An analysis of Judah

By TED ROBERTS, the SCRIBBLER ON THE ROOF

If you were a magistrate of the Canaanite District 5 – about 1400 BCE -and Judah came up for judgment, what a test of your judgment there would be. Or put the question on a higher plane. It’s Yom Kippur and you must judge this impure  or mixed cinnamon, sugary sweet-roll-of-a-human-being: a grave decision.

First there is his role with Joseph, his “haughty” brother, as Judah would plead at his trial.

Then there’s that nasty business with his Canaanite wife (and don’t forget the maybe inadvertent adventure with his daughter-in-law). Not a  great choice. And lastly a burst of repentant goodness as he negotiates for the safety of Benjamin with Joseph, the same brother that he marketed to the Midianites at a bargain sale twenty yearsago. (“He’s young, strong, and he won’t eat much.” – the heart of his sales talk.)

Judah, morally, is a puzzle. Like most of us, not angelic, but streaked with two ingredients like sweet and sour soup or as in the case of humanity, with good and evil.

The three episodes described above go a long way in describing his character. But he does seem to improve as he ages. In his first encounter with an ethical challenge, you’d like him a lot better if he said, “Hey, he’s our half brother – only a kid – let’s kick him around a little bit, but then return him safely to Pop. After all, his constant boasting is only obnoxious, not worthy of death”.

But no, Judah does not go that far in the realm of goodness. “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood.”  Judah counsels selling 17 year old Joe to the Ishmaelites. Not quite as evil as killing him and much more profitable. Furthermore, the brothers have not dirtied their hands. He happens to be imprisoned in a pit (maybe he accidentally fell in). Coincidently, the Midianites are in the market for a slave. It just falls into place. But notice that Judah doesn’t speak for the death sentence.

But there’s more to show that Judah, even pre-Torah, has his soft spots.  He accidently – she’s all covered up disguised as a harlot – sleeps with his daughter-in-law. Eventually he is brought to justice, but admits his guilt in the face of unassailable evidence. He moves from condemnation of his daughter-in-law to “she has been more righteous than I,” to praise. Evidently, Judah is slow when it comes to self-condemnation, but eventually sees reality.

But now comes his shining moment. The brothers meet with Joseph – now a high-ranking Egyptian official whom they do not recognize as the brother they sold. He demands they bring to him Benjamin, a full brother – also a son of Rachel, like Joseph. Judah, steadily improving, volunteers to stand in as a hostage to insure the presence of Benjamin until they return from Canaan.

All’s well that ends well. The brothers are united when Joseph proclaims his kinship.

Clearly, Judah improves, but given the low point in the merchandising of Joseph, he had a long way to go. Maybe it’s only fair to judge him within the bloody confines of his time. And his volunteering as a hostage for Benjamin, his half brother by Rebecca, is a noble redemptive gesture. And after all, we’re called Jews because of Judah. We could do worse.