Book of Jubilees, פַּרְשַׁת וַיֵּשֶׁב, part 1 of 2

Chapter 34

This chapter starts with an episode with no Biblical precedent whatsoever (unless it's Abraham's intervention in the war of the four kings and the five kings):

( Read about the war between Jacob and the seven kings of the Amorites. )

I think this is there as foreshadowing for the story we'll get to next week.

The story of how Joseph was sold into slavery is simplified: Joseph's premonitory dreams are missing, and the attempts by Reuben and Judah to talk the other brothers into not killing him elided to just "They changed their minds and sold him to Ishmaelite merchants" (missing out the confusion in the Biblical text between Ishmaelites and Midianites).

Potiphar, who buys Joseph, is described in the Bible as סְרִיס פַּרְעֹה שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים. This is translated as "an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard," which is misleading. סְרִיס is elsewhere translated as "eunuch"; evidently eunuchs could reach high status if the one word can also mean "officer". As for "captain of the guard", שַׂר הַטַּבָּחִים means more literally "chief executioner". I'd be intrigued to know what the Ge'ez text says in Jubilees; the out-of-copyright translation I use for my postings here says "chief eunuch" but my modern translation "court official"; the second description in both is "chief cook!" Jubilees also describes him as "priest of the city of Elew", which makes explicit the identification of the Biblical Potiphar, Joseph's master, and Poti-phera priest of On, Joseph's future father-in-law; and indeed in Ch. 40, Joseph's wife is described as the daughter of Potiphar, priest of Heliopolis, the chief cook.

Jacob's mourning for the loss of his son is intensified in Jubilees:

On that day Bilhah heard that Joseph had perished, and she died mourning him, and she was living in Qafratef, and Dinah also, his daughter, died after Joseph had perished. And there came these three mournings upon Israel in one month.

This is again used to provide justification for the date of a Mosaic festival:

( Read more... )

The goat is, of course, relevant to both Joseph's story and Yom Kippur. (In actuality, the date of Yom Kippur was probably set so that Israelites, who had come to the Temple (or earlier, the Tabernacle) for Succoth might also be there on Yom Kippur a few days earlier, as Yom Kippur is not in itself a pilgrimage festival.)

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My mother's glasses.

The last time I saw my mother, I was struck by the fact she was wearing her glasses; this was something the countless deathbed scenes one sees on the small and silver screens had not prepared me for, as they never show people dying wearing their glasses. But of course, just because you've taken to your bed for the last time doesn't mean you would want to see the world as a blur.

After my mother died, I intercepted two pairs of her glasses on the way to the bin, and, ahem, put them in a cupboard and forgot about them for almost two years. But I've finally donated them to charity today; my opticians will now send them off to be reused in developing countries.

My mother wanted her corneas to be donated after her death; for a variety of reasons (including corneal abrasions) that was not possible; this strikes me as the next best thing.