His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and could not speak to him peaceably.
What it teaches
Guarding your tongue. Guarding against words that hurt a person, even when said behind their back.
Speech runs through this story: the bad report Yosef brings his father about his brothers, brothers who cannot speak peaceably to him and hatred that grows because of his words too. Guarding your tongue means taking care that your words, even about someone who is not there, do not add to hatred.
He said, “I am looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are pasturing.”
What it teaches
Mutual responsibility. Caring about another person’s fate as if it were your own.
The Torah teaches that mutual responsibility begins with asking how another is doing, and with continuing to look for them. Yosef, not finding his brothers, does not go home but follows them to Dotan. And Reuven, who meant to bring Yosef back to his father, finds the pit empty, tears his clothes and asks, “And I, where can I go?”
The lesson
One who cares how a brother is doing keeps looking, even when the road grows longer.
He is no greater than I am in this house, and he has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do this great wrong, and sin against God?
What it teaches
Awe of Heaven. Always remembering before Whom we stand, and so keeping away from wrong.
Yosef speaks of the trust his master placed in him, and ends by saying the act would be a sin against God. And when none of the household was there, he left his garment and fled. So the Torah teaches that awe of Heaven means remembering before Whom we stand, even when there are no witnesses.
The lesson
Whoever knows before Whom they stand needs no witnesses to say no.
The verses are from Miqra according to the Masorah (Wikisource, CC BY-SA 4.0), via Sefaria, without the cantillation marks. On this site the four-letter Name is written ה׳.
