After winning favor with the queen – thanks to a bit of help from her hairdresser, naturally – Joseph finally approached Pharaoh with a request: to honor his solemn oath to his dying father, Jacob, and bury him in Canaan. Seems simple enough, right?
But Pharaoh, hesitant to let Joseph leave, initially refused. He suggested Joseph seek absolution – release – from the oath. This is where things get really interesting. Joseph, in a move that's either incredibly clever or slightly audacious (or maybe both!), countered with a veiled threat. "Then," he said, "will I apply also for absolution from the oath I gave thee."
What oath was that, you might ask? Well, it all goes back to the circumstances surrounding Joseph’s rise to power. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, Pharaoh’s advisors weren’t exactly thrilled about the idea of Joseph becoming viceroy. They only relented when Joseph demonstrated his mastery of all seventy languages – a prerequisite for ruling Egypt, apparently!
But the conversation revealed something even more significant, and potentially devastating for Pharaoh: he himself didn't know Hebrew! And that, it turned out, disqualified him from being king. Imagine the stakes! Pharaoh feared that if this truth came to light, Joseph, fluent in Hebrew and all those other languages, would usurp his throne.
In his panic, Pharaoh made Joseph swear an oath never to reveal the king's linguistic secret. So now, years later, when Pharaoh suggests Joseph break his oath to his father, Joseph subtly reminds him of the other oath, the one that protects Pharaoh's crown.
The Zohar tells us that oaths are incredibly powerful, binding forces. They aren't to be taken lightly. So Joseph's threat to break his oath to Pharaoh, in addition to the one to his father, threw the Egyptian ruler into a state of utter terror. He realized the precariousness of his position.
Faced with the potential exposure of his secret and the implied threat to his kingship, Pharaoh caved. He granted Joseph permission to journey to Canaan and bury his father. Talk about high-stakes negotiation!
It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? How often are we bound by unseen oaths, unspoken promises, and the weight of secrets? And what lengths would we go to, to protect our position, our reputation, or even just a carefully constructed illusion? The story of Joseph and Pharaoh reminds us that power, promises, and secrets are often intertwined in ways we can barely imagine.