יוסף הצדיק

Joseph is the son who fell into the pit and rose to the throne, and his story is perhaps the most complete drama in the Torah. He was a beloved son of his father Jacob's old age, with a coat of many colors, dreaming dreams of leadership, and his brothers envied and hated him (Genesis 37). Out of that envy he was sold as a slave and brought down to Egypt.

In Potiphar's house he rose from slave to overseer of everything, and then came the great test: his master's wife tried to seduce him day after day, and he refused, 'how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?' (Genesis 39). For that stand he is called for the generations 'Joseph the Righteous.' The price of his integrity was prison.

In prison he interpreted dreams, and so his name reached Pharaoh. When he interpreted the dream of the seven cows and seven ears of grain, Pharaoh saw 'a man in whom is the spirit of God,' and appointed him viceroy over all Egypt (Genesis 41). From an anonymous Hebrew in a pit he became the ruler of an empire, and saved the whole region from famine.

The great moment came when his brothers, who had sold him, stood before him hungry and did not recognize him. Joseph could have taken revenge, but instead he burst into tears and made himself known: 'I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt' (Genesis 45). He not only forgave, he comforted them.

And so he framed his whole view of life: 'you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good' (Genesis 50). Joseph saw a guiding hand behind the suffering, and that is what allowed him to forgive. He brought the family down to Egypt, and so began the exile from which the nation was born.

Joseph teaches that one can pass through a pit, slavery, temptation and prison, and remain pure; and that forgiveness is greater than revenge. All the tribes bowed to him, yet all he sought was to knit the family back together.