Torah portrays characters with unflinching honesty. Take Joseph, for example. Handsome, smart, insightful, spiritual, a quick study — and maybe a little arrogant. Forgiving towards his brothers — except for the impulsive, violent bully Simon, whom he imprisons indefinitely. A visionary architect of national food security in famine and guarantor of his family’s livelihood — and a master of taxation, who turned Egypt’s landowners into tenant farmers.
On balance, is Joseph good or bad?
From Pharaoh’s dream, Joseph correctly predicts seven years of abundant harvest, followed by seven years of famine. During the seven years of plenty, he taxes the grain farmers, collecting surplus produce in royal storage cities. As the famine begins, he invites farmers to buy back their own produce from the Pharaoh. Within a few years, farmers have spent their savings. They offer Joseph their working animals in exchange for Pharaoh’s grain. A year later, bereft of resources, they offer their land and labor to Pharaoh in exchange for seed. Joseph agrees, negotiating 20% of the land’s annual yield for its new royal owner and 80% for the tenant farmer. And, recognizing how hard farm life has become, he moves as many people as he can into cities.
I used to think Joseph was a robber baron. But now I’m reading Molly Ivins’ book Bushwhacked, a critique of oligarchy in the U.S. I have read about the gutting of unemployment benefits, the reorganization of education to benefit giant test corporations, the lowering of taxes on the wealthy, the shrinking of the EPA and the sham of “voluntary compliance” with its regulations. In comparison, I now think Joseph is a saint. Yes, he enriches his boss Pharaoh. But Pharaoh worries about the country’s sustainability. And Joseph believes the government should take care of the people. Together, they take climate change very, very seriously.
For more reflections on Parshat Vayigash (Genesis 44:18-47:27), click here.
Pharaoh has dreams that Yosef correctly interprets as being about upcoming years of plenty and famine in Egypt (and elsewhere). The dreams are presumably given by God (as the Talmud says: “Dreams are 1/60th prophecy”) and Yosef’s insights into the dreams are God-given as well. However — nowhere does God give Yosef directions regarding what to do about the upcoming famine. The choice to collect all the grain during the good years and sell it off to impoverished Egyptians during the bad years is Yosef’s alone. Was he a “robber baron?” I don’t think so — he didn’t become wealthy himself through selling the grain. BUT — Were Pharaoh and Yosef committing “insider trading” by having advanced knowledge of the market that others didn’t have, giving them unfair economic advantage? AND — If so, was God complicit? I leave the discussion of those questions open.
I love your closing question, Eli. If this is all God’s design – that seems to be how Yosef sees it – where is this all going? Or, alternatively, what is to be learned? Is it too familiar an answer to suggest “the Exodus”?