This week we hosted our third Kosher Food Club. Twice a month, teens from Coronado and Franklin High Schools come to Chabad during lunch break to eat, schmooze and do some Torah learning. I asked them if it was ever appropriate for a parent to show favoritism to one child over the others and an interesting discussion ensued. Like most things in life - it depends.
The child the doctor will be the most valued in medical situations and the child the lawyer will be front and center when legal issues come up. The same applies to the first Jewish family - Yaakov and his twelve sons. Although the favoritism Yaakov showed to Yosef over his other brothers had some tragic results, it’s justified when viewed from a spiritual perspective, and even became part of the lyrics of a Jewish song. The classic Passover song Who Knows One? covers all the Jewish fundamentals in numbers. One G-d, two tablets, three patriarchs etc. For number eleven we declare “Eleven Stars!” referring to the episode of Yosef’s dreams that ultimately led to the gravest family feud in our history. At age seventeen Yosef dreamed of the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing to him. When he shared the dream with his eleven brothers they were infuriated at the fact that he was insinuating they would all bow to him in submission and their anger led them to sell him off into slavery. Ultimately Yaakov and the brothers prostrated themselves to Yosef as viceroy of Egypt, but is this tragic story necessary to reference in a celebratory song about our foundational beliefs? After all, number twelve reminds us of all the twelve tribes. Must we emphasize the inferiority of the other eleven to Yosef? While his brothers were saintly shepherds secluded from society, Yosef was thrust into the bowels of the most ethically deplorable nation at a very young age. Being a slave in Egypt was the worst evironment for being saintly, let alone stick to your morals and ethics. Even after he was appointed viceroy of Egypt the sheer weight of his duties and the public exposure was certainly not conducive to spiritual focus. Nevertheless, he managed to remain the same saintly son of Yaakov as the rest of them, and even elevated the morality of Egypt - an accomplishment they couldn’t fathom. Even as a young lad Yaakov sensed Yosef’s spiritual superiority and tremendous potential and invested everything he had in the young prodigy, because the ultimate goal of the Abrahamic family was to bring the light of monotheism to the entire world. The other eleven were subordinate to Yosef because they needed to learn this important trait from him. Specifically Yosef - not his father Yaakov or the rest of the brothers - promised the Jews they would ultimately be redeemed from Egypt and return to the Holy Land because he inspired all of us to be just like him. To engage with society with Jewish pride and purpose and influence humanity to make our world a better place, ushering in an era of redemption when true peace and tranquility will reign for all.