Miketz

📜 The Story

Parshat Miketz begins two years after Pharaoh's chief butler forgot about Yosef in prison. One night Pharaoh had two strange dreams. In the first, seven thin, sickly cows ate seven fat, healthy cows. In the second, seven thin stalks of grain swallowed seven full, ripe stalks. None of Pharaoh's wise men and magicians could explain what the dreams meant.

Suddenly the chief butler remembered Yosef, who had correctly interpreted his own dream back in prison. Yosef was quickly brought before Pharaoh, and he explained that both dreams meant the same thing: Egypt would have seven years of great plenty, followed by seven years of terrible famine. Yosef advised Pharaoh to appoint a wise man to store up food during the good years to prepare for the hard years ahead.

Pharaoh was so impressed that he appointed Yosef himself to be viceroy over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. Yosef was just thirty years old. He married Osnat and had two sons, whom he named Menashe and Efrayim. During the seven years of plenty, Yosef gathered huge amounts of grain and stored it in cities all across the land.

When the famine came, it was severe not only in Egypt but in Canaan too. Yaakov sent ten of his sons down to Egypt to buy food, keeping only the youngest, Binyamin, at home. The brothers bowed before the powerful Egyptian ruler, not realizing it was their brother Yosef. Yosef recognized them immediately, but he spoke harshly, accused them of being spies, and held Shimon as a hostage until they would bring Binyamin down to Egypt.

When the brothers returned with Binyamin, Yosef tested them one final time by secretly placing his silver goblet in Binyamin's sack, then accusing him of theft. Yehuda stepped forward bravely and pleaded to take Binyamin's place as a slave rather than let their father Yaakov lose his beloved son. This courageous act, showing how much the brothers had changed, sets the stage for the emotional reunion in the next parsha.