Torah Stories By Hannah Parasha Vayeshev

In this week’s story we read that Ya’akov was settled in the land where his father lived, the land of Canaan. This then is the line of Ya’akov:

At seventeen years of age, Yosef tended the flocks with his brothers as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Yosef brought bad reports of them to their father. Now Yisrael loved Yosef best of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age; and he had made him a coat of many colours. And when his brothers saw that he loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him.

Once Yosef had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him even more. He said to them: “hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf stood up and remained upright; then your sheaves gathered around and bowed low to my sheaf.” His brothers answered, “Do you mean to reign over us? Do you mean to rule over us?” And they hated him even more for his talk about his dreams.

He dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers saying, “Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the sun, the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father scolded him. “What,” he said to him, “is this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you to the ground? So his brothers were angry with him, and his father kept the matter in mind.

One time, when his brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flock at Shechem, Yisrael said to Yosef, “Your brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “I am ready.” And he said to him, “Go and see how your brothers are and how the flocks are faring, and bring me back word.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

When he reached Shechem, a man came upon him wandering in the fields. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?” He answered, “I am looking for my brothers. Could you tell me where they are pasturing?” The man said, “They have gone from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Yosef followed his brothers and found them at Dothan.

They saw him from afar and before he came close to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and we can say, ‘a savage beast devoured him.’ We shall see what comes of his dreams!” But when Reuben heard it, he tried to save him from them. He said, “Let us not take his life, and Reuben went on, “shed no blood, cast him into that pit in the wilderness, but do not touch him yourselves.” Intending to save him from them and restore him to his father. When Yosef came up to his brothers, they stripped Yosef of his tunic, the coat of many colours that he was wearing. And took him and cast him into the pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

Then they sat down to a meal. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, there camels bearing gum, balm, and ladanum to be taken to Egypt. Then Yehudah said to his brothers, “What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh. His brothers agreed. When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Yosef up out of the pit. They sold Yosef for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who brought Yosef to Egypt.

When Reuben returned to the pit, and saw that Yosef was not in the pit, he tore his clothes. Returning to his brothers he said, “The boy is gone! Now what am I to do?” Then they took Yosef’s tunic, slaughtered a kid and dipped the tunic in the blood. They had the tunic of many colours taken to their father. And they said, “We found this. Please examine it. Is it your son’s tunic or not?” He recognised it and said, “My son’s tunic! A savage beast devoured him! Yosef was torn by a beast!” Ya’akov tore his clothes, put sackcloth on, and observed mourning for his son many days. All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, saying, “No, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol.” Thus his father grieved for him.

The Midianites, meanwhile, sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh, and his chief steward.

About that time, Yehudah left his brothers and camped near a certain Adullamite whose name was Hirah. Their Yehudah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua and he married her. She conceived and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er. She conceived again and gave birth to a son, and named him Onan. Once again she gave birth to a son, and named him Shelah. He was at Chezib when she gave birth to him.

Yehudah got a wife for Er his firstborn. Her name was Tamar. But Er, Yehudah’s firstborn was displeasing to HaShem, and HaShem took his life. Then Yehudah said to Onan, “Join with your brother’s wife and do your duty by her as a brother-in-law. And provide offspring for your brother. But Onan, knowing that the seed would not count as his, let it go to waste whenever he joined with his brother’s wife, so as not to provide offspring for his brother. What he did was displeasing to HaShem, and He took his life also. Then Yehudah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “stay as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “he too might die like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

As long time afterward, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Yehudah, died. When his period of mourning was over, Yehudah went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, together with his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is coming up to Timnah for the sheep shearing.” So she took off her widow’s garb, covered her face with a veil and, wrapping herself up, sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, yet she had not been given to him as wife. When Yehudah saw her, he took her for a harlot; for she had covered her face. So her turned aside to her by the road and said, “Here, let me sleep with you” – for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. “What,” she asked, “will you pay for sleeping with me?” He replied, “I will send a kid form my flock.” But she said, “You must leave a pledge until you have sent it.” And he said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your seal and cord, and the staff which you carry.” So he gave them to her and he slept with her, and she conceived by him. Then she went on her way. She took off her veil and again put on her widow’s clothes.

Yehudah sent the kid with his friend the Adullamite, to redeem the pledge from the woman; but he could not find her. He inquired of the people of that town, “Where is the woman at Enaim by the road?” but they said, “There has been no prostitute here.” So he returned to Yehudah and said, “I could not find her; moreover, the townspeople said: ‘there has been no prostitute here.’” Yehudah said, “Let her keep them, lest we become a laughing stock. I did send her this kid but you did not find her.”

About three months later, Yehudah was told, “Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, has played the harlot. In fact, she is with child by harlotry.” “Bring her out,” said Yehudah, “And let her be burned.” As she was being brought out, she sent this message to her father-in-law, “I am with child by the man to whom these belong.” And she added, “Examine these: Whose seal and cord and staff are these?” Yehudah recognised them and said, “She is more in the right than I inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he was not intimate with her again.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb! While she was in labour, one of them put out his hand, and the midwife tied a crimson thread on that hand, to signify: This one came out first. But just then he drew back his hand and out came his brother; and she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Peretz. Afterward his brother came out. On his hand was the crimson thread. He was named Zerah.

When Yosef was taken down to Egypt, a certain Egyptian, Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. HaShem was with Yosef and he was a successful man; and he stayed in the house of his Egyptian master and when his master saw that HaShem was with him, and that HaShem lent success to everything he undertook, he took a liking to Yosef. He made him his personal attendant, and put him in charge of his household, placing in his hands all that he owned. And from the time that the Egyptian put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, HaShem blessed his house for Yosef’s sake, so that the blessing of HaShem was on everything that he owned, in the house and outside. He left all that he had in Yosef’s hands and with him there, he paid attention to nothing except the food that he ate. Now Yosef was well built and handsome.

After a time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Yosef and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused. He said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here, my master gives no thought to anything in this house, and all that he owns he has placed in my hands. He wields no more authority in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me, except yourself since you are his wife. How then could I do this most wicked thing and sin before G-d?” And much as she coaxed Yosef day after day, he did not yield to her request to lie beside her to be with her.

One such day he came into the house to do his work. None of the household being there inside. She caught hold of him by his garment and said, “Lie with me!” But he left his garment in her hand and got away and fled outside. She called out to her servants and said to them, “Look, he had to bring us a Hebrew to dally with us! This one came to lie with me; but I screamed loud and when he heard me screaming at the top of his voice he left his garment with me and got away and fled outside.” She kept his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story saying, “The Hebrew slave whom you brought into your house came to me to dally with me; but when I screamed at the top of my voice, he left his garment with me and fled outside.”

When his master heard the story that his wife told him namely, “Thus and so your slave did to me,” He was furious. So Yosef’s master had him put in prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. But even while he was there in prison, HaShem was with Yosef. He extended kindness to him, and disposed the chief jailer favourably toward him. The chief jailer put in Yosef’s charge all the prisoners who were in that prison, and he was the one to carry out everything that was done there. The chief jailer did not supervise anything that was in Yosef’s charge because HaShem was with him, and whatever he did, HaShem made successful.

Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt gave offence to their lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two courtiers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the chief steward, in the same prison house where Yosef was confined. The chief steward assigned Yosef to them, and he attended them.

When they had been in custody for some time both of them – the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt who were confined in the prison - dreamed in the same night. Each his own dream, and each dream with its own meaning. When Yosef came to them in the morning, he saw that they were distraught. He asked Pharaoh’s courtiers who were with him in custody in his master’s house saying, “Why do you appear downcast today?” and they said to him, “We had dreams and there is no-one to interpret them.” So Yosef said to them, “Surely G-d can interpret! Tell me your dreams.”

Then the chief cupbearer told his dream to Yosef. He said to him, “In my dream there was a vine in front of me. On the vine were three branches. It had barely budded, when out came its blossoms and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” Yosef said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will pardon you and restore you to your post. You will place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, as was your custom formerly when you were his cupbearer. But think of me when all is well with you again, and do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh, so as to free me from this place. For in truth I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews: Nor have I done anything here that they should have put me in the dungeon.”

When the chief baker saw how favourably he had interpreted, he said to Yosef, “In my dream, similarly, there were three open workbaskets on my head. In the uppermost basket were all kinds of food for Pharaoh that a baker prepares; and the birds were eating it out of the basket above my head.” Yosef answered, “This is the interpretation: The three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift off your hear and impale you on a pole; and the birds will pick off your flesh.”

On the third day – his birthday – Pharaoh made a banquet for all his officials. And he singled out his chief cupbearer and his chief baker from among his officials. He restored the chief cupbearer to his cup bearing, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But the chief baker he impaled – just as Yosef had interpreted to them.

Yet the chief cupbearer did not think of Yosef; he forgot him.