Parashat Mishpatim and the Hidden Story of Yosef

The entire Torah is built upon the plain meaning of Scripture, yet it also contains underground currents — additional layers such as allusion, interpretation, and hidden meaning.

Let us examine three commandments among the many mentioned in Parashat Mishpatim, and we will discover that woven into them is one of the most famous stories in the Torah.

A Puzzling Sequence of Verses

The Torah presents a sequence of three verses (Shemot 21:15–17):

“One who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
One who kidnaps a man and sells him, and is found with him, shall surely be put to death.
One who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death”

The order of these verses is difficult to understand. At first glance, the verse “one who kidnaps a man and sells him” interrupts the flow between the two verses that deal with striking and cursing one’s parents. Why does the Torah place this verse in the middle of laws concerning parental relationships?

Many commentators raise this question.

A Hidden Allusion to the Story of Yosef

At a deeper level, these verses appear to tell the story of Yosef.

The brothers took Yosef away from his father, and thus, in a sense, they “struck” their father. They kidnapped Yosef and sold him as a slave. The Torah’s legal language echoes the narrative of Yosef and his brothers.

What is the connection between these commandments in Parashat Mishpatim and the story of Yosef?

The Deeper Roots of Hatred

In every conflict, there is what lies on the surface and what lies beneath it.

Why did the brothers hate Yosef? The simple answer is jealousy. They envied him because he appeared to be their father Yaakov’s favored son. This is true, but it is not the deepest root of the hatred.

The root began earlier, when Yaakov loved Rachel more than Leah. Rachel was Yaakov’s beloved wife, and Yosef was her firstborn son. This is why Yaakov loved Yosef so deeply, and this is also why the brothers resented him.

The family tension did not originate with Yosef himself. It began when Yaakov favored one wife over the other. Yosef became the vessel that absorbed his brothers’ frustration over the fact that their mother, Leah, was less loved.

When Anger Is Misplaced

Here we find laws about kidnapping and selling a person — laws that recall the sale of Yosef, placed together with laws about striking and cursing parents. Perhaps the Torah groups these verses to reveal the hidden context behind the struggle between Yosef and his brothers.

The brothers kidnapped and sold Yosef, but without realizing it, they deeply wounded their parents. At the core of the issue, the parents were the true source of the pain, resentment, and jealousy. Yet the brothers did not recognize this, or perhaps they were afraid to confront such a painful truth with their father. Instead, they poured all their anger onto Yosef.

Their anger was misdirected. The real source lay elsewhere.

Had the brothers understood that their anger was never truly about their younger brother, perhaps the sale of Yosef would never have taken place.

Law as a Mirror of the Human Soul

This may explain why the Torah embeds the verse “one who kidnaps a man and sells him shall surely be put to death” between verses dealing with the relationship between parents and children. It teaches us what truly happened in Yosef’s story: the kidnapping and sale of Yosef stemmed from unresolved tension with the father and mother, and the act of selling Yosef effectively “struck” and “cursed” them.

Here we see how Torah verses contain entire worlds of moral, psychological, and emotional insight, far beyond the straightforward legal meaning of the commandments.

Questions for Personal Reflection

Do we store anger without resolving it? Unresolved anger can harm a third party. Do we direct our anger and emotions to the correct address? When there is conflict and tension between siblings, are we aware that, in truth, we may be “striking” the parents?

The Torah invites us not only to obey its laws, but to understand the deeper movements of the human soul that lie beneath them.