Forgotten Anchors

This parsha is astoundingly anchored by stories of women, often regarding how their actions affect the men in these stories. Parashat Vayeshev begins with the story of tension between Jacob and his brothers. For the first time, I noticed the central place of women (in their role as wives and mothers) in this dramatic text.

Verses 2 and 4 in chapter 37 read:

These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph, at seventeen years old, was shepherding (over) the flocks (with) his brothers, and he was assisting the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. Then Joseph brought (in) unfavorable, bad reports of them to their father.

And when (Joseph’s) brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they held hatred against him and were unable to speak toward peace with him.

While both Leah and Rachel had sons (other than Jacob), only the children of Bilhah and Zilpah are mentioned by name, and then we learn that “his brothers'” hateful stance toward Jacob led to their selling him to the Midianites. The commentaries of the Mikra’ot Gedolot deal with this as either:

1) Actually being that Jacob worked with the sons of the handmaids, for whom Joseph had compassion, then reported to his father regarding Leah’s sons who were giving their brothers a hard time (Rashi, followed by others), OR

2) Joseph brought bad reports of his (unidentified) brothers, due to his lack of maturity since he was still young.

The naming of Bilhah and Zilpah, followed by commentary relating to the strife between Joseph and his brothers, struck me as another commentary on how the Bible sets up identities for the patriarchal families based on the women (as mothers). I felt this again as I read in verse 27:

[Judah said,] “Come and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let nothing be done to him (to harm him) by our hands. For he is our brother, he is our flesh.” And his brothers heeded (this decision).

Here again, the descendants of a woman who was not the prized wife of a patriarch have become separate from the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (I hope to have much more to say on this topic in the coming months…)

In the next chapter (38), we read the story of Tamar – in her role as Judah’s daughter-in-law, and how her eventual actions affect Judah. The following chapter (39) includes the story of Joseph in Potiphar’s house, dramatically including his relationship with Potiphar’s wife. The final chapter of the parsha recounts Joseph’s time in prison, specifically interpreting the dreams of the baker and cupbearer.

These stories are tied to the women whose daily lives are barely known, whose names are often forgotten – except for their role as the not-us in the making of a national/peopled identity. Who would these women have been, and their children, if not only offered to us in the context of somehow “opposite?”