Parshat Vayigash opens with the following words (Breisheet 44:18): Yehuda approached Yosef and said, “Please master, let your servant speak a word in my master’s ears, and do not be angry with your servant; for you are equal to Pharaoh.” According to Breisheet Raba...
God reassured Yaakov that He will go down to Egypt with him and that He will bring him back.At that point Yaakov and his family packed up (Breisheet 46:5-6):Yaakov rose up from Be’er Sheva. B’nai Yisrael transported their father Yaakov, their children and...
In Parshat Miketz, Yosef tells his brothers that in order to prove that they are not spies they must go back home and return with their youngest brother. Upon the brothers arrival we read (Breisheet 42:29):They came to their father Yaakov, to the Land of C’naan,...
After Yosef admits his true identity to his brothers, he tells them that he is not angry at them and he knows that it was all part of God’s plan (Breisheet 45:8-13):Now it was not you that sent me here, but God; and He made me as a father to Pharaoh and master...
Sponsored by Sharona, Josh, Dov and Moshe Halickman in honor of Yehuda Maccabi’s Bar Mitzvah After the jealousy and deceit that we read about over the last few weeks, in Parshat Vayigash, all of Yaakov’s children are reunited. Yosef reveals who...
In Parshat Vayigash, Breisheet 46:8-27 we read the list of B’nai Yisrael (Yaakov’s descendents) who went down to Egypt, seventy people in total.First Leah’s children and grandchildren are listed followed by Zilpah’s, Rachel’s and...
In Memory of the two IDF soldiers who were killed this week,Yosef Cohen z”l and Yuval Mor Yosef z”l The end of Parshat Miketz (Breisheet 44:16) leaves us with a cliff hanger. After the silver goblet is found in Binyamin’s bag, Yehuda and his...
When Yosef revealed his true identity to his brothers in Parshat Vayigash, he said (Breisheet 45:3): “I am Yosef (ha-od avi chai) is my father (Yaakov) still alive?”In the Talmud, Taanit 5b, Rabbi Yitzchak quoted Rabbi Yochanan, stating that Yaakov Avinu...
In Parshat Miketz, after Pharaoh put Yosef in charge of all of Egypt we read (Breisheet 41:45): “Pharaoh gave Yosef the name Tzafnat Paneiach, and he gave him Osnat, the daughter of Poti Phera, Kohen On as a wife.” In Breishhet 41:50-52 we read about...
In Parshat Vayigash, when Yosef and Binyamin are reunited we read (Breisheet 45:14) “He (Yosef) then fell upon his brother Binyamin’s neck and wept and Binyamin wept upon his neck.”It is understandable that Yosef and Binyamin, Rachel’s only...
In Parshat Vayigash, Breisheet 46:5-6 we read: “Yaakov rose up from Beer Sheva. B’nai Yisrael transported their father Yaakov, their children and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They took the livestock and their possessions...
In Parshat Vayigash, Breisheet 46:27, we read “…All the “nefesh” (soul) of the house of Yaakov that came to Egypt were seventy.” Rashi points out that the Jewish people were not called “nefashot”, souls. Rather they...
The Concept of Aliya Goes Back to the Parsha In Parshat Vayigash, we encounter the concept of Aliya- going up to the Land of Israel-twice. Aliya was also mentioned in the last pasuk of last week’s Parsha, Parshat Miketz. At the end of Parshat...
Dedicated to the memory of the 42 people who perished in the Carmel fires In Breisheet 47:8, When Yaakov arrives in Egypt, looking like a very old man, Pharaoh asks him: “How many are the days of the years of your...
In Parshat Vayigash we find that after all that Yosef has been through- as a 17 year old he was treated unfairly by his brothers, sold as a slave, accused of rape, sent to prison- he came out on top, as Pharaoh’s viceroy- and he saw that all of those events...
In Parshat Vayigash, Yaakov’s sons return to the Land of Israel in order to bring the entire family down to Egypt. When they arrive at the Southern most point of the Biblical Land of Israel, Be’er Sheva, Yaakov offers sacrifices to God. In a dream,...
In Parshat Vayigash, Yosef surprises his brothers and reveals his true identity. In Breisheet 45:14 we read "Yosef fell upon his brother Binyamin.s necks and wept, and Binyamin wept upon his neck."Why is the word tzavar (neck) in the plural form (tzavarei)? How many...
When Yaakov heard that Yosef was still alive he said (Breisheet 45:28) “It is too much! My son Yosef still lives. I will go and see him before I die”. The next pasuk explains how Yaakov immediately traveled to Be’er Sheva and offered sacrifices to...