The Power of Myth
In the previous portion, we read of Pharaoh wanting his dreams interpreted, and they summon Joseph. The commentaries typically point out that the Pharaoh didn't have just one dream, nor two sequential dreams, but it was a dream within a dream. And it was because of Joseph's understanding, which none of his advisers had, that Pharaoh appointed Joseph as his right-hand man.
Dreams within dreams.
In this week we read of Judah confronting Joseph. Judah's mission was to release Simon from bondage, and present, while protecting his little brother, Benjamin. Judah was to present a show of force, plead as well as threaten, for the sake of the unity of his brethren. In the end, Joseph removes his mask, as it were, and tells his brothers how a foreign power put him into his position, and that the family was to follow him, to descend to the kingdom where he was in charge, and all would be provided for, omitting that the Pharaoh was really the power behind it all, and that, in the end, they would all be in exile.
The Torah is a collection of myths for the nationalistic vision of the Jews, to justify, explain, and unify a people who have just returned from a long exile. Homeless, they tell of stories of their earlier days of glory, where they were the best of the best, where a special God chose them over all others, and that He would cause them to lose their status, but would return them to their former glory.
Long before they had a flag, the Jews had a Torah that they held aloft and waved for all to see. And it was from their mythos that they were able to unite, survive, and, most important, get agreement from the other nations of the world who included such myths among their own texts (especially Christianity and Islam), while ignoring the solely Jewish nationalistic message contained within the text.
Myths within Myths
If you read some of the later myths, it tells us of the tribe of Benjamin, the "little one", which was protected by, and later absorbed by the tribe of Judah. We read of the tribe of Simon, who is taken away from its position, treated as an outcast, and becomes part of Judah. The actions of these characters in the myths follow the other stories of the tribes themselves.
The sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, when united, rival the kingdom of Judah. These are the sons of Joseph, and all but those under Judah's protection, bowed to them. When the prophets speak of idolatry, it speaks of Ephraim or his brother, and the promise that one day, Judah would return as the principal leadership.
As I mentioned before, the imagery of the story of Judah and Tamar, of Judah giving over his staff and signet ring over to a harlot, and eventually having them returned to him, and never associating with the harlot again, is the story of the loss of Judah's leadership as a tribe, and of Joseph's gain of power (through the legacy of his sons' tribes).
In short, the story of Joseph's rise to power, his subjugation of his brethren, and Judah's resistance to that, but his willingness to submit for the sake of the others is really the myths in the other books that tell us of the rise and fall of the each tribes and of their alliances.
It is hard to ignore that the story of Joseph and his rise and the fall of the children of Israel matches so perfectly to the later myths of the tribes themselves.
Because of that, I am suggesting that the entire Joseph story, from his birth, to his meeting with Esau (Edom), to the acquiring of Shechem (which would be part of Manasseh's territory, taken from Simon and Levi who acquired it in the Genesis story), is part of the overall nationalistic mythology.
And like most mythologies, it is unlikely that the story of Joseph ever took place, but was simply a vehicle (Genesis) used to explain to the later generations the myths within the Book of Kings and Chronicles and other myth texts.
Myths within myths.
No comments:
Post a Comment