The brothers’ preference to work as shepherds should perhaps set an example of prioritizing virtue over fame in selecting a career.
We read in Parashat Vayigash of the arrival of Yosef’s father and brothers in Egypt, where they settled to escape the hunger they suffered from the drought-ravaged area ofCanaan. Upon their arrival, Yosef brought five his brothers before Pharaoh, and he instructed them to tell the Egyptian king that they worked as shepherds. This would result in their confinement to the remote, outlying region of Goshen, since Egyptians did not generally approve of shepherding (see 46:34). Furthermore, according to one view in the Midrash (Bereishit Rabba 95), Yosef made a point of selecting the less burly of his brothers, fearing that Pharaoh might otherwise draft the physically talented men into his military.
It is commonly understood that Yosef wanted his brothers to work in shepherding and avoid the Egyptian military in order that they not become too entrenched in the corrupt society that characterized ancient Egypt. However, Rav Yehuda Leib Ginsburg, in his Yalkut Yehuda, points to a different factor that motivated these measures:
It was preferable for them to work in shepherding, an occupation which the Egyptians viewed with contempt, than working in military service and being respected in their [the Egyptians’] eyes, for they did not pursue honor. It was preferable for them to earn a living from work which did not afford them much honor than to earn honor through the work of bloodshed.
Given the choice, the brothers strongly preferred suffering shame and indignity in Egypt by working as shepherds over earning respect and distinction by joining the military.
Unfortunately, people often afford a disproportionate amount of weight to fame and distinction in charting their course of professional life. For many, a career is a means of distinguishing oneself, rather than making a meaningful contribution to the world while also supporting one’s family. The brothers’ preference to work as shepherds should perhaps set an example of prioritizing virtue over fame in selecting a career. They harbored no ambitions of climbing the social or economic ladders in Egypt, and sought instead to live lives of piety and saintliness. To that end, they gave preference to a profession that would consign them to social isolation, over the opportunity to rise to hero status in Pharaoh’s army – thus teaching which factors deserve priority in selecting a profession.