Vayeishev: Yosef's Ketonet Passim – Charge to Kingship or Premature Claim?

Rabbi Zweig opens with a fundamental question: How could Yaakov Avinu give Yosef a ketonet passim when he himself suffered twenty-two years of fear and exile because Eisav hated him over the bechorah and berachos? Yaakov lived through the devastating consequences of sibling rivalry. The Gemara (גמרא) in Shabbos (שבת) states that because of the "two threads of silk" (shtei kesef) extra that Yaakov gave Yosef, the brothers' jealousy led to the descent into Egypt. How could Yaakov—especially Yaakov—repeat such a catastrophic mistake with his own children? The shiur identifies a second difficulty: The pesukim and Midrashim describe Yosef as a prodigy of staggering proportions. He received all the Torah (תורה) Yaakov learned from Shem and Ever—forty to fifty years of learning—by age seventeen. The Midrash says "ziv panim shelo domeh l'Yaakov," his countenance resembled Adam HaRishon. Yet the very next pasuk calls him a "naar" and says "hu naar"—he acted foolishly. Rashi (רש"י) explains naar as immature, even vain ("bar chechin"). How can the Torah describe someone with the spiritual stature of Adam HaRishon as immature? The contradiction is glaring.