Joseph goes to find his brothers in Sh'khem. In The Talmud, (Sanhedrin 102a) Rabbi Yossi says that "Sh'khem was a place that attracted suffering; it was there that Dinah was raped, it was there that Joseph was sold in slavery, and it was there that King David lost control over the northern kingdom."
What is the point of this teaching? The Torah Temimah says that Rabbi Yossi was trying to explain why tragedy befell Joseph while he was doing a mitzvah. His father told him to go to Sh'khem and bring back a report on the brothers and their flocks. So that means that Joseph was fulfilling the commandment to honor one's parents. Furthermore, the Torah Temimah says that there is a established tradition that one does not get injured while doing a mitzvah. So why was Joseph captured and sold whilst obeying his father?
According to the Torah Temimah, Rabbi Yossi is saying that Sh'khem was like a black hole of suffering, a spiritual Bermuda Triangle. Therefore, even Joseph's performance of a mitzvah could not protect him there. Sh'khem was a bad neighborhood, and good things rarely happen in bad places.
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