The Parsha in a Nutshell Our parsha begins with Yehuda’s emotional speech to the viceroy of Egypt, pleading for Binyamin to be set free. Yehuda even asks to switch places with Binyamin and become the prisoner instead of him. Then the viceroy finally revealed that he is actually their brother Yosef. The brothers are shocked by this twist in their…
The phrase “Jewish thinker” may mean two very different things. It may mean a thinker who just happens to be Jewish by birth or descent – a Jewish physicist, for example – or it may refer to someone who has contributed specifically to Jewish thought: like Judah Halevi or Maimonides. The interesting question is: is there a third kind of…
In our parsha, Joseph does something unusual. Revealing himself to his brothers, fully aware that they will suffer shock and then guilt as they remember how it is that their brother is in Egypt, he reinterprets the past: “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry…
Judah has passed the test so elaborately contrived by Joseph. Twenty-two years earlier, it was Judah who had proposed selling Joseph into slavery. Now Joseph – still unrecognized by his brothers – has put him through a carefully constructed ordeal to see whether he is still the same character, or has changed. Judah had changed. Now he is willing to…
It is one of the most dramatic moments in Bereishit, a book full of dramatic moments. Judah has made a passionate plea for Benjamin’s release. Yes, the missing silver cup has been found in his possession. Judah does not challenge the facts. Instead he throws himself on the mercy of the Egyptian ruler, of whose identity he is still unaware….
…religion of love and forgiveness and Judaism as a religion of law and retribution. As I pointed out in my earlier Covenant & Conversation for Vayigash, forgiveness is born (as David Konstan notes in Before Forgiveness) in Judaism. Interpersonal forgiveness begins when Joseph forgives his brothers for selling him into slavery. Divine forgiveness starts with the institution of Yom Kippur…
For each of us there are milestones on our spiritual journey that change the direction of our life and set us on a new path. For me one such moment came when I was a rabbinical student at Jews’ College and thus had the privilege of studying with one of the great rabbinic scholars of our time, Rabbi Dr. Nachum…
…be ruined by the famine.” Gen. 41:34-36 This turned out to be life-saving advice. His later economic policies, narrated in Vayigash (Gen. 47:11-26), are more questionable. When the people ran out of money during the lean years, Joseph told them to trade their livestock. When this too ran out, he arranged for them to sell their land to Pharaoh with…
…VAYISHLACH: If you find yourself struggling with faith, you are in the company of Jacob-who-became-Israel, the father-in-faith of us all. VAYESHEV: Seen through the eye of faith, today’s curse may be the beginning of tomorrow’s blessing. MIKKETZ: What can be healed is not holy. God does not want us to accept poverty and pain but to cure them. VAYIGASH: We…
…Babylonian exile) the Jews. Bereishit Noach Lech Lecha Vayera Chayei Sarah Toldot Vayetse Vayishlach Vayeshev Mikketz Vayigash Vayechi Shemot (Exodus) The book of Exodus – Shemot – is the West’s meta-narrative of hope. It tells an astonishing story of how a group of slaves were liberated from the mightiest empire of the ancient world. Theologically, its message is even more…