Why Is Our Hero Judah and not Joseph?

By Rabbi Alan Yuter
Posted Monday, January 8, 2007

On one hand, Joseph appears to be more righteous, more consistently good, and better prepared than Judah to lead the Israelites of antiquity. But the monarchy was given to Judah, and not to the more talented and more morally consistent Joseph. Joseph's flaws are fed by his excellence. He knows he has talents, his expectations are high, and his acceptance of moral failings has a rather low threshold.

He is a dreamer and interpreter of dreams. Joseph was loved and nurtured by his loving, doting father who made a man who was both moral model and intolerable moral monster. Joseph's brothers could not measure up to Joseph's standards. Always complaining about them, constantly calling attention to their inadequacies, unfailingly focusing on their failings, Joseph ‐ for all of his talent – lacked one skill. While he managed his brothers with the sheep, Joseph alienated them in his managing of them.

Over time Joseph matured. He learned to speak rightly and uprightly to Mrs. Potipher, he convinced Pharaoh to allow the burial of Jacob back in the "home country." This request must have befuddled Pharaoh. For an Egyptian, there is no afterlife for those buried outside Egyptian borders. Joseph uses the power of his position and his ability to manipulate his brothers in order to see his beloved brother of Rachel, Benjamin, and to see if his brothers could accept him not as a talent, but as a brother.

For all his talents for good, Joseph's success in predicting the seven good and lean years led to the concentration of land and wealth in the hands of the Pharaoh, initiating the transfer of Egypt into the House of Slaves. When his brothers beg for their lives after Jacob dies, Joseph realizes that while he is able to manipulate men, manage their movements, and direct their behavior, he failed to become accepted by his brothers. In Judah's plea for Benjamin, in which he would become a slave in Benjamin's place after Benjamin was judged to be guilty of stealing the chalice, Joseph saw, appreciated, and admired Judah's sincere grand gesture of leadership. The Torah leader is not a manager of men, but a master of himself.

Judah began his career as one who is morally inferior to Joseph. When Joseph was rejecting the adulterous flirtations of Mrs. Potifer, Judah sought the services of his daughter-in-law, Tamar, to whom he promised another son in marriage. But Judah rose from his shame. Unlike Reuben, whose instability rendered him without credibility, and Simon and Levi's violence was both dangerous to the Israelite clan's security and incompatible with its ethic, Judah, like his descendant, David, was capable of real repentance, change and moral greatness. He took the leadership of his brothers, convincing his father, Jacob, to allow Benjamin to leave home, and would sacrifice himself for his honor, his brother, and his father.

Judah realizes who his father was, and that his mother was not the favored wife. Jacob seems to have become estranged from Joseph, given their distance in his last years and his deathbed attempt to set matters right, explaining why Rachel, Joseph's mother, was not buried in the family tomb. With all of his power, Joseph's apparent failure to communicate to his father would indicate that for all his talent, Joseph's travails took a severe emotional toll upon him.

The differences between Joseph, who in tradition is the failed Messiah, and Judah, the ancestor of Israel's Messianic line, indicate the value system that defines Jewish leadership. Joseph had powers of manipulation and future telling. Judah had the power to earn the confidence of people who count with the power of pursuasive character. Joseph was by nature a righteous man; Judah re-invented himself as he became a righeous man. And given the concluding narratives of Genesis, Judah conquered his emotional demons but, with all of his moral greatness and magical talent, Joseph couild conquer a country but he was unable to conquer himself

Judah did not rule with the power office. He united his brothers as the first of equals. He earned their confidence by deed, word, and example. He was able to lead his brothers precisely because he was one of them. In Egyptian idolatry and in Christian Scriptures, the hero is great because he[women were not heroines in antiquity as were men] did mighty deeds; the Israelite hero is the natural man who becomes great in piety and humanity. The Hebrew root that refers to monarchy mlk in the reflexive means "to consult." Judah was accepted by his brothers, and Joseph was not. The moral leader is not imposed, but acclaimed. Leadership is based on covenant and consent, in opposition to the pagan leadership of Pharaoh and Joseph, his adopted prodigy and wazir.

We recall that Samuel was pious, upright, respected, but not accepted as leader. His sons did not meet his high standards. And although God thought that Samuel was in the right, God realized that the Torah leader is not imposed by force. Respect is earned, never commanded, and the command of deference does not appear our Torah. Demands of deference are, according God, instances of moral violence.

Ever the king of the people and unlike Saul, David danced with the people as one of the people. This lesson David learned from Judah, his ancestor. Joseph was called in the Rabbinic tradition "the righteous." He was an angel. But God does not give the Torah to angels who are programed to be righteous. The Torah is given to human beings with flaws, foibles and failings in order that they, like Judah, mold themselves into angels, in the next world if not in this world

The staff of authority will not depart from Judah, until God's gift of Messianic redemption arrives. Judah's model is not in heaven, but on earth and within our power to put into practice. When will the Messiah come? Today! If we hear the voice of Judah, learn from his example, and unify our tribe with kindness, goodness, respect, and care.

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