Joseph is the first modern man in scripture. He utilizes all the tools of modern man. These include reason, logic, psychology, economic acumen, intuition and charisma. Although he defers his ability to interpret dreams to God, he never directly states that it was God who actually explained the various dreams to him. One could maintain that his natural abilities were instrumental in his ability to decipher his own dreams or those brought to him by others. Indeed, throughout his life he never speaks directly to God, and what is more important, God never speaks directly to him.
Another aspect of his modernity was his ability to live, with apparent ease, in contradictory worlds. One world was a rural one where he lived in a small clan governed by strict rules established by one strict and jealous God. His father’s clan had voluntarily separated from all other tribes and peoples and would not be influenced by other cultures and religions.
The other world was highly urbanized and multi-cultural. Its religions, rituals and practices were an abomination to Jacob’s family. The clan of Joseph lived in the remote land of Canaan. In his role as the economic czar of Egypt, Joseph found himself as the focal point of that civilization. He was required not only to deal with the Egyptian economy, but had to relate and interact with delegations from the surrounding world who traveled to Egypt to trade for grain.
By the nature of who he was, Joseph had to be at ease in both civilizations and cultures. The Torah makes clear that although he lived in a royal palace, he ate alone. His dietary practices were an abomination to the Egyptians as surely as theirs were to him. Although he lived with the Egyptians and, indeed, dressed, spoke and acted like one, he never became an Egyptian. In his heart and mind he was always a Hebrew.
Joseph’s life demonstrated that Jews could live within alien cultures and nations and still retain, with integrity, their Jewish ideals and identity. Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Menashe, became two separate tribes on Israel. To this day, Jewish parents bless their children, “May God establish you like Ephraim and Menashe,” as was indicated by Jacob.
Above all Joseph demonstrates that he is truly a modern man by his willingness to forgive his brothers. Forgiveness is counter-intuitive to a non-modern man who lives solely by the principles of blood vengeance. As a result, his brothers, who still lived in the clannish world, never truly believed that his forgiveness was sincere. This is compounded by the fact that his forgiveness is never clearly stated. By shifting the responsibility to God, he does not allow the brothers to accept responsibility for their actions and do a proper Teshuva (repentence).
They could never, thus, be rid of their guilt and perhaps even their self-loathing. In their innermost core they knew that they were guilty and never truly believed that Joseph absolved them. This is clearly revealed in the text of the Torah. After the death of Jacob the brothers concoct a story and tell Joseph that their father commanded that Joseph take no retribution upon his brothers.
In addition, the apparent forgiveness of Joseph is a startling revelation for it nullifies the whole structure of morality. If God is ultimately responsible for all actions that human beings do, then the concept of right and wrong cannot be applied to human actions and the need for Teshuvah is immaterial. Further, merely because God utilized their hatred against Joseph to bring about a positive result in no way removes or reduces their guilt. It is their evil intent, both in act and deed, which requires condemnation; not a good result with which they had nothing to do. This was another reason the brother’s doubted Joseph’s sincerity.
One can speculate whether this non-resolved guilt coupled with a diminution of self-respect worked consciously or unconsciously upon the brothers and their progeny. Why did they stay in Egypt rather than return to the land of Israel? Why did they, according to the Rabbis, adopt Egyptian culture and idolatry? How did they turn from being a powerful and self-asserting clan to weaklings easily entrapped into slavery? Each succeeding generation became weaker and endured more hardship with no sign of rebellion. The generation that left Egypt remained slaves psychologically and did not enter the land of Israel.
This process was ultimately detrimental to Jewish history. It caused an irrevocable division between those tribes led by Joseph and those led by Judah when the two kingdoms split. Indeed, the sense of guilt which Joseph unconsciously allowed haunts us to this very day. On Yom Kippur the central “Pizmon“ or poetic petition and on the 9th of Av the central “kina” or lamentation deals with the horrendous murder of the ten greatest rabbinic scholars during the Roman occupation of the land of Israel. The reason given for this martyrdom was the sale of Joseph for which, allegedly, no proper atonement had been rendered.
Perhaps the lesson we can learn is that forgiveness does not mean absolving someone of responsibility for their behavior. Rather, it means acknowledging that the person did wrong, but accepting their regret and contrition. Ultimately, being open and honest is the only true way for both parties to move forward.