Unanticipated Consequences
Dec 19, 2012 By Marc Wolf | Commentary | Vayiggash
Joseph’s brothers got very lucky. What started as an act of malice inspired by jealousy and spite turned out to secure the future of the Jewish People. Did they imagine the implications of their action? Did Joseph’s brothers know that their initial plot of murder and their eventual sale of Joseph into slavery would ultimately save their own lives? No, they did not.
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What Did Joseph Mean to Say?
Dec 3, 2013 By Walter Herzberg | Commentary | Vayiggash
Joseph, viceroy of Egypt, who has not yet revealed himself to his brothers, threatens to retain his brother Benjamin as a slave (Gen. 44:17).
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A Narrative for Our Lives
Dec 26, 2014 By Tim Daniel Bernard | Commentary | Vayiggash
No matter if we are philosophers, scientists, or grand viziers of Egypt, we all constantly engage in the process of slotting the “disordered fragments of raw experience” into an overarching framework.
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Finding the Larger Message
Dec 26, 2014 By Judith Hauptman | Commentary | Vayiggash
When kids in Hebrew School read the story of Joseph, he looks very good. He saves the lives of many Egyptians by storing grain in the fat years and dispensing it in the lean years. But when an adult reads the same verses, Joseph appears unscrupulous. We ask: when the hungry people come to him during the years without crops, does he have to make them sell him all their cattle? And when they come back a second time, does he have to make them sell him all their land and also offer themselves as slaves?
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A Tale of Two Dreamers
Dec 18, 2015 By Eliezer B. Diamond | Commentary | Vayiggash
Shortly after Jacob arrives in Egypt Joseph—undoubtedly eager to introduce his father and his patron to each other—arranges an audience with Pharaoh for his father. Following the time honored traditions of polite conversation, Pharaoh asks a prosaic question: “How many are the years of your life?”
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