Monday, December 15, 2008

Parents Playing Favorites

I find it very interesting that Ya'akov, who grew up in a household where parents played favorites (with some bad results), chose to play favorites with his kids as well, again with results that had severe consequences for his descendants for hundreds of years.

Another consequence of his actions, of course, was the creation of this number. :)


(Warning: women dancing in this video... so don't click if it offends)

(As many of you know, I love Broadway musicals... and Joseph is one of my favorites).

The Wolf

6 comments:

Ezzie said...

Loved it before ever seeing it live, then saw it live when I was about 10, I'd guess. Great stuff. :)

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

still never really saw it live, but have the soundtrack and saw this video version once. however, i did see a high school Hebrew version of it once, which was great

Anonymous said...

I love the musical, not least because the authors have a grasp of midrash. I really don't like this production for two reasons:

1) The original was designed for a school which was boys-only, and therefore must have conformed with halachos of kol isha. Why did they have to go and treif this up?

2) Christian iconography treats Joseph as being a symbol of their deity. My alarm bells go off when I look at this production and note that Joseph looks much less Jewish than his father or his brothers. Every single one of the brothers wears a head covering of some sort - one even wears a yarmulke! - but Joseph is bareheaded. In fact, if you look at Joseph at the start of the song - white robe, long curly brown hair - it would only take a wispy beard to make him identical to the standard Christian depiction of their deity.

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

btw you inspired me to take my soundtrack of this and put it on my iPod now that we're getting to the Yoseif parshas

Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) said...

Joe:

Actually, your #2 reminds me of the midrash that Yoseif was sorta feminine or "metro" as we might say today. going around מסלסל בשערו and all that.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Uncle Moishy copies this list of colors in his color song...