פרשת וישב

In this weeks parsha, פרשת וישב  Yosef receives his multicolored coat and boils up jealousy

between him and his brothers. שמעון  and לוי  wanted to kill him but ראובן came in and had mercy so he said they should throw him in a pit. They do, but then they sell him. Yosef is then sold to Mitzrayim and he works his way up the ranks and becomes the second most powerful man in Mitzrayim (right under the Pharaoh).

In the second פסוק  it mentions that Yosef was a lad who was a troublemaker and who cared about his looks (Rashi). But then, in the next פסוק  it says Yosef was his father’s favorite. Yosef;s father made him a coat of many colors which was impressive back then because it was hard to get the different colors and it was worth a lot of money. But why would an extremely holy man favor his troublemaker son even if he is his eldest from Rachel? There are numerous answers, but one stands out among the rest. This answer is that Yosef had similar features to that of Yaakov, so, therefore, he favored him more. This seems to be teaching us that looks are more important than knowledge and character in the area of Kedusha? It can’t be possible that Yaakov favored him based on the fact that they looked alike. A way to solve this dilemma is that being handsome in the Torah usually stems from one's wisdom and character. Some examples are Moshe, Sarah, David... Basically, everyone ever mentioned in the Torah to be handsome or beautiful -יפת תואר ויפת מראה.  Unfortunately with this comes jealousy as well, even from the holiest people.

We can learn from this that people can be jealous of someone's appearance, character or the relationship they have with others. No one is immune to that feeling and we have to learn that no matter how natural it might be, we need to keep it in check.

Shabbat Shalom,

Yoni D. Zirman