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📜 The Story

Jacob settled in Canaan, the land where his father Isaac had lived. Of all his children, he loved Joseph the most. Joseph was seventeen. Jacob made him a special coat, the ketonet passim, a coat of many colors. Joseph's brothers were jealous, and they could not say a kind word to him.

Joseph had two dreams. In the first, he and his brothers were tying bundles of wheat in the field. His bundle stood up straight, and his brothers' bundles bowed down to it. In the second dream, the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. When Joseph told his brothers about the dreams, they hated him even more. Even his father scolded him.

One day Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers, who were watching the sheep near Shechem. When the brothers saw him coming, they made a plan to hurt him. Reuben, the oldest, said to throw him into an empty pit instead of killing him. He planned to come back and save him later. Then Judah had another idea, and the brothers sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver to traders on their way to Egypt.

The brothers dipped Joseph's coat in blood and brought it to Jacob. They let him think a wild animal had killed Joseph. Jacob was heartbroken and would not be comforted. The parsha also tells about Judah and his family. One of his sons was the ancestor of King David.

In Egypt, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officers. The Torah says, 'God was with Joseph, and he was successful.' Joseph did what was right and would not sin, but he was blamed for something he did not do and thrown into prison. Even there, God was with him, and the head of the prison trusted him. In prison he met Pharaoh's chief butler, who served him his wine, and his chief baker. Joseph explained what their dreams meant, and it all came true: the butler got his job back, and the baker was punished.