PARSHAS VAYESHEV - SHORT VERSION

In the 1st Aliya, Yosef receives a stylish coat and tells his brothers about his dreams and aspirations. They think him a noodge. In the second Aliya they nearly kill him, but in the third he’s disappeared, and they fake his death and make their father unhappy.

In the fourth, you have a chance to step outside for a cigarette while the kinderlech are entertained with the heartwarming tale of Yehudah and Tamar.

We return to Yosef’s adventures in the fifth and sixth Aliya, which mix business and sex among the Egyptian upper-classes. In the last Aliya Yosef finds out about jails while having plenty of time to dream.



We first meet Yosef ben Yakov in Parshas Vayeitzei (seventh parsha of seifer Breishis, psookim 28:10 through 32:3 – ‘and he went out’; Yosef isn’t born until the fourth aliya), while his father is planning to rob Lavan. In Parshas Vayishlach (eighth parsha, psukim 32:4 through 36:43) he’s largely invisible, but the hiatus is over in Vayeishev, and from here all the way to the end of this seifer it seems to be pretty much all about him.


Yosef's main role in this parsha is to highlight the failings of everybody around him - his brothers, who want to kill him; his father, who should've learned from the family history that having favourites among the kinderlech brings nothing but trouble; and Potiphar, who discovers that his wife is a zona.


Yosef’s dream

Bereishis, psook 37:5 "vayachalom Yosef chalom vayaged leechav vayosifu od seno oto"(And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers and they hated him even more)

Psook 37:6 "vayomer aleihem shimu-na hachalom haze asher chalamti" (And he said to them 'listen to this dream which I have dreamed')

Psook 37:7 "vehine anachnu mealmim alumim betoch hasade vehine kama alumati vegam-nitzava vehine tesubeina alumoteichem vatishtachaveina laalumati" (behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves came around it, and bowed down to my sheaf')

Psook 37:8 "vayomru lo echav hamaloch timloch aleinu im-mashol timshol banu vayosifu od seno oto al-chalomotav veal-devarav" (And his brothers said to him 'Shall you then rule over us? Or shall you then have control over us? And they hated even more because of his dreams, and because of his words)

Psook 37:9 "vayachalom od chalom acher vayesaper oto leechav vayomer hine chalamti chalom od vehine hashemesh vehayareach veachad asar kochavim mishtachavim li" (And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, 'look, I have dreamed another dream; and see, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me')

Psook 37:10 "vayesaper el-aviv veel-echav vayigar-bo aviv vayomer lo ma hachalom haze asher chalamta havo navo ani veimcha veacheicha lehishtachavot lecha artza" (And he told it to his father and to his brothers, and his father chastised him, and said to him 'What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers then come to bow down to the earth to you?')

Psook 37:11 "vayekanu-vo echav veaviv shamar et-hadavar" (And his brothers resented him but his father remembered what had been said)


After the brothers throw Yosef into a pit, and a passing bunch of Arabs take him to Egypt and sell him, the narrative gives us Yudah and Tamar. From whence the Davidic line came, and the Messiah will yet come.

Yudah the son of Yakov begets Peretz in Tamar, Peretz begets Ezram, Ezram begets Aram, Aram begets Aminadav, Aminadav begets Nashon, Nashon begets Zalman who begets Boaz who marries Ruth the Moabite.
Their son Obed begets Yishai (Jesse), whose son David seduces Batshua the daughter of Amiel or Eliam (the names are clearly variants of each other, pay it no mind), who was a married woman at the time, though soon to be widowed by the machinations of her king, to whom she bore Shlomo, who was wise.

And Shlomo HaMelech begets Rehoboam, who begets Aviyah who begets Asa who begets Yehosofas, whose son Yehoram begets Achaziyo….


As it says in Bereishis, psook 49:10: "lo-yasur shevet mi-Yehuda umechokek mibein raglav ad ki-yavo Shilo, ve lo yik'hat amim" (the sceptre shall not pass from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, as long as men come to Shiloh, and to him shall be the obedience of the people). Which is a foreshadowing, as kingship only came to the tribe of Judah when the Ark of the Covenant moved from Shilo to Jerusalem.


Yehuda’s second son, Onan, instead of doing his duty by his brother (in order that his brother’s name not die out) in a levirate marriage, spilled his seed, and displeased the Lord, resulting in his sudden death. Yehuda advised Tamar to wait until the third son, Shelah, should be grown up.

[Note: While the Talmud and much subsequent thinking has condemned Onan's proclivities, and recommended cold showers instead, it should above all be remembered that what offended the almighty was the irresposibility and sheer pettiness of Onan - he begrudged his brother a descendant to carry on his line.
And by acting accordingly, he also was cruel to Tamar, who thus could not fulfill her obligations and was stuck in a loveless and pointless marriage. It was not what he did with his seed that condemned him, but what he would not do for his wife and his deceased brother. ]


Time passes, and Tamar’s mechutenista dies. And Tamar is getting a little worried. When Shelah is not given her as a husband, she veils herself and pretends to be a trollop by the city gate, in order to get with seed from Yehuda. Yehuda gives her his signet and his cord as a pledge, so that he may ‘come in unto her’.

Her mechuten impregnates her, and when she is accused of harlotry, she proves herself a better man than him, having ensured that Er’s name survive by proxy.


After this lively interlude, we return to Yosef, who isn't doing too well in Egypt. It's a nasty place.