Archive for the Vayeishev Category

Towards the end of the parsha, Yosef Hatzadik finds himself in a hopeless situation, having been in prison for ten years with no prospect of freedom.  At that point occurs the incident of the interpretation of the dreams of Pharaoh’s ministers which begins the process of his meteoric

The Parsha begins with an account of the deterioration of the relationship between Yosef and his brothers.  Yosef’s two dreams played a very significant part in the increasing resentment of the brothers towards him.  Close analysis of the dreams can provide us with more insight into how they caused

“And Yosef dreamt a dream, which he told to his brothers, and they hated him even more.  And he said to them, ‘please hear the dream that I dreamt: ‘Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, when, behold, my sheaf arose and also stood; then behold,

Breishit 32  Going Down to Go Up: Yehuda & the Roots of Meshiach (Ch. 38-9) Ask: Who here would like to be meshiach, if they could? (Everyone should raise their hand; if not, prompt them further by asking: who here would like to be the one to fix up

Yaakov had twelve sons, and they were all righteous. Because of this, his children could be the foundation of the Jewish nation. But two of his sons were greater than the others. Yehuda was the leader of the brothers. His greatness was shown by his ability to

Breishit 31  The Selling of Yosef  (Ch. 37:1-36) One of the proofs that the Torah is really a book from G-d is called the psychological proof. The basis of it is that certain sections of the Torah would not have been written by human beings trying to promote a

Yaakov’s Shalva Rashi brings the Chazal that Yaakov wanted to sit b’shalva, kafatz alav rugzo shel Yosef. What was the chisaron of Yaakov’s avoda? Surely, all Yaakov desired was the freedom from problems or distractions that would take away from his Avodas Hashem. Why is Kavayachol so

37:3 Rashi brings from Onkeles that “the child of his old age” meant that Yaakov taught Yosef the Torah he had learnt at the yeshiva of Shem and Ever. Onkelos explains this to answer the difficulty that really Binyamin was the child of Yaakov’s old age and not Yosef. For this reason the brothers were jealous of Yosef. If he had been the real “ben zkoonim” then it

Based on Rav Noach Weinberg Yaakov achieved the status of prophecy. He therefore must have realized that openly favoring Yosef would lead to jealousy. Why then did he outwardly favor Yosef? Avraham and Yitzchak both favored one of their sons. Why is Yaakov the only one of

Based on Rav Noah Weinberg The unity and harmony of the Jewish people are central themes in this week’s Torah portion. From it, we learn the important lesson of when and how we should judge our fellow man. In the beginning, we are introduced to Joseph and