“His brothers went to herd their father’s flock in Shekhem” (Genesis 37:12). “His brothers went to herd [lirot et]” – there are dots over the word et, indicating that they went only to herd themselves.40They went to eat and drink for their own pleasure, not primarily to herd the flocks. “Israel said to Joseph: Are your brothers not herding in Shekhem? Go, and I will send you to them.
He said to him: Here I am” (Genesis 37:13). “Israel said to Joseph: Are your brothers not herding in Shekhem?” Rabbi Tanḥuma in the name of Rabbi Berekhya: He treated him with deference in accordance with the reverence due a father from the son.41Although Joseph’s relations with his brothers were strained, he agreed to go in order to honor his father. “He said to him: Here I am” – Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina said: Jacob our patriarch would remember these words, and his innards would be torn to shreds: You knew that your brothers hated you, and you would say to me: Here I am.
“He said to him: Go now, observe the well-being of your brothers and the well-being of the flock and bring me back word. He sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shekhem” (Genesis 37:14). “He said to him: Go now, observe the well-being of your brothers and the well-being of the flock” – “the well-being of your brothers,” fine; but what is “the well-being of the flock”? This is [the source of] the saying: A person must inquire after the well-being of an item from which he derives benefit.
“And bring me back word. He sent him from the valley of Hebron” – but is Hebron not situated in the mountain, yet it is written: “He sent him from the valley of [me’emek] Hebron”? Rav Aḥa said: He went to fulfill that profound [haamuka] counsel that the Holy One blessed be He arranged between Himself and His noble friend who is buried in Hebron: “They will be enslaved to them, and they will oppress them” (Genesis 15:13).