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sun and moon and
11 stars are bowing down to him.
When he repeats the dream his father scolds him saying, "Will I,
your mother, and your brothers bow down to you?"
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Joseph is sold into slavery
Joseph's brothers tend
their father's flocks near Shehem. Jacob sends Joseph to see how
they are doing. When his brothers see him coming, they plot to kill
him. Reuben, the oldest brother, suggests that instead of killing
him, they throw him into a pit. That way they would not actually
kill him. Reuben's secret desire is to go back and save him from the
pit. |
When Joseph reaches
his brothers, they take off his coat and throw him into the pit. They
sit down to eat and a caravan of Ishmaelites arrives. Judah says they
should sell Joseph instead of letting him die. They sell him for 20
pieces of silver. Then they tear his coat and dip it in goat's
blood and give it to their father, Jacob. When he sees the blood, he
assumes that a wild animal has killed him and he mourns for many days,
refusing to be consoled.
Meanwhile, Joseph is
resold to a caravan of Midianites, who bring him to Egypt. There he is
sold to Potifar, Pharaoh's chief butcher.
Judah and Tamar
Judah leaves his
brothers and marries a Canaanite woman. They have three sons: Air, Onan
and Shayla. Judah finds a wife for Air called Tamar. Air does evil
things and HaShem kills him. Judah then has Onan marry Tamar. Onan
doesn't want a child because he feels it will be seen as Air's, so he
refuses to let his wife have a child. HaShem kills him as well.
Judah tells Tamar to
go back to her father's house until Shayla is old enough to marry her. A
long time later, Judah's wife dies and after mourning her, he goes to
Timna to shear his sheep.
Tamar realizes that
even though Shayla is old enough to marry her, Judah won't allow it. So
she puts on a veil and stands by the road to Timna waiting for Judah to
walk past. He doesn't recognize her and thinks that she is a prostitute.
He says that he will pay her with goats, but he did not bring them, so
he gives her his signet ring, cord and staff as security. Later when
Joseph comes back she is gone.
About three months
later , Judah hears that Tamar is pregnant. He commends her to death,
but before the sentence is carried out she show him the ring, cord and
staff. He sets her free and she gives birth to twins: Perez and Zerah.
| Joseph's road
to greatness
Meanwhile, in Egypt,
Potifar sees that Joseph is successful in everything he he does, so
he puts him in charge of his household. Potifar's wife likes Joseph
and tries to seduce him. When Joseph refuses her, she claims he
attacked her and Potifar has him thrown in jail.
HaShem is with
Joseph while he is in jail and the warden puts him in charge of the
other prisoners.
The Pharaoh's
butler and baker are in jail with him. each of them has a dream and
Joseph interprets their dreams for them. The butler dreams
that he has three clusters of grapes which he which he squeezes and
gives to Pharaoh.
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Joseph tells him that the three clusters represent three days. In
three days, the Pharaoh is going to give him his job back and he
will be free.
Joseph asks him
to remember him when he gets out of jail. The baker dreams that
there are three baskets of food that Pharaoh likes to eat. Birds
come and eat from the basket. Joseph says that the dream means that
in three days Pharaoh is going to hand the butcher.
Three days
later, on the Pharaoh's birthday, the butler is freed to go back to
his job and the butcher is hung. The butler, forgets about Joseph.
Next week's parsha
Meketz we learn how Joseph
gets out of jail and becomes a very important person. |
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Ninth of 54 Sedras in the Torah
