AFTER HE HAD WEPT TO HIS HEART’S content, Joseph washed his face, composed himself, and came out. He had the butler lead everyone to the Dining Hall, which was almost as large a room and just as splendid. There they were joined by several dozen Egyptian dignitaries, who had been hastily invited for the sake of appearances. Two long tables were laid out with elaborate settings of crystal, silver, and linen.
Once the Egyptians had been seated, he ordered the butler to seat his brothers in order of their ages, the eldest first and the youngest last. As he did, Simeon gave Levi a silent poke. Gad and Asher exchanged glances of bewilderment. Reuben leaned over to Judah and whispered that the great lord must have some kind of supernatural insight. It was one thing for him to see that he, Reuben, was the eldest, or that Levi was older than Zebulun. But how could he tell that Simeon was older than Levi (they looked like twins), or that Judah was older than Dan, who had been born just four months after him, or that Naphtali was older than Gad, Asher than Issachar? Yet he hadn’t hesitated and hadn’t made a single mistake. Something uncanny was happening again.
The footmen served Joseph first, on the dais, where because of his exalted position he ate alone. Then they served the brothers and the Egyptian guests, separately, since Egyptians weren’t permitted to eat with Hebrews. (Hebrews were considered unclean, and eating with them would have been what the priests called an abomination. For Egyptians, other nations were not quite human. There were exceptions, such as Joseph, but these were rare. Barbarians ate cow flesh, and cows were sacred. Sheep, too, mustn’t be eaten under any circumstances. This made Hebrews repulsive to any decent, right-thinking person.)
So the brothers feasted and drank with Joseph. There were pitchers of ale, lager, and stout on every table, and sommeliers circulated, pouring wines from the finest old vintages. After the hors d’oeuvre—roast pork in pomegranate sauce (the concept “kosher” wouldn’t exist for another four hundred years)—there was a seafood course of raw oysters, grilled lobster, and six kinds of fish in a mustard/white wine sauce, then main courses of roast goose, partridge, and venison, with grains and vegetables, followed by a fruit course, ices, two dozen kinds of pastry, and dessert wines, brandy, and liqueurs.
The lavishness of it all was beyond their grasp. Only Judah and Benjamin showed any moderation. Most of the brothers gorged themselves and got drunk, joking, laughing, tossing bread pellets at one another from across the table, and paying no attention to the musicians or the dancing girls, or to the splendidly clothed Egyptian noblemen who from the other table glared at them with undisguised contempt.