The Legends of the Jews — Volume 2

Part 1

The Legends of the Jews

by Louis Ginzberg

TRANSLATED PROM THE GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY HENRIETTA SZOLD

VOLUME II BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS FROM JOSEPH TO THE EXODUS

Contents

PREFACE

I. JOSEPH The Favorite Son Joseph Hated by His Brethren Joseph Cast into the Pit The Sale Joseph's Three Masters Joseph's Coat Brought to His Father Judah and His Sons The Wives of the Sons of Jacob Joseph the Slave of Potiphar Joseph and Zuleika Joseph Resists Temptation Joseph in Prison Pharaoh's Dreams Joseph before Pharaoh The Ruler of Egypt Joseph's Brethren in Egypt Joseph Meets His Brethren The Second journey to Egypt Joseph and Benjamin The Thief Caught Judah Pleads and Threatens Joseph Makes Himself Known Jacob Receives the Glad Tidings Jacob Arrives in Egypt Joseph's Kindness and Generosity Jacob's Last Wish The Blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh The Blessing of the Twelve Tribes The Death of Jacob The Sons of Jacob at War with the Sons of Esau Zepho King of Kittim The Nations at War Joseph's Magnanimity Asenath The Marriage of Joseph Kind and Unkind Brethren Treachery Punished The Death and Burial of Joseph.

II. THE SONS OF JACOB Significant Names Reuben's Testament Simon's Admonition against Envy The Ascension of Levi Judah Warns against Greed and Unchastity Issachar's Singleness of Heart Zebulon Exhorts unto Compassion Dan's Confession Naphtali's Dreams of the Division of the Tribes Gad's Hatred Asher's Last Words Benjamin Extols Joseph.

III. JOB Job and the Patriarchs Job's Wealth and Benefactions Satan and Job Job's Suffering The Four Friends Job Restored.

IV. MOSES IN EGYPT The Beginning of the Egyptian Bondage Pharaoh's Cunning The Pious Midwives The Three Counsellors The Slaughter of the Innocents The Parents of Moses The Birth of Moses Moses Rescued from the Water The Infancy of Moses Moses Rescued by Gabriel The Youth of Moses The Flight The King of Ethiopia Jethro Moses Marries Zipporah A Bloody Remedy The Faithful Shepherd The Burning Thornbush The Ascension of Moses Moses Visits Paradise and Hell Moses Declines the Mission Moses Punished for His Stubbornness The Return to Egypt Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh The Suffering Increases Measure for Measure The Plagues Brought through Aaron The Plagues Brought through Moses The First Passover The Smiting of the Firstborn The Redemption of Israel from Egyptian Bondage The Exodus

PREFACE

The arrangement and presentation of the material in this volume are the same as in Volume I. In both my efforts have been directed to bringing together as full as possible a collection of Jewish legends that deal with Biblical personages and events. The sources of those legends and explanations of some of them will be given in the last volume of the entire work, and the numbers throughout the work refer to the notes in the concluding volume.

My original intention was to continue Volume II up to the death of Moses, but the legendary material clustering around the life and death of Moses is so abundant that practical considerations demanded the division of this material, in order not to make the second volume too bulky. The division chosen is a natural one. This volume closes with the Exodus, and contains the deeds of Moses in Egypt, while the following volume will deal with Moses in the desert.

The fact that Job is placed between Jacob's sons and Moses may appear strange to some readers, since in the Bible Job is one of the last books; but "legend is above time and space," and I have, therefore, given Job the place which legend has ascribed to him.

LOUIS GINZBERG.

NEW YORK, March 28, 1910.

I JOSEPH

THE FAVORITE SON

Jacob was not exempt from the lot that falls to the share of all the pious. Whenever they expect to enjoy life in tranquillity, Satan hinders them. He appears before God, and says: "Is it not enough that the future world is set apart for the pious? What right have they to enjoy this world, besides?" After the many hardships and conflicts that had beset the path of Jacob, he thought he would be at rest at last, and then came the loss of Joseph and inflicted the keenest suffering. Verily, few and evil had been the days of the years of Jacob's pilgrimage, for the time spent outside of the Holy Land had seemed joyless to him. Only the portion of his life passed in the land of his fathers, during which he was occupied with making proselytes, in accordance with the example set him by Abraham and Isaac, did he consider worth while having lived, and this happy time was of short duration. When Joseph was snatched away, but eight years had elapsed since his return to his father's house.

And yet it was only for the sake of Joseph that Jacob had been willing to undergo all the troubles and the adversity connected with his sojourn in the house of Laban. Indeed, Jacob's blessing in having his quiver full of children was due to the merits of Joseph, and likewise the dividing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan for the Israelites was the reward for his son's piety. For among the sons of Jacob Joseph was the one that resembled his father most closely in appearance, and, also, he was the one to whom Jacob transmitted the instruction and knowledge he had received from his teachers Shem and Eber. The whole course of the son's life is but a repetition of the father's. As the mother of Jacob remained childless for a long time after her marriage, so also the mother of Joseph. As Rebekah had undergone severe suffering in giving birth to Jacob, so Rachel in giving birth to Joseph. As Jacob's mother bore two sons, so also Joseph's mother. Like Jacob, Joseph was born circumcised. As the father was a shepherd, so the son. As the father served for the sake of a woman, so the son served under a woman. Like the father, the son appropriated his older brother's birthright. The father was hated by his brother, and the son was hated by his brethren. The father was the favorite son as compared with his brother, so was the son as compared with his brethren. Both the father and the son lived in the land of the stranger. The father became a servant to a master, also the son. The master whom the father served was blessed by God, so was the master whom the son served. The father and the son were both accompanied by angels, and both married their wives outside of the Holy Land. The father and the son were both blessed with wealth. Great things were announced to the father in a dream, so also to the son. As the father went to Egypt and put an end to famine, so the son. As the father exacted the promise from his sons to bury him in the Holy Land, so also the son. The father died in Egypt, there died also the son. The body of the father was embalmed, also the body of the son. As the father's remains were carried to the Holy Land for interment, so also the remains of the son. Jacob the father provided for the sustenance of his son Joseph during a period of seventeen years, so Joseph the son provided for his father Jacob during a period of seventeen years.

Until he was seventeen years old, Joseph frequented the Bet ha-Midrash, and he became so learned that he could impart to his brethren the Halakot he had heard from his father, and in this way he may be regarded as their teacher. He did not stop at formal instruction, he also tried to give them good counsel, and he became the favorite of the sons of the handmaids, who would kiss and embrace him.

In spite of his scholarship there was something boyish about Joseph. He painted his eyes, dressed his hair carefully, and walked with a mincing step. These foibles of youth were not so deplorable as his habit of bringing evil reports of his brethren to his father. He accused them of treating the beasts under their care with cruelty—he said that they ate flesh torn from a living animal—and he charged them with casting their eyes upon the daughters of the Canaanites, and giving contemptuous treatment to the sons of the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, whom they called slaves.

For these groundless accusations Joseph had to pay dearly. He was himself sold as a slave, because he had charged his brethren with having called the sons of the handmaids slaves, and Potiphar's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, because he threw the suspicion upon his brethren that they had cast their eyes upon the Canaanitish women. And how little it was true that they were guilty of cruelty to animals, appears from the fact that at the very time when they were contemplating their crime against Joseph, they yet observed all the rules and prescriptions of the ritual in slaughtering the kid of the goats with the blood of which they besmeared his coat of many colors.

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