Bar Mitzvah Parsha Calculator? Top Answer Update

A Hebrew birthday (also known as a Jewish birthday) is the date on which a person is born according to the Hebrew calendar. This is important for Jews, especially when calculating the correct date of birth, date of death, bar mitzvah, or bat mitzvah. Because the Jewish calendar differs from the secular and Christian Gregorian calendar as well as from the Islamic calendar, in most years the two birthdays do not coincide – typically they only coincide once in 19 years.

“One who wishes to know the civil date for a Jewish birthday … must first determine the date within the Jewish calendar (not necessarily a straightforward procedure) and then determine the corresponding day in the civil calendar.”[1] The exercise is reinforced by fact makes it difficult that the Jewish days begin and end in the evening, so a person born after dark has the following day’s date as their birthday.[2]

There is a custom, particularly among Hasidic Jews, that a boy’s first haircut occurs on his third Hebrew birthday, known as an upsherin.[3]

Celebrating the bar or bat mitzvah of a young friend or family member is a heartwarming experience for all involved. The event marks far more than another traditional birthday: it is a Jewish rite of passage, an opportunity to look forward to the next spiritual phase in the boy’s or girl’s life.

If you’ve been invited to a bar mitzvah — the traditional ceremony for a boy — or a bat mitzvah for a girl, explore the tradition a little further before heading to the store to choose a gift.

Choosing a bar or bat mitzvah gift

So what kind of gift do you buy for a bar or bat mitzvah? There are several ways to find a unique and appropriate gift for the guest of honor. Traditional bar mitzvah gifts often include a ritually significant sum of money, textbooks, Jewish ritual objects, or a cookbook celebrating Jewish cuisine. You can also take a more personal view by buying the teenager something to encourage their hobbies and passions. Monogrammed gifts will also remind the child of this celebratory life change as their friends and family gather for the occasion.

As with any celebration, all gifts are considered generous. If sticking to tradition is your favorite thing to do during this special event, it can help to learn more about the gravity of the day itself.

Celebrating a bar mitzvah

If this is your first bar mitzvah celebration, prepare for the big day with some background on the ritual. In the Jewish faith, a 13-year-old boy or 12-year-old girl marks their transition into spiritual adulthood. The milestone is marked by a service in which the honored child reads the blessing (or aliyah) from the Torah to the congregation. The day is also often marked by celebrations, from a celebration at the family home to a larger soiree in a function hall. For a young Jewish child, this is often one of the most significant days of their life.

How Much Should You Spend on a Bar Mitzvah Gift?

Deciding how much to spend depends entirely on the culture of your area, family tradition, and your relationship with the birthday boy. While more distant friends often spend between $20 and $50, closer family members can spend upwards of $150 on their gift. If in doubt, speak to the family hosting the event for advice or to check if they have registered with gift ideas.

We’ll explore some of the more traditional and modern bar mitzvah gifts to help you honor the young member or your life on this exciting day.

10 Bar and Bat Mitzvah Gift Ideas

1. Cash

Much like a wedding, cash is often a welcome gift, whether you can or must decline your bar or bat mitzvah invitation. Guests often gift money in increments of $18, a symbol of “chai” in Jewish tradition, meaning “life.” Rounding to normal amounts of $20 or $50 is also perfectly acceptable. Pair it with a personalized card with a special message for the birthday girl on the big day.

How Much Money Should You Give for a Bar Mitzvah? Similar to a wedding, this depends on your relationship with family. No need to break the bank for the occasion – the child is still only 12 or 13 so smaller amounts are appreciated just as much.

However, some close family members see this as an opportunity to participate in a specific savings or education fund during the child’s life and thus give larger amounts away. Talk to the birthday boy’s parents about something the teenager is saving for and mark your gift as contributing to their goal.

2. Gift Cards

If you’re looking for a more targeted or specific approach to bar mitzvah gifts, consider a gift certificate or local membership in a community program. Support a local business or promote an educational experience by purchasing a gift card to enjoy after this momentous day.

For a more modern approach, buy a gift card for your favorite shop, restaurant or meeting place to meet friends. For example, if the birthday child loves video games – a popular favorite at this age – pick up a gift card from their favorite game store so they can select a game that was on their wish list. Similar to the cash gift option, you should purchase the gift card in $18 increments.

3. Judaica

Take the most traditional bar mitzvah gifting route by purchasing a religiously significant item to continue your practice. Although there are many opportunities to present the child with the usual birthday gifts, this is an opportunity to celebrate the role that Jewish tradition will play in their lives in the decades to come.

Because Judaica gifts are popular bat and bar mitzvah gifts, you should speak to the birthday child’s parents before selecting an item. While it’s okay to get duplicates of some items – like Hanukkah menorahs – there are other, rarer items that you won’t need multiple times in your home or collection. Traditional Jewish gifts can include:

Shabbat candles and candlesticks

Both Shabbat candles and candle holders will be used for the rest of their lives, making them an excellent bar or bat mitzvah gift. Explore both modern and traditional designs for the candle holders, or if you’re related to the birthday girl or boy, consider passing on an heirloom.

The candles themselves also come in a variety of styles and colors and make a great addition to a gift set. If you are close to family and a member of the Jewish community, use this gift as an opportunity to invite them to your home for a future Shabbat meal.

Mezuzah

Bless the birthday child’s room or future home by giving them a mezuzah. The mezuzah traditionally contains a parchment with scripture rolled up inside to mark the home as a place of Jewish faith. Since a mezuzah can be hung on the front door as well as most interior doors, there is no need to worry about the family receiving more than one. Mezuzah comes in a beautiful array of designs and materials; Remember to adapt your choice to the child’s style and creativity.

Menorahs

The traditional Hanukkah candelabra also makes a unique Bar Mitzvah gift. Similar to the Shabbat candle holders, designs vary between traditional and modern, including antique options steeped in family history. Discover how you can add a personal touch to your design by adding either their name, birthday or a Jewish passage to the structure.

tallit

The tallit – or prayer shawl – is a thoughtful and elegant bar mitzvah gift that often represents the artist’s unique design. Explore options for girls when attending a bat mitzvah, or pair your tallit gift with a full set of traditional attire such as a matching yarmulke, tallit bag and engraved tallit clips.

4. Textbooks

At one of the most curious times in a child’s life, give the gift of a book that will help them grow and broaden their horizons. Are you avid readers? Talk to their parents about their favorite shows and choose a book set within the same genre that they haven’t explored yet.

It is also traditional to purchase religious or Jewish culture-related books as bar mitzvah gifts. Although this gift is very specific to the event, personalize your choices by choosing an author who you feel connects with young minds or has served as a great inspiration for your own growth as a young person.

5. Charitable donations

Celebrate your support of the community by supporting a social cause, Jewish nonprofit, or charity of your choice by donating on their behalf. Some families may indicate if they have a preferred organization or cause they would like to support, so it may be worth checking with the party hosts before giving your gift. Include information about the organization in the birthday child’s card and write how their gift will make a difference.

6. Personalized Gifts

No matter the occasion, personalized gifts show that you’ve taken the time to consider all of the things that make your recipient special and unique. Add the recipient’s name, the date of the celebration, or a special inspirational passage for them to peruse on their desk, wall, or mantel at home. This is also an excellent opportunity to add a personal touch to their bedroom decor, school supplies or even something for their future dorm room.

7. Jewish Cookbook

Though the teenage award winner hasn’t yet discovered his love of cooking, a Jewish cookbook is a must-have gift for bat and bar mitzvahs. Passing on traditional Jewish dishes further celebrates the culture’s past and prepares the child to someday prepare traditional holiday and Shabbat meals themselves. Choose a book written specifically for teens and children to spark their interest in preparing family meals.

8. Jewelry

Whether you’re celebrating a boy or girl on the big day, many people choose to give symbolic jewelry to the birthday boy or girl. Consider a traditional pendant depicting a Star of David, the Chai symbol, a Mezuzah, or the Tree of Life. You can also choose a pendant or a set of pendants that contain a passage from the Torah. Versions of each pendant are easily customized to match the birthday boy or girl’s style. In addition to necklaces and pendants, discover traditional charm bracelets, rings, earrings and cufflinks.

9. Games and Technology

Depending on family traditions, tech-related gifts are perfectly acceptable on the teen’s wish list for a bar mitzvah. A new set of headphones or that coveted video game could be a coveted gift. However, it can be helpful to check in with the child’s parents as they may have preferences regarding their child’s screen time and tech experience.

10. Photos and frames

The family will want to commemorate this momentous day with photos from the celebration. Photo gifts such as personalized frames or household items that show pictures are ideal for both the birthday child and their family. If you are a close family member, collect pictures from their childhood and collect them in a professional multi-photo album or frame so that the family can add pictures from the celebration later. This is also an excellent opportunity to give a gift certificate to a company who will be making their images into a book after the big day.

Bat and Bar Mitzvah are a wonderful time to gather and celebrate a young child’s transition into spiritual adulthood. Although gift-giving requires a little more thought than other birthdays, it still follows the same rules as most events: consider family traditions, the child’s interests, and your relationship with the family before choosing the right gift. It is all about your presence at the big event or your loving wishes for the guest of honour.

If you are planning a bar or bat mitzvah celebration for your own child, contact one of our events coordinators today for information on The Pavilion’s bespoke event packages. Create a menu from our range of kosher food and beverages and customize the event space with a party theme that celebrates your teen’s unique interests and style. Our experienced team will guide you through the event planning process with the utmost care, taking care of every detail, tailored to your traditions and your vision for the day.

Bar Mitzvah, also spelled Bar Mitzvah or Mitzvah (Hebrew: “son of the commandment”), plural bar mitzvah, bar mitzvot or bar mitzvot, Jewish religious ritual and family celebration commemorating a boy’s religious adulthood on his 13th birthday. The boy, now considered personally responsible for fulfilling all the commandments, may henceforth don phylacteries (religious symbols worn on the forehead and left arm) during weekday morning prayers and may be counted as an adult if 10 male Adults are required to form a quorum (minyan) for public prayers.

Bar Mitzvah A boy reading from the Torah during a Bar Mitzvah service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. © chamelonseye/iStock.com

In a public act of recognition of the religious majority, the boy is called upon to read from the Torah during the service. This event can take place on any occasion after the 13th birthday when the Torah is read, but generally takes place on the Sabbath. The liturgy of the day allows the boy to read the weekly text of the prophets called Haftarah. This is sometimes followed by an admonishing discourse. After the religious ceremony there is often a celebratory kiddush or prayer over a cup of wine with a convivial family meal or banquet the same day or the following.

Although 2nd-century records mention 13 as the age of religious manhood, most elements of the bar mitzvah celebration did not appear until the Middle Ages. Reform Judaism replaced the bar mitzvah after 1810 with confirmation of boys and girls together, generally on the Feast of Shavuot. In the 20th century, however, many Reformed congregations restored the bar mitzvah and delayed confirmation until the age of 15 or 16. Numerous Conservative and Reformed communities have instituted a separate ceremony to mark girls’ coming of age called a bat mitzvah.

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Jewish lore

An adult bar/bat mitzvah is a bar or bat mitzvah of a person older than the usual age. Traditionally, a bar or bat mitzvah occurs at age 13 for boys and 12 for girls. However, many adult Jews who have never had a bar or bat mitzvah choose to have one later, and many who had one at traditional age choose to have a second.[1] An adult bar or bat mitzvah can be held at any age after reaching adulthood and can be conducted in a variety of ways.[2]

The adult bar/bat mitzvah, which can be held at any age, differs from the children’s bar/bat mitzvah in that it is usually planned by the person themselves and not by their parents. As it takes place at an advanced stage of life, many relatives who are often present at a child’s bar/bat mitzvah are deceased and the person is often married and/or has children and sometimes grandchildren. Many men have a second bar mitzvah at age 83, which represents 70 years since their first.[3]

Reasons [edit]

There are many reasons why adult Jews choose to have a bar or bat mitzvah:

Many adult women do not have bat mitzvahs as children because they are not popular.

Some adults with learning disabilities may have failed Hebrew school, so to speak, and may therefore suffer from emotional instability, so they choose to wait until adulthood.

Adults who have converted to Judaism may want a bar or bat mitzvah.

Many non-religious Jews had either little or no Jewish education as children.

Those who had a bar or bat mitzvah as children choose to renew.

Transgender Jews assigned a bar or bat mitzvah gender at birth may wish to have the other as adults with their new gender and name.

Many Holocaust survivors did not have the opportunity to become a bar or bat mitzvah.

history [edit]

Rabbi Albert Axelrad of Brandeis University conducted the first adult bar and bat mitzvahs in the early 1970s. He promoted the practice in all denominations of Judaism.[4]

Between 1995 and 2001, Hadassah held adult group bat mitzvah ceremonies for 180 women.[5]

In 2001, the Union for Reform Judaism produced a guide for adult bar and bat mitzvah programs that was adopted by 900 congregations. In 2002, the Conservative Movement also adopted this guide.[5]

process [ edit ]

The process of becoming an adult bar or bat mitzvah requires a year or more of study. It consists of Hebrew language, Jewish rituals, Torah readings and Haftorah readings. Many synagogues offer classes for adults.

Notable adult bar and bat mitzvahs[ edit ]

In popular culture, there have been depictions of adult bar mitzvahs in television shows:

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Each year at Hanukkah, storyteller Joy Leslie Gordon was used to doing all the usual things—lighting candles, singing blessings, making latkes, and meeting with friends to exchange gifts.

“It was festive and wonderful, but it had to be more,” she says. “I needed to find a deeper meaning. What messages were encoded in his celebration to help me grow on my spiritual path?”

Trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together, Gordon began reading, listening to tapes about spirituality, and consulting experts. She found that connecting with the light of Hanukkah enabled her to tap into the light within herself. Whenever a negative thought came up, she would instead focus on what made her happy. “I started to get happier and lighter. People started noticing. It changed my life and my relationships.

“As Jews, that light is part of us,” says Gordon. “Our mission is to recognize this and use it to positively impact the world. This holiday, in its apparent simplicity, stands as a metaphor for our role as individuals and as a people: to be a light for the reflection of the nations of God’s light.”

The “light” Gordon is referring to is, of course, not literal. She talks about the light that was created when God said, “Let there be light” on the first day of creation—the spiritual light that Genesis says existed on the fourth day before the sun, moon, and stars were created. It is our inner light that brings sacredness to the everyday and enables us to overcome adversity to help mend the world. More than 2,000 years ago, the same light empowered the Maccabees to fight for their religious freedom.

“Light is the overarching, central, ultimate metaphor for the Jewish understanding of all reality,” says Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf, whose books include Hanukkah: Eight Nights of Light, Eight Gifts for the Soul. “Light is so ubiquitous in Judaism that it is almost overlooked, like the air we breathe. But as soon as you stop and look, all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Wow. It is everywhere!'”

The Yahrzeit is celebrated annually on the anniversary of the Jewish death. If death occurs after sunset, the following day is used to calculate the season.

If three or more days have elapsed from the date of death to the burial, the first season is observed on the anniversary of the burial.

In all subsequent years it is observed on the anniversary of death.

The season begins at sunset on the previous day and ends at sunset on the day of death. During the celebration of Yahrzeit, a Yahrzeit memorial candle is kept burning and the Kaddish of the mourners is recited during synagogue services. (from www.jahrzeit.com )

To calculate a season, please use one of the links below

Simple calculator: www.yahrtzeit.com

Complex calculator: www.chabad.org

50 year season calculator: www.shamash.org

A bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah are one of the most important events in the life of a Jewish boy or girl. It symbolizes her growing up. Choosing a gift for such an important event can be daunting. While there are many gifts available, a bar or bat mitzvah gift needs to match the new young adult, one that commemorates a new chapter in someone’s life. So what to give?

First of all, a bar or bat mitzvah gift should be a gift associated with Judaism or the Jewish State of Israel. This is done so that the mitzvah boy or girl can stay grounded in the moment of the celebration and what it really means. At age 12 for girls and 13 for boys (in some communities boys and girls both celebrate at age 13), a bar or bat mitzvah can easily be distracted by things like a new toy or the latest video game. For a bar or bat mitzvah, an appropriate gift should be related to the celebration and all of its meaning. Below are three common gifts for a bar or bat mitzvah:

Gift #1: Judaica

The first gift you can give is a Judaica. This is Jewish ceremonial art like Chanukiah or Mezuzah. This makes a fantastic gift if you know the awardee or their family is very religious. They can display it in their homes and it is considered very thoughtful. But lately, a lot of people have been giving away Judaica, so you might want to choose something special.

Gift #2: Necklace

The second gift you can give is a necklace. This is a classic Jewish gift that introduces Judaism to someone almost effortlessly. Any Jewish boy or girl would be proud to wear a necklace that symbolizes something significant in Jewish culture. One idea for necklace pendants is the Star of David, the Jewish star. Another is the hamsa, a hand that symbolizes good luck.

Gift #3: Money

The third gift you can give is money. This is considered a useful gift as the boy or girl can save the money for later use. It has become a tradition to give money in $18 increments because chai (life) means numeric 18 in the Hebrew alphabet. If you are more modern, a gift card or plain cash of any amount is also good. While money is very useful, it can’t grow much when it’s sitting in the bank, and it doesn’t have much meaningful connection to Judaism and Israel.

Ultimate Gift: A long-term investment in Israeli stocks – professionally managed

The most practical way to donate money is by investing in a diversified Israeli stock portfolio focused on companies based in or heavily invested in the Jewish State of Israel. These can be gifted at a bar or bat mitzvah and are designed to grow over time and provide a long term appreciative gift to use later in life. This supports the bar or bat mitzvah financially as the investment will hopefully grow over time and represents their connection to Israel while also supporting the Israeli economy.

Make a gift now with your credit card in about 3 minutes.

Check out how easy it is to gift a brokerage account:

A quick guide to bar/bat mitzvah gift etiquette

A bar or bat mitzvah marks one of the most significant life cycle events in Jewish tradition. Typically, boys celebrate their bar mitzvah at age 13 and girls celebrate their bat mitzvah at age 12. A bar/bat mitzvah, meaning “son/daughter of the commandment,” marks a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood with new awareness and responsibility.

Therefore, the mood of the occasion and the gifts that are presented reflect both seriousness and joy and sincere hopes for a prosperous future. The following is a guide to bar/bat mitzvah etiquette and gift-giving to make the day a memorable one.

What to wear

Whether you are attending a Reformed or Orthodox bar/bat mitzvah, attire should be as you would normally wear it in a place of worship or in the office. If you go to an Orthodox synagogue, it’s worth asking if there are any rules of modesty. Yarmulkes can be provided for men, or you can bring one to wear if required.

arrival

You should be on time for the bar/bat mitzvah, as the person celebrating it has prepared many months in advance, including special synagogue Torah readings and speeches. Only bring guests who have been invited to the bar/bat mitzvah. If you feel you need to bring someone else, check with the parents beforehand.

Upon arrival or after the ceremony, it is traditional to congratulate those celebrating the bar or bat mitzvah, as well as their parents, with the traditional greeting “mazal tov”.

Bar Mitzvah Gifts

Gifts are an essential part of a bar or bat mitzvah celebration. They are meant to highlight the importance and good fortune of the event and to express good hopes for the future. Many children are given special electronics that they particularly like, but it’s traditional to give at least part of the gift in the form of money that can be used for a trip to Israel or saved for college.

It is traditional, but not necessary, to give money, gift certificates, or donations to a favorite charity in multiples of 18, since 18 is the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word chai, or “life.” Some gift ideas may include:

Judaica items such as a menorah or a kiddush cup

gift vouchers

Stationary

Money for travel or study

Jerusalem portfolio

Gift the Jerusalem portfolio for a bar or bat mitzvah

You can give the gift of investing with The Jerusalem Portfolio. Not only is this a gift that will increase in value over the years, but it inspires a love of investing and creates sound financial habits that will last a lifetime.

The Jerusalem Portfolio represents fractional ownership of over 100 listed Israeli companies through a carefully managed portfolio of ETFs. You can open an account for as little as $180 and the recipient will receive an elegant plaque with a beautiful image of Jerusalem on it.

Learn more about making any bar or bat mitzvah extra special with the gift of a Jerusalem portfolio.

What is an appropriate gift for a bar or bat mitzvah?

You have been invited to a bar or bat mitzvah and are excited about the occasion. This may be your first bar or bat mitzvah, or your 100th, but you may be wondering what to give as a gift.

Along with the synagogue ceremony, Torah readings, speeches, food, and party, gifts are an integral part of a bar or bat mitzvah. Unlike the other aspects of the celebration, gifts are a direct contribution of the guests while the family plans the other elements. Care and thought in choosing the right type of gift will make the occasion memorable.

The following are some of the best gift ideas for a bar or bat mitzvah:

Judaica

It is not uncommon for a middle-aged person to still use a kiddush cup (a cup used to consecrate wine at a special meal) received as a bar mitzvah gift, or to light a menorah that made his bat mitzvah special. Judaica is a gift that combines aesthetic beauty and the dignity of tradition and can become a family heirloom passed down through the generations.

Before purchasing Judaica as a gift, make sure you are not gifting a duplicate item. Check with the family if they have a wish list for the bar or bat mitzvah.

jewelry

Jewelry, like Judaica, is an object of beauty and expresses religious values ​​or family traditions. Consider a Star of David or a chai necklace in gold or silver. A first pair of cufflinks makes an attractive and memorable bar mitzvah gift. Jewelery is a personal gift designed for the individual and will ensure your gift will be remembered for years to come.

Books

Books with handwritten dedications on the inside cover express your pride and well wishes for the bar or bat mitzvah. Although many people read books digitally, attractive leather-bound books are still a dignified addition to a home. Books on Jewish subjects are usually appropriate for the occasion. Consider giving gifts of a whole series of books or a specific volume that has a special meaning for the young person.

Money for travel or study

Money is a traditional bar mitzvah gift. In some cases the young person saves for a special purchase, but in many cases the money is intended to be used for a trip to Israel or a college education.

It is traditional but not mandatory to give money in multiples of 18, which is the numerical equivalent of chai or life. The purpose of this tradition is to turn giving into a blessing that improves the life and future of the bar or bat mitzvah.

The Jerusalem Portfolio

An example of giving in a way that makes a significant contribution to the life of a young person is by giving the Jerusalem Portfolio. For a minimum donation of $180, you can give the bar or bat mitzvah the keys to a prosperous future of investing.

Teaching young people to invest gives them skills that create financial success and personal fulfillment. Therefore, the Jerusalem portfolio includes more than just a gift. It also teaches them to appreciate the art of investing.

The Jerusalem portfolio consists of partial exposure to 100 Israeli companies through a portfolio of professionally managed ETFs. The recipient will receive a plaque with a beautiful and individual image of Jerusalem. Talk to our experts today about gifting the Jerusalem Portfolio as a bar or bat mitzvah gift.

How Much Money Should You Give for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah?

Every Jewish child looks forward to their bar or bat mitzvah. It’s a time when they finally feel like they’ve crossed the threshold of adulthood. You will also receive some great gifts. In addition to physical gifts such as Judaica, jewelry, or books, monetary gifts are traditional for a bar or bat mitzvah.

So how should you present money at a bar or bat mitzvah ceremony and how much should you give?

About Giving Chai

You may have heard of giving “chai” or 18 on Jewish occasions. This is a tradition in the Jewish world, but it is not a requirement. A multiple of 18 is often used at bar or bat mitzvahs, weddings and other occasions. The reason for this tradition is that 18 is the numerical equivalent of “chai” or “life”. The idea is that when you give money in multiples of 18, you give “more life” or improve someone’s life and future.

It’s certainly a nice idea to gift multiples of chai if you’re planning on giving money or a gift certificate for a bar or bat mitzvah, but it’s not a must if you’re giving a gift of any other amount. The good thing about giving chai is that it can be easily increased or decreased.

How to give a gift of money

Of course, monetary gifts aren’t just bills in an envelope. Because the gift is money rather than a physical item, the aesthetics of the envelope, certificate, or plaque should compensate for the lack of visual elements in the gift itself.

Place the money in an elegant envelope and a beautiful handwritten note on high-quality paper for a personal touch. The stationery can have a Jewish theme, such as Stars of David, or you can include a photo of Jerusalem. Be creative and give away a beautiful personalized certificate.

Some monetary gifts are available with graphics that are elegant images in their own right. For example, if you are gifting the Jerusalem Portfolio, the bar or bat mitzvah recipient will be presented with a plaque featuring an elegant, customized image of Jerusalem to celebrate the special occasion.

How Much Money Should You Give for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah?

Although Judaica and books can be respectable bar or bat mitzvah gifts, money for a trip to Israel or a college education captures the spirit of the occasion. The gift should range from three to six times the chai, or at least $54 to about $108 or more for each adult. The amount per child should be between two and four chai.

This means a family of two adults and two children can give anywhere from $180 to $360 or more. If a child goes to a bar or bat mitzvah alone, giving chai three times, or $54, may be enough.

Giving the Jerusalem portfolio

One way your family can make a bar or bat mitzvah gift memorable is with the Jerusalem Portfolio. Starting with a gift of $180, the Jerusalem Portfolio is a gift that appreciates in value and gives a young person a head start in investing smart.

The Jerusalem Portfolio represents partial exposure to over 100 Israeli companies through carefully managed ETFs. The recipient learns the art of investing, gaining a useful skill and the benefits of investing in their future.

Talk to the professionals at Jerusalem Portfolio today about gifting an investment for a bar or bat mitzvah.

Dealing with money issues is a normal part of growing up. Suddenly you’re expected to manage your own money and make money decisions you’ve never had to make before. For a teenager, even the question of how much to give a friend for his bat mitzvah or bar mitzvah can be intimidating. It’s just one of the many money issues that young people in their teens and young adults face. Discussing an appropriate bat or bar mitzvah gift amount can be the opening parents need to start other conversations about money.

How Much Should I Give for a Bar Mitzvah Gift?

On most occasions where money is given, you can choose a round number like $100 or $500 for the check. For a bar or bat mitzvah, it is customary to declare an amount that is a multiple of 18. In Jewish tradition, the number 18 symbolizes “Chai”, Hebrew for “life”. With an amount that is a multiple of 18, the young man of honor is symbolically given a long and happy life.

How to Consider an Appropriate Bar Mitzvah Gift Amount

For a teenager attending a co-worker’s bar or bat mitzvah, $36, $54, or $78 are all fairly common bar mitzvah gift amounts. How much a young person decides to donate usually depends on their financial means and how close they are to the guest of honor.

For adult guests trying to determine an appropriate bar mitzvah gift amount, a potentially useful rule of thumb is to consider what you would pay for an ordinary birthday gift and multiply that by 1.5. That can mean giving $250 to $500 each for a close relative, or between $100 and $200 each for a friend’s child — always rounded up to the nearest multiple of 18, of course.

Keep in mind that putting cash on the card isn’t the only way to give this gift. Another way to honor a relative or close relative’s bar or bat mitzvah is to pay into a 529 plan or other investment account in the child’s name, if the parents have set one up. (In certain cases, taxpayers can deduct their 529 dues to minimize their tax burden — talk to your tax planner to determine the most tax-efficient way to give a meaningful bar mitzvah gift. Don’t worry about gift taxes, unless you are giving a substantial gift of $15,000 or more.)

More money questions for teenagers

Once kids start making and managing their own money (like birthday gifts or summer job earnings), it’s time to start some important money conversations. Here are some of the money questions young people should be asking and conversations that should take place in any teenage or young adult family.

Which accounts can I open? Up until the age of 18, a minor will need adult help to open most types of financial accounts. There are still many options. In addition to basic savings accounts, teens can fund their own education savings accounts to save for college and/or other future activities. Minors can even contribute to their own IRAs. State laws affect how minors can use certain types of accounts, so parents should consult with a financial planner about how best to help their children save.

What is the best way to invest my money? Young people may think that investing is something that’s only for older people with careers and plenty of disposable income. In fact, even teenagers can grow their money by investing if their parents open savings accounts. Young working adults might want to focus first on accumulating some savings, then start investing in a traditional or Roth IRA and explore other investment options. Equities may appeal to young investors who generally can afford to take some financial risk; If an 18-year-old takes a chance on a risky stock and it plummets, they have decades of working years to recover and reinvest.

How does compound interest work? When you first take control of your own money, it’s difficult to see the big picture. Spending that money now is more appealing than saving it for “someday.” Understanding how compound interest works can help young people understand the long-term power of saving right now. Once you see how much interest your interest can yield, it becomes less tempting to withdraw cash from the bank.

Parents can use the 10 vs 30 principle to illustrate the power of compound interest. Our 10v30 video shows how a worker who invests $60,000 over 10 years can have more money by age 65 than someone who invests $180,000 over 30 years. By investing early in her career, the first worker in this example gives her money time to grow and earn interest.

What do I need to know about taxes? As soon as you start earning an income, you start paying taxes – so even teenagers with their first jobs need to understand how taxes work. Young people should know how much is deducted from each paycheck for taxes, whether or not they have to file a tax return and how tax brackets work. Young people still need to know a lot more about taxes when they start working and earning more money, but these are good questions to start with.

What money mistakes should I avoid? Too many young people learn the crushing burden of credit card debt the hard way. They are thrilled to have what appears to be “free” money and overspend without considering the consequences. Any young person getting their first credit card should understand how credit card interest accumulates and how carrying significant debt can affect your credit score. (It’s also important to understand how using credit cards responsibly can help you build credit.) Taking on too much student loan debt can also be a financial drain that accompanies young people into their 30s and beyond. Paying for college is a conversation that should involve the student, their parents, and the family financial planner.

Budget failure is another very common money mistake among young people. When you know exactly how much money you have and what your expenses are, it becomes harder to justify the impulse buying that drains so many people’s accounts. Knowing how to budget is one of the most important financial skills every young person should learn.

At Sachetta Callahan, we know that your financial decisions are about more than just growing your wealth—it’s about protecting your family’s future. As you work to give your kids the tools they need to make good decisions about money, we’re always here to help and guide you. Do you have questions about giving or money management for young people? Contact me today!

Mozel Tov! The young man or woman being celebrated has been preparing for this day for years, so it is only natural that you would want to participate in this big day as much as possible. Don’t worry, we’ve got everything bar/bat mitzvah covered.

The term bar/bat mitzvah literally means “son/daughter of the commandments” and signifies a transition to adulthood and a commitment to Judaism. Jewish girls usually celebrate their bat mitzvah at 12, while boys celebrate their bar mitzvah at 13. Needless to say, it’s a big deal. Families spend months, even years, preparing. And as a guest of honor, you probably have some questions. Here’s everything you need to know:

What to wear to a bar or bat mitzvah?

dress “tzunis!” That’s Hebrew for humble. The bar or bat mitzvah dress code depends on the synagogue and should be specified in the invitation. Men are usually expected to wear a suit or trousers and a tie. Women should wear a simple dress or formal pants suit. Avoid anything that shows a lot of cleavage or leg. Bare shoulders should be covered with a scarf or bolero jacket.

When should I come to a bar or bat mitzvah?

The term bar/bat mitzvah often refers to the ceremony and celebration, although the child being celebrated is also referred to as the bar or bat mitzvah. And as mentioned earlier, he or she has been preparing for this day for years. Be respectful and get to the synagogue on time. The bar or bat mitzvah will likely lead the ceremony and don’t miss it. If this is your first time in a synagogue, this is a great opportunity to learn about Jewish culture. Also, the bar/bat mitzvah has sent you an invitation because they want to share the day with you. Say thank you by showing up on time!

How to congratulate the hosts at a bar or bat mitzvah?

In Jewish culture, it is appropriate to congratulate the bar or bat mitzvah, as well as one’s mother, father, siblings, and friends. And what’s the best way to congratulate? Mazel tov! Would you like to find out more? Click here for a list of Hebrew phrases you are likely to overhear.

Do I have to bring a yarmulke to a bar or bat mitzvah?

Will you bring a yarmulke? no But the family will likely give you a new yarmulke or yarmulke when you walk in the door. Head coverings are traditionally worn by men, although in some synagogues they are also worn by women. The headgear is non-denominational, meaning all men should wear one. However, the prayer shawl is reserved for Jews only. This shawl is known as a tallit. It is perfectly fine to refuse the tallit on the grounds that you are not Jewish or that you do not feel comfortable wearing one.

How much should I attend the bar or bat mitzvah?

If the church stands, you should stand. If they sit, you should sit. It is respectful to attend as much worship as you feel comfortable doing. This includes humming along to community melodies 😉.

Can I bring a guest to the bar or bat mitzvah?

no Don’t bring uninvited guests unless the invitation says so. Much like a wedding, a bar or bat mitzvah is a large celebration that is planned well in advance, and the host needs to know the number of guests expected in order to provide adequate food, drink, and seating. For this reason, it is also good etiquette to reply as soon as possible.

Bar Mitzvah Gifts

Gifts are expected at bar and bat mitzvahs. The most common is to donate money to college or study abroad in Israel. Many families end up donating part of the money to a charity. This custom is known as “Tzedeka”. You can also choose to make a direct donation to a charity in honor of the bar or bat mitzvah. If you decide to give money, consider giving in multiples of 18. The number 18 is important because it is a numeric value for “chai,” which is Hebrew for “life.”

Will your child attend multiple mitzvahs this year? You can order our party bags with your custom design for easy gift and card pairing. They’re the perfect size for cash and gift cards, and the perfect personal touch to complement those easy bar mitzvah gift ideas.

Bar Mitzvah means “son of the commandment”. It’s Jewish boys coming of age. This happens when a Jewish boy turns 13 years old. He becomes responsible for his actions and the commandments of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible.

After a Jewish boy becomes a bar mitzvah, he can participate in all Jewish rituals. His parents are absolved from responsibility for the sins he commits against the commandments of the Torah. He can begin leading prayers and other services. He also begins fasting on certain Jewish holidays such as Yom Kippur. In addition, once a boy becomes a bar mitzvah, he will begin to wear tefillin every day except on Shabbat and some Jewish holidays. Tefillin are leather boxes with passages from the Bible strapped to their heads and upper arms. If you wear tefillin, say a prayer. This too is a mitzvah (or commandment).

In the past, barei mitzvahs didn’t even exist. Not in Torah, Mishnah, or Talmud times. It is relatively new and was theoretically developed in the Middle Ages. What is certain, however, is that becoming a bar mitzvah is one of the most important events in the life of a Jewish boy. The celebration is often as extravagant as a wedding.

The ceremony generally takes place on the first Shabbat (Saturday) after the boy turns 13. A bar mitzvah celebration is a formal event, so everyone dresses well. There’s a lot of preparation that goes into the event, and sometimes the preparation begins months in advance.

The structure of a Bar Mitzvah celebration is generally as follows:

First there is the religious ceremony. This is called aliyah, which means ascension. In the aliyah one reads from a passage of the Torah. The bar mitzvah boy is referred to here as oleh. If you don’t know Hebrew, you train with a rabbi for the reading beforehand. This is where months of preparation comes into play. Reading from the Torah is very sacred and holy and brings you closer to G‑d. Jewish boys have to practice tremendously to make sure they read correctly.

Next, the bar mitzvah boy gives a speech to everyone. This is usually a speech associated with the Torah and also giving thanks to the celebration itself. It connects the Torah to its own experiences and demonstrates its relationship to Judaism and G‑d. This can be done in Hebrew or in his native language.

Finally, there’s the party. Lots of food, music and dancing! The party is very grand, like a wedding reception. Similar to a wedding, the party has less importance than the ceremony. You can expect to see a hora at the party. This is an integral part of Israeli folk dance, with everyone dancing while holding hands in a circle. During this time, the bar mitzvah boy is elevated above all in a chair.

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It is a common scene on many Saturday mornings in cities and towns across the United States to see seventh and eighth grade boys and girls, some not Jewish at all, gathering in synagogues and temples for a classmate’s bar mitzvah see.

This coming-of-age ritual marks a 13-year-old man’s assumption of religious and legal obligations under Jewish law.

In my experience, many modern day teenagers who gather for this ceremony have no idea what the word bar mitzvah means or how the ceremony they are watching evolved.

Early Practice and History

The roots of the bar mitzvah, which literally means “son of the commandments,” are obscure. The term does not appear once in the Hebrew Bible.

Ancient rabbis, writing in the compendium of Jewish law known as the Talmud, explained that boys are required to observe the “mitzvot” — the commandments of Jewish law — from the age of 13. But as a historian of Judaism, I know that rabbis and commentators wrestle with the question of why the age of 13 was actually chosen.

After some debate, these 11th-century Jewish scholars concluded that it must have been an oral requirement handed down to Moses as he stood on Mount Sinai. There Moses not only received the Ten Commandments, but according to Jewish tradition also the entire Jewish law in word and writing.

The first use of bar mitzvah in the Jewish coming-of-age ritual seems to go back to a 15th-century rabbi named Menahem Ziyyoni.

The bar mitzvah ceremony in those days was a humble affair with two or three main parts. First was an “Aliyah”. This meant that for the very first time in his life, the bar mitzvah boy was called upon to give a blessing over the public readings from the Torah, the sacred handwritten scroll containing the five books of Moses. In addition, the bar mitzvah boy often gave his first public “talk,” educating the congregation and expressing gratitude to his parents and visitors.

Modern bar mitzvah

However, the bar mitzvah boy was not expected to read from the Torah, recite the associated prophetic portion known as haftarah, or lead any portion of the prayer service as so many do today.

These elements came later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the bar mitzvah gained prominence in the Jewish communities of Europe, North America, and the Caribbean. As traditional Jewish communal authority weakened during the Enlightenment, newly emancipated Jews around the world became citizens with civil and political rights.

Concerned parents wondered if their sons would continue the traditions of their ancestors, such as following Jewish laws, studying Jewish texts, marrying within the faith, and raising their own children Jewish. The more worried they became, the more focused they became on the bar mitzvah—the last religious rite of passage they could control.

In the early 20th century, many bar mitzvah boys publicly vowed to “love, honor, and keep the Holy Torah.” The 20th century also saw the spread of a parallel ceremony for girls known as a bat mitzvah, meaning “daughter of the commandments.”

In countries where Jewish life was rapidly changing, families seemed to be trying to ward off the fear of tomorrow. The parents made efforts, at least temporarily, perhaps for a nice Saturday morning, to reassure themselves and the community that Jewish learning and living would go on despite the lure of modernity and its many temptations.

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noun Hebrew.

the concluding section of that portion of the Torah sung or read in a Jewish service on the Sabbath and holy days.

Not to be confused with Vayishlach

Joseph’s Brothers Sell Him in Captivity (1855 painting by Konstantin Flavitsky

Vayeshev, Vayeishev, or Vayesheb (וַיֵּשֶׁב‎ – Hebrew for “and he lived,” the first word of the Parashah) is the ninth weekly Torah part (פָּרָשָׁה, Parashah) in the Jewish annual cycle of Torah reading. The parashah forms Genesis 37:1-40:23. The Parshah tells the stories of how Jacob’s other sons sold Joseph into captivity in Egypt, how Judah wronged his daughter-in-law Tamar, who then tricked him into fulfilling his oath, and how Joseph served Potiphar and was imprisoned when he wronged was accused of attacking Potiphar’s wife.

The parashah consists of 5,972 Hebrew letters, 1,558 Hebrew words, 112 verses and 190 lines in a Torah scroll ( סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה , Sefer Torah).[1] Jews read it on the ninth Sabbath after Simchat Torah, in late November or December.[2]

readings [edit]

In the traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings or עליות, aliyot. In the Masoretic text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashat Vayeshev has three “open parts” ( פתוחה‎, petuchah) subdivisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated to the Hebrew letter פ (peh)). Parashat Vayeshev has another subdivision called the “closed part” ( סתומה‎, setumah) (abbreviated by the Hebrew letter ס (samekh)) within the second open part. The first open part includes the first three readings. The second open part covers the fourth to sixth readings. And the third open part coincides with the seventh reading. The division into a closed part separates the fourth reading from the fifth reading.[3]

Joseph Reveals His Dream to His Brethren (watercolor c.1896-1902 by James Tissot

First Reading – Genesis 37:1–11 [ edit ]

In the first reading ( עליה , aliyah), Jacob lived in the land of Canaan and this is the story of his family.[4] When Joseph was 17 years old, he and his brothers were tending the flock and brought Jacob an evil report about his brothers.[5] Because Joseph was the son of Jacob’s age, Jacob loved him more than his other children, and Jacob made him a cloak of many colors, causing Joseph’s brothers to hate him.[6] And Joseph made his brothers hate him even more when he told them that he dreamed that they were tying sheaves in the field and their sheaves bowed down to his sheaf.[7] He told his brothers another dream in which the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed to him, and when he told his father Jacob rebuked him and asked if he, Joseph’s mother, and his brothers would bow to Joseph . [8] Joseph’s brothers envied him, but Jacob remembered his words.[9] The first reading ( עליה , aliyah) ends here.[10]

Second Reading – Genesis 37:12–22 [ edit ]

In the second reading ( עליה , aliyah), when the brothers went to feed the flock in Shechem, Jacob sent Joseph to see if all was well with them.[11] A man found Joseph and asked him what he was looking for, and when he told the man he was looking for his brothers, the man told him they had gone to Dothan.[12] When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they conspired to kill him, throw him into a pit, say that an animal had devoured him, and then see what would become of his dreams.[13] But Reuben persuaded them not to kill him but to throw him in a pit in the hope of returning him to Jacob later.[14] The second reading ( עליה , aliyah) ends here.[15]

Third Reading – Genesis 37:23–36 [ edit ]

In the third reading ( עליה , Aliyah), Joseph’s brothers stripped off his colorful cloak and threw it into an empty pit.[16] They sat down to eat, and when they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites from Gilead bringing spices and balsam to Egypt, Judah persuaded the brothers to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites.[17] Passing Midianite merchants dragged Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver, and they took him to Egypt.[18] When Reuben returned to the pit and Joseph was gone, he tore his clothes and asked his brothers where he could go now.[19] They took Joseph’s multicolored cloak, dipped it in goat’s blood, and sent it to Jacob for identification.[20] Jacob concluded that an animal ate Joseph and tore his clothes, put on sacks, and mourned for his son.[21] All his sons and daughters tried in vain to comfort him.[22] And the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, the centurion of Pharaoh’s bodyguard.[23] The third reading ( עליה , aliyah ) and the first open part ( פתוחה , petuchah ) end here with the end of chapter 37. [24]

Judah and Tamar (painting c.1650-1660 by the Rembrandt school

Fourth Reading – Genesis Chapter 38 [ edit ]

In the Fourth Reading ( עליה , Aliyah), chapter 38, Judah left his brothers to live near an Adullamite named Hirah.[25] Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua and had three sons named Er, Onan, and Shelah.[26] Judah arranged for Him to marry a woman named Tamar, but He was wicked and God killed him.[27] Judah instructed Onan to fulfill a brother’s duty and have children by Tamar in Er’s name.[28] But Onan knew the children would not be among his, so he spilled his seed and God killed him as well.[29] Judah then told Tamar to remain a widow in his home until Shelah could grow up, thinking that if Tamar married Shelah he might die too.[30] Later, when Judah’s wife died, he went with his friend Hirah to his sheep shearers in Timnah.[31] When Tamar learned that Judah had gone to Timnah, she took off her widow’s clothes and put on a veil and sat on the road to Timnah, for she saw that Shelah had grown up and Judah had not given her to wife.[32 ] Judah, taking her for a harlot, offered her a young goat for her services and gave her his seal and staff as a pledge of payment, and they lived together and she conceived.[33] Judah sent Hirah to free the young goat and collect his pledge, but he asked about her and couldn’t find her.[34] When Hirah reported to Judah that the men of the place said there were no harlots there, Judah let the matter rest lest it be shamed.[35] About three months later, Judah heard that Tamar had been playing the whore and had become pregnant, and he ordered her brought forth and burned.[36] When they arrested her, she sent Judah the deposit for identification, saying that she was pregnant by the man whose belongings they were.[37] Judah acknowledged her and said that she was fairer than him since he failed to give her to Shelah.[38] When Tamar had delivered, a twin – whom she would call Zerah – stretched out a hand and the midwife tied her with scarlet thread, but then he pulled her back and his brother – whom she would call Perez – came out.[39] The fourth reading ( עליה , Aliyah ) and a closed part ( סתומה , Setumah ) end here with the end of chapter 38. [40]

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (painting c. 1816–1817 by Philipp Veit

Fifth Reading – Genesis 39:1–6 [ edit ]

In the fifth reading ( עליה , aliyah ) in chapter 39, Pharaoh’s centurion of the guard Potiphar bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites.[41] When Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph and making everything he did prosper, Potiphar made him overseer of his house and gave him responsibility for everything he had, and God blessed Pharaoh’s house for Joseph’s sake. [42] Now Joseph looked good.[43] The fifth reading ( עליה , aliyah) ends here.[44]

Sixth Reading – Genesis 39:7–23 [ edit ]

In the sixth reading ( עליה , aliyah), Potiphar’s wife repeatedly asked Joseph to lie with her, but he refused, asking how he could thus sin against Potiphar and God.[45] One day when the men of the house were gone, she grabbed his robe and asked him to lie down with her, but he fled, leaving his robe behind.[46] When Potiphar returned home, she accused Joseph of trying to intrude on her, and Potiphar put Joseph in the jail where the king’s captives were being held.[47] But God was with Joseph and bestowed favor on him in the eyes of the overseer, who handed over all the prisoners to Joseph.[48] The sixth reading ( עליה , aliyah ) and the second open part ( פתוחה , petuchah ) end here with the end of chapter 39. [49]

Joseph interprets dreams in prison (painting c. 1816–1817 by Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow)

Seventh Reading – Genesis Chapter 40 [ edit ]

In the seventh reading ( עליה , Aliyah), chapter 40, when Pharaoh’s butler and baker insulted him, Pharaoh put them in prison as well.[50] One night the butler and the baker each dreamed a dream.[51] Joseph found them sad and asked why, and they told him it was because no one could interpret their dreams.[52] Joseph recognized that interpretations belonged to God and asked them to tell him their dreams.[53] The butler told Joseph that he dreamed he saw a vine with three branches blooming and producing grapes, which he took and pressed into Pharaoh’s cup, which he gave to Pharaoh.[54] Joseph interpreted that within three days Pharaoh would raise the butler’s head and bring him back to his office, where he would give his chalice to Pharaoh, just as he used to do.[55] And Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him and mention him to Pharaoh so that he might be brought out of prison, because he had been stolen from his land and had done nothing to justify his captivity.[56] When the baker saw that the interpretation of the butler’s dream was good, he told Joseph his dream: He saw three baskets of white bread on his head, and the birds ate them from the basket.[57] Joseph interpreted that within three days Pharaoh would lift up the baker’s head and hang him on a tree, and the birds would eat his flesh.[58] In the maftir (מפטיר) reading that concludes the parashah,[59] on the third day, Pharaoh’s birthday, the pharaoh gave a feast, restored the chief butler to his butlership, and hanged the baker, just as Joseph did had predicted. [60] But the butler forgot Joseph.[61] The seventh reading ( עליה , aliyah ), the third open part ( פתוחה , petuchah ), chapter 40 and the parashah ends here.

Readings after the three-year cycle[ edit ]

Jews who read the Torah according to the three-year Torah reading cycle read the Parashah according to the following schedule:[62]

In inner-biblical interpretation[ edit ]

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these biblical sources:[63]

Genesis Chapter 37 [ edit ]

Genesis 37:3 records that Jacob made Joseph “a cloak of many colors” ( כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים, ketonet pasim). Similarly, 2 Samuel 13:18 records that David’s daughter Tamar had “a garment of many colors” ( כְּתֹנֶת פַּסִּים, ketonet pasim). 2 Samuel 13:18 states that “with such robes were the king’s daughters who were virgins clothed.” Just as Genesis 37:23-24 reports that Joseph’s half brothers attacked him, 2 Samuel 13:14 reports that Tamar’s half brother Amnon attacked them. And while Genesis 37:31-33 reports that Joseph’s cloak was damaged to make it appear that Joseph was torn to pieces, 2 Samuel 13:19 reports that Tamar’s cloak was torn.

Genesis Chapter 38 [ edit ]

The story of Tamar in Genesis 38:6–11 reflects a brother’s obligation at Deuteronomy 25:5–10 to perform a levirate marriage ( יִבּוּם‎, yibbum) with a deceased brother’s wife, which is also reflected in the reflects history of Ruth in Ruth 1:5-11; 3:12; and 4:1-12.

In a classic rabbinic interpretation

The parashah is discussed in these rabbinical sources from the Mishnah and Talmud periods:[64]

Israel loved Joseph more than any of his children. (Illustration by Owen Jones from The History of Joseph and His Brethren, 1869)

Genesis Chapter 37 [ edit ]

Rabbi Johanan taught that wherever Scripture uses the term “And he dwelt” ( וַיֵּשֶׁב‎, vayeshev), as it does in Genesis 37:1, trouble is foretold. Thus in Numbers 25:1, “And Israel remained in Shittim” is followed by “and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab.” In Genesis 37:1, “And Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan,” Genesis 37:3 follows, “and Joseph brought their evil report to his father.” Genesis 47:27 follows Genesis 47:29: “And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen,” Genesis 47:29: “And the time was drawing near for Israel to die.” Up 1 Kings 5:5 follows: “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each one under his vine and under his fig tree,” followed by 1 Kings 11:14: “And the Lord raised up an adversary for Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was the seed of the king in Edom.”[65]

Joseph brought bad news to his father. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

Rabbi Helbo quoted Rabbi Jonathan to teach that the words of Genesis 37:2, “These are the generations of Jacob, Joseph,” indicate that the firstborn should have come from Rachel, but Leah prayed for mercy before Rachel did. However, because of Rachel’s modesty, God restored the rights of the firstborn of Leah’s son Reuben to Rachel’s son Joseph. To teach what caused Leah to forestall Rachel with her prayer for mercy, Rav taught that Leah’s eyes were sore (as recorded in Genesis 29:17) because she wept over what she heard at the crossroads. There she heard people saying, “Rebecca has two sons and Laban has two daughters; the elder daughter shall marry the elder son, and the younger daughter shall marry the younger son.” Leah asked about the older son and people said he was a bad man, a mugger. And Leah asked about the younger son, and the people said he was “a silent man dwelling in tents.” (Genesis 25:27.) So she wept over her fate until her eyelashes fell out. This explains the words of Genesis 29:31, “And the Lord saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her bosom,” which does not mean that Leah was actually hated, but rather that God saw Esau’s behavior was hateful for Leah. so he rewarded her prayer for mercy by first opening her womb.[66]

Joseph tells his dreams (drawing by Rembrandt)

After introducing “the line of Jacob,” Genesis 37:2 quotes only Joseph. The Gemara explained that the verse indicates that Joseph was worthy of having 12 tribes descended from him, just as they did from his father Jacob. But Joseph reduced some of his reproductive powers to resist Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39:7-12. Nevertheless, ten sons (added to Joseph’s two for a total of 12) descended from Joseph’s brother Benjamin and were given names for Joseph (as recorded in Genesis 46:21). A son was named Bela because Joseph was swallowed up (nivla) by the peoples. One son was named Becher because Joseph was his mother’s firstborn (bechor). A son was named Ashbel because God sent Joseph into captivity (shevao el). A son was called Gera because Joseph lived in a foreign land (even). A son was named Naaman because Joseph was especially loved (na’im). Sons were named Ehi and Rosh because Joseph was “my brother” (achi) and chief (rosh) to Benjamin. Sons were called Muppim and Huppim because Benjamin said that Joseph had not seen Benjamin’s marriage canopy (chuppah). A son was named Ard because Joseph descended (yarad) among the nations. Others explain that he was called Ard because Joseph’s face was like a rose (vered).[67]

Rabbi Levi used Genesis 37:2, 41:46, and 45:6 to calculate that Joseph’s dreams of his brothers bowing down to him took 22 years to come true and concluded that a person should therefore wait up to 22 years for the fulfillment of a positive dream.[68]

Joseph’s Dream (illustration from the 1890 Holman Bible)

Rava bar Mehasia, on behalf of Rav Hama bar Goria, said on behalf of Rav that a man should never single out a son from among his other sons, because because of the light weight of silk, Jacob gave more to Joseph than to his other sons (as in Genesis 37:3 reported), his brothers became jealous of Joseph and the matter led to the descent of the Israelites into Egypt.[69]

Genesis 37:5–7 tells of Joseph’s dreams. When Samuel had a good dream, he wondered if dreams speak falsely, since God says in Numbers 10:2, “I speak to him in a dream?” When he had a bad dream, he used to quote Zechariah 10:2: ” The dreams speak falsely.” Rava pointed out the possible contradiction between Numbers 10:2 and Zechariah 10:2. The Gemara resolved the contradiction, teaching that Numbers 10:2, “I speak to him in a dream?” refers to dreams that come through an angel, while Zechariah 10:2, “The dreams speak falsely,” refers to dreams coming through a demon.[70] The Gemara taught that a dream is a sixtieth part of prophecy.[71] Rabbi Hanan taught that even if the master of dreams (an angel in a dream that really foretells the future) tells a person that the person will die the next day, the person should not stop praying, because like Ecclesiastes 5: 6 says: “For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities and also many words, but fear God.” (Although a dream appears to reliably predict the future, it does not necessarily come true; one must place one’s trust in God.)[72] Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said on behalf of Rabbi Jonathan that a person is shown in a dream only that, which is suggested by the person’s own thoughts (while awake), as Daniel 2:29 says, “As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind on your bed,” and Daniel 2:30 says: “That thou mayest know the thoughts of the heart.”[73]

Noting that Jacob asked Joseph at Genesis 37:10, “Shall I and your mother… indeed come,” when Joseph’s mother Rachel was then dead, Rabbi Levi, speaking on behalf of Rabbi Hama ben Haninah, said that Jacob believed that the resurrection would come takes place in his days. But Rabbi Levi taught that Jacob did not know that Joseph’s dream actually referred to Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, whom Joseph had raised like a mother.[74]

Noting that dots appear above the word et ( אֶת , the direct object indicator) in Genesis 37:12, which states, “And his brethren went to feed their father’s flock,” a Midrash reinterpreted the verse, to indicate that Joseph’s brothers actually went to support themselves.[75]

Jacob called Joseph and told him to go to Shechem. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Joseph saw the sons of Jacob’s concubines eating the meat of deer and sheep while they were still alive and reported it to Jacob. And so they could no longer bear to see Joseph’s face in peace, as Genesis 37:4 records. Jacob told Joseph that he had waited many days without hearing of the welfare of Joseph’s brothers and of the welfare of the flock, so Jacob, as recorded in Genesis 37:14, asked Joseph: “Go now and see if it is good with your brethren, and good with the flock.”[76]

On reading Genesis 37:13, “And he said to him, ‘Here I am’.” Rabbi Hama bar Rabbi Hanina said that after Joseph disappeared, Jacob always thought of Joseph’s words and Jacob’s bowels around them were torn. For Jacob realized that Joseph had known that his brothers hated him, and yet he answered Jacob, ‘Here I am.'”[75]

Joseph found a young man who told him his brothers had left. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

Reading the three parallel phrases in Genesis 37:15-17, “And a certain man found him,” “And the man asked him,” “And the man spoke,” Rabbi Yannai concluded that three angels met Joseph.[77]

The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer read the word “man” in Genesis 37:15-17 to mean the Archangel Gabriel, as Daniel 9:21 says, “The man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision.” The Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer taught that Gabriel asked Joseph what he was looking for. Joseph told Gabriel that he was looking for his brothers, as recorded in Genesis 37:16. And Gabriel led Joseph to his brothers.[78]

Noting that Genesis 37:21 records, “And Reuben heard,” a Midrash asked where Reuben had been. Rabbi Judah taught that one day each of the brothers took care of Jacob, and that day it was Reuben’s turn. Rabbi Nehemiah taught that Reuben argued that he was the firstborn and that he alone was responsible for the crime. The rabbis taught that Reuben reasoned that Joseph included Ruben with his brothers in Joseph’s dream of the sun and moon and eleven stars in Genesis 37:9 when Reuben thought he had been expelled from his brothers’ society because of it the incident of Genesis 35:22. Because Joseph counted Reuben among his brothers, Reuben felt motivated to save Joseph. And since Reuben was the first to concern himself with saving lives, God decreed in Deuteronomy 4:43 that the cities of refuge should first be established within the borders of the tribe of Reuben.[79]

Joseph’s brothers lift him out of the pit to sell him (watercolor c.1896-1902 by James Tissot)

Rabbi Eleazar read Genesis 37:21 and contrasted Ruben’s generosity with Esau’s jealousy. As Genesis 25:33 records, Esau voluntarily sold his birthright, but as Genesis 27:41 says: “Esau hated Jacob,” and as Genesis 27:36 says: “And he said: ‘Is he not rightly called Jacob? supplanted me these two times.’” In Reuben’s case, Joseph deprived Reuben of his birthright against his will, as 1 Chronicles 5:1 records, “for though he defiled his father’s camp, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph.” Nevertheless Reuben was not jealous of Joseph, as Genesis 37:21 records: “And Reuben heard and delivered him out of their hand.”[80]

Interpreting the details of the phrase at Genesis 37:23, “they stripped off Joseph’s coat, the coat of many colors that was wearing him,” a Midrash taught that Joseph’s brothers gave him his cloak, shirt, tunic, and robe Pants.[81]

A Midrash asked in Genesis 37:24 who “took him and threw him into the pit” and answered that it was his brother Simeon. And the Midrash taught that Simeon was repaid when Joseph took Simeon from the brethren in Genesis 42:24 and had him bound before their eyes.[81]

The interpretation of the words “The pit was empty, there was no water in it” at Genesis 37:24 taught a Midrash that there was indeed no water in it, but serpents and serpents were in it. And because the word “pit” occurs twice in Genesis 37:24, the Midrash inferred that there were two pits, one full of pebbles and the other full of snakes and scorpions. Rabbi Aha interpreted the words “the pit was empty” to teach that Jacob’s pit was emptied – Jacob’s children were robbed of their compassion. The Midrash interpreted the words “there was no water in it” to teach that there was no acknowledgment of the Torah in it, since the Torah is compared to water, as Isaiah 55:1 says, “Everyone who thirsts come for water .” For the Torah (in Deuteronomy 24:7) says, “If anyone is found stealing one of his brothers of the children of Israel… and sells him, that thief shall die,” and yet Joseph’s brothers sold their brother. [81]

Joseph Sold by His Brothers (illustration from a Bible map published by the Providence Lithograph Company in 1907)

Rabbi Judah ben Ilai taught that the Scriptures praise Judah. Rabbi Judah noted that Scripture records that Judah spoke before his brothers and they made him king over them (bending under his authority) on three occasions: (1) in Genesis 37:26, where it is reported: “Judah consented his brothers: ‘What is the use if we kill our brother’”; (2) Genesis 44:14, which records, “Judah and his brethren came to the house of Joseph”; and (3) Genesis 44:18, which records, “Then Judah came to Joseph” to argue for Benjamin.[82]

A Midrash taught this because Judah acted worthily and saved Joseph from death (in Genesis 37:26-27) and saved Tamar and her two children from death (in Genesis 38:26, for as Genesis 38:24 records was Tamar then three months pregnant), God delivered four of Judah’s offspring, Daniel from the lions’ den as a reward for Joseph and three from the fire – Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah – as a reward for Perez, Zerah and Tamar, like Genesis 38:24 reports that Tamar and with it her two unborn children Perez and Zerah were sentenced to be burned.[83]

Judah said, “Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites.” ( Genesis 37:27 ) (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

In contrast, another Midrash rebuked Judah for not asking the brothers to bring Joseph back to Jacob. On reading Deuteronomy 30:11-14: “For this commandment which I command you today…is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart”, a Midrash interpreted “heart” and “mouth” um to symbolize the beginning and end of the fulfillment of a regulation, and so read Deuteronomy 30:11–14 as an exhortation to complete a good deed once it has begun. Thus Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba taught that if one begins a commandment and does not complete it, the result will be that one will bury one’s wife and children. The Midrash cited as support for this claim the experience of Judah beginning a precept and not completing it. When Joseph came to his brothers and they tried to kill him, as Joseph’s brothers said in Genesis 37:20, “Come now, and let us kill him,” Judah would not let them, saying in Genesis 37: 26: “What gain is there if we kill our brother?” and they listened to him, for he was their leader. And if Judah had asked Joseph’s brothers to give Joseph back to their father, they would have listened to him then too. Because Judah, then, a commandment (the good deed to Joseph) began and did not complete it, he buried his wife and two sons, as Genesis 38:12 reports: “Swah’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died” and Genesis 46:12 further reports: “He and Onan died in the land of Canaan.” In another Midrash, reading “heart” and “mouth” in Deuteronomy 30:11–14 to symbolize the beginning and end of the fulfillment of a commandment, Rabbi Levi said on behalf of Hama bar Hanina that if one begins a commandment and does not complete it, and another comes and completes it, it becomes attributed to the one who completed it. The Midrash illustrated this by quoting how Moses began a commandment by taking the bones of Joseph with him, as Exodus 13:19 relates: “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.” But because Moses never put Joseph’s bones in the land of Israel, the ordinance is attributed to the Israelites who buried them, as Joshua 24:32 records: “And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they were buried in Shechem.” Joshua 24:32 does not say: “whom Moses brought up out of Egypt,” but “whom brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt.” And the Midrash explained that the reason they buried Joseph’s bones in Shechem could be likened to a case where some thieves stole a stole wine casks, and when the owner spotted them, the owner told them that after they drank the wine, they needed them to put the cask back in its proper place.So when the brothers Joseph sold, sold they took him out of Shechem, as Genesis 37:13 records, “And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Do not your brothers feed the flock in Shechem?'” God told the brothers that since they sold Joseph of Shechem, they had to have Joseph’s bones bring back to Shechem. And when the Israelites completed the commandment, it is called by their name, demonstrating the power of Deuteronomy 30:11-14: “For this commandment which I command you today … is very close to you, in your mouth and in yours hearts.”[84]

They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. (Illustration by Owen Jones from The History of Joseph and His Brethren, 1869)

A Midrash read Judah’s questions at Genesis 44:16, “What shall we speak, or how shall we purify ourselves?” to indicate a series of sins. Judah fragte: „Was sollen wir meinem Herrn sagen“ in Bezug auf das Geld, das sie nach dem ersten Verkauf behalten haben, das Geld, das sie nach dem zweiten Verkauf behalten haben, den Becher, der in Benjamins Habseligkeiten gefunden wurde, die Behandlung von Tamar in Genesis 38 , die Behandlung von Bilhah in 1. Mose 35:22, die Behandlung von Dinah in 1. Mose 34, der Verkauf von Joseph in 1. Mose 37:28, die Erlaubnis für Simeon, in Gewahrsam zu bleiben, und die Gefahr für Benjamin.[85]

Rabbi Judah ben Simon lehrte, dass Gott von jedem der Israeliten verlangte, einen halben Schekel zu geben (wie in Exodus 38:26 berichtet), weil (wie in Genesis 37:28 berichtet) ihre Vorfahren Joseph für 20 Schekel an die Ismaeliten verkauft hatten. 86]

Joseph verkauft nach Ägypten (Aquarell um 1896–1902 von James Tissot)

Rabbi Tarfon leitete Merkmale der Ismaeliten aus der in Genesis 37:28 berichteten Transaktion ab. Rabbi Tarfon lehrte, dass Gott vom Berg Sinai kam (oder andere sagen vom Berg Seir) und den Kindern Esaus offenbart wurde, wie es in Deuteronomium 33:2 heißt: „Der Herr kam vom Sinai und stieg ihnen von Seir auf“ und „Seir “ bedeutet die Kinder Esaus, wie Genesis 36:8 sagt: „Und Esau wohnte auf dem Berg Seir.“ Gott fragte sie, ob sie die Thora annehmen würden, und sie fragten, was darin geschrieben stehe. Gott antwortete, dass es (in Exodus 20:12 (20:13 in der NJPS) und Deuteronomium 5:16 (5:17 in der NJPS)) enthielt: „Du sollst nicht morden.“ Die Kinder Esaus antworteten, dass sie den Segen, mit dem Isaak Esau in 1. Mose 27:40 segnete, nicht aufgeben könnten: „Durch dein Schwert sollst du leben.“ Von dort drehte sich Gott um und wurde den Kindern Ismaels offenbart, wie es in Deuteronomium 33:2 heißt: „Er leuchtete vom Berg Paran“, und „Paran“ bedeutet die Kinder Ismaels, wie Genesis 21:21 über Ismael sagt: „ Und er wohnte in der Wildnis von Paran.“ Gott fragte sie, ob sie die Thora annehmen würden, und sie fragten, was darin geschrieben stehe. Gott antwortete, dass es (in Exodus 20:12 (20:13 in der NJPS) und Deuteronomium 5:16 (5:17 in der NJPS)) enthielt: „Du sollst nicht stehlen.“ Die Kinder Ishamels antworteten, dass sie die Gewohnheit ihrer Väter nicht aufgeben könnten, wie Joseph in Genesis 40:15 sagte (unter Bezugnahme auf die Transaktion der Ismaeliten, die in Genesis 37:28 berichtet wird): „Denn ich wurde wirklich aus dem Land geraubt der Hebräer.“ Von dort sandte Gott Boten zu allen Nationen der Welt und fragte sie, ob sie die Thora annehmen würden, und sie fragten, was darin geschrieben stehe. Gott antwortete, dass es (in Exodus 20:2 (20:3 in der NJPS) und Deuteronomium 5:6 (5:7 in der NJPS)) enthielt: „Du sollst keine anderen Götter neben mir haben.“ Sie antworteten, dass sie kein Gefallen an der Tora hätten, deshalb lass Gott sie Gottes Volk geben, wie es in Psalm 29:11 heißt: „Der Herr wird seinem Volk Kraft [identifiziert mit der Tora] geben; der Herr wird sein Volk mit Frieden segnen.“ Von dort kehrte Gott zurück und wurde den Kindern Israel offenbart, wie es in Deuteronomium 33:2 heißt: „Und er kam von den Zehntausend Heiligen“, und der Ausdruck „Zehntausend“ bedeutet die Kinder Israel, wie Numeri 10 :36 says, “And when it rested, he said, ‘Return, O Lord, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.’” With God were thousands of chariots and 20,000 angels, and God’s right hand held the Torah, as Deuteronomy 33:2 says, “At his right hand was a fiery law to them.”[87]

And he knew it, and said, it is my son’s coat. (illustration by Owen Jones from the 1869 “The History of Joseph and His Brethren”)

Reading Genesis 37:32, “and they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said: ‘This have we found. Know now whether it is your son’s coat or not,'” Rabbi Johanan taught that God ordained that since Judah said this to his father, he too would hear (from Tamar in Genesis 38:25) the challenge: Know now, whose are these?[88] Similarly, reading the words of Genesis 38:25, “Discern, please,” Rabbi Hama ben Hanina noted that with the same word, Judah made an announcement to his father, and Judah’s daughter-in-law made an announcement to him. With the word “discern,” Judah said to Jacob in Genesis 37:32, “Discern now whether it be your son’s coat or not.” And with the word “discern,” Tamar said to Judah in Genesis 38:25, “Discern, please, whose are these.”[89]

Reading Genesis 37:36, a Midrash asked how many times Joseph was sold. Rabbi Judan and Rav Huna disagreed. Rabbi Judan maintained that Joseph was sold four times: His brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites, the Ishmaelites to the merchants, the merchants to the Midianites, and the Midianites into Egypt. Rav Huna said Joseph was sold five times, concluding with the Midianites selling him to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians to Potiphar.[90]

Figures de la Bible) Judah Gives his Signet, Bracelets and Staff in Pledge to Tamar (illustration from the 1728

Genesis chapter 38 [ edit ]

The Mishnah taught that notwithstanding its mature content, in the synagogue, Jews read and translated Tamar’s story in Genesis 38.[91] The Gemara questioned why the Mishnah bothered to say so and proposed that one might think that Jews should forbear out of respect for Judah. But the Gemara deduced that the Mishnah instructed that Jews read and translate the chapter to show that the chapter actually redounds to Judah’s credit, as it records in Genesis 38:26 that he confessed his wrongdoing.[92]

Rabbi Berekiah taught in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman that the term “and he went down” ( וַיֵּרֶד‎, vayered), which appears in Genesis 38:1, implies excommunication. The Midrash told that when Joseph’s brothers tried to comfort Jacob and he refused to be comforted, they told Jacob that Judah was responsible. They said that had Judah only told them not to sell Joseph, they would have obeyed. But Judah told them that they should sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites (as reported in Genesis 37:27). As a result, the brothers excommunicated Judah (when they saw the grief that they had caused Jacob), for Genesis 38:1 says, “And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down ( וַיֵּרֶד‎, vayered) from his brethren.” The Midrash argued that Genesis 38:1 could have said “and he went” ( וַיֵּלֶךְ‎, vayelekh) instead of “and he went down” ( וַיֵּרֶד‎, vayered). Thus the Midrash deduced that Judah suffered a descent and was excommunicated by his brothers.[93]

Noting that Judges 14:1 reports that “Samson went down to Timnah,” the Gemara asked why Genesis 38:13 says, “Behold, your father-in-law goes up to Timnah.” Rabbi Eleazar explained that since Samson was disgraced in Timnah (in that he married a Philistine woman from there), Judges 14:1 reports that he “went down.” But since Judah was exalted by virtue of having gone to Timnah (in that, as Genesis 38:29 reports, from Judah’s encounter there, Tamar bore Perez, a progenitor of King David), Genesis 38:13 reports that he went “up.” Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani, however, taught that there were two places named Timnah, one that people reached by going down and the other that people reached by going up. And Rav Papa taught that there was only one place named Timnah, and those who came to it from one direction had to descend, while those who came from another direction had to ascend.[94]

Reading the report of Tamar in Genesis 38:14, “She sat in the gate of Enaim,” Rabbi Alexander taught that Tamar went and sat at the entrance of the place of Abraham, the place to which all eyes ( עֵינַיִם‎, einaim) look. Alternatively, Rav Hanin said in the name of Rav that there is a place called Enaim, and it is the same place mentioned in Joshua 15:34 when it speaks of “Tappuah and Enam.” Alternatively, Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani taught that the place is called Enaim because Tamar gave eyes ( עֵינַיִם‎, einaim) to her words; that is, Tamar gave convincing replies to Judah’s questions. When Judah solicited her, he asked her if she was a Gentile, and she replied that she was a convert. When Judah asked her if she was a married woman, she replied that she was unmarried. When Judah asked her if perhaps her father had accepted marriage proposals on her behalf betrothals (making her forbidden to Judah), she replied that she was an orphan. When Judah asked her if perhaps she was ritually unclean (because she was a menstruant, or niddah, and thus forbidden to Judah), she replied that she was clean.[95]

Reading the report of Genesis 38:15, “he thought her to be a harlot; for she had covered her face,” the Gemara questioned how that could be so, for the Rabbis considered covering one’s face an act of modesty. Rabbi Eleazar explained that Tamar had covered her face in her father-in-law’s house (and thus Judah had never seen her face and did not recognize her), for Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in the name of Rabbi Jonathan that every daughter-in-law who is modest in her father-in-law’s house merits that kings and prophets should issue from her. In support of that proposition, the Gemara noted that kings descended from Tamar through David. And prophets descended from Tamar, as Isaiah 1:1 says, “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz,” and Rabbi Levi taught that there is a tradition that Amoz was the brother of Amaziah the King of Judah, and thus a descendant of David and thus of Tamar.[96]

Reading the words of Genesis 38:25, “When she was brought forth ( מוּצֵאת‎, mutzeit),” the Gemara taught that Genesis 38:25 should rather be read, “When she found ( מיתוצאת‎, mitutzaet).” Rabbi Eleazar explained that the verb thus implies that after Tamar’s proofs — Judah’s signet, cord, and staff — were found, Samael (the angel of evil) removed them and the archangel Gabriel restored them. Reading the words of Psalm 56:1 as, “For the Chief Musician, the silent dove of them that are afar off. Of David, Michtam,” Rabbi Johanan taught that when Samael removed Tamar’s proofs, she became like a silent dove.[97]

Tamar (2009 painting by and copyright Lidia Kozenitzky; for licensing information, double-click on the image)

Rav Zutra bar Tobiah said in the name of Rav (or according to others, Rav Hanah bar Bizna said it in the name of Rabbi Simeon the Pious, or according to others, Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai) that it is better for a person to choose to be executed in a fiery furnace than to shame another in public. For even to save herself from being burned, Tamar in Genesis 38:25 did not implicate Judah publicly by name.[98]

Similarly, the Gemara derived from Genesis 38:25 a lesson about how to give to the poor. The Gemara told a story. A poor man lived in Mar Ukba’s neighborhood, and every day Mar Ukba would put four zuz into the poor man’s door socket. One day, the poor man thought that he would try to find out who did him this kindness. That day Mar Ukba came home from the house of study with his wife. When the poor man saw them moving the door to make their donation, the poor man went to greet them, but they fled and ran into a furnace from which the fire had just been swept. They did so because, as Mar Zutra bar Tobiah said in the name of Rav (or others say Rav Huna bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Simeon the Pious, and still others say Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai), it is better for a person to go into a fiery furnace than to shame a neighbor publicly. One can derive this from Genesis 38:25, where Tamar, who was subject to being burned for the adultery with which Judah had charged her, rather than publicly shame Judah with the facts of his complicity, sent Judah’s possessions to him with the message, “By the man whose these are am I with child.”[99]

Reading the word “please” ( נָא‎, na) in Genesis 38:25, the Gemara taught that Tamar was saying to Judah, “I beg of you, discern the face of your Creator and do not hide your eyes from me.”[100]

A Midrash taught that the words “Judah, you shall your brothers praise ( יוֹדוּךָ‎, yoducha)” in Genesis 49:8 signify that because Judah confessed (the same word as “praise”) in Genesis 38:26, in connection with Tamar, Judah’s brothers would praise Judah in this world and in the world to come (accepting descendants of Judah as their king). And in accordance with Jacob’s blessing, 30 kings descended from Judah, for as Ruth 4:18 reports, David descended from Judah, and if one counts David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat and his successors until Jeconiah and Zedekiah (one finds 30 generations from Judah’s son Perez to Zedekiah). And so the Midrash taught it shall be in the world to come (the Messianic era), for as Ezekiel 37:25 foretells, “And David My servant shall be their prince forever.”[101]

Rabbi Johanan noted a similarity between the Hebrew verb “to break” and the name “Perez” ( פָּרֶץ‎) in Genesis 38:29 and deduced that the name presaged that kings would descend from him, for a king breaks for himself a way. Rabbi Johanan also noted that the name “Zerah” ( זָרַח‎) in Genesis 38:30 is related to the Hebrew root meaning “to shine” and deduced that the name presaged that important men would descend from him.[102]

The Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt to Potiphar. (illustration by Owen Jones from the 1869 “The History of Joseph and His Brethren”)

Genesis chapter 39 [ edit ]

Reading the words of Genesis 39:1, “And Potiphar, an officer ( סְרִיס‎, seris) of Pharaoh’s, bought him,” Rav taught that Potiphar bought Joseph for himself (to make Joseph his lover), but the archangel Gabriel castrated Potiphar (as the Hebrew word for “officer,” סְרִיס‎, seris, also means “eunuch”) and then mutilated Potiphar, for originally Genesis 39:1 records his name as “Potiphar,” but afterwards Genesis 41:45 records his name as “Potiphera” (and the ending of his name, פֶרַע‎, fera, alludes to the word feirio, indicating his mutilation).[103]

God gave Joseph a special talent for organizing his work. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

A Midrash taught that from the moment Joseph arrived in Potiphar’s house (in the words of Genesis 39:2–3), “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was successful . . . and his master saw that the Lord was with him.” But the Midrash questioned whether the wicked Potiphar could see that God was with Joseph. So the Midrash interpreted the words “the Lord was with Joseph” in Genesis 39:2 to mean that God’s Name never left Joseph’s lips. When Joseph came to minister to Potiphar, he would whisper a prayer that God grant him favor in God’s eyes and in the eyes of all who saw him. Potiphar asked Joseph what he was whispering and whether Joseph was employing sorcery against him. Joseph replied that he was praying that he should find favor with Potiphar. Thus Genesis 39:3 reports, “His master saw that the Lord was with him.”[104]

Rabbi Phinehas taught in Rabbi Simon’s name that the words, “And the Lord was with Joseph,” in Genesis 39:2 demonstrated that Joseph brought the Divine Presence ( שכינה‎, Shechinah) down to Egypt with him.[105]

A Midrash asked whether the words of Genesis 39:2, “And the Lord was with Joseph,” implied that God was not with the other tribal ancestors. Rabbi Judan compared this to a drover who had twelve cows before him laden with wine. When one of the cows entered a shop belonging to a nonbeliever, the drover left the eleven and followed the one into the nonbeliever’s shop. When asked why he left the eleven to follow the one, he replied that he was not concerned that wine carried by the eleven in the street would be rendered impure because it was used for idolatry, but he was concerned that the wine carried into the nonbeliever’s shop might be. Similarly, Jacob’s other sons were grown up and under their father’s control, but Joseph was young and away from his father’s supervision. Therefore, in the words of Genesis 39:2, “the Lord was with Joseph.”[106]

The Tosefta deduced from Genesis 39:5 that before Joseph arrived, Potiphar’s house had not received a blessing, and that it was because of Joseph’s arrival that Potiphar’s house was blessed thereafter.[107]

The Pesikta Rabbati taught that Joseph guarded himself against lechery and murder. That he guarded himself against lechery is demonstrated by the report of him in Genesis 39:8–9, “But he refused, and said to his master’s wife: ‘Behold, my master, having me, knows not what is in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand; he is not greater in this house than I; neither has he kept back any thing from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” That he guarded himself against murder is demonstrated by his words in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”[108]

A Midrash applied the words of Ecclesiastes 8:4, “the king’s word has power ( שִׁלְטוֹן‎, shilton)” to Joseph’s story. The Midrash taught that God rewarded Joseph for resisting Potiphar’s wife (as reported in Genesis 39:8) by making him ruler ( הַשַּׁלִּיט‎, hashalit) over the land of Egypt (as reported in Genesis 42:6). “The king’s word” of Ecclesiastes 8:4 were manifest when, as Genesis 41:17 reports, “Pharaoh spoke to Joseph: In my dream . . . .” And the word “power ( שִׁלְטוֹן‎, shilton)” of Ecclesiastes 8:4 corresponds to the report of Genesis 42:6, “And Joseph was the governor ( הַשַּׁלִּיט‎, hashalit) over the land.” The words of Ecclesiastes 8:4, “And who may say to him: ‘What are you doing?'” are thus reflected in Pharaoh’s words of Genesis 41:55, “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.” The Midrash taught that Joseph received so much honor because he observed the commandments, as Ecclesiastes 8:5 teaches when it says, “Whoever keeps the commandment shall know no evil thing.”[109]

Rav Hana (or some say Hanin) bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Simeon the Pious that because Joseph sanctified God’s Name in private when he resisted Potiphar’s wife’s advances, one letter from God’s Name was added to Joseph’s name. Rabbi Johanan interpreted the words, “And it came to pass about this time, that he went into the house to do his work,” in Genesis 39:11 to teach that both Joseph and Potiphar’s wife had the intention to act immorally. Rav and Samuel differed in their interpretation of the words “he went into the house to do his work.” One said that it really means that Joseph went to do his household work, but the other said that Joseph went to satisfy his desires. Interpreting the words, “And there was none of the men of the house there within,” in Genesis 39:11, the Gemara asked whether it was possible that no man was present in a huge house like Potiphar’s. A Baraita was taught in the School of Rabbi Ishmael that the day was Potiphar’s household’s feast-day, and they had all gone to their idolatrous temple, but Potiphar’s wife had pretended to be ill, because she thought that she would not again have an opportunity like that day to associate with Joseph. The Gemara taught that just at the moment reported in Genesis 39:12 when “she caught him by his garment, saying: ‘Lie with me,’ Jacob’s image came and appeared to Joseph through the window. Jacob told Joseph that Joseph and his brothers were destined to have their names inscribed upon the stones of the ephod, and Jacob asked whether it was Joseph’s wish to have his name expunged from the ephod and be called an associate of harlots, as Proverbs 29:3 says, “He that keeps company with harlots wastes his substance.” Immediately, in the words of Genesis 49:24, “his bow abode in strength.” Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Meir that this means that his passion subsided. And then, in the words of Genesis 49:24, “the arms of his hands were made active,” meaning that he stuck his hands in the ground and his lust went out from between his fingernails.[110]

Joseph ran from the house. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

Rabbi Johanan said that he would sit at the gate of the bathhouse (mikvah), and when Jewish women came out they would look at him and have children as handsome as he was. The Rabbis asked him whether he was not afraid of the evil eye for being so boastful. He replied that the evil eye has no power over the descendants of Joseph, citing the words of Genesis 49:22, “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine above the eye [alei ayin].” Rabbi Abbahu taught that one should not read alei ayin (“by a fountain”), but olei ayin (“rising over the eye”). Rabbi Judah (or some say Jose) son of Rabbi Haninah deduced from the words “And let them [the descendants of Joseph] multiply like fishes [ve-yidgu] in the midst of the earth” in Genesis 48:16 that just as fish (dagim) in the sea are covered by water and thus the evil eye has no power over them, so the evil eye has no power over the descendants of Joseph. Alternatively, the evil eye has no power over the descendants of Joseph because the evil eye has no power over the eye that refused to enjoy what did not belong to it — Potiphar’s wife — as reported in Genesis 39:7–12.[111]

The Gemara asked whether the words in Exodus 6:25, “And Eleazar Aaron’s son took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife” did not convey that Eleazar’s son Phinehas descended from Jethro, who fattened (piteim) calves for idol worship. The Gemara then provided an alternative explanation: Exodus 6:25 could mean that Phinehas descended from Joseph, who conquered (pitpeit) his passions (resisting Potiphar’s wife, as reported in Genesis 39). But the Gemara asked, did not the tribes sneer at Phinehas and (as reported in Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 82b and Sotah 43a[112]) question how a youth (Phinehas) whose mother’s father crammed calves for idol-worship could kill the head of a tribe in Israel (Zimri, Prince of Simeon, as reported in Numbers 25). The Gemara explained that the real explanation was that Phinehas descended from both Joseph and Jethro. If Phinehas’s mother’s father descended from Joseph, then Phinehas’s mother’s mother descended from Jethro. And if Phinehas’s mother’s father descended from Jethro, then Phinehas’s mother’s mother descended from Joseph. The Gemara explained that Exodus 6:25 implies this dual explanation of “Putiel” when it says, “of the daughters of Putiel,” because the plural “daughters” implies two lines of ancestry (from both Joseph and Jethro).[113]

Joseph was imprisoned. (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy of Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael cited Genesis 39:21 for the proposition that whenever Israel is enslaved, the Divine Presence ( שכינה‎, Shechinah) is enslaved with them, as Isaiah 63:9 says, “In all their affliction He was afflicted.” The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael taught that God shares the affliction of not only the community, but also of the individual, as Psalm 91:15 says, “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.” The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael noted that Genesis 39:20 says, “And Joseph’s master took him,” and is immediately followed by Genesis 39:21, “But the Lord was with Joseph.”[114]

A Midrash cited the words of Genesis 39:21, “And gave His grace in the sight of the keeper,” as an application to Joseph of the Priestly Blessing of Numbers 6:25, “The Lord . . . be gracious to you.” God imparted of God’s grace to Joseph wherever Joseph went.[115]

The Rabbis of the Midrash debated whether the report of Genesis 39:21, “And the Lord was ( וַיְהִי‎, vayehi) with Joseph,” signified an occurrence of trouble or joy. Rabbi Simeon ben Abba said in the name of Rabbi Johanan that wherever the word “and it came to pass” ( וַיְהִי‎, vayehi) occurs, it signifies the occurrence of either trouble or joy — if of trouble, of unprecedented trouble; if of joy, of unprecedented joy. Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani made a further distinction that wherever “and it came to pass” ( וַיְהִי‎, vayehi) is found, it refers to trouble; where “and it shall be” ( וְהָיָה‎, vehayah) is found, it refers to joyous occasions. But the Rabbis of the Midrash objected that Genesis 39:21 says, “And the Lord was ( וַיְהִי‎, vayehi) with Joseph” — surely not an indication of trouble. Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani answered that Genesis 39:21 reported no occasion for joy, as in Genesis 40:15, Joseph recounted, “They . . . put me into the dungeon.”[116]

Joseph Faithful in Prison (illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company)

A Midrash taught that Genesis 39:21 reported the source of the kindness that Joseph showed in his life. The Midrash taught that each of the righteous practiced a particular meritorious deed: Abraham practiced circumcision, Isaac practiced prayer, and Jacob practiced truth, as Micah 7:20 says, “You will show truth to Jacob.” The Midrash taught that Joseph stressed kindness, reading Genesis 39:21 to say, “The Lord was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him.”[117]

Genesis chapter 40 [ edit ]

Rabbi Samuel bar Nahman taught that the Sages instituted the tradition that Jews drink four cups of wine at the Passover seder in allusion to the four cups mentioned in Genesis 40:11–13, which says: “‘Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.’ And Joseph said to him: ‘This is the interpretation of it: . . . within yet three days shall Pharaoh lift up your head, and restore you to your office; and you shall give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, after the former manner when you were his butler.”[118]

Rabbi Eleazar deduced from the report of Genesis 40:16 that “the chief baker saw that the interpretation was correct” that each of them was shown his own dream and the interpretation of the other one’s dream.[70]

In medieval Jewish interpretation [ edit ]

The parashah is discussed in these medieval Jewish sources:[119]

The Title Page of the Zohar

Genesis chapter 39 [ edit ]

Reading the words of Genesis 39:2, “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian,” the Zohar taught that wherever the righteous walk, God protects them and never abandons them. The Zohar taught that Joseph walked through “the valley of the shadow of death” (in the words of Psalm 23:4), having been brought down to Egypt, but the Shechinah was with him, as Genesis 39:2 states, “And the Lord was with Joseph.” Because of the Shechinah’s presence, all that Joseph did prospered in his hand. If he had something in his hand and his master wanted something else, it changed in his hand to the thing that his master wanted. Hence, Genesis 39:3 says, “made to prosper in his hand,” as God was with him. Noting that Genesis 39:3 does not say, “And his master knew,” but “And his master saw,” the Zohar deduced that Potiphar saw every day with his eyes the miracles that God performed by the hand of Joseph. Genesis 39:5 reports, “the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake,” and the Zohar taught that God guards the righteous, and for their sakes also guards the wicked with whom they are associated, so that the wicked receive blessings through the righteous. The Zohar told that Joseph was thrown into the dungeon, in the words of Psalm 105:18, “His feet they hurt with fetters, his person was laid in iron.” And then God liberated him and made him ruler over Egypt, fulfilling the words of Psalm 37:28, which reports that God “forsakes not his saints; they are preserved forever.” Thus the Zohar taught that God shields the righteous in this world and in the world to come.[120]

In modern interpretation [ edit ]

The parashah is discussed in these modern sources:

Genesis chapters 37–50 [ edit ]

Who’s Speaking? In Primeval History In Patriarchal Narrative In the Joseph Story Genesis 1–11 Genesis 12–36 Genesis 37–50 The Narrator 74% 56% 53% Human Speech 5% 34% 47% Divine Speech 21% 10% 0%

Yehuda Radday and Haim Shore analyzed the 20,504 Hebrew words in Genesis and divided them according to whether they occur in the narrator’s description, in direct human speech, or in direct Divine speech. They found that the Joseph story in Genesis 37–50 contains substantially more direct human speech but markedly less direct Divine speech than the Primeval history in Genesis 1–11 and the Patriarchal narrative in Genesis 12–36.[121]

Donald Seybold schematized the Joseph narrative in the chart below, finding analogous relationships in each of Joseph’s households.[122]

Ephraim Speiser argued that in spite of its surface unity, the Joseph story, on closer scrutiny, yields two parallel strands similar in general outline, yet markedly different in detail. The Jahwist’s version employed the Tetragrammaton and the name “Israel.” In that version, Judah persuaded his brothers not to kill Joseph but sell him instead to Ishmaelites, who disposed of him in Egypt to an unnamed official. Joseph’s new master promoted him to the position of chief retainer. When the brothers were on their way home from their first mission to Egypt with grain, they opened their bags at a night stop and were shocked to find the payment for their purchases. Judah prevailed on his father to let Benjamin accompany them on a second journey to Egypt. Judah finally convinced Joseph that the brothers had really reformed. Joseph invited Israel to settle with his family in Goshen. The Elohist’s parallel account, in contrast, consistently used the names “Elohim” and “Jacob.” Reuben — not Judah — saved Joseph from his brothers; Joseph was left in an empty cistern, where he was picked up, unbeknown to the brothers, by Midianites; they — not the Ishmaelites — sold Joseph as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar. In that lowly position, Joseph served — not supervised — the other prisoners. The brothers opened their sacks — not bags — at home in Canaan — not at an encampment along the way. Reuben — not Judah — gave Jacob — not Israel — his personal guarantee of Benjamin’s safe return. Pharaoh — not Joseph — invited Jacob and his family to settle in Egypt — not just Goshen. Speiser concluded that the Joseph story can thus be traced back to two once separate, though now intertwined, accounts.[123]

John Kselman noted that as in the Jacob cycle that precedes it, the Joseph narrative begins with the deception of a father by his offspring through an article of clothing; the deception leads to the separation of brothers for 20 years; and the climax of the story comes with the reconciliation of estranged brothers and the abatement of family strife.[124] Kselman reported that more recent scholarship finds in the Joseph story a background in the Solomonic era, as Solomon’s marriage to a daughter of the pharaoh (reported in 1 Kings 9:16 and 11:1) indicated an era of amicable political and commercial relations between Egypt and Israel that would explain the positive attitude of the Joseph narrative to Egypt.[125]

Gary Rendsburg noted that Genesis often repeats the motif of the younger son. God favored Abel over Cain in Genesis 4; Isaac superseded Ishmael in Genesis 16–21; Jacob superseded Esau in Genesis 25–27; Judah (fourth among Jacob’s sons, last of the original set born to Leah) and Joseph (eleventh in line) superseded their older brothers in Genesis 37–50; Perez superseded Zerah in Genesis 38 and Ruth 4; and Ephraim superseded Manasseh in Genesis 48. Rendsburg explained Genesis’s interest with this motif by recalling that David was the youngest of Jesse’s seven sons (see 1 Samuel 16), and Solomon was among the youngest, if not the youngest, of David’s sons (see 2 Samuel 5:13–16). The issue of who among David’s many sons would succeed him dominates the Succession Narrative in 2 Samuel 13 through 1 Kings 2. Amnon was the firstborn, but was killed by his brother Absalom (David’s third son) in 2 Samuel 13:29. After Absalom rebelled, David’s general Joab killed him in 2 Samuel 18:14–15. The two remaining candidates were Adonijah (David’s fourth son) and Solomon, and although Adonijah was older (and once claimed the throne when David was old and feeble in 1 Kings 1), Solomon won out. Rendsburg argued that even though firstborn royal succession was the norm in the ancient Near East, the authors of Genesis justified Solomonic rule by imbedding the notion of ultimogeniture into Genesis’s national epic. An Israelite could thus not criticize David’s selection of Solomon to succeed him as king over Israel, because Genesis reported that God had favored younger sons since Abel and blessed younger sons of Israel — Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, Perez, and Ephraim — since the inception of the covenant. More generally, Rendsburg concluded that royal scribes living in Jerusalem during the reigns of David and Solomon in the tenth century BCE were responsible for Genesis; their ultimate goal was to justify the monarchy in general, and the kingship of David and Solomon in particular; and Genesis thus appears as a piece of political propaganda.[126]

Bullet

Calling it “too good a story,” James Kugel reported that modern interpreters contrast the full-fledged tale of the Joseph story with the schematic narratives of other Genesis figures and conclude that the Joseph story reads more like a work of fiction than history.[127] Donald Redford and other scholars following him suspected that behind the Joseph story stood an altogether invented Egyptian or Canaanite tale that was popular on its own before an editor changed the main characters to Jacob and his sons.[128] These scholars argue that the original story told of a family of brothers in which the father spoiled the youngest, and the oldest brother, who had his own privileged status, intervened to try to save the youngest when his other brothers threatened him. In support of this theory, scholars have pointed to the description of Joseph (rather than Benjamin) in Genesis 37:3 as if he were Jacob’s youngest son, Joseph’s and Jacob’s references to Joseph’s mother (as if Rachel were still alive) in Joseph’s prophetic dream in Genesis 37:9–10, and the role of the oldest brother Reuben intervening for Joseph in Genesis 37:21–22, 42:22, and 42:37. Scholars theorize that when the editor first mechanically put Reuben in the role of the oldest, but as the tribe of Reuben had virtually disappeared and the audience for the story were principally descendants of Judah, Judah was given the role of spokesman and hero in the end.[129]

Gerhard von Rad argued that the Joseph narrative is closely related to earlier Egyptian wisdom literature.[130] The wisdom ideology maintained that a Divine plan underlay all of reality, so that everything unfolds in accordance with a preestablished pattern — precisely what Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 44:5 and 50:20. Joseph is the only one of Israel’s ancestors whom the Torah (in Genesis 41:39) calls “wise” ( חָכָם‎, chacham) — the same word as “sage” in Hebrew. Specialties of ancient Near Eastern sages included advising the king and interpreting dreams and other signs — just as Joseph did. Joseph displayed the cardinal sagely virtue of patience, which sages had because they believed that everything happens according to the Divine plan and would turn out for the best. Joseph thus looks like the model of an ancient Near Eastern sage, and the Joseph story looks like a didactic tale designed to teach the basic ideology of wisdom.[131]

George Coats argued that the Joseph narrative is a literary device constructed to carry the children of Israel from Canaan to Egypt, to link preexisting stories of ancestral promises in Canaan to an Exodus narrative of oppression in and liberation from Egypt.[132] Coats described the two principal goals of the Joseph story as (1) to describe reconciliation in a broken family despite the lack of merit of any of its members, and (2) to describe the characteristics of an ideal administrator.[133]

Commenting on Genesis 45:5–8 and 50:19–20, Walter Brueggemann wrote that the Joseph story’s theme concerns God’s hidden and decisive power, which works in, through, and sometimes against human power. Calling this either providence or predestination, Brueggemann argued that God thus worked out God’s purpose through and in spite of Egypt, and through and in spite of Joseph and his brothers.[134]

Gunkel

Genesis chapter 38 [ edit ]

Hermann Gunkel argued that what he called the legend of Tamar in Genesis 38 depicts in part early relations in the tribe of Judah: The Tribe of Judah allied itself with Canaanites who are reflected in the legendary Hirah of Adullam and Judah’s wife, Bathshua. According to Gunkel, the accounts of Er and Onan reflect that a number of Judan-Canaanitish tribes perished early. And the accounts of Perez and Zerah reflect that finally two new tribes arose.[135]

Commandments [ edit ]

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parashah.[136]

Haftarah [ edit ]

A haftarah is a text selected from the books of Nevi’im (“The Prophets”) that is read publicly in the synagogue after the reading of the Torah on Sabbath and holiday mornings. The haftarah usually has a thematic link to the Torah reading that precedes it.

The specific text read following Parashah Vayeshev varies according to different traditions within Judaism. In general, the haftarah for the parashah is Amos 2:6–3:8.

On Shabbat Hanukkah I [ edit ]

When Hanukkah begins on a Sabbath, two Sabbaths occur during Hanukkah. In such a case, Parashat Vayeshev occurs on the first day of Hanukkah (as it did in 2009) and the haftarah is Zechariah 2:14–4:7.

See also[edit]

Notes [edit]

Further reading[edit]

The parashah is cited or discussed in these sources:

Ancient [ edit ]

Biblical [ edit ]

Philo

Jeremiah 31:14 (31:15 in NJPS) (refusal to be comforted for lost son of Rachel); 39:6–13 (thrown into a pit).

Daniel 2:1–49; 4:1–5:31 (interpreting dreams).

Early nonrabbinic [ edit ]

Classical rabbinic [ edit ]

Rashi

Medieval [ edit ]

Nachmanides

Modern [ edit ]

Luzzatto

cash

Plaut

Finkelstein

Sacks

Herzfeld

horn

QUIZ

QUIZ YOURSELF ON OPPOSITES OF RED BEFORE THEY TURN SCARLET

We have a challenge that will make you blush: do you know the many words and ways to describe the opposite of red?

Question 1 of 7

Which of the following colors is used to symbolize AIR?

Eleventh section in the annual Jewish cycle of weekly Torah readings

Joseph Recognized by His Brothers (1863 painting by Léon Pierre Urbain Bourgeois)

Vayigash or Vaigash (וַיִּגַּשׁ – Hebrew for “and he drew near” or “then he drew near”, the first word of the parashah) is the eleventh weekly Torah portion ( פָּרָשָׁה , parashah) in the Jewish annual cycle of Torah reading. It forms Genesis 44:18-47:27. In the parshah, Judah pleads for his brother Benjamin, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, Jacob comes to Egypt, and Joseph’s administration of Egypt saves lives but turns all Egyptians into servants.

The parashah consists of 5,680 Hebrew letters, 1,480 Hebrew words, 106 verses and 178 lines in a Torah scroll ( סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה , Sefer Torah).[1] Jews read it on the eleventh Sabbath after Simchat Torah, generally in December or early January.[2]

readings [edit]

In the traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings or עליות, aliyot. In the Masoretic text of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Parashah Vayigash has no divisions in the “open part” ( פתוחה‎, petuchah) (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated to the Hebrew letter פ (peh)). Parashah Vayigash has three minor “closed parts” ( סתומה‎, setumah) subdivisions (abbreviated by the Hebrew letter ס (samekh)). The first closed part ( סתומה , Setumah ) includes the first four readings ( עליות , Aliyot ) and part of the fifth reading ( עליה , Aliyah ). The second closed part ( סתומה‎, setumah) contains the rest of the fifth reading (עליה‎, aliyah). And the third closed part ( סתומה , setumah) includes the sixth and seventh reading ( עליות , aliyot).[3]

First Reading – Genesis 44:18-30 [ edit ]

Joseph Identified by His Brothers (1789 painting by Charles Thévenin

In the first reading ( עליה , aliyah), Judah approached Joseph, whom he compared to Pharaoh, and related how Joseph had asked the 10 brothers if they had a father or brother and they had told him that they had a father , who was an old man (Jacob) and a child of his age who was a little child (Benjamin) whose brother was dead, who was all that was left of his mother (Rachel) and whose father loved him.[4] Judah recalled how Joseph had told the brothers to take their younger brother to Egypt, they had told Joseph that leaving the boy would kill his father, but Joseph had insisted.[5] Judah remembered the brothers telling their father’s words to Joseph, and when their father told them to go back to buy something to eat, they reminded him that they weren’t going down without their youngest brother could.[6] Judah related how their father had told them his wife had borne him two sons, one had gone out and been torn to pieces, and if they took the youngest and anything happened to him it would throw his gray hair into the grave in grief. [7] Judah began explaining to Joseph what would happen if Judah came to his father without the boy, seeing that his father’s soul was connected to the boy’s.[8] The first reading ( עליה , aliyah) ends here.[9]

Second Reading – Genesis 44:31–45:7 [ edit ]

Joseph forgives his brothers (illustration from a Bible map published by the Providence Lithograph Company in 1907)

In the second reading ( עליה , aliyah), Judah told Joseph that if Judah came to his father without the boy, then his father would die in sorrow.[10] And Judah related how he had become surety for the boy, and asked Joseph that he be permitted to remain servant to Joseph instead of the boy, for how could he go up to his father if the boy were not with him?[11 ] Joseph could no longer control his emotions and ordered everyone but his brothers out of the room.[12] He wept loudly, and the Egyptians and Pharaoh’s house heard.[13] Joseph told his brothers that he was Joseph and asked them if his father was still alive, but his brothers were too afraid to answer him.[14] Joseph asked them to come closer, told them that he was their brother Joseph, whom they had sold into Egypt, but that they should not grieve, for God had sent Joseph before them to save life.[15] Joseph related that there had been a famine in the land for two years, but five more years would remain without a harvest.[16] But God had sent him before them to keep them alive for a great deliverance.[17] The second reading ( עליה , Aliyah) ends here.[18]

Third Reading – Genesis 45:8–18 [ edit ]

In the third reading ( עליה , Aliyah), Joseph told his brothers that they had not sent him to Egypt, but God, who had made him ruler over all Egypt.[19] Joseph therefore instructed them to go quickly to his father and tell him that God had made him lord of all Egypt and that his father should come down to live in the land of Goshen and Joseph would feed him for the five years of famine .[20] And Joseph and his brother Benjamin wept on each other’s necks, Joseph kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him.[21] News went through Pharaoh’s house that Joseph’s brothers had come, and it pleased Pharaoh.[22] Pharaoh instructed Joseph to tell his brothers to go to Canaan and bring their father and families back to Egypt.[23] The third reading ( עליה , Aliyah) ends here.[24]

Fourth Reading – Genesis 45:19–27 [ edit ]

In the Fourth Reading ( עליה , Aliyah), Joseph gave his brothers wagons and provisions for the journey, and each man he gave a change of clothes, but he gave Benjamin 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.[25 ] And Joseph sent to his father ten donkeys laden with the goods of Egypt, and ten donkeys laden with food. So Joseph sent his brothers away and warned them not to fall apart on the way.[27] The brothers went to their father Jacob in Canaan and told him that Joseph was still alive and reigning over Egypt, but he did not believe them.[28] They told him what Joseph had said, and when Jacob saw the wagons that Joseph had sent, Jacob revived.[29] The fourth reading ( עליה , aliyah) ends here.[30]

Fifth Reading – Genesis 45:28–46:27 [ edit ]

In the long fifth reading ( עליה , aliyah), Jacob said that he would visit Joseph before he died.[31] Jacob traveled to Beersheba with everything he had and offered sacrifices to God.[32] God spoke to Jacob in a dream and said that Jacob should not be afraid to go to Egypt because God would go with him, make him a great nation, and also bring him back safely.[33] Jacob’s sons carried him, their little ones, and their wives in the chariots sent by Pharaoh.[34] They took their livestock and goods and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his family.[35] The first closed part ( סתומה , setumah) ends here.[36]

The continuation of the fifth reading ( עליה , aliyah) lists the names of Jacob’s family, 70 men in all, including Joseph and his two children.[37] The long fifth reading ( עליה , Aliyah ) and the second closed part ( סתומה , Setumah ) end here.

Sixth Reading – Genesis 46:28–47:10 [ edit ]

Joseph and His Brothers Welcomed by Pharaoh (watercolor c.1896-1902 by James Tissot

In the sixth reading ( עליה , Aliyah), Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to show Goshen the way.[39] Joseph went up to Goshen in his chariot to meet Jacob and fell on his neck and wept.[40] Jacob told Joseph that he could die now that he had seen Joseph’s face.[41] Joseph told his brothers that he would go and tell Pharaoh that his brothers had come, that they had cattle, and that they had brought their flocks, herds, and all their possessions.[42] Joseph instructed them that when Pharaoh asked them what their profession was, they should say that they were herders, for shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians.[43] Joseph told Pharaoh that his family had arrived in the land of Goshen and introduced Pharaoh to five of his brothers.[44] Pharaoh asked the brothers what their profession was, and they told Pharaoh that they were shepherds and asked to live in the land of Goshen.[45] Pharaoh told Joseph that his family could live in the best land, in Goshen, and if he knew able men among them, he could appoint them to watch over Pharaoh’s cattle.[46] Joseph introduced Jacob to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.[47] Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, and Jacob replied that he was 130 years old and that the years of his life had been few and bad.[48] Jacob blessed Pharaoh and left.[49] The sixth reading ( עליה , Aliyah) ends here.[50]

Joseph Overseer of the Pharaohs Granaries (1874 painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Seventh Reading – Genesis 47:11-27 [ edit ]

In the seventh reading ( עליה , Aliyah), Joseph placed his father and brothers in the land of Ramesses as Pharaoh had commanded, and provided them with bread while the famine raged in the land.[51] Joseph collected all the money in Egypt and Canaan by selling grain and brought the money to Pharaoh’s house.[52] When the Egyptians ran out of money and asked Joseph for bread, Joseph sold them bread in exchange for all their animals.[53] When they had no more animals, they offered Joseph to sell their land and become servants for bread.[54] So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh – except that of the priests who had a share from Pharaoh – and in exchange for seed Joseph made slaves of all the Egyptians.[55] At harvest time, Joseph gathered one-fifth of all the harvested people for Pharaoh.[56]

In the maftir (מפטיר) reading that concludes the parashah[57] it was continued as a statute in Egypt that the pharaoh should have one-fifth of everything produced outside the priestland.[58] And Israel lived in Egypt, in the land of Goshen, gathering up possessions and being fruitful and multiplying.[59] The seventh reading ( עליה , Aliyah) and the parashah end here.[57]

Readings after the three-year cycle[ edit ]

Jews who read the Torah according to the three-year Torah reading cycle read the Parashah according to the following schedule:[60]

In ancient parallels[ edit ]

The parashah has parallels in these ancient sources:

Genesis Chapter 45 [ edit ]

Gerhard von Rad argued that the Joseph narrative was closely related to earlier Egyptian wisdom writings.[61] Von Rad compared the theology of Joseph’s statement to his brethren at Genesis 45:5-8: “Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye have sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. . . . So now you didn’t send me here, but God; and [God] made me father of Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler of all the land of Egypt,” to Amenemope, who said: “That which men propose is one thing; what God does is something else” and “God’s life is attainment, but man’s is denial.”[62]

In inner-biblical interpretation[ edit ]

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these biblical sources:[63]

Genesis chapter 44[edit]

In Genesis 44:19-23 Judah relates the events first related in Genesis 42:7-20.

The narrator in Genesis 42 Judah in Genesis 44 7And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but was stranger to them, and spoke rudely to them; and he said to them: “Where do you come from?” And they said, “Out of the land of Canaan, to buy food.” 8 And Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him. 9 And Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed of them, and said to them: “You are spies; to see the nakedness of the land you have come.” 10 They said to him: “No, sir, but your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all one man’s sons, we are righteous men; your servants are not spies.” 12And he said to them, “No, but you came to see the nakedness of the land.” 19 My master asked his servants and said: “Have you a father or a brother?” 13And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and there is not one.” 20 And we said to my Lord: “We have a father, an old man, and a child of his age, a little child, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him. 14And Joseph said to them: This is what I said to you, saying, You are spies. 15By this you shall be proved, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you shall not go there unless your youngest Brother come hither. 16Send one of you, and let him fetch thy brother, and thou shalt be bound, that thy words may be tested, whether there is truth in thee: otherwise, as Pharaoh lives, surely ye are spies.” 17 And he put them all together in a three-day congregation. 18And Joseph said to them on the third day: “Do this and live, for I fear God: 19 If you are righteous men, have one of your brothers bound in your dungeon; but go and carry grain for the famine in your houses; 20 and bring your youngest brother to me; so your words will be confirmed, and you will not die. And they did. 21And you said to your servants: “Bring him down to me so that I set my eyes on him en can.” 22 And we said to my Lord: “The boy cannot leave his father; for if he left his father, his father would die.” 23And you said to your servants: “Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will see my face no more.”

Genesis Chapter 45 [ edit ]

Von Rad compared Joseph’s generosity at Genesis 45:4,5 to that at Proverbs 24:29, which says: “Say not, ‘I will do to him as he has done to me; I will recompense the man according to his work.’”[64] And von Rad compared the theology of Joseph’s statement with his brethren in Genesis 45:5–8: “And now be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. . . . So now you didn’t send me here, but God; and [God] made me father to Pharaoh, and lord over all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt,” to which in Proverbs 16:9, “A man’s heart ponders his way; but the Lord directs his steps”; Proverbs 19:21 “There are many thoughts in a man’s heart; but the counsel of the Lord, which shall stand”; Proverbs 20:24: “The ways of man are from the Lord; how then can man see his way?”; and Proverbs 21:30-31: “There is neither wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle; but the victory is from the Lord.”[62]

Joseph’s declaration at Genesis 45:5 that God sent him to Egypt before his brothers to save lives is echoed at Genesis 50:20, where Joseph told his brothers that they meant evil against him, but God meant it for good, to save lives of many people. Similarly, Psalm 105:16–17 records that God called a famine upon the land and sent Joseph before the children of Israel.

Genesis Chapter 47 [ edit ]

Jacob’s blessing of Pharaoh at Genesis 47:7 reflects the promise at Genesis 12:3, 22:18, 26:4, and 28:14 that through Abraham’s seed other families on earth would be blessed.

The account in Genesis 47:27 that the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied is echoed in Exodus 1:7.

In early non-rabbinic interpretation

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early non-rabbinic sources:[65]

Philo

Genesis chapter 44[edit]

Philo observed that Joseph, having gained authority and offered himself an opportunity to avenge his brothers’ mistreatment of him, would nevertheless bear what had happened with self-control and govern himself.[66]

Genesis Chapter 47 [ edit ]

Philo read Jacob’s words in Genesis 47:9: “The days of my life that I spend here as a stranger have been few and wicked; they have not come close to the days of my fathers, which they passed as strangers.” to support the general statement that the Torah portrays the sages, whom it designates as travelers, whose souls travel from heaven to earth as into a foreign land sent. Philo taught that wise men see themselves as strangers in a strange land—the sensible body—and regard the intellectual virtues as their homeland.[67]

In a classic rabbinic interpretation

Joseph conversing with Judah, his brother (watercolor c.1896-1902 by James Tissot)

The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the Mishnah and Talmud periods:[68]

Genesis chapter 44[edit]

Rabbi Judah ben Ilai taught that the Scriptures praise Judah. Rabbi Judah noted that Scripture records that Judah spoke before his brothers and they made him king over them (bending under his authority) on three occasions: (1) in Genesis 37:26, where it is reported: “Judah consented his brothers: ‘What is the use if we kill our brother’”; (2) Genesis 44:14, which records, “Judah and his brethren came to the house of Joseph”; and (3) Genesis 44:18, which records, “Then Judah came unto Joseph” to argue for Benjamin.[69]

A Midrash taught that, as recorded in the words “Judah drew near to him” at Genesis 44:18, Judah did not stop answering Joseph word for word until it got to his heart.[70] Rabbi Judah taught that in the words of Genesis 44:18 “Judah drew near to the battle,” as in 2 Samuel 10:13, which says: “So Joab and the people who were with him drew near, to battle.” Rabbi Neḥemiah said that “Judah drew near for atonement,” as in Joshua 14:6, which states that “the children of Judah drew near to Joshua” to atone for him. The rabbis said that drawing near implies prayer, as in 1 Kings 18:36, which says that “Elijah the prophet came near” to pray to God. Rabbi Leazar combined all of these views and taught that “Judah approached him ready for battle, atonement, or prayer.”[71] Rabbi Jeremiah ben Shemiah taught that Judah proclaimed that he had only to utter one word (dabar) and would bring a plague (deber) on the Egyptians. And Rav Hanan taught that Judah got angry and the hairs of his chest stuck through his clothes and pushed out and he put iron rods in his mouth and ground them into powder.[72]

Rav Judah taught that three things shorten a person’s years: (1) getting a Torah scroll to read from and refuse, (2) getting a cup of blessing to say mercy to and refuse, and ( 3 ) accepting authority. To support the claim that accepting authority shortens life, the Gemara cited Rabbi Hama bar Hanina’s teaching that Joseph (as recorded in Genesis 50:26, aged 110) died before his brothers because of his authority accepted (when in Genesis 43:28 and 44:24-32 he repeatedly allowed his brothers to call his father Jacob “thy servant”).[73]

Rav Judah, on behalf of Rav, asked why Joseph referred to himself as “a bone” during his lifetime (in Genesis 50:25), explaining that it was because he did not protect his father’s honor when his brothers did in Genesis 44 :31 called Jacob “thy servant our father” and Joseph did not protest. And Rav Judah also said on behalf of Rav (and others say that it was Rabbi Hama bar Hanina who said) that Joseph died in front of his brothers because he put on a superior air.[74] Similarly, a Midrash taught that Joseph was referred to as “bones” during his lifetime (in Genesis 50:25), for when his brothers referred to his father as “thy servant our father” in Genesis 44:24, Joseph remained silent. And so the Midrash taught that the words of Proverbs 29:23, “A man’s pride shall humble him,” apply to Joseph, who demonstrated his authority in this encounter.[75] Much like Exodus 1:6 reports that “Joseph died and all his brothers,” the rabbis concluded that Joseph died before his brothers. Rabbi Judah haNasi taught that Joseph died before his brothers because Joseph “commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father” (as recorded in Genesis 50:2). But the rabbis taught that Jacob instructed his sons to embalm him, as Genesis 50:12 records, that “his sons did to him as he commanded them.” According to the rabbis, Joseph died before his brothers because Judah said to Joseph almost five times, “Your servant is my father, your servant is my father” (four times himself in Genesis 44:24, 27, 30 and 31 and once along with his brethren in Genesis 43:48), but Joseph heard and was silent (he did not correct Judah to show humility toward their father).[76]

La Sainte Bible) Joseph makes himself known to his brothers (1865 engraving by Gustave Doré

Eliezer ben Matiah, Hananiah ben Kinai, Simeon ben Azzai, and Simeon the Yemenite concluded from Judah’s offer to remain in place of Benjamin in Genesis 44:33 that Judah deserved the kingship because of his humility.[77]

Genesis Chapter 45 [ edit ]

Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina and Rabbi Samuel ben Naḥmani disagreed on how prudent it was for Joseph to clean up the space in Genesis 45:1. Rabbi Ḥama thought Joseph had acted carelessly because one of them could have kicked him and killed him on the spot. But Rabbi Samuel said that Joseph acted correctly and prudently, for he knew the righteousness of his brothers and argued that it would not be correct to suppose that they might commit bloodshed.[78]

Rabbi Elazar wept every time he read Genesis 45:3, for if people became too afraid to answer an unjustly treated brother, how much more afraid will they find God’s correction.[79]

A Midrash taught at Genesis 45:4 that “Joseph said to his brethren, ‘Come unto me,'” so that he might show them his circumcision to prove that he was their brother.[80]

Our sages read Joseph’s assurance to his brethren at Genesis 45:5: “Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye have sold me hither; the righteous serve the world, and how much more their righteous deeds.[81]

The Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer read Joseph’s statement to his brothers at Genesis 45:5, “God sent me before you to preserve life,” and taught that when a person attempts to harm an enemy, the person prevents the enemy from receiving any healing unless God is not so. God provides healing before the blow, as Hosea 7:1 says, “I would heal Israel even if the iniquity of Ephraim was exposed.” In Joseph’s day, God did not inflict famine on the tribal ancestors until God brought Joseph before had sent to them.[82]

The Tosefta inferred from Genesis 45:6 that there was a famine there before Jacob went down to Egypt, but after his arrival, as recorded in Genesis 47:23, they sown the land with seed.[83]

Rabbi Levi used Genesis 37:2, 41:46, and 45:6 to calculate that Joseph’s dreams of his brothers bowing down to him took 22 years to come true and concluded that a person should therefore wait up to 22 years for the fulfillment of a positive dream.[84] Rav Huna, on behalf of Rabbi Joshua, used Genesis 45:6 as a mnemonic to calculate what year it was in the seven-year Sabbath cycle.[85] The Gemara used Genesis 45:6 to help (among other things) calculate that Jacob should have been 116 years old when he came to Egypt, but since Genesis 47:8-9 indicated that Jacob was then 130 years old, the Gemara concluded that the text did not count 14 years that Jacob studied in the academy of Eber.[86]

Figures de la Bible by Giuseppe il Nutritore) Joseph makes himself known to his brothers (1728 illustration by Giuseppe il Nutritore)

Rabbi Elazar interpreted Joseph’s reference to Benjamin in Genesis 45:12 to mean that Joseph harbored no malice against his brother Benjamin (who had no part in selling Joseph into Egypt), so Joseph harbored no malice against his other brothers. And Rabbi Elazar interpreted Joseph’s reference to his mouth in Genesis 45:12 to mean that Joseph’s words reflected what was in his heart.[87] A Midrash interpreted Joseph’s reference to his mouth at Genesis 45:12 to mean that Joseph asked them to point out that he was speaking in Hebrew.[80]

The Bible in Pictures) Joseph reveals himself to his brothers (woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld from 1860

Rabbi Elazar noted that Genesis 45:14 uses the plural form of the word “neck” and asked how many necks Benjamin had. Rabbi Elazar concluded that Joseph wept on Benjamin’s neck for the two temples that were destined to be in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin and to be destroyed. And Rabbi Elazar concluded that Benjamin wept on Joseph’s neck for the tabernacle of Shiloh, which was destined to be in the territory of Joseph’s tribe and to be destroyed.[88]

Examining Genesis 45:22, the Gemara asked if Joseph repeated his father’s mistake of choosing one sibling over the other.[89] Rabbi Benjamin bar Japhet said that Joseph Benjamin indicated that one of his descendants, Mordecai, would appear before a king in five royal robes, as reported in Esther 8:15.[87]

Rabbi Benjamin bar Japhet, on behalf of Rabbi Elazar, deduced from Genesis 45:23 that Joseph sent Jacob aged wine, which the Rabbi reported as pleasing to the elderly.[87] But a Midrash taught that the words “the good of the land of Egypt” in Genesis 45:18 referred to split beans (which were highly valued).[90]

A Midrash relates that when Joseph was young, he studied the Torah with Jacob. When Joseph’s brothers told Jacob in Genesis 45:26 that Joseph was still alive, Jacob did not believe them, but he remembered the subject Jacob and Joseph had studied when they last studied together: the passage about the decapitated heifer ( עֶגְלָה עֲרוּפָה). , egla arufa) in Deuteronomy 21:1–8. Jacob told the brothers that if Joseph gave them a sign of the last subject Joseph and Jacob studied together, Jacob would believe them. Joseph had also remembered what subject they had studied, so (as Genesis 45:21 records) he sent Jacob chariots ( עֲגָלוֹת‎, agalot) so that Jacob would know the gift was from him. The Midrash therefore concluded that wherever Joseph went, he studied the Torah just like his ancestors did, even though the Torah had not yet been given.[91]

Genesis Chapter 46[edit]

Rav Naḥman taught that when Jacob “set out with all that he had and came to Beersheba” in Genesis 46:1, he went to cut down the cedars of which Genesis 21: 33 reports that his grandfather Abraham had planted there.[92]

A Midrash asked why Jacob “offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac” at Genesis 46:1 and not to the God of Abraham and Isaac. Judah ben Pedayah, the nephew of Ben HaKpar, explained that when one encounters a teacher and the teacher’s student walking on a street, one greets the student first and then the teacher. Rabbi Joḥanan said the reason is that a person owes more honor to a parent than to a grandparent. Resh Lakish said that Jacob brought sacrifices (in thanksgiving) for the ancestral covenant (which Isaac had bestowed on Jacob with his blessing). Bar Kappara discussed the issue with Rabbi Jose Bar Patros. One of them said that Jacob explained that just as Isaac had been greedy for his food (for as Genesis 25:28 records, Isaac loved Esau because Esau brought venison to Isaac), so Jacob was greedy for his food (and therefore went to Egypt to avoid famine). The other explained that just as Isaac had discriminated between his sons (as Genesis 25:28 records, loved Esau more than Jacob), so Jacob would discriminate among his sons (going to Egypt for Joseph’s sake alone). But then, after reconsideration, Jacob noticed that Isaac was responsible for only one soul, while Jacob was responsible for 70 souls. Rabbi Judan said that Jacob declared that Isaac blessed him with five blessings, and accordingly God appeared to Jacob five times and blessed him (in Genesis 28:13-15, 31:3, 31:11-13, 35:1 and 35:9-12). Rabbi Judan also said that Jacob wanted to thank God for allowing him to see the fulfillment of those blessings. And the blessing that was fulfilled was that of Genesis 27:29, “men shall serve you, and nations shall bow down before you,” which was fulfilled in relation to Joseph. (And so Jacob then mentioned Isaac as he went down to testify to Joseph’s greatness.) Rabbi Berekia noted that God never unites God’s name with a living person (saying, for example, “I am the God of Jacob,” while they lives ) except with those who suffer. (And so Jacob referred to the God of Isaac instead of the God of Jacob.) And Rabbi Berekia also noted that Isaac did in fact experience suffering. The rabbis said that we look at Isaac as if his ashes were heaped on the altar. (And so Jacob referred to Isaac to evoke the memory of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22 as if it had been accomplished).[93]

The Sifra quoted Genesis 22:11, Genesis 46:2, Exodus 3:4, and 1 Samuel 3:10 for saying that when God called a prophet’s name twice, He was expressing affection and tempting , eine Antwort zu provozieren.[94] ]

Der Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer erzählte, als Jakob hörte, dass Joseph am Leben war, fragte sich Jakob, ob er das Land seiner Väter, das Land seiner Geburt, das Land der Aufenthalte seiner Väter, das Land, in dem die göttliche Gegenwart ( שכינה ‎, Shechinah) war, und geh in ein unreines Land, wo es keine Furcht vor dem Himmel gab. Also sagte Gott zu Jakob (wie in Genesis 46:3-4 berichtet): „Fürchte dich nicht … Ich werde mit dir nach Ägypten hinabziehen und dich auch sicher wieder heraufbringen.“

Beim Lesen von Gottes Versprechen an Jakob in 1. Mose 46:2–4, mit ihm nach Ägypten hinabzugehen, lehrte ein Midrasch, dass Gottes Versprechen darin bestand, mit Jakob und mit allen, die wie Jakob gerecht sind, zu gehen. So versprach Gott, alle Gerechten ins Exil zu begleiten, so wie Gott Jakob begleitete.[96] In ähnlicher Weise lesen die Weisen Gottes parallele Verwendung des Pronomens „ich“ ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi, im Gegensatz zu אָני , Ani) in 1. Mose 46:4 und 2. Mose 3:12, um dies genauso zu lehren wie mit einem „ich“ ( אָנֹכִי). ‎, Anochi) Israel ging nach Ägypten hinab, wie Genesis 46:3 berichtet: „Ich ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi) werde mit dir nach Ägypten hinabsteigen“, auch mit einem „Ich“ ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi) würde Gott Israel nehmen heraus, wie Exodus 3:12 berichtet, “dass ich ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi) dich gesandt habe.” Und die Weisen sagten, dass die Verwendung von „Ich“ ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi) auch symbolisch für die letztere Erlösung sei, denn mit einem „Ich“ ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi) werden die Juden geheilt und erlöst, wie Maleachi 3:23 sagt: “Siehe, “Ich ( אָנֹכִי , Anochi) werde dir Elia, den Propheten, schicken.”[97]

Rabbi Haggai sagte im Namen von Rabbi Isaac, dass Gottes Versprechen an Jakob in 1. Mose 46:4, „Ich werde dich gewiss wieder heraufbringen“, nur dann galt, wenn „Joseph seine Hand auf deine Augen legen wird“ – das heißt, sich um Jakob kümmern Leben und im Tod.[96]

Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina zitierte 1. Mose 46:4: „Ich werde mit dir nach Ägypten hinabsteigen, und ich werde dich sicher auch wieder heraufbringen ( גַם-עָלֹה , gam aloh)“ für die Aussage, dass, wenn man ein Kamel sieht ( גָּמָל, gamal) in einem Traum, hatte der Himmel den Tod für den Träumer verfügt, aber den Träumer von diesem Schicksal befreit. Rav Naḥman bar Isaac leitet jedoch den Satz aus 2. Samuel 12:13 ab: „Auch der Herr ( גַּם , gam) hat deine Sünde hinweggenommen, du sollst nicht sterben.“[98]

Judah said, “Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites.” ( Genesis 37:27 ) (1984 illustration by Jim Padgett, courtesy Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing)

Ein Midrasch erklärte den Tod von Judas Söhnen, der in 1. Mose 46:12 berichtet wird, als das Ergebnis von Judas Versäumnis, Joseph zu retten. On reading Deuteronomy 30:11-14: “For this commandment which I command you today…is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart”, a Midrash interpreted “heart” and “mouth” um to symbolize the beginning and end of the fulfillment of a regulation, and so read Deuteronomy 30:11–14 as an exhortation to complete a good deed once it has begun. Thus Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba taught that if one begins a commandment and does not complete it, the result will be that one will bury one’s wife and children. The Midrash cited as support for this claim the experience of Judah beginning a precept and not completing it. Als Joseph zu seinen Brüdern kam und sie versuchten, ihn zu töten, wie Josephs Brüder in 1. Mose 37:20 sagten: „So kommt nun, und lasst uns ihn töten“, ließ Judah sie nicht und sagte in 1. Mose 37:26: „Was Gewinn ist es, wenn wir unseren Bruder töten?” und sie hörten auf ihn, denn er war ihr Anführer. Und hätte Juda Josephs Brüder aufgefordert, Joseph ihrem Vater zurückzugeben, hätten sie ihm auch damals zugehört. Weil Juda ein Gebot (die gute Tat gegenüber Joseph) begann und es nicht vollendete, begrub er seine Frau und seine zwei Söhne, wie Genesis 38:12 berichtet: „Suas Tochter, die Frau Judas, starb“ und Genesis 46: 12 weitere Berichte: „Er und Onan starben im Land Kanaan.“[99]

Begräbnis des Leichnams von Joseph (Illustration aus der Holman-Bibel von 1890

Rabbi Zadok noted that Genesis 46:15 attributed sons to Leah but attributed the daughter Dinah to Jacob, and deduced that the verse thus supported the proposition that if the woman emits her egg first she will bear a son and if the man emits his semen first she will bear a girl.[100]

A Baraita taught that the Serah the daughter of Asher mentioned in Genesis 46:17 and Numbers 26:46 survived from the time Israel went down to Egypt to the time of the wandering in the Wilderness. The Gemara taught that Moses went to her to ask where the Egyptians had buried Joseph. She told him that the Egyptians had made a metal coffin for Joseph. The Egyptians set the coffin in the Nile so that its waters would be blessed. Moses went to the bank of the Nile and called to Joseph that the time had arrived for God to deliver the Israelites, and the oath that Joseph had imposed upon the children of Israel in Genesis 50:25 had reached its time of fulfillment. Moses called on Joseph to show himself, and Joseph’s coffin immediately rose to the surface of the water.[101]

Similarly, a Midrash taught that Serah (mentioned in Genesis 46:17) conveyed to the Israelites a secret password handed down from Jacob so that they would recognize their deliverer. The Midrash told that when (as Exodus 4:30 reports) “Aaron spoke all the words” to the Israelite people, “And the people believed” (as Exodus 4:31 reports), they did not believe only because they had seen the signs. Rather, (as Exodus 4:31 reports), “They heard that the Lord had visited” — they believed because they heard, not because they saw the signs. What made them believe was the sign of God’s visitation that God communicated to them through a tradition from Jacob, which Jacob handed down to Joseph, Joseph to his brothers, and Asher, the son of Jacob, handed down to his daughter Serah, who was still alive at the time of Moses and Aaron. Asher told Serah that any redeemer who would come and say the password to the Israelites would be their true deliverer. So when Moses came and said the password, the people believed him at once.[102]

Rabbi Samuel ben Naḥman taught that Benjamin’s son’s names, as listed in Genesis 46:21, reflected Benjamin’s loss of Joseph. The name Bela signified that Benjamin’s brother was swallowed up (nit-bala) from him; Becher signified that he was a firstborn (bechor); Ashbel signified that he was taken away captive (nishbah); Gera signified that he became a stranger (ger) in a strange country; Naaman signified that his actions were seemly (na’im) and pleasant (ne’im-im); Ehi signified that he indeed was “my brother” (ahi); Rosh signified that he was Benjamin’s superior (rosh); Muppim signified that he was exceedingly attractive (yafeh ‘ad me’od) in all matters; and Huppim signified that Benjamin did not see his marriage-canopy (huppah) and he did not see Benjamin’s; and Ard signified that he was like a rose-bloom (ward).[103]

Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us by Joseph Kisses Jacob (illustration from the 1897by Charles Foster

Abaye cited the listing for Dan in Genesis 46:23 to demonstrate that sometimes texts refer to “sons” in the plural when they mean a single son. But Rava suggested perhaps the word “Hushim” in Genesis 46:23 was not a name but, as taught by the Academy of Hezekiah, the word “clusters” or “leaves,” thus signifying that Dan’s sons were as numerous as the leaves of a reed. Rava found, however, support in Numbers 26:8 and 1 Chronicles 2:8 for the proposition that sometimes texts refer to “sons” when they mean a single son.[104]

He fell upon his neck and wept on his neck a good while. (Illustration by Owen Jones from The History of Joseph and His Brethren, 1869)

Abba Halifa of Keruya asked Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba why Genesis 46:27 reported that 70 people from Jacob’s household came to Egypt, while Genesis 46:8–27 enumerated only 69 individuals. Rabbi Hiyya first argued that the Hebrew word et preceding Dinah in Genesis 46:15 indicated that Dinah had a twin sister, and the twin brought the total to 70. But Abba Halifa responded that if that were so, then the parallel language of Genesis 43:29 would indicate that Benjamin also had a twin sister. Rabbi Hiyya then revealed his real explanation, which he called “a precious pearl”: Rabbi Hama bar Hanina taught that the seventieth person was Moses’ mother Jochebed, who was conceived on the way from Canaan to Egypt and born as Jacob’s family passed between the city walls as they entered Egypt, for Numbers 26:59 reported that Jochebed “was born to Levi in Egypt,” implying that her conception was not in Egypt.[105]

Rabbi Neḥemiah read the words “to show” in Genesis 46:28 as “to teach,” and thus inferred that Jacob sent Judah to prepare an academy for him in Egypt where he would teach Torah and where the brothers would read Torah.[91]

Joseph Presents His Father and Brothers to the Pharaoh (1515 painting by Francesco Granacci

Genesis chapter 47 [ edit ]

The Midrash and the Talmud differed over which five brothers Joseph presented to Pharaoh in Genesis 47:2. The Midrash read the word “from among” ( מִקְצֵה‎, mikzeh) in Genesis 47:2, “And from among ( מִקְצֵה‎, mikzeh) his brethren he took five men,” to mean “from the end,” implying inferiority. The Midrash thus concluded that they were not the strongest of the brothers, and named them as Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Benjamin, and Issachar. The Midrash explained that Joseph took these five brothers, because he reasoned that if he presented the strongest to Pharaoh, then Pharaoh would on make them his warriors. Therefore, Joseph presented these five, who were not mighty men. The Midrash taught that we know that they were not strong from the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy 33:2–29, where every brother whose name Moses repeated in his blessing was mighty, while every brother whose name Moses did not repeat was not mighty. Judah, whose name he repeated, was mighty, for Deuteronomy 33:7 says, “And this for Judah, and he said: ‘Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah’”; therefore, Joseph did not present him to Pharaoh. Likewise Naphtali, as Deuteronomy 33:23 says, “And of Naphtali he said: ‘O Naphtali, satisfied with favor.’” Likewise, Asher, of whom Deuteronomy 33:24 says, “And of Asher he said: ‘Blessed be Asher above sons.’” Likewise, Dan, of whom Deuteronomy 33:22 says, “And of Dan he said: ‘Dan is a lion’s whelp.’” Zebulun too, of whom Deuteronomy 33:18 says, “And of Zebulun he said: ‘Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out.’” Gad too, of whom Deuteronomy 33:20 says, “And of Gad he said: ‘Blessed be He that enlarges Gad.’” Therefore, Joseph did not present them to Pharaoh. But the others, whose names were not repeated, were not mighty, therefore he presented them to Pharaoh.[106] In the Babylonian Talmud, however, Rava asked Rabbah bar Mari who the five were. Rabbah bar Mari replied that Rabbi Joḥanan said that they were those whose names were repeated in the Farewell of Moses, Deuteronomy 33:2–29 (and thus the mightier of the brothers). Besides Judah, the five whose names Moses repeated were Dan, Zebulun, Gad, Asher and Naphtali. Explaining why Moses repeated Judah’s name in Deuteronomy 33:7, but Joseph nonetheless excluded him from the five, Rabbah bar Mari explained that Moses repeated Judah’s name for a different purpose, which Rabbi Samuel bar Naḥmani recounted that Rabbi Joḥanan said. Rabbi Joḥanan interpreted the words of Deuteronomy 33:6–7, “Let Reuben live and not die, in that his men become few, and this is for Judah,” to teach that during the 40 years that the Israelites were in the wilderness, the bones of Judah rolled around detached in the coffin that conveyed the bones of the heads of the tribes from Egypt to the Promised Land along with Joseph’s remains. But then Moses solicited God for mercy by noting that Judah brought Reuben to confess his own sin in Genesis 35:22 and Genesis 49:4 (lying with Bilhah) by himself making public confession in Genesis 38:26 (when Judah admitted that Tamar was more righteous than he was). Therefore, in Deuteronomy 33:7, Moses exhorted God: “Hear Lord the voice of Judah!” Thereupon God fitted each of Judah’s limbs into its original place as one whole skeleton. Judah was, however, not permitted to ascend to the heavenly academy, until Moses said in Deuteronomy 33:7, “And bring him in to his people.” As, however, Judah still did not know what the Rabbis were saying in that assembly and was thus unable to argue with the Rabbis on matters of the law, Moses said in Deuteronomy 33:7, “His hands shall contend for him!” As again he was unable to conclude legal discussions in accordance with the Law, Moses said in Deuteronomy 33:7, “You shall be a help against his adversaries!”[107]

Rabbi Jose deduced from Genesis 47:6 that the Egyptians befriended the Israelites only for their own benefit. Rabbi Jose noted, however, that the law of Deuteronomy 23:8 nonetheless rewarded the Egyptians for their hospitality. Rabbi Jose concluded that if Providence thus rewarded one with mixed motives, Providence will reward even more one who selflessly shows hospitality to a scholar.[108]

Rabbi Ahawa the son of Rabbi Ze’ira taught that just as lettuce is sweet at the beginning (in the leaf) and bitter at the end (in the stalk), so were the Egyptians sweet to the Israelites at the beginning and bitter at the end. The Egyptians were sweet at the beginning, as Genesis 47:6 reports that Pharaoh told Joseph, “The land of Egypt is before you; have your father and brethren dwell in the best of the land.” And the Egyptians were bitter at the end, as Exodus 1:14 reports, “And they (the Egyptians) made their (the Israelites’) lives bitter.”[109]

Jacob blessed Pharaoh. (Illustration by Owen Jones from The History of Joseph and His Brethren, 1869)

A Midrash read the words of Genesis 47:7 and 47:10, “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh,” to mean that Jacob blessed Pharaoh that the famine should come to an end.[110] Similarly, Rabbi Berekiah the priest taught that when Jacob came to Pharaoh, he did not leave him before blessing him, as Genesis 47:10 says, “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” And the blessing that he gave was the wish that the Nile might rise to his feet (to irrigate the land).[111]

A Midrash taught that Mordecai had pity on the unbeliever King of Persia, Ahasuerus. In explanation, Rabbi Judah quoted Psalm 119:100 to say, “From my elders I receive understanding.” Rabbi Judah taught that Mordecai reasoned that Jacob blessed Pharaoh, as Genesis 47:7 says, “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.” And Joseph revealed his dreams to him, and Daniel revealed Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams to him. So similarly Mordecai could help Ahasuerus, and hence (as Esther 2:22 reports), “he told it to Esther the queen.”[112]

Joseph Dwells in Egypt (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

Rav Judah in the name of Samuel deduced from Genesis 47:14 that Joseph gathered in and brought to Egypt all the gold and silver in the world. The Gemara noted that Genesis 47:14 says: “And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan,” and thus spoke about the wealth of only Egypt and Canaan. The Gemara found support for the proposition that Joseph collected the wealth of other countries from Genesis 41:57, which states: “And all the countries came to Egypt to Joseph to buy corn.” The Gemara deduced from the words “and they despoiled the Egyptians” in Exodus 12:36 that when the Israelites left Egypt, they carried that wealth away with them. The Gemara then taught that the wealth lay in Israel until the time of King Rehoboam, when King Shishak of Egypt seized it from Rehoboam, as 1 Kings 14:25–26 reports: “And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house.”[113]

The Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, the Mekhilta of Rabbi Simeon, and the Tanna Devei Eliyahu praised Joseph, as Genesis 47:14 reports that he “brought the money into Pharaoh’s house” and did not steal any of it.[114]

Joseph was the governor over the land. (Illustration by Owen Jones from The History of Joseph and His Brethren, 1869)

Resh Lakish deduced from the words “and as for the [Egyptian] people, he [Joseph] removed them city by city” in Genesis 47:21 that Joseph exiled the Egyptians from their home cities so that they could not later berate the Hebrews for being exiles.[115]

Reading the words of Genesis 47:21, “He [Joseph] removed them city by city,” a Midrash taught that similarly, the Israelites were not forced into exile from the Land of Israel until the Assyrian king Sennacherib had mixed up the whole world, as Isaiah 10:13 quotes Sennacherib saying, “I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and have brought down as one mighty the inhabitants.”[116]

Rabbi Abba ben Kahana taught that Joseph inspired the Egyptians with a longing to be circumcised and convert to Judaism. Rabbi Samuel read the words “You have saved our lives” in Genesis 47:26 to mean that Joseph had given them life both in this world and in the World to Come, through acceptance of Judaism.[117]

A Midrash noted the difference in wording between Genesis 47:27, which says of the Israelites in Goshen that “they got possessions therein,” and Leviticus 14:34, which says of the Israelites in Canaan, “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I gave you for a possession.” The Midrash read Genesis 47:27 to read, “and they were taken in possession by it.” The Midrash thus taught that in the case of Goshen, the land seized the Israelites, so that their bond might be exacted and so as to bring about God’s declaration to Abraham in Genesis 15:13 that the Egyptians would afflict the Israelites for 400 years. But the Midrash read Leviticus 14:34 to teach the Israelites that if they were worthy, the Land of Israel would be an eternal possession, but if not, they would be banished from it.[118]

Rabbi Joḥanan taught that wherever Scripture uses the term “And he abode” ( וַיֵּשֶׁב‎, vayeshev), as it does in Genesis 47:27, it presages trouble. Thus in Numbers 25:1, “And Israel remained in Shittim” is followed by “and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of Moab.” In Genesis 37:1, “And Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan,” Genesis 37:3 follows, “and Joseph brought their evil report to his father.” In 1. Mose 47,27 folgt auf 1. Mose 47,29: „Und Israel wohnte im Land Ägypten, im Land Gosen“, 1. Mose 47,29: „Und es nahte die Zeit, dass Israel sterben musste.“ In 1 Kings 5:5, “And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree,” is followed by 1 Kings 11:14, “And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was the king’s seed in Edom.”[119]

In medieval Jewish interpretation [ edit ]

The parashah is discussed in these medieval Jewish sources:[120]

Naḥmanides

Genesis chapter 47 [ edit ]

Nachmanides taught that Joseph did not show favoritism to his own family in distributing food during the famine. Naḥmanides read Genesis 47:12, “And Joseph sustained his father, and his brethren, and all his father’s household, with bread, according to the want of their little ones,” to mean that Joseph gave his own family what they needed and no more.[121]

Reading Genesis 47:21, “[Joseph] removed the population to cities,” Rashbam commented, “Just as Sennacherib did,” citing 2 Kings 18:32, likening Joseph to a hated Assyrian king who besieged Jerusalem.[122]

In modern interpretation [ edit ]

The parashah is discussed in these modern sources:

Genesis chapters 37–50 [ edit ]

Donald A. Seybold of Purdue University schematized the Joseph narrative in the chart below, finding analogous relationships in each of Joseph’s households.[123]

Ephraim Speiser argued that in spite of its surface unity, the Joseph story, on closer scrutiny, yields two parallel strands similar in general outline, yet markedly different in detail. The Jahwist’s version employed the Tetragrammaton and the name “Israel.” In that version, Judah persuaded his brothers not to kill Joseph but sell him instead to Ishmaelites, who disposed of him in Egypt to an unnamed official. Joseph’s new master promoted him to the position of chief retainer. When the brothers were on their way home from their first mission to Egypt with grain, they opened their bags at a night stop and were shocked to find the payment for their purchases. Judah prevailed on his father to let Benjamin accompany them on a second journey to Egypt. Judah finally convinced Joseph that the brothers had really reformed. Joseph invited Israel to settle with his family in Goshen. The Elohist’s parallel account, in contrast, consistently used the names “Elohim” and “Jacob.” Reuben — not Judah — saved Joseph from his brothers; Joseph was left in an empty cistern, where he was picked up, unbeknown to the brothers, by Midianites; they — not the Ishmaelites — sold Joseph as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar. In that lowly position, Joseph served — not supervised — the other prisoners. The brothers opened their sacks — not bags — at home in Canaan — not at an encampment along the way. Reuben — not Judah — gave Jacob — not Israel — his personal guarantee of Benjamin’s safe return. Pharaoh — not Joseph — invited Jacob and his family to settle in Egypt — not just Goshen. Speiser concluded that the Joseph story can thus be traced back to two once separate, though now intertwined, accounts.[124]

John Kselman noted that as in the Jacob cycle that precedes it, the Joseph narrative begins with the deception of a father by his offspring through an article of clothing; the deception leads to the separation of brothers for 20 years; and the climax of the story comes with the reconciliation of estranged brothers and the abatement of family strife.[125] Kselman reported that recent scholarship points to authorship of the Joseph narrative in the Solomonic era, citing Solomon’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter (reported in 1 Kings 9:16) as indicative of that era as one of amicable political and commercial relations between Egypt and Israel, thus explaining the positive attitude of the Joseph narrative to Egypt, Pharaoh, and Egyptians. Kselman argued that the Joseph narrative was thus not part of the Jahwist’s work, but an independent literary work.[126]

Gary Rendsburg noted that Genesis often repeats the motif of the younger son. God favored Abel over Cain in Genesis 4; Isaac superseded Ishmael in Genesis 16–21; Jacob superseded Esau in Genesis 25–27; Judah (fourth among Jacob’s sons, last of the original set born to Leah) and Joseph (eleventh in line) superseded their older brothers in Genesis 37–50; Perez superseded Zerah in Genesis 38 and Ruth 4; and Ephraim superseded Manasseh in Genesis 48. Rendsburg explained Genesis’s interest with this motif by recalling that David was the youngest of Jesse’s seven sons (see 1 Samuel 16), and Solomon was among the youngest, if not the youngest, of David’s sons (see 2 Samuel 5:13–16). The issue of who among David’s many sons would succeed him dominates the Succession Narrative in 2 Samuel 13 through 1 Kings 2. Amnon was the firstborn, but was killed by his brother Absalom (David’s third son) in 2 Samuel 13:29. After Absalom rebelled, David’s general Joab killed him in 2 Samuel 18:14–15. The two remaining candidates were Adonijah (David’s fourth son) and Solomon, and although Adonijah was older (and once claimed the throne when David was old and feeble in 1 Kings 1), Solomon won out. Rendsburg argued that even though firstborn royal succession was the norm in the ancient Near East, the authors of Genesis justified Solomonic rule by imbedding the notion of ultimogeniture into Genesis’s national epic. An Israelite could thus not criticize David’s selection of Solomon to succeed him as king over Israel, because Genesis reported that God had favored younger sons since Abel and blessed younger sons of Israel — Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, Perez, and Ephraim — since the inception of the covenant. More generally, Rendsburg concluded that royal scribes living in Jerusalem during the reigns of David and Solomon in the tenth century BCE were responsible for Genesis; their ultimate goal was to justify the monarchy in general, and the kingship of David and Solomon in particular; and Genesis thus appears as a piece of political propaganda.[127]

Bullet

Calling it “too good a story,” James Kugel reported that modern interpreters contrast the full-fledged tale of the Joseph story with the schematic narratives of other Genesis figures and conclude that the Joseph story reads more like a work of fiction than history.[128] Donald Redford and other scholars following him suspected that behind the Joseph story stood an altogether invented Egyptian or Canaanite tale that was popular on its own before an editor changed the main characters to Jacob and his sons.[129] These scholars argue that the original story told of a family of brothers in which the father spoiled the youngest, and the oldest brother, who had his own privileged status, intervened to try to save the youngest when his other brothers threatened him. In support of this theory, scholars have pointed to the description of Joseph (rather than Benjamin) in Genesis 37:3 as if he were Jacob’s youngest son, Joseph’s and Jacob’s references to Joseph’s mother (as if Rachel were still alive) in Joseph’s prophetic dream in Genesis 37:9–10, and the role of the oldest brother Reuben intervening for Joseph in Genesis 37:21–22, 42:22, and 42:37. Scholars theorize that when the editor first mechanically put Reuben in the role of the oldest, but as the tribe of Reuben had virtually disappeared and the audience for the story were principally descendants of Judah, Judah was given the role of spokesman and hero in the end.[130]

Von Rad and scholars following him noted that the Joseph story bears the particular signatures of ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature.[131] The wisdom ideology maintained that a Divine plan underlay all of reality, so that everything unfolds in accordance with a preestablished pattern — precisely what Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 44:5 and 50:20. Joseph is the only one of Israel’s ancestors whom the Torah (in Genesis 41:39) calls “wise” ( חָכָם‎, chacham) — the same word as “sage” in Hebrew. Specialties of ancient Near Eastern sages included advising the king and interpreting dreams and other signs — just as Joseph did. Joseph displayed the cardinal sagely virtue of patience, which sages had because they believed that everything happens according to the Divine plan and would turn out for the best. Joseph thus looks like the model of an ancient Near Eastern sage, and the Joseph story looks like a didactic tale designed to teach the basic ideology of wisdom.[132]

George Coats argued that the Joseph narrative is a literary device constructed to carry the children of Israel from Canaan to Egypt, to link preexisting stories of ancestral promises in Canaan to an Exodus narrative of oppression in and liberation from Egypt.[133] Coats described the two principal goals of the Joseph story as (1) to describe reconciliation in a broken family despite the lack of merit of any of its members, and (2) to describe the characteristics of an ideal administrator.[134]

Genesis chapter 45 [ edit ]

Commenting on Genesis 45:5–8 and 50:19–20, Walter Brueggemann wrote that the Joseph story’s theme concerns God’s hidden and decisive power, which works in, through, and sometimes against human power. Calling this either providence or predestination, Brueggemann argued that God thus worked out God’s purpose through and in spite of Egypt, and through and in spite of Joseph and his brothers.[135]

Franklin

Genesis chapter 47 [ edit ]

Plaut

Alluding to the policies implemented by Joseph in Genesis 47:14–19, on June 2, 1787, Benjamin Franklin told the Constitutional Convention: “There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of pharaoh, get first all the peoples money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants for ever.”[136]

Samuel Driver wrote that Joseph’s famine relief measures in Genesis 47:13–27 reflected poorly on Joseph’s character, as to seize the surplus produce and then compel the Egyptians to impoverish themselves to buy it back was not consistent with justice and equity.[137] Von Rad and Gunther Plaut argued that readers should not judge Joseph by modern opinion, but should place his actions in context.[138] Von Rad and Nahum Sarna cited higher Babylonian charges for comparable loans.[139] Hillel Millgram, however, citing an ancient Egyptian tomb declaration, argued that Joseph comes off poorly even by ancient Egyptian ethical standards.[140]

Commandments [ edit ]

According to Maimonides and Sefer ha-Chinuch, there are no commandments in the parashah.[141]

Reading Genesis 46:4, “and Joseph shall pass his hand over your eyes,” the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch taught that one should close the eyes of a dead person at death. Following the example of Joseph, if a child of the deceased is present, the deceased’s child should do it, giving preference to the firstborn son.[142]

A page from a 14th-century German Haggadah

In the liturgy [ edit ]

The Passover Haggadah, in the magid section of the Seder, reports that Israel “went down to Egypt — forced to do so by the word [of God],” and some commentators explain that this statement refers to God’s reassurance to Jacob in Genesis 46:3–4 to “fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt.”[143] Shortly thereafter, the Haggadah quotes Genesis 47:4 for the proposition that Israel did not go down to Egypt to settle, but only to stay temporarily.[144]

Haftarah [ edit ]

A haftarah is a text selected from the books of Nevi’im (“The Prophets”) that is read publicly in the synagogue after the reading of the Torah on Sabbath and holiday mornings. The haftarah usually has a thematic link to the Torah reading that precedes it.

The specific text read following Parashah Vayigash varies according to different traditions within Judaism. In general, the haftarah for the parashah is Ezekiel 37:15–28.

Summary[edit]

God’s word came to Ezekiel, telling him to write on one stick “For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions,” to write on a second stick “For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and of all the house of Israel his companions,” and to join the two sticks together into one stick to hold in his hand.[145] When people would ask him what he meant by these sticks, he was to tell them that God said that God would take the stick of Joseph, which was in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions, and put them together with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick in God’s hand.[146] Ezekiel was to hold the sticks in his hand for people to see, telling them that God said that God would gather the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they had gone, bring them into their own land, and make them one nation with one king, no longer two nations with two kings.[147] No longer would they defile themselves with idols or transgressions, but God would save them and cleanse them, so that they would be God’s people, and God would be their God.[148] David would be king over them, and they would have one shepherd and observe God’s statutes.[149] They and their children, and their children’s children forever, would dwell in the land that God had given Jacob, where their fathers had dwelt, and David would be their prince forever.[150] God would make an everlasting covenant of peace with them, multiply them, and set God’s sanctuary in the midst of them forever.[151] God’s dwelling-place would be over them, God would be their God, and they would be God’s people.[152] And the nations would know that God sanctified Israel, when God’s sanctuary would be in their midst forever.[153]

Connection to the Parashah [ edit ]

The parashah and the haftarah both tell stories of the reconciliation of Jacob’s progeny. The parashah and the haftarah both tell of the relationship of Judah and Joseph, in the parashah as individuals, and in the haftarah as representatives for the Kingdom of Judah and the Kingdom of Israel.

Notes [edit]

Further reading[edit]

The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these sources:

Ancient [ edit ]

Inscription of Ameni. Ägypten. 20th century BCE. (response to famine).

Early nonrabbinic [ edit ]

Classical rabbinic [ edit ]

Talmud

Medieval [ edit ]

Avot of Rabbi Natan, 41. Circa 700–900 CE. In, e.g., The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan. Translated by Judah Goldin, page 172. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955. The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan: An Analytical Translation and Explanation. Translated by Jacob Neusner, page 256. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986.

Translated by Judah Goldin, page 172. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1955. Translated by Jacob Neusner, page 256. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986. Deuteronomy Rabbah 1:13; 8:4. Land of Israel, 9th century. In, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy . Translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon, pages 14, 27, 150–52. London: Soncino Press, 1939.

. Translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon, pages 14, 27, 150–52. London: Soncino Press, 1939. Exodus Rabbah 3:3, 4, 8; 15:16; 18:8; 40:4. 10th century. In, e.g., Midrash Rabbah: Deuteronomy. Translated by Harry Freedman and Maurice Simon, pages 5, 9, 56, 61, 63, 68, 177, 180, 225, 454, 464–65. London: Soncino Press, 1939.

Rashi

Zohar

Naḥmanides. Commentary on the Torah . Jerusalem, circa 1270. In, e.g., Ramban (Nachmanides): Commentary on the Torah: Genesis. Translated by Charles B. Chavel, volume 1, pages 529–67. New York: Shilo Publishing House, 1971.

. Jerusalem, circa 1270. In, e.g., Translated by Charles B. Chavel, volume 1, pages 529–67. New York: Shilo Publishing House, 1971. Zohar 1:93b, 119a, 149b, 153b, 180b, 197a, 205a–211b, 216b, 222a, 226a; 2:4b, 16b, 53a, 85a; 3:206a. Spain, late 13th century. In, e.g., The Zohar . Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 volumes. London: Soncino Press, 1934.

. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. 5 volumes. London: Soncino Press, 1934. Isaac ben Moses Arama. Akedat Yizhak (The Binding of Isaac). Late 15th century. In, e.g., Yitzchak Arama. Akeydat Yitzchak: Commentary of Rabbi Yitzchak Arama on the Torah. Translated and condensed by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 270–76. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2001.

Modern [ edit ]

Isaac Abravanel. Commentary on the Torah . Italy, between 1492–1509. In, e.g., Abarbanel: Selected Commentaries on the Torah: Volume 1: Bereishis/Genesis . Translated and annotated by Israel Lazar, pages 353–96. Brooklyn: CreateSpace, 2015.

. Italy, between 1492–1509. In, e.g., . Translated and annotated by Israel Lazar, pages 353–96. Brooklyn: CreateSpace, 2015. Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno. Commentary on the Torah . Venice, 1567. In, e.g., Sforno: Commentary on the Torah . Translation and explanatory notes by Raphael Pelcovitz, pages 240–55. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997.

. Venice, 1567. In, e.g., . Translation and explanatory notes by Raphael Pelcovitz, pages 240–55. Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 1997. Moshe Alshich. Commentary on the Torah . Safed, circa 1593. In, e.g., Moshe Alshich. Midrash of Rabbi Moshe Alshich on the Torah . Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 294–312. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2000.

. Safed, circa 1593. In, e.g., Moshe Alshich. . Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 294–312. New York, Lambda Publishers, 2000. Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Commentaries on the Torah . Cracow, Poland, mid 17th century. Compiled as Chanukat HaTorah . Edited by Chanoch Henoch Erzohn. Piotrkow, Poland, 1900. In Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. Chanukas HaTorah: Mystical Insights of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel on Chumash . Translated by Avraham Peretz Friedman, pages 99–105. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2004.

. Cracow, Poland, mid 17th century. Compiled as . Edited by Chanoch Henoch Erzohn. Piotrkow, Poland, 1900. In Avraham Yehoshua Heschel. . Translated by Avraham Peretz Friedman, pages 99–105. Southfield, Michigan: Targum Press/Feldheim Publishers, 2004. Chaim ibn Attar. Ohr ha-Chaim. Venice, 1742. In Chayim ben Attar. Or Hachayim: Commentary on the Torah. Translated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 1, pages 354–82. Brooklyn: Lambda Publishers, 1999.

Eliot

George Eliot. Adam Bede, chapters 3, 4, 8, 30. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1859. Reprinted, e.g., edited by Carol A. Martin, pages 33, 43, 84, 296. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. (Dinah calls Seth Bede’s home country “this land of Goshen you’ve been used to.” Echoing Genesis 47:9, Seth prays “that his mother might be cheered and comforted by [Adam Bede’s] presence all the days of her pilgrimage.” Dinah says: “Adam is like the patriarch Joseph, for his great skill and knowledge, and the kindness he shows to his brother and his parents.” And again Dinah writes Seth about Adam: “God has given him great gifts, and he uses them as the patriarch Joseph did, who, when he was exalted to a place of power and trust, yet yearned with tenderness towards his parent and his younger brother.”).

Luzzatto

Samuel David Luzzatto (Shadal). Commentary on the Torah. Padua, 1871. In, e.g., Samuel David Luzzatto. Torah Commentary . Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 2, pages 432–50. New York: Lambda Publishers, 2012.

Padua, 1871. In, e.g., Samuel David Luzzatto. . Translated and annotated by Eliyahu Munk, volume 2, pages 432–50. New York: Lambda Publishers, 2012. Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter. Sefat Emet . Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, before 1906. Excerpted in The Language of Truth: The Torah Commentary of Sefat Emet . Translated and interpreted by Arthur Green, pages 67–72. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. Reprinted 2012.

. Góra Kalwaria (Ger), Poland, before 1906. Excerpted in . Translated and interpreted by Arthur Green, pages 67–72. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. Reprinted 2012. Alexander Alan Steinbach. Sabbath Queen: Fifty-four Bible Talks to the Young Based on Each Portion of the Pentateuch, pages 33–35. New York: Behrman’s Jewish Book House, 1936.

Man

cash

Plaut

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg. The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis , pages 314–51. New York: Image Books/Doubelday, 1995.

, pages 314–51. New York: Image Books/Doubelday, 1995. Ellen Frankel. The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah , pages 84–86. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996.

, pages 84–86. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1996. W. Gunther Plaut. The Haftarah Commentary , pages 108–14. New York: UAHC Press, 1996.

, pages 108–14. New York: UAHC Press, 1996. Sorel Goldberg Loeb and Barbara Binder Kadden. Teaching Torah: A Treasury of Insights and Activities, pages 71–76. Denver: A.R.E. Publishing, 1997.

Finkelstein

Sacks

Herzfeld

Calum Carmichael. The Book of Numbers: A Critique of Genesis , pages 16–17, 21–23, 49, 54–56, 63, 74, 80, 95, 97, 117, 126, 139, 141, 193. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.

, pages 16–17, 21–23, 49, 54–56, 63, 74, 80, 95, 97, 117, 126, 139, 141, 193. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012. Shmuel Herzfeld. “A Shepherded Community.” In Fifty-Four Pick Up: Fifteen-Minute Inspirational Torah Lessons, pages 59–64. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2012.

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