Yaakov sends Yosef to his brothers, and they see him from a distance.
The story
The brothers went to pasture their father’s flock in Shechem. Israel, that is Yaakov, says to Yosef, “Come, I will send you to them,” and Yosef answers, “I am ready.” Yaakov asks him to see how his brothers and the flock are doing and report back. He sends him from the valley of Hebron, and Yosef comes to Shechem.
לֶךְ־נָא רְאֵה אֶת־שְׁלוֹם אַחֶיךָ
Bereshit 37:14
A man finds Yosef wandering in the field and asks what he is looking for. Yosef answers that he is looking for his brothers, and asks where they are pasturing. The man says they have moved on, and he heard them say, “Let us go to Dotan.” Yosef goes after his brothers and finds them in Dotan.
Seeing him in the distance, they plot to kill him before he arrives. “Here comes the dreamer,” they say. “Let’s kill him, throw him into a pit and say a wild beast ate him.” Reuven hears and says, “Shed no blood. Throw him into the pit in the wilderness.” He meant to save him and return him to his father.
They strip Yosef of his coat and throw him into an empty pit. They see an Ishmaelite caravan bound for Egypt. Yehuda says, “What do we gain by killing our brother? Let’s sell him and not harm him, for he is our brother.” Midianite traders pass by. They pull Yosef out and sell him to the Ishmaelites for twenty silver pieces.
Reuven returns to the pit: Yosef is gone. Tearing his clothes, he tells his brothers, “The boy is gone, and I, where can I go?” They dip the coat in goat’s blood and send it to their father: “We found this. Is it your son’s coat?” Yaakov recognises it: “A wild beast ate him.” He mourns, refusing to be comforted.
He said, “I am looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are pasturing.”
Words from the verse
מְבַקֵּשׁlooking for, seeking
הַגִּידָה־נָּאplease tell
רֹעִיםpasturing (the flock)
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?”
A question to sit with
Who close to you feels far away today, and how might you go looking for them?
Questions about the story
When the man said the brothers had moved on, what did Yosef do?
Went back to Hebron to tell his father
Went after them and found them in Dotan
Waited in the field for them to return
Answer
b. Went after them and found them in Dotan
The man had heard the brothers say they were going to Dotan, and Yosef went after his brothers and found them there.
According to the Torah, why did Reuven propose throwing Yosef into the pit?
To punish him for his dreams
So he would die in the pit without bloodshed
To save him and return him to his father
Answer
c. To save him and return him to his father
The Torah itself reveals Reuven’s purpose: to rescue Yosef from them and bring him back to his father.
The lesson
One who cares how a brother is doing keeps looking, even when the road grows longer.
For this week
This week, try picking one person you have not heard from in a while and simply asking, “How are you?”
From the sources
Rashi reads the man’s words, that the brothers had moved on from here, as speaking of a different kind of distance: “they removed themselves from brotherhood.” And at that very moment, Yosef is still going after them, looking for his brothers.
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׳.
