and he and the נַעַר (Yitzchak) went up to the mountain. So perhaps it means Yosef served with them.

What was the report of misdeeds? Rashi cites a midrash (Rashi, 37:2), that "every evil that he saw in his brothers the sons of Leah he would report to his father: that they would eat a detached limb from a still-living animal, and they denigrated the sons of the maidservants (Bilhah and Zilpah) and they were suspect in sexual improprieties. And on all three Yosef was punished..."

Where does the midrash get this list from. Siftei Chachamim gives an answer, but Mizrachi rejects it for various, very good reasons (see both inside). This is my answer, which I developed before I saw Mizrachi, but he says something very similar. I suggest that the midrash gets it from the second pasuk of the parasha. The pasuk states:
אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב, יוֹסֵף בֶּן-שְׁבַע-עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת-אֶחָיו בַּצֹּאן, וְהוּא נַעַר אֶת-בְּנֵי בִלְהָה וְאֶת-בְּנֵי זִלְפָּה, נְשֵׁי אָבִיו; וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת-דִּבָּתָם רָעָה, אֶל-אֲבִיהֶם.

I would claim the midrash reads רֹעֶה not as "shepherd," but "found Raah - evil." Further, the midrash would place a colon after Echav. So it would be, "He found evil in his brothers: in the sheep." This would refer to the Ever Min HaChai, eating a limb from a live animal. Another midrash indeed claims that he misunderstood what he saw, and they were eating a Ben Pakuah, which is an animal inside a mother when the mother had ritual slaughtering. Such an animal is OK to eat without shechita. Perhaps this is what is meant by "בַּצֹּאן," in the sheep.

The pasuk continues, "וְהוּא נַעַר אֶת-בְּנֵי בִלְהָה וְאֶת-בְּנֵי זִלְפָּה, נְשֵׁי אָבִיו." Naar means young boy, but in other contexts (for example, by Avraham with the 3 guests and at the Akeida) Naar can mean servant. If so, "Hu" might not mean Yosef, but some other brother who נַעַר'd - made into a servant, the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. By considering them sons of servants and thus servants themselves, rather than sons of נְשֵׁי אָבִיו, they denigrated them.

Finally, the pasuk says "נְשֵׁי אָבִיו." Especially in light of the somewhat cryptic statement regarding Reuven and Bilhah in 35:22, this is a perfect source for chashudim al gilui arayot. (But remember that Chazal say that anyone who says Reuven sinned is only making a mistake.)

If so, we have all three bad reports, in the order the midrash gives them, directly from the pasuk. Additional reading would be Siftei Chachamim and Mizrachi.

In a related idea, Targum Yonatan gives only one sin (Tg Yonatan on 37:2): DeAchlin Bisra DeTalish Min Cheva Chayya, Yat Udnaya VeYat Dinbayya. In English, that they ate meat separated from a live animal, namely the ears and the tails. The Perush Yonatan gives an interesting explanation for why Yonatan has specifically the ears and tails. He writes that he heard that the shepherds in the land of Yishmael had the practice of cutting the ear and tail of an animal when it was sick so that it would return to its healthy state. And so they (Yosef's brothers) did, for the purposes of healing, and Yosef did not know anything of this healing and thought they were cutting it off to eat it."

Update: I noticed yesterday that דִּבָּתָם, with the dagesh in the bet, might be an assimilated nun. That would make the word דנבתם. Tg Yonatan mentions he saw them cutting of אודנייא, the ears, and דנבייא, the zanavs, the tails. So that might account for the tails.

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