Choosing a King: Judah vs. Joseph

Question

Why did Jacob anoint Judah, and not Joseph, as his heir apparent? Joseph clearly was Jacob’s favorite, and the one that Jacob was begging to see before he died. Instead, Jacob said that the kingdom of Israel would spring through Judah from which name our people comes, and who was the direct ancestor of King David. If Jacob was going to skip over his first born, go out of succession to birthright and pick another son to lead Israel, why not pick Joseph? (Was it simply that Joseph was heading back to Egypt?)

Answer

Hi! This is a really terrific question. I’ve been thinking about it for years! Let me just share with you a few of my thoughts; maybe you’ll have some suggestions as well.

It’s important to remember that all of Jacob’s children were righteous. Unlike the sons of Abraham and Isaac, where one son was chosen to carry on the tradition, Jacob’s family was a whole group of successful children. Each was extraordinary in his way, each had his own unique strengths.

The two sides of the family were quite different. Rachel was more quiet, more inner-directed; Leah more out-going (our Sages say that she was originally slated to marry Esau, the man of the fields). This applied to their offspring as well. Dinah, for instance, was out-going like her mother. Benjamin (from the side of Rachel) is said by our sages as being one of the four people who never did a sin in their lives. And the central part of the Temple mount was placed in his territory.

Now, Joseph was a fascinating character. Wherever he went, people were awed by his greatness and closeness to G-d. They immediately appointed him to run whatever they were in charge of. This happened with Potiphar, with the jailer, and with Pharaoh himself. Maybe we could say that the same thing happened with Joseph’s father Jacob – Joseph was recognized by his father as being the greatest of the brothers, and given a coat that signified his higher position.

I’d like to point out, though, that Joseph tended not to be the leader. He was always put in as second-in-command, as the top administrator. He did a great job at whatever he did, but someone else was always king.

It could be that this is going to be a characteristic of Rachel’s side of the family in general, who are after all more inward-directed. Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, was a very great person, but he was not a good king. His son, Jonathan, said to David that in the end David would be the king; he would be David’s second in command.

Judah, on the other hand, was a born leader. In fact, in the story of Joseph and his brothers, Judah was originally the one who ultimately decided to sell Joseph as a slave. Not good, but it does seem that the brothers respected his leadership. He had the courage to admit his fatherhood of Tamar’s baby(s). He got his father to send Benjamin to Egypt, by taking personal responsibility for the result. And he was the one who eventually got to Joseph’s heart by offering himself as a slave in place of Benjamin, making Joseph break down and admit his identity.

I have a little bit of a feeling that we as Americans tend to have a preference for fame and glory. Whoever is more famous, more outgoing, more powerful, is also better off. I don’t think that the Torah has that perspective. The best brother to be king was chosen to be king. That doesn’t at all detract from the tremendous importance of Joseph’s side of the family.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach

Follow-up question

Question

I had a slight doubt about what you said that all of Jacob’s descendants were righteous.I mean how can that be so if we take into account the case of Reuben who slept with his father’s concubine or Shimon and Levi who slaughtered the whole city of Shechem in collective punishment for the rape of their sister (For this they were reprimanded by Jacob at his last blessings).

Or all the brothers’ jealousy for Joseph being their father’s favorite and having so much hate towards him that they were even ready to kill their own brother. How is it that all of them were righteous infact of all such things ?

Answer

Hi! Since we’ve corresponded before, I know that you are aware that our sages did indeed consider the twelve sons of Jacob righteous. They explained the story of Reuben differently, and said that anyone who takes it literally is making a mistake (Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 55b). And you’re aware that they understood that the other brothers judged Joseph, and decided (wrongly) that he was trying to destroy them, and that they needed to defend themselves. And if you’ll take a look at Jacob’s blessings, you’ll see that he was not accusing Shimon and Levi of murder, but of getting carried away by their indignation and anger. Shechem itself deserved destruction – see the classic commentaries of the Ramban and the Rambam on the incident.

So I can minimize the wrong done in each case, and indeed that is the appropriate thing to do. As the Ramchal’s commentary explains in his introduction to Aggados (Talmudic Stories), the rule is always to understand the acts of the righteous in the best possible fashion, and the wicked in the worst.

However, all this is really beside the point. If the brothers were completely guilty of everything you said, it wouldn’t change what I was saying. I never meant to imply that they never did anything wrong. Our sages say in that same Talmud in Shabbat that there are exactly four human beings who never sinned in their lives. All the rest of us have sinned, a lot or a little. The main thing is where we end up. If we do something wrong, we need to use it as a lever to change ourselves and improve. If we do right, we need to use it as a springboard to do still more.

In the story of Jacob and Esau, Esau gives up and leaves. He stops being a member of the family of Israel, and his nation became lost. There’s his wickedness in a nutshell: He left. The story of Jacob’s sons came close to ending up that way too. Without Joseph giving the brothers a chance to redeem themselves, without Judah who was willing to give himself up to save Benjamin, I don’t see how the brothers could ever have formed a family afterwards. But with G-d’s help, they managed to forge a reconciliation, and all of them together formed the nation of Israel that grew from them. Their youthful failures became the basis for the growth that ultimately built the characters of the tribes of Israel.

Best wishes,
Michoel Reach