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Joseph the Dreamer

Genesis 37:5-11 (NABRE translation)

5 Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers, they hated him even more.

6 He said

to them, “Listen to this dream I had. 7 There we were, binding sheaves in the field, when

suddenly my sheaf rose to an upright position, and your sheaves formed a ring around my sheaf

and bowed down to it.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you really going to make yourself king

over us? Will you rule over us?” So they hated him all the more because of his dreams and his

reports.

9 Then he had another dream, and told it to his brothers. “Look, I had another dream,” he said;

“this time, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10

When he told it

to his father and his brothers, his father reproved him and asked, “What is the meaning of this

dream of yours? Can it be that I and your mother and your brothers are to come and bow to the

ground before you?” 11

So his brothers were furious at him but his father kept the matter in mind.

Rashi on Genesis 37:10

“Is not your mother long since dead?” He did not, however, understand that the statement really

alluded to Bilhah who had brought him up as though she were his own mother (Genesis Rabbah

84:11). Our Rabbis inferred from here that every dream has some absurd incidents (Berakhot

55). Jacob’s intention in pointing out the absurdity of Joseph’s mother, who was dead, bowing

down to him was to make his sons forget the whole matter so that they should not envy him.

Thus, Jacob said to him, “Can it be that I and your mother etc.” — meaning, just as the aspect of

the dream regarding your mother is impossible, so the remainder of the dream is absurd.

Genesis 37:12-36 (NABRE translation)

12 One day, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem,

13 Israel said

to Joseph, “Are your brothers not tending our flocks at Shechem? Come and I will send you to

them.” “I am ready,” Joseph answered. 14

“Go then,” he replied; “see if all is well with your

brothers and the flocks, and bring back word.” So he sent him off from the valley of Hebron.

When Joseph reached Shechem, 15

a man came upon him as he was wandering about in the

fields. “What are you looking for?” the man asked him. 16

“I am looking for my brothers,” he

answered. “Please tell me where they are tending the flocks.” 17

The man told him, “They have

moved on from here; in fact, I heard them say, ‘Let us go on to Dotan.’” So Joseph went after

his brothers and found them in Dotan.

18 They saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

19 They

said to one another: “Here comes that dreamer! 20

Come now, let us kill him and throw him into

one of the cisterns here; we could say that a wild beast devoured him. We will see then what

comes of his dreams.”

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21 But when Reuben heard this, he tried to save him from their hands, saying: “We must not take

his life.” 22

Then Reuben said, “Do not shed blood! Throw him into this cistern in the

wilderness; but do not lay a hand on him.” He sought to save him from them and restore him to

his father.

23 When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic, the kitonet passim he had

on; 24

they took him and threw him into the cistern – it was empty; there was no water in it.

25 Then they sat down to eat. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from

Gilead, their camels laden with gum, balm, and resin to be taken down to Egypt. 26

Judah said to

his brothers: “What is to be gained by killing our brother and concealing his blood? 27

Let us sell

him to these Ishmaelites, instead of doing away with him ourselves, as he is our brother, our

own flesh.” His brothers agreed.

28 Midianite traders passed by, and they pulled Joseph up out of the cistern. They sold Joseph for

twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. 29

When Reuben went back to

the cistern and saw that Joseph was not in it, he tore his garments, 30

and returning to his

brothers, he exclaimed: “The boy is gone! And I—where can I turn?” 31

They took Joseph’s

tunic, and after slaughtering a goat, dipped the tunic in its blood. 32

Then they sent someone to

bring the long ornamented tunic to their father, with the message: “We found this. See whether it

is your son’s tunic or not.” 33

He recognized it and exclaimed: “My son’s tunic! A wild beast has

devoured him! Joseph has been torn to pieces!” 34

Then Jacob tore his garments, put sackcloth

on his loins, and mourned his son many days. 35

Though his sons and daughters tried to console

him, he refused all consolation, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in

Sheol.” Thus did his father weep for him.

36 Meanwhile, the Midianites, sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s chief steward.

Genesis 38:1-21 (NABRE translation)

1 When Joseph was taken down to Egypt, an Egyptian, Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and his

chief steward, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. 2 The Eternal was

with Joseph and he enjoyed great success and was assigned to the household of his Egyptian

master. 3 When his master saw that the Eternal was with him and brought him success in

whatever he did, 4 he favored Joseph and made him his personal attendant; he put him in charge

of his household and entrusted to him all his possessions. 5 From the moment that he put him in

charge of his household and all his possessions, the Eternal blessed the Egyptian’s house for

Joseph’s sake; the Eternal’s blessing was on everything he owned, both inside the house and out. 6 Having left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge, he gave no thought, with Joseph there, to

anything but the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. 7 After a time, his master’s wife looked at him with

longing and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, as long

as I am here, my master does not give a thought to anything in the house, but has entrusted to

me all he owns. 9 He has no more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld from me

nothing but you, since you are his wife. How, then, could I do this great wrong and sin against

God?” 10

Although she spoke to him day after day, he would not agree to lie with her, or even be

near her.

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11 One such day, when Joseph came into the house to do his work, and none of the household

servants were then in the house, 12

she laid hold of him by his cloak, saying, “Lie with me!” But

leaving the cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. 13

When she saw that he had left his

cloak in her hand as he escaped outside, 14

she cried out to her household servants and told them,

“Look! My husband has brought us a Hebrew man to mock us! He came in here to lie with me,

but I cried out loudly. 15

When he heard me scream, he left his cloak beside me and escaped and

ran outside.”

16 She kept the cloak with her until his master came home.

17 Then she told him the same story:

“The Hebrew slave whom you brought us came to me to amuse himself at my expense. 18

But

when I screamed, he left his cloak beside me and escaped outside.” 19

When the master heard his

wife’s story in which she reported, “Thus and so your servant did to me,” he became enraged. 20

Joseph’s master seized him and put him into the jail where the king’s prisoners were confined.

And there he sat, in jail.

21 But the Eternal was with Joseph, and showed him kindness by making the chief jailer well-

disposed toward him. 22

The chief jailer put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the jail.

Everything that had to be done there, he was the one to do it. 23

The chief jailer did not have to

look after anything that was in Joseph’s charge, since the Eternal was with him and was bringing

success to whatever he was doing.

Legends of the Jews (Pp. 350-51)

Thus Joseph became the slave of the idolatrous priest Potiphar, or Poti-phera, as he was

sometimes called. He had secured possession of the handsome youth for a lewd purpose, but the

angel Gabriel mutilated him in such manner that he could not accomplish it.

Potiphar’s Wife (Wikipedia)

In Genesis she is given no name. In Jewish and Islamic tradition she is known as Zuleikha, in

Hebrew: זוליכה

A story about Zuleikha is told in Sefer Ha-Yashar, where she was mocked by other aristocratic

Egyptian ladies, her circle of friends, for being infatuated with a Hebrew slave boy. Inviting her

friends to her home, Zuleikha gave them all oranges and knives to slice them with. While they

engaged in this task, Zuleikha had Joseph walk through the room. Distracted by his

handsomeness, all the ladies accidentally cut themselves with the knives, drawing blood.

Zuleikha then reminded her friends that she had to see Joseph every day. Following this

incident, her contemporaries no longer mocked her.

Jewish, Christian and Muslim scriptural commentators have regarded Zuleikha as a sinner and

villainess. Notable exceptions are the great Muslim mystic poets Rumi and Hafiz. For Rumi,

Zuleikha’s obsession with Joseph is a symptom and manifestation of the soul’s great deep

longing for God. This, he insists, is true of any person'’ deep love for another. Jewish

commentators also see some good motives in her actions.

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Rashi comments that the wife of Potiphar saw through astrology that she would have children

through Joseph. The astrological calculations however were slightly off. Asenat, her daughter

(by adoption, in some accounts) became the wife of Joseph and therefore the wife of Potiphar

begot grandchildren (not children) through Joseph.

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife

Balthasar Griessmann, second half of the 17th

Century

Potiphar’s Wife Talks About That Time (Deborah Bacharach, 2017)

In the end Joseph did all right for himself.

Because he was in the dungeons,

he called the dreams, and from there

he worked it like he worked it in

my husband’s home, putting together

puzzles of rain, watching hands,

oh he watched, roll pastry dough

on marble table tops. I saw the oasis

shimmer at the edge of the horizon

like I had been walking toward it

my entire life, like I had been crawling

on my hands and knees.

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Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Guercino), 1649

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Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo, 1640-1645

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Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

Artemisia Gentileschi (1620-1623)

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Costume design for Potiphar’s wife

Léon Bakst for the Ballet “La légende de Joseph,” 1914