Couplets of Joseph the Righteous

Abraham Toledo

1732

“It is only because the Lord was with us,”
says the old Israel;
in You lies holiness,
Israel’s praises.
“It is only because the Lord was with us,”
You elevated us above other men,
You saved us from Esau,
by the sanctity of Your name.
Let us bless our God,
From whom we ate;
Blessed is our God,
there is none like Him in the world.
Blessed is He and blessed is His name,
Who created everything, even cabbage,
Sometimes with wheat, sometimes with tamo,1
He is the sustainer of all.
Praiseworthy and powerful,
it is right to praise Him;
let us give thanks to the Powerful One,
for the land and for sustenance.
May the Merciful One bring us the appointed time,
may we always serve Him.
And may bread and wine,
never be missing from our tables.
The Merciful One,
may He bring blessings upon us,
and may we be able to rest
without suffering any grave and unpleasant misfortunes.
May the Merciful One be praised
in Heaven and on Earth.
Blessed be the Omnipresent One,
who brings happiness to everybody, like a good wine.
They finished eating,
and the bulls passed by;
and later, a caravan went past
belonging to some Moors.
Judah said, “Let’s wait,
let’s not spill any blood today.
let’s get Joseph
and sell him to these people.”
Listen to my plan:
it is better for him to be a slave;
there he will make his dream come true,
the black dream of a bald man.”
The brothers listened to Judah
because he was showing great bravery;
when they saw him put his foot down,
they obeyed him.
“Naphtali, go over calmly,
and get him out of the well;
don’t use any form of violence,
stay calm and composed.”
Naphtali did as he was instructed,
and a rope he threw;
and thinking this and that:
he did so full of spite.
“Joseph, answer me!
Why are you silent?
Tie this rope around you;
I’m going to set you free.
Use these strips of cloth
so that the rope doesn’t irritate your skin.
tie the rope under both arms
and then throw the rest of the rope back to me.”
“You want to get me out of here, brave man,
to give me a terrible fright.
I’d prefer to stay here
and accept my unfavorable fate.”
“I’m your brother Naphtali
and I’ve always loved you.
I’ll take your hand and I won’t let go;
just trust me.”
“Really it is better to place your trust
in snakes and serpents
than in friends
and relatives.
“Naphtali, be on your way,
I won’t listen to a word you say;
you only want to give me problems
and cause me dismay.”
“They won’t lay a finger on you,
I promise you on our God, who is the truth,
I will be your warrantor,
this I swear to you on my youth.”
With sweet words he seduced him
and got him out of the well;
with his oaths he won him over,
bruised, cut, and disheveled.
He handed him over to Issachar
in front of the rest of the brothers;
“I went to great lengths to get him out;
you can see it in my hands.”
They called out to the people in the caravan,
“Greetings, good people!
would you care to buy
a very brave, strong, and reliable servant?”
Moors:

He will transport manure,
and chop firewood,
and crush pernicocol2
as well as grinding in the mill.”
Brothers:

“Don’t think he is so basic:
rather, he is handsome and gallant;
very accurate in his spelling,
he is very well-read and a good scribe.”
Issachar:

“He was dismissed by his previous owner
due to his bad behavior and rebellious nature;
when he was angry, he would emit terrifying sounds like a wild beast;
this is why his former master wishes to sell him.”
Moors:

“Bring him to us, let us take a look at him;
you’re selling a fish to the sea,3
if he doesn’t live up to our expectations
we assure you that you’ll be taking him back home with you.”
Brothers:

They brought the wretched man before them
and were about to seal the deal.
“Why are you injured,
and why are you half crippled?”
Zebulun:

“Sir, you should know that he is very fond of
salted tuna,
and he got into a fight with a cat
over his favorite snack.”
Moors:

“How much would you ask a dark man4 for him?
Don’t set your price too high;
I will set him on the right path
with my whip, without mercy.”
“Let’s not waste time bargaining;
he can be yours for twenty silver coins!
May God let me be successful
Without having to deal with pointless distractions.
Come and kiss the hand
of this sly and evil man;
this is too mild [to describe] a villain like you;
I should be using much stronger terms.
There in your new dwelling place
you will be whipped and beaten without mercy;
the stars you used to see at night
will dance before your eyes at midday.”
The brothers left the scene without a weight on their conscience,
And then Reuben arrived.
He went to look for Joseph in the well
But couldn’t hear a sound.
“Answer me if you are alive!
Talk to me, dear brother!
Joseph, your silence is killing me;
I can’t hear a peep from you.”
He went back to his brothers:
“The young man5 is lost!”
“Reuben, we’re not stupid,
We sold him.
We saw you thinking about the situation a lot,
and we’re not so cunning;
you won’t walk away empty handed,
we will give you your share.”
“What’s done is done and cannot be undone;
I will speak no more about this matter.
I, however, have no care for my share;
the devil can take it.”
“What you did was not right, brothers;
you should have sold him to somebody important,
not a group of Moors and brigands
for the miserly sum of a piece of bread.
I swear here in the presence of the council
that I will not be afraid to use my mouth to speak my mind;
my poor old father will do whatever he has to do
when he finds out about this.”
They slaughtered a small goat,
and the blood the collected
and the robe they scrubbed
with the animal’s blood.
They took the robe to their father,
Saying, “We found this.
We haven’t stopped searching for him all day,
Which is why we are late home.”
“That robe belongs to my beloved son,
the flesh of my flesh;
a snake or a lizard must have bitten him,
or another beast of prey must have eaten him.”
Jacob immediately started
to shave his beard,
and only stopped
when he grew tired of beating himself in grief.
“My learned and brave son,
how did such a misfortune befall you!
I feel responsible for your death
for sending you away in my moment of madness.
Precious and beloved son,
where will I see you?
In the fields and in the wilderness?
Where will I find you?
My old age has been tainted;
from now on I will see black for the rest of my days.
Is this why I raised you?
To see this day?
I will tear my clothes
from my robe to my breeches;
and my eyes will shed
seas of tears.
And I will wear nothing but a sheet of sackcloth
upon my bare flesh.”
After saying this he remained silent for an hour
with his head on a bench.
Then he lay on the floor.
“Send for the professional mourners6
to mourn for my son
in many different ways.”

Translated by
Alicia
Paddon
.

Other work by Toledo: Los milagros de Purim (1760).

Notes

[The fine dust or straw that remains on the threshing floor.—Trans.]

[Word unknown.—Trans.]

[I.e., nothing special.—Trans.]

[I.e., a Moor or a Muslim, one of the traders in the caravan.—Trans.]

[Moso in Ladino means both a young man and a male servant, alluding to Joseph’s new status as a slave.—Trans.]

[It was common in the medieval period to call upon the services of professional mourners for funeral processions and funerals.—Trans.]

Credits

Abraham Toledo, “Coplas de Yosef ha Saddiq (Couplets of Joseph the Righteous)” (Song, Ottoman Empire, 1732). Republished as: Abraham Toledo, “Coplas de Yōsēf ha-Ṣaddīq” in Joseph and his Brethren: three Ladino versions, ed. Moshe Lazar (Culver City, CA: Labyrinthos, 1990), 166–86.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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