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incoherently, but Jacob showed him mercy and fed him. When the old man had recovered his right mind, Jacob had discovered, to his delight, that he was a scholar. He immediately made Zimra part of his retinue and assigned him the task of first educating Joseph, then Benjamin. The older sons had no desire to receive such education, their hearts having been given over to meat, drink, women, and work.
    And so old Zimra had taught Joseph many things. He had instructed the young man in the nature of the universe, teaching him that it was composed of the upper heaven, the heavenly earth of the zodiac, and the southern oceans of the heavens. He had taught him well that the earthly universe was divided into three parts, the heavens, the kingdom of the earth, and the earthly ocean. Joseph had absorbed the teachings concerning the sun and the moon, together with the five other moving stars, and as Zimra had pointed to the gleaming white heights of Mount Hermon in the distance and spoken of the Tree of Enlightenment, Joseph had learned of the wonder and the mystery of numbers. He had found order and harmony in numbers and received his training from old Zimra with delight.
    He learned that the world the Almighty had made consisted of cycles of years, each year having its own summer and winter. Joseph found all of this a most majestic knowledge, and he hung on Zimra’s words as the old man shared what he knew of the larger world outside of Canaan. Joseph learned about the Babylonian methods of measuring the length of a pendulum, which made sixty double oscillations in a double minute. He learned to measure length and distances both from his own pace and from the course of the sun. Joseph learned the weights and money values of gold and silver according to Phoenician measurements. He learned how to exchange different forms of money for animals, oil, wine, and grain. Joseph was so quick-witted that even Jacob, who often sat in on the lessons, would marvel at the cleverness of the boy’s mind.
    Jacob had little knowledge of the geography of the larger world and was pleased beyond measure at how quickly Joseph took in old Zimra’s teachings. He listened as the old man told of wild savages who dwelt in the far northern land of Magog, and how Tarsus, far off to the west, was a frightful place. Zimra spoke of these places from personal experience, for he was widely traveled. He spoke often of the peoples of Egypt, which Jacob knew more about from the tales of his forefathers than other exotic far-off places.
    For the lessons Joseph would squat with his knees apart, holding in his lap the writing tools of the day: a clay tablet on which he made wedge-shaped signs with a carved instrument, or he would write on papyrus sheets made of reeds pressed together. Sometimes he wrote on a smooth piece of sheepskin or goatskin, using a reed sharpened to a point and dipped in red or black pigment on his paint saucer.
    Joseph’s education had its downside, unfortunately, for the lad was not modest about his attainments. He let it be known to his older brothers what a great scholar he had become and would often swagger in front of them. He would even ridicule them at times, though to him it was done in a playful spirit. He would cry out to Zebulun, “My brother, have you not seen how beautiful my writing is? What a scholar I have become!”
    Zebulun would glare at him and shoot back with a curse. “All of that doesn’t feed the sheep or shear the wool. Get away from me, you dreamer of dreams and writer of books.”
    Only two of Joseph’s older brothers admired his achievements, Reuben and Judah. Although they said little about it to their other brothers, they often spoke about it to each other. “He’s got something in him that most young men don’t have,” Judah said once. He was an introspective man himself, who had some measure of discernment. However, he always seemed to carry a weight on his shoulders.