“Mikeytz” is known as the Shabbat of Dreams because of the part that dreams play in it even though there are earlier examples of dreams in the Torah. By implication Avraham dreamt first when he fell asleep and God appeared and promised the land of Israel to his descendants. Then God appeared to Avimelech the Philistine King. Jacob dreamt of…
Sefer Bereishit
Spies
The famine in Canaan forces the brothers to go down to Egypt for corn. They come down, minus Benjamin, the other son of Rachel who died in childbirth. Jacob was not going to risk losing him too. The arrive at the distribution center where Joseph himself controls the process. Joseph immediately recognizes them. They were mature men when he last…
Who Looks After Benjamin?
When they return and recount what had happened, Jacob replies “You have robbed me of Joseph, Simon is not with us and now you want to take Benjamin.” Reuben the eldest son then says to Jacob that he will be responsible for Benjamin and that of he fails Jacob can kill Reuben’s two sons. This extreme and illogical suggestion only…
Favorite Son
Jacob has returned to the Land of Israel and once again there is tension within the family. Conflict between brothers runs right through the book of Bereishit, but in each case the conflict is resolved in the end. Joseph is Jacob’s favorite. Not only but he tells tales, he brings reports of the bad things they do, to their father.…
The Brothers
The brothers see Joseph from a far and they plot to kill him and throw his corpse into a pit. They agree that they will tell Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. We are not told which brothers. But when Reuven the eldest hears about the plot he replies, “Do not spill blood.” All well and good…
Judah and Tamar
One of the least known narratives in the Torah concern’s Yehuda’s transactions with Tamar. It is no accident that the name Tamar recurs later in the history of David’s family as another good woman who was wronged by a man (Second Samuel 13). Judah has gone into voluntary exile for his part in selling Joseph and there he mixes with…