Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/331

Rh Joseph and father's voice,

his

hast a tender heart for

"Thou

313

Brothers all

My

crea-

tures thou art a gentle and faithful shepherd of the flocks of men; now thou. art called to shepherd the flocks of God".

we all tried. May we all stand the test, as did he and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and his brothers, our fathers, and may we all So Moses was

tried,

and

so are

be strong to do the will and the work of God, our Father in

Heaven.

NOTES XLII, 9. Widi this verse Joseph's dreams that his brothers would one day bow down to him, are dramatically fulfilled. V. 13. The answer of Joseph's brothers to him, "We are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan", is full of meaning and inspiration. As indicated in a previous lesson, they express most forcibly our fundamental idea of Jewish brotherhood Regardless of where Jews may dwell, what languages "and unity. how they may dress and worship, we are still and speak, they may always, "brethren, the sons of one

man

in the land of

Canaan".

To

mark the this one man all our traditions go back, and from him we The teacher may beginning, in a way, of our Jewish consciousness. profitably reenforce in this connection the lesson of Jewish brotherhood and Jewish descent, already set forth in Lesson III. V. 24. Reuben, the oldest brother, had by his words, spoken in with Joseph's hearing, proved his innocence and his good intentions regard to Joseph at the time when the latter was sold into Eg}^pt. Therefore, it is implied, Joseph has Simeon, the next oldest, and the one therefore most responsible for the wrong done to him, cast into

This was the ifirst instance of what must harv-e seemed to the brothers a mysterious power possessed by this strange Egyptian to read their innermost thoughts and rate them all in their proper order Other instances follow, and contribute and at their true value.

prison.

greatly to the dramatic effect of the story. V. 25. Their money is put into their sacks, partly as a test of to their honesty, and partly as an additional inducement for them return.

V. safe

37,

telling that

return

of

Reuben

Benjamin,

is

offered his tw^o sons as surety for the a

duplicate

different versions of the

of

XLIII,

9,

which

tells

The two verses are from two Joseph story. The Judah version was the

that Judah became surety therefor. \n