Photo: Susan Wilkinson (@ unsplash) "You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me, and I said, ‘He has surely been torn to pieces.’ And I have not seen him since.” (Genesis 44:27-28) If you are one of this man’s ten other sons, how do you feel when you hear this? Dad loved this boy way too much. Dressed him up like a doll, called him his sunshine. Did not love his other wives; did not give a fig about his other children. Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons.... And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him” (Genesis 37:3-4). There you have it. After Rachel died, Jacob pitched his tent out past Migdal-eder, leaving behind Leah, Bilhah, Zilpah and the children. Reuben, the oldest, saw his chance to send the old man a message: While Israel stayed in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine; and Israel found out. (Genesis 35:22) That was it. Didn’t say a word to Reuben.
Just what it says: a little midrash, a filling in of some of the lacunae Torah leaves in the lives of its characters. The stories lay no claim to being right, but they do explore what is possible. Texts don't sit still long enough to have fixed meanings; too often we assume that Torah is done and finished. It is never finished.