The Legends of the Jews, vol 2 | Page 5

the
favorite of the sons of the handmaids, who would kiss and embrace
him.[7]
In spite of his scholarship there was something boyish about Joseph. He
painted his eyes, dressed his hair carefully, and walked with a mincing
step. These foibles of youth were not so deplorable as his habit of
bringing evil reports of his brethren to his father. He accused them of
treating the beasts under their care with cruelty--he said that they ate
flesh torn from a living animal--and he charged them with casting their
eyes upon the daughters of the Canaanites, and giving contemptuous

treatment to the sons of the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah, whom they
called slaves.
For these groundless accusations Joseph had to pay dearly. He was
himself sold as a slave, because he had charged his brethren with
having called the sons of the handmaids slaves, and Potiphar's wife cast
her eyes upon Joseph, because he threw the suspicion upon his brethren
that they had cast their eyes upon the Canaanitish women. And how
little it was true that they were guilty of cruelty to animals, appears
from the fact that at the very time when they were contemplating their
crime against Joseph, they yet observed all the rules and prescriptions
of the ritual in slaughtering the kid of the goats with the blood of which
they besmeared his coat of many colors.[8]
JOSEPH HATED BY HIS BRETHREN
Joseph's talebearing against his brethren made them hate him. Among
all of them Gad was particularly wrathful, and for good reason. Gad
was a very brave man, and when a beast of prey attacked the herd, over
which he kept guard at night, he would seize it by one of its legs, and
whirl it around until it was stunned, and then he would fling it away to
a distance of two stadia, and kill it thus. Once Jacob sent Joseph to tend
the flock, but he remained away only thirty days, for he was a delicate
lad and fell sick with the heat, and he hastened back to his father. On
his return he told Jacob that the sons of the handmaids were in the habit
of slaughtering the choice cattle of the herd and eating it, without
obtaining permission from Judah and Reuben. But his report was not
accurate. What he had seen was Gad slaughtering one lamb, which he
had snatched from the very jaws of a bear, and he killed it because it
could not be kept alive after its fright. Joseph's account sounded as
though the sons of the handmaids were habitually inconsiderate and
careless in wasting their father's substance.[9]
To the resentment of the brethren was added their envy of Joseph,
because their father loved him more than all of them. Joseph's beauty of
person was equal to that of his mother Rachel, and Jacob had but to
look at him to be consoled for the death of his beloved wife. Reason
enough for distinguishing him among his children.[10] As a token of
his great love for him, Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors, so
light and delicate that it could be crushed and concealed in the closed
palm of one hand. The Hebrew name of the garment, Passim, conveys

the story of the sale of Joseph. The first letter, Pe, stands for Potiphar,
his Egyptian master; Samek stands for Soharim, the merchantmen that
bought Joseph from the company of Ishmaelites to whom his brethren
had sold him; Yod stands for these same Ishmaelites; and Mem, for the
Midianites that obtained him from the merchantmen, and then disposed
of him to Potiphar. But Passim. has yet another meaning, "clefts." His
brethren knew that the Red Sea would be cleft in twain in days to come
for Joseph's sake, and they were jealous of the glory to be conferred
upon him. Although they were filled with hatred of him, it must be said
in their favor that they were not of a sullen, spiteful nature. They did
not hide their feelings, they proclaimed their enmity openly.
Once Joseph dreamed a dream, and he could not refrain from telling it
to his brethren. He spoke, and said: "Hear, I pray you, this dream which
I have dreamed. Behold, you gathered fruit, and so did I. Your fruit
rotted, but mine remained sound. Your seed will set up dumb images of
idols, but they will vanish at the appearance of my descendant, the
Messiah of Joseph. You will keep the truth as to my fate from the
knowledge of my father, but I will stand fast as a reward for the
self-denial of my mother, and you will prostrate yourselves five times
before me."[11]
The brethren refused at first to listen to the dream, but when Joseph
urged them again and again,