Vayigash

📜 The Story

The parsha starts at a scary moment. Joseph's silver cup has been found in Benjamin's sack. Judah steps up to the Egyptian ruler, not knowing he is talking to his own brother Joseph. Judah begs him. He explains how much their father Jacob loves Benjamin and how sad he will be if Benjamin does not come home. Then Judah offers to stay as a slave instead of Benjamin.

Joseph could not hold back anymore. He sent all the Egyptians out of the room, burst into tears, and said, 'I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.' The brothers were terrified. But Joseph told them not to be upset. God had sent him to Egypt ahead of them, he said, to save many people from the famine.

Joseph told his brothers to hurry home and tell Jacob that Joseph was alive and ruling Egypt. He sent wagons full of food and gifts, and invited the whole family to come live in the land of Goshen, because there were still five more years of famine. When Jacob heard that Joseph was alive, he did not believe it at first. When he saw the wagons, his spirit came back to life.

Jacob and his whole family, seventy people in all, went down to Egypt. On the way, God appeared to Jacob and promised to go down to Egypt with him and to bring his family back up again. When they arrived, Joseph ran to meet his father. They hugged and cried for a long time. Jacob said that now that he had seen Joseph's face, he could die in peace.

Joseph gave his family a home in Goshen, a good place for raising sheep. During the famine, Joseph ran Egypt wisely. He sold grain to the people, and in the end he bought all the farmland in Egypt for Pharaoh, except the land of the priests. This is how Joseph saved Egypt and his own family from the famine.