Parshat Vayeshev

With Vayeshev, the story shifts from Jacob to his children. The tension we have already sensed between Leah and Rachel is transferred to the next generation in the form of the rivalry between Joseph and his brothers, the story whose twists and turns take us to the end of Genesis.

Joseph is Jacob’s favourite son, firstborn of his beloved Rachel. The envy and antagonism of his brothers leads them to ambush Joseph, and sell him into slavery in Egypt, an act that will many years later result in the entire family, by then a nation, being enslaved.

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