In describing the actions that led to enmity between Joseph and his brothers, the Torah says that he brought their evil report to his father. Rashi quotes the midrash, that he told of all the evil he saw in them: that they ate the flesh of a living animal, called the sons of the maidservants slaves and were suspected of sexually immoral behaviour. For this, the midrash continues, Joseph was punished, measure for measure. His brothers slaughter a kid and pretend its his blood, he is sold as a slave and he is accused of attempting to rape his master’s wife. The midrash, however, does not suggest that Joseph was lying in these reports to his father. Why then was he punished with these incidents, all of whom are untrue or unjustified? The answer lies in another case of evil report in the Torah, that of the spies. Here also Rashi implies in his commentary that the spies did not actually lie. They reported what they saw. There is clearly a midrashic tradition that regards the Hebrew word ‘dibah’ as not meaning telling lies. Rather it is in fact telling the truth, but from a jaundiced perspective. The spies were punished for telling the truth about Israel in a way that only emphasised the difficulties, thus distorting the true picture. This was also Joseph’s problem. Everything he reported back to his father was true, at least as far as he saw it. But he didn’t put it in its context, ignoring extenuating circumstances, and thus presented a jaundiced view of his brother’s to Jacob. For this he was punished with incidents that hid the real truth. The blood appeared to be human, Joseph’s; but was in fact that of a goat. Joseph was made to be a slave, even though he was really a leader. Above all, it plausibly seemed to the casual observer, that Joseph had tried to seduce or rape Potiphar’s wife, while of course the truth was precisely the opposite. Joseph was taught by these incidents not to trust appearances or only his own perspective but rather try and get to the truth of the matter. He uses this knowledge to good effect in discovering his brother’s true feelings towards Benjamin, thus helping to reunite the family. This story, then, provides us with a salutary warning. Not everything we see is necessarily as it seems and our own perspective can cause us to distort the truth. It is necessary to look beyond the surface and examine the context of actions to truly judge them. We thus can avoid the mistakes of Joseph and the spies and have a truer perspective on the world.

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