Jarring as it may seem, Chazal identified within Haman and Achashveirosh’s celebration after sentencing an entire population to death a certain point of comparison with the meal eaten by Yosef’s brothers after casting him into the pit. The Sages here censure the brothers for so easily resuming normal activity, and sitting down to a meal, after committing what essentially amounted to fratricide.
The Torah tells in Parashat Vayeshev that after Yosef’s brothers cast him into the pit, “they sat to eat bread” (37:25), whereupon they saw merchants in the distance and decided to sell Yosef as a slave.
The Midrash (Midrash Tehilim, 10; Ester Rabba, 7) draws a somewhat startling association between Yosef’s brothers and no less a villain than Haman: “The Almighty said to the tribes: You sold your brother amidst eating and drinking... Behold, your descendants will be ‘sold’ in Shushan amidst eating and drinking, as it says (Ester 3:15), ‘and the king and Haman sat to drink…’”
This Midrash passage may rank among the most strident, scathing condemnations of mekhirat Yosef found in the writings of Chazal. Any attentive reader or listener immediately discerns the bitter discordance in the aforementioned verse in Megilat Ester: “The king and Haman sat to drink – and the city of Shushan was dumbfounded.” In the royal chamber sat King Achashveirosh with Haman, feasting and drinking as though they had not a care in the world. Outside the palace, thousands upon thousands of condemned citizens sat in sackcloth and ashes, having suddenly been informed that they would die in eleven months. The Megila here succinctly portrays two diametrically opposite scenes: the food and intoxication of Achashveirosh and Haman, and the anguish that gripped the “dumbfounded” city of Shushan. Luxury, indulgence and festivity – contrasted with grief, shock and horror.
Jarring as it may seem, Chazal identified within Haman and Achashveirosh’s celebration after sentencing an entire population to death a certain point of comparison with the meal eaten by Yosef’s brothers after casting him into the pit. Here, too, we find people sitting to a meal shortly after an act of cruelty. In this Midrash, it seems, Chazal found the brothers guilty of not only tormenting their brother, but doing so with a clear conscience. The Sages here censure the brothers for so easily resuming normal activity, and sitting down to a meal, after committing what essentially amounted to fratricide.
Clearly, the brothers’ decision to eliminate Yosef – whom they likely considered a personal threat to them and their family – cannot be accurately compared to Haman’s edict to execute thousands of Jews due to childish pride and arrogance. Nevertheless, Chazal deemed the brothers’ indifference to Yosef’s fate as worthy of comparison to Haman’s celebration. Even if there was perhaps a possibility of mitigating the crime itself in light of their resentment and the threat Yosef may have posed, Chazal in this Midrash condemn the brothers’ casual attitude toward this affair. In this sense, their conduct, sadly enough, rendered them worthy of comparison to one of the great villains of the Jewish people.