Questions tagged [yosef]
Joseph (יוסף), the son of Jacob (יעקב), from the book of Genesis.
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Joseph's Garment- Made or hand me down?
Source 1: Targum Yerushalmi Bereishit 48:22 which says that Yosef coat was originally Adam's.
Source 2: Bereishit 37:3 Says Yaakov made Joseph's coat
How can this be resolved?
Source 1:
כב וַאֲנָא ...
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How does saying "pasim" help us safely enunciate the name of Hashem?
I'm reading an article about the kesones pasim and birchas kohanim here, and one paragraph had me confused. The article is discussing the portion of the yehi ratzon in which we ask Hashem to act like ...
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Significance of nine months of pregnancy and eleven stars
In the piyyut Echad Mi Yodeya, recited at the Passover seder, we discuss what relates to the first thirteen numbers.
Most of these are central to Jewish belief: One is Hashem, two are the Tablets (...
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Day of Yosef’s Sale
I saw in a medrash - but can’t recall where - that the brothers sold Yosef on the tenth of Teveis.
Does any which medrash I could find this in?
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How did Israel's slavery in Mitzrayim begin?
When Yosef is about to die he tells his brothers that God will surely remember them and bring them up out of Mitzrayim (Bereishit 50:24-25). This suggests that they were already not free to leave (...
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source for Potiphar not believing his wife
I mentioned to someone a vort I once heard pointing out a difficulty in the story of Potiphar's wife. Why did Potiphar not have Yosef killed, which would be the expected punishment for attacking the ...
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The brothers telling Yosef about Yosef
Rashi to Miketz (Bereishit 42:13-14) says that the brothers told Yosef that they came to Egypt to look for their missing brother.
However, in Vayigash (Bereishit 44:20) Yehudah tells Yosef that they ...
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How does bringing Binyamin to Egypt prove that the brothers are not spies?
In Bereishit 42:19-20 Yosef says that by allowing one of them to be imprisoned and the rest returning and bringing back their other brother, this would prove that they are not spies.
I've read ...
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How old was Menashe when he was Yosef's assistant?
According to the midrash Yoseph appoints Menashe over grain logs, has him subdue both Shimon and Yehudah on two separate occasions, and even sends them after his brothers to "retrieve" his ...
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What was the nature of the apparition of Yaakov that appeared to Yosef?
Sotah 36b writes that an apparition of Yaakov visited Yosef when he was about to sin with Potiphar's wife.
(בראשית לט, יב) ותתפשהו בבגדו לאמר וגו' באותה שעה באתה דיוקנו של אביו ונראתה לו בחלון אמר לו ...
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Why did Yosef cause so much anguish to his family?
While this question already seems to assume some answer or another (that of a 'deeper purpose'), I thought it strange that nobody has actually asked this question so far:
Yosef recognized his ...
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Why did the brothers go from Shechem to Dosan?
In Bereshis 37:17 Yosef has traveled to Shechem where his brothers had gone to tend their sheep and he is told they went to Dosan. Rashi explains this homeletically, that they found legal pretext ...
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Is it true that Rabbi Moshe Dovid Valle (aka the Ramad Vali, Ramdu) said that the Jesus was a failed Mashiach ben Yosef? Please provide sources
I heard this a few times. Is it true that Rabbi Moshe Dovid Valle (aka the Ramad Vali, Ramdu) said that the Jesus was a failed Mashiach ben Yosef? If so, please provide sources.
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Of what would Yosef been suspect in Ya'akov's eyes (Rashi on Breishit 50:16)?
Rashi on Breishit 50:16 comments on the beginning of the verse "Our father commanded.." that Ya'akov made no such command, but the brothers said this because of peace and that Yosef was not suspect in ...
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Who sells Yosef? Who brings him to Egypt?
Who sold Yosef to the Yishmaelim, is it the brothers or the Midyanim?
And who sold him to Potifar in Egypt? The Yishmaelim or the Midyanim?
(Medanim also appear in the text, but that might be the ...
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How old was Binyamin when he and his brothers went down to meet Yosef
Just like the title reads. Citing the interaction between the brothers and Yosef in Egpyt during the famine retold in Bereishit 42-44, I am curious to know if any mefarshim comment on the age of ...
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Gen 36:24 Rashi and the Pit of Snakes and Scorpions -- really Pshat?
In Genesis Chapter 37 Joseph’s brothers consider whether to kill him.
But Reuben heard, and he saved him [Joseph] from their hand[s], and he
said, "Let us not deal him a deadly blow. And Reuben ...
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Why did Yosef wash his face after crying the second time but not the first?
In Miketz, Yosef is seen to cry twice.
42:24:
וַיִּסֹּב מֵעֲלֵיהֶם וַיֵּבְךְּ וַיָּשָׁב אֲלֵהֶם
He turned from them, cried, and returned to them.
43:30–31:
וַיְבַקֵּשׁ לִבְכּוֹת וַיָּבֹא הַחַדְרָה ...
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Why did the 10 Brothers tell Yaakov that Yosef had died if doing so would cause him such intense pain & grief?
Is there any Torah commentary that addresses how Yaakov’s ten sons could have been so cold, heartless and cruel, to cause Yaakov’s intense, 22-year, unconsolable grief over Yosef’s death? What child ...
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What was the justification for selling Joseph into slavery?
In Parashat Vayeishev, the story is recounted about how the children of Jacob conspired to kill Joseph. The explanation is that they judged him to be guilty of several violations and deserving of ...
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Did Reuven profit from the sale of Yosef?
Yosef was sold for 20 silver pieces.
Yerushalmi (Shekalim 2:3) and Bereishis Rabbah (84:18) both say that since the 10 brothers each received 2 silver pieces, which were worth half a shekel, their ...
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What is the connection between Pharaoh's butler's cups and Arba Kosos?
The Daas Zekeinim (Shemos 12:8) writes
ד"א כנגד ד' כוסות שאמר שר המשקים ליוסף - Yet another interpretation
about why we drink four cups of wine on the night of the seder. It is
a reminder of the ...
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Why get the baker's hopes up?
When explaining the butler and baker's dreams, Yosef opened with very similar language:
בְּע֣וֹד ׀ שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֗ים יִשָּׂ֤א פַרְעֹה֙ אֶת־רֹאשֶׁ֔ךָ
בְּע֣וֹד ׀ שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֗ים יִשָּׂ֨א פַרְעֹ֤ה ...
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Another reason for Yosef not communicating with his father, Yaakov? [duplicate]
What would Joseph say if he were to send a message from Egypt to his father Jacob?
"Dear Dad, My brothers sold me into slavery but I am alive and well"?
Would Joseph really send his father such a ...
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Where does it say Joseph (Yosef) is a Tzadik?
Noach we know of course, but where exactly is Yosef called a tzadik? I keep seeing people say "as we know, Yosef is called a tzadik" but what is the exact source?
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Was Yosef sold at age seventeen?
While the start of Vayeshev (the start of Genesis 37) sounds as though the events all take place at one time, so that Yosef was sold (verse 28) at age seventeen (as mentioned in verse 2), it's not ...
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Why would Yosef interpret the baker's dream for bad?
The Gemara in Brachos 56 brings various accounts about dreams and makes mention that a dream is based on the interpretation.
Why would Yosef interpret the baker's dream for bad? Was his ...
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Yosef sold into prostitution
I remember hearing of a source that states that Yosef was sold into prostitution, or some other form of sexual slavery, by his brothers, and not just plain slavery as is commonly assumed. Does such a ...
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How did the spices help?
Rashi (Bereishis 37:25) quotes the Midrash explaining Arab caravans ordinarily carried foul smelling cargo like tar and petroleum, yet Hashem ensured the caravan Yosef was sold to would carry pleasant ...
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Was Potiphar's wife a righteous woman?
I remember hearing that Potiphar's wife was a righteous woman. She had a vision showing her that she would become an ancestress of the Jewish people. She naturally assumed it would be through her ...
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Ber. 43 (33). Yosef seats the brothers in birth order. This could have revealed his identity prematurely?
In Beraishis 43 (33), Rashi quotes the Medrash to say, Yosef
“struck the goblet and called aloud: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,
Issachar and Zebulon, sons of one mother, take your seats at the table
...
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What is the source for Yosef's garment being a "coat of many colors"?
What is the source for Yosef's coat being a "coat of many colors"? Is there a particular commentator that translates פַּסִּים as colorful?
Genesis 37:3
וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אָהַ֤ב אֶת־יוֹסֵף֙ ...
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Brothers don't kill brothers?
Rashi explains that Yosef calms his brothers' concerns by telling them
וידבר על לבם. דְּבָרִים הַמִּתְקַבְּלִים עַל הַלֵּב – עַד שֶׁלֹּא
יְרַדְתֶּם לְכָאן הָיוּ מְרַנְּנִים עָלַי שֶׁאֲנִי עֶבֶד, עַל ...
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Seeking source of explanation of ולא יכל יוסף להתאפק
וְלֹא יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק — Yosef could not forbear (Gen. 45:1) — but had he done so, had he completed the brothers' reconciliation that he had started, then the kingdom would never ...
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What does it mean to create artificial animals from Sefer Yetzirah?
Could someone please explain this quote:
The brothers would use the secrets of Sefer Yetzirah to create artifical animals and women (golems).
I am not Jewish but would like to have an ...
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Why don't we hear about Ya'aqov's other sons mourning his death?
Upon Ya'aqov Avinu's passing (Bereshit 50:1), Yoseph (to the glaring exclusion of his brothers) immediately falls upon his father and weeps.
Why don't we hear anything about the brothers weeping or ...
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Is one allowed to swear to do something that depends on someone else's approval?
I noticed in parshat Vayechi that Yosef takes an oath that he will bury his father, Yaakov in Cana'an. After Yaakov dies, he asks for Pharaoh's permission to do so, and he grants him permission.
In ...
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Why was Yoseph sold to Ishmaelites and then Midianites, rather than Midianites and then Ishmaelites?
The following question and translations are courtesy of Studies in Bereshit by Nechama Leibowitz.
In Parshat Vayeshev, some pesukim suggest that Yoseph was sold by his brothers to Midianites, and ...
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Significance behind coat or upper garment in Vayeshev
There seems to be a theme in Parshas Vayeshev around a coat or more generally an (upper) body garment:
Yosef's coat of many colors
Yosef's shirt soaked in blood of a wild animal
Yehuda's cloak as a ...
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Why didn't Yaakov rebuke his sons when he found out what they really did to Yosef?
Yaakov had previously reacted by rebuking the actions of Shimon and Levi when they destroyed Schem (Bereishit 34:30):
וַיֹּאמֶר יַעֲקֹב אֶל-שִׁמְעוֹן וְאֶל-לֵוִי, עֲכַרְתֶּם אֹתִי, לְהַבְאִישֵׁנִי ...
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Wives of Manasseh and Ephraim?
Who were the wives of Manasseh and Ephraim? What were their backgrounds? Who were their parents? Did they have concubines? If so who were they?
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One Navi revealing themselves to another Navi
Rav Moshe Feinstein is quoted in Kol Ram asking why didn't Yosef reveal to his father that he is alive in Egypt. He answers that maybe one navi cannot reveal themselves to another navi without HaShem ...
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What is the "way of peace" Rash"I cites on Bereishit 50:16?
Rash"I on Bereishit 50:16 explains the part in the verse where the brothers say, "Our father told us to say...". Rash"I says that they altered the matter for the way of peace, because their father ...
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What's the reason why Yosef HaTzadik had to go through slavery?
Just a question out of curiosity: What's the reason why Yosef had to go through slavery? What do the sages/scholars say?
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How was Yosef allowed to practice divination?
The Torah prohibits divination as stated in:
Leviticus 19:26:
לֹ֥א תֹאכְל֖וּ עַל־הַדָּ֑ם לֹ֥א תְנַחֲשׁ֖וּ וְלֹ֥א תְעוֹנֵֽנוּ׃
Do not eat with the blood; Do not practice divination or ...
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Why does Torah tell us the new king "did not know Joseph"?
The Torah says:
וַיָּ֥קָם מֶֽלֶךְ־חָדָ֖שׁ עַל־מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֖ע אֶת־יוֹסֵֽף׃ -- A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. [Exodus 1:8]
and continues with the new king's ...
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Why did Yakov ask for a favor from Yosef instead of commanding him?
Gen 47, 29:
"וַיִּקְרְבוּ יְמֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל לָמוּת וַיִּקְרָא לִבְנוֹ לְיוֹסֵף וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ
אִם־נָא מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ שִׂים־נָא יָדְךָ תַּחַת יְרֵכִי
וְעָשִׂיתָ עִמָּדִי חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת ...
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Was Joseph's bad report on his brothers evidence or simply damaging?
"Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, being still a lad even with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought evil ...
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Was Joseph considered a Tzaddik as he went down to Egypt?
Rashi on 37 (25) cites the Medrash about what the camels were carrying:
and their camels were carrying, etc.: Why did Scripture publicize
their burden? To let you know the reward of the ...
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How did Benjamin know what was going on with Yosef in Egypt
In Genesis 46:21 are written all the names of the sons of Benjamin:
ובני בנימן בלע ובכר ואשבל גרא ונעמן אחי וראש מפים וחפים וארד.
The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, ...
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