Just as Sarah and Rebecca had one son, who was most important, so did Jacob’s wives. Leah's most important son was Judah, while Rachel's most important son was Joseph. The fact that Jacob had two principal heirs, Judah and Joseph, rather than one principal heir, as his forefathers had, resulted from Jacob having two wives of full status (as opposed to maidservants or concubines), while Abraham and Isaac each had only one wife of full status.

 

 

After Reuben's violation of his father's privacy, the birthright was given to Joseph, and the leadership to Judah. Only Joseph was worthy of the birthright, since he was Rachel’s firstborn. The leadership, on the other hand, passed naturally to the eldest among the brothers. Since Simeon and Levi lost their place because of what they did in Shechem, the leadership passed to Judah. Jacob recognized this and chose Judah to lead the way to Egypt to meet Joseph: "to show the way before him to Goshen." Genesis 46:28

 

When the kingdom split, following the death of Solomon, Rehoboam and his descendants, from the house of David, ruled in Jerusalem, while Jeroboam and his descendants, from the house of Joseph, ruled in Tirtzah, up until the Destruction of the Temple. The kingdom of the ten tribes is known as "Ephraim."

 

The Tabernacle resided in the portion of Joseph’s while the Temple was in the portion of Judah. The tribe of Benjamin was both in Jerusalem and in the strip emerging from their portion towards Shilo. Ezekiel (in chapter 37) speaks of the joining of the branch of Judah and the branch of Ephraim into a single royal house by Messiah, the son of Joseph and Messiah, the son of David ~ the Messiah will be a descendant of Joseph and of Judah.

 

The Torah refers to the tribes as "Judah and his brothers"  (Genesis 44:14) and "Joseph's brothers." (Genesis 42:6) Nowhere is the group ever referred to as "Dan's brothers," "Benjamin and his brothers" etc.

 

The Torah provides far greater details concerning Judah's and Joseph's families than those of all the other brothers and their families. All the brothers married Canaanite wives, deviating thereby from the oath that Abraham made his servant swear: "You shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell."  Genesis 24:3 The only brothers who did not marry Canaanite wives were Joseph and Judah.

 

Judah's first marriage was to the daughter of a Canaanite, (Genesis 38:2) but the failure of this marriage (the premature death of his wife and the death of her two sons, both childless) prove that it was not proper for him to marry a Canaanite, for he was the most important of the "generations of Jacob." This may be the reason why the Canaanite woman's name was not ever mentioned, nor the circumstances of their marriage, the birth of their children or the meaning of their names. When Judah married the daughter of Shua, the Torah says, "Judah went down from among his brothers" (Genesis 38:1) - his status became diminished; only when he took Tamar did he regain his position within the family of Jacob.

 

Judah and Joseph are the only two of Jacob's children whose life stories are detailed at length, and especially the challenges they faced. They are the only brothers whose good deeds were recorded in the Torah: Joseph as a righteous man for standing firm against the advances of Potifar's wife and for forgiving his brothers, while Judah was described as repenting in the story of Tamar and in his readiness to sacrifice himself for Benjamin. In addition, these two are the only ones among Jacob’s children who have Yahveh's Name within their own names:

 

 

The tribe of Judah and the combined House of Joseph are the largest of the tribes in both of the census that were conducted in the desert.

 

In the war against Amalek (Exodus 17), four leaders emerged: Moses and Aaron - the permanent leaders, and also Hur of the tribe of Judah (at the top of the mountain) and Joshua of the tribe of Ephraim (on the battlefield). Throughout the forty years in the desert, there is no other instance of additional or auxiliary leaders on the national level.

 

In the story of the spies, the only two who did not fail were Joshua (tribe of Ephraim) and Caleb (tribe of Judah).

 

In addition to their inheritances in the land, Judah and Joseph were each given a special city, in special circumstances. Moreover, both earned their special city even before they received their inheritance. Joseph was given Shechem, as Jacob tells him - "I have given you one portion more than your brothers."  (Genesis 48:22) Apparently, Joseph earned Shechem as reward for his courage for going off to Shechem at his father's bidding, although he was aware of the dangers awaiting him.

 

Caleb, the prince of the tribe of Judah, was awarded the city of Hebron for his courage in going there at the bidding of Moses, although he knew of the dangers involved in this mission and despite the four giants that threatened the city. It is in Hebron that the royal house of Judah started out (II Samuel 2), while the royalty of the house of Joseph began in Shechem. (I Kings 12-13)

 

Judah and Joseph’s inheritances were considerably larger than those of their brothers; they occupied the largest parts of the land of Israel. It should also be noted that in the book of Joshua, their inheritances were given special attention: we find a list of their cities, their borders and many other details. The number of verses devoted to their inheritance attests to this fact.

 

Judah and Joseph’s children were the only ones who possessed "the inheritance at its proper time" - at the time when they were commanded to conquer and possess the land. The children of Gad and Reuben carried out a "hurried inheritance" before its time; they were rebuked by Moses and were even punished by being the first of the tribes to go into exile. The other seven tribes had a "delayed inheritance" and were rebuked by Joshua for their feebleness, and punished by being deprived of their inheritance. (Chapter 18)

 

Stories of selfless love for Israel are found only among the children of Judah - who demanded to receive Hebron and conquer it (Joshua 14) - and the children of Joseph, who claim for themselves an additional inheritance. (Joshua 17)