In Veyeshev, this week’s Torah portion, we learn about all family politics of Yakov’s family. It is bad enough Yakov has a favorite wife, but why would he ever communicate this to his children? In light of this, none of us are surprised to read about Yosef being a brat and the brothers tormenting him. But then it goes way too far. We see the brothers capturing Yosef, Rubin saving him from being killed, and their selling him into slavery. There we read:

Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother, our flesh.’ And his brethren hearkened unto him. And there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Yosef out of the pit, and sold Yosef to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they brought Yosef into Egypt.

Genesis 37: 27-28

The brothers tell their father he was killed by a beasts and Yakov is lost in mourning. It would stand to reason that the story would follow our main character Yosef, but instead we have the whole Yehudah and Tamar interlude before going back to Yosef in this new life in Egypt. While dismissed at being sequential, telling these stories this way seems like an unusual literary devise for the Torah. What is the meaning of having this interlude?

On one level this way of telling these stories helps us explore the parallels of two brothers as they grow up. Yosef was a brat when he was growing up with his brothers. Through his various trials and tribulations in Egypt we get insight into his maturation process. Similarly we see Yehudah growing in being accountable. At the start he did not take responsibility for Yosef during his being put in the pit and being sold into slavery. Similarly Yehudah did not take responsibility for Tamar, his daughter-in-law. Through this interlude we see him learning to be accountable for Tamar. In turn we see that this helped prepare him for reconnecting with Yosef. At this later meeting we see Yehudah step forward and take responsibility for Benjamin. In this way the interlude points out the parallel processes between Yosef and Yehudah. But is that all?

This year, in light of the deep darkness in which we find ourselves after October 7th, I think there are other lessons to be taken from the Yehuda and Tamar interlude. Since the attacks and abduction on that day many of us are lost. Many good people assumed that the people in Gaza were also good people in a bad circumstance. Many of us believed that if we just could make their lives better we could have peace. But, the images of the glee they took at hurting, raping, killing, and abducting Jews made us question their very humanity. Similarly there are many who saw the massive death rate among Palestinians in Gaza since that time and question the humanity of Israelis. While there will always be extremist on both sides, this conflict has seemed to push people out of the middle. It is interesting to note that on both sides of this middle ground there are people who used to tell universalistic narratives who have collapsed into a particularistic narrative on one side or the other. For many this breach itself was a paradigm shift in Israel, on campus, and around the world.

This week’s narrative of Yosef’s brothers’ selling him into slavery is so sad. Our vision is clouded by the end of the story ending so well for all of them that we forget how terrible this is for Yosef and his family. While on a much smaller scale, this borderline fratricide is no less violent than abduction. So what of this interlude?

I wanted to offer this week’s Torah portion as a vision of hope amidst the darkness. Even if things look horrible now, we need to believe that there could be a future in which the brothers could grow up, rejoin, reconcile, be accountable, and be together in peace. While people can do terrible things we can get through it if we believe in the process of Teshuva

I also wanted to suggest that the interlude points at the need to be open to multiple narratives existing at the same time. Hamas is evil. Israel needs to make peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians need to recognize Israel’s right to exist. The death toll of innocent lives is just way too high. Every life has infinite value. While there are many tension in this conflict all of these statements can be true at the same time. Now more then ever we have retreated to our corners and there is no universal narratives. There is only our story and their story. We are the good guys and they are savages. We learn this week from this interlude that peace is possible. It might take a long time, but if people are given the time to grow and are held accountable, peace is possible if we can hold multiple narratives at the same.