Vayeshev

📜 The Story

Parshat Vayeshev opens with Jacob settling in the land of Canaan, the land where his own father had lived. He has a beloved young son named Joseph, seventeen years old, who is his favorite among all his children. Jacob loved Joseph so much that he made him a special coat, the ketonet passim, a coat of many colors. But this great love made Joseph's brothers jealous, and they could not speak to him peacefully.

Joseph had two special dreams. In the first, he and his brothers were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and his sheaf stood upright while his brothers' sheaves bowed down to it. In the second dream, he saw the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him. When Joseph told his brothers about the dreams, their jealousy only grew, and even his father rebuked him for it.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers who were shepherding near Shechem. When the brothers saw Joseph approaching from a distance, they plotted to harm him. Reuven, the oldest, saved his life by suggesting they throw him into an empty pit instead of killing him, planning to rescue him later. Then, following Judah's suggestion, the brothers sold Joseph to traders heading to Egypt for twenty pieces of silver.

The brothers dipped Joseph's special coat in blood, brought it to Jacob, and told him a wild animal had devoured Joseph. Jacob mourned deeply and refused to be comforted. Later in the parsha, the Torah also tells of Judah and his family, including the birth of his sons, from whom the royal line of King David would eventually descend.

Meanwhile, Joseph arrived in Egypt and was sold into the house of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. The Torah tells us, 'Hashem was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.' Joseph stayed true to his values and refused to sin, and because of a false accusation he was thrown into prison. Even there, Hashem was with him, and he earned the trust of the prison warden. There he met Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker, and correctly interpreted their dreams exactly as they would come true: the cupbearer was restored to his position, while the baker was punished, just as Joseph had said.