{"id":40038,"date":"2018-07-09T18:50:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T15:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wall\/wall-47\/"},"modified":"2022-04-11T09:12:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T06:12:16","slug":"wall-47","status":"publish","type":"wall","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wall\/wall-47\/","title":{"rendered":"chapter-Torah-Genesis-47"},"parent":0,"template":"","acf":{"type":"chapter","wall_id":"47","date":"20251103","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","books_group":"Torah","posts":[{"order":1,"id":"40040","color":"#faeed8","size":"1","name":"Genesis 47 - Judy Hammond ","post_title":"Genesis 47 - Judy Hammond","slug":"genesis-47-judy-hammond","old_id":"40040","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34686,"post_title":"Soundcloud","slug":"soundcloud","old_id":"34686","first_name":"","last_name":"","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34656,"alt":"","title":"491","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","width":300,"height":300,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","medium_large-width":300,"medium_large-height":300,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","large-width":300,"large-height":300,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","1536x1536-width":300,"1536x1536-height":300,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","2048x2048-width":300,"2048x2048-height":300,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","post_full_size-width":300,"post_full_size-height":300,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/491-2.jpg","home_baner-width":300,"home_baner-height":300}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"4","show_author_image":true,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The Audio Bible","tile_main_caption":"Genesis 47","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"read by Judy Hammond","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/929-bible\/genesis-chapter-47-read-by-judy-hammond","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":false},{"order":2,"id":"40277","color":"#f6f5de","size":"1","name":" ","post_title":"Joseph the Evil Tzaddik: Was He Wise or Wicked? 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Beneficent or Brutal?","slug":"joseph-the-evil-tzaddik-was-he-wise-or-wicked-righteous-or-repressive-beneficent-or-brutal","old_id":"40277","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38102,"post_title":"929-English","slug":"929-english","old_id":"38102","first_name":"","last_name":"929-English","description":"","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38333,"alt":"","title":"\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","width":1513,"height":860,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-300x171.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":171,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-768x437.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":437,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1024x582.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":582,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","1536x1536-width":1513,"1536x1536-height":860,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5.png","2048x2048-width":1513,"2048x2048-height":860,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-1200x682.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":682,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-739x420.png","home_baner-width":739,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"He fed the people, yes. But at what price? Enslavement, displacement? Was it worth it? What is YOUR answer?","post_main_content_content":"","post_main_content_image":{"id":40278,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_507761002","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-e1537158043750.jpg","width":2674,"height":2858,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-281x300.jpg","medium-width":281,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-768x821.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":821,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-958x1024.jpg","large-width":958,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-e1537158043750.jpg","1536x1536-width":1437,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-e1537158043750.jpg","2048x2048-width":1916,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-1123x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1123,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-393x420.jpg","home_baner-width":393,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Read the many posts for today's chapter that explore the question:","tile_main_caption":"Joseph the Evil Tzaddik: Was He Wise or Wicked? Righteous or Repressive? Beneficent or Brutal?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"He fed the people, yes. But at what price? Enslavement, displacement? Was it worth it? What is YOUR answer?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":40278,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_507761002","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-e1537158043750.jpg","width":2674,"height":2858,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-281x300.jpg","medium-width":281,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-768x821.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":821,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-958x1024.jpg","large-width":958,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-e1537158043750.jpg","1536x1536-width":1437,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-e1537158043750.jpg","2048x2048-width":1916,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-1123x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1123,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_507761002-393x420.jpg","home_baner-width":393,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"367","name":"Questions\/Answers","old_id":"767"}]},{"order":3,"id":"103864","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"A Select Few ","post_title":"A Select Few","slug":"a-select-few","old_id":"103864","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":78133,"post_title":"Josh Blechner","slug":"josh-blechner","old_id":"78133","first_name":"Josh ","last_name":"Blechner ","description":"Josh first finished the Tanach during Yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion. He and his daughter studied the Tanach again for her bat mitzvah. Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group. When not studying for 929, Josh works as an in-house lawyer in New Jersey.","short_description":"Josh has taught many classes on Tanach throughout the years and currently in the New Rochelle 929 group, and is an in-house attorney in New Jersey. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":78134,"alt":"","title":"josh blechner","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","width":276,"height":351,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","medium_large-width":276,"medium_large-height":351,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","large-width":276,"large-height":351,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","1536x1536-width":276,"1536x1536-height":351,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","2048x2048-width":276,"2048x2048-height":351,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","post_full_size-width":276,"post_full_size-height":351,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/josh-blechner.jpg","home_baner-width":276,"home_baner-height":351}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Were Joseph\u2019s many brothers a potential threat to Pharaoh?\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

From the moment that Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he had been carefully preparing for the moment they would meet with Pharaoh. Despite Joseph\u2019s apparent close relationship with the monarch, he still knows that he must be delicate when making requests on behalf of his family. This is yet another connection with the Purim story. Just as Esther is careful about how she approaches her husband the king to ask for her people\u2019s lives, Joseph is careful about approaching Pharaoh.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In chapter 47, Joseph employs an unexplained strategy. \u201cAnd carefully selecting five of his brothers, he presented them to Pharaoh\u201d (verse 2). Standing before Pharaoh, Joseph does not bring his whole family. But why? Rashi explains that Joseph wanted to bring the weakest five brothers before Pharaoh as a way to show that his brothers were not a threat. Radak adds that some opinions hold that Joseph did the opposite. Instead of bringing the five weakest brothers, he brought the five strongest brothers. Radak does not give an explanation. Most likely it was a way to impress Pharaoh. Joseph did not want to show that his family was weak and would be a burden.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Artist: James Tissot<\/p>\r\n

Sforno explains that Joseph only brought the brothers as a way for Pharaoh to confirm that they were shepherds. He does not explain why Joseph specifically brought five. Perhaps Joseph felt that all 11 would be overwhelming and unnecessary. In the Book of Exodus, one of the excuses that Pharaoh gives for enslaving the Israelites is that they have become too powerful.\u00a0 Perhaps this validates Rashi\u2019s interpretation that Joseph brought the weakest brothers before Pharaoh to try to convince him that they were not a threat.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":58744,"alt":"","title":"isam23-david's men","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","width":600,"height":295,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":295,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":295,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":295,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":295,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":295,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":295}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"A Select Few","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Were Joseph\u2019s many brothers a potential threat to Pharaoh?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":58744,"alt":"","title":"isam23-david's men","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","width":600,"height":295,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men-300x148.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":148,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","medium_large-width":600,"medium_large-height":295,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","large-width":600,"large-height":295,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","1536x1536-width":600,"1536x1536-height":295,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","2048x2048-width":600,"2048x2048-height":295,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","post_full_size-width":600,"post_full_size-height":295,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/isam23-davids-men.jpg","home_baner-width":600,"home_baner-height":295}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"523","name":"Joseph","old_id":"923"},{"term_id":"591","name":"Pharaoh","old_id":"991"}]},{"order":4,"id":"103867","color":"#f7e9e9","size":"1","name":"Did Joseph Have Good Intentions? ","post_title":"Did Joseph Have Good Intentions?","slug":"did-joseph-have-good-intentions","old_id":"103867","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":46656,"post_title":"Molly Morris","slug":"molly-morris","old_id":"46656","first_name":"Molly ","last_name":"Morris ","description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Her particular area of interest is biblical leadership. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","short_description":"Molly Morris holds a Masters degree in Leadership and Community Engagement. Molly participates in the 929 initiative with a dedicated group from the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto congregation. \r\n\r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":92561,"alt":"","title":"molly morris","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","width":2192,"height":2488,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-768x872.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":872,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-902x1024.jpg","large-width":902,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","1536x1536-width":1353,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris.jpg","2048x2048-width":1804,"2048x2048-height":2048,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-1057x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1057,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/molly-morris-370x420.jpg","home_baner-width":370,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"After all, his policies did lead to the enslavement of his people\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

In the mid 1900s, mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot referenced the biblical story of Joseph when he coined the phrase \u201cThe Joseph effect\u201d to describe the phenomenon in which normal cyclical variations form broad trends and patterns. Mandelbrot quantified the Joseph effect through a statistical measure known as the Hurst Exponent, which is commonly used by investors to determine financial trends.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joseph\u2019s understanding of the impending cycle of feast and famine, and his plan to prepare for it by stockpiling and then rationing grain earned him the honorific of \u201cdiscerning and wise\u201d by Pharoah (Genesis 41:39.) But the realization of Joseph\u2019s plan takes an uncomfortable turn in Chapter 47. We learn in this chapter that the food stored during the years of plenty was not distributed to the people through a humanistic relief effort but was sold to them. Eventually the Egyptians had no funds left with which to purchase these stores of food, so Joseph used his political power to offer a new trade deal: grain for ownership of their livestock. When there was no more livestock to trade, he upped the ante to grain for land. In a relatively brief period of time Joseph had succeeded in transferring all the wealth, livestock and land of the Egyptian people to their ruler, Pharaoh.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As David Ehrenfeld wrote in a 2003 Orion magazine article \u201cThe Joseph Strategy\u201d, Joseph\u2019s success at averting famine in the land and ensuring at least the short-term continuity of the Egyptian nation came at a societal price: landless economic serfdom, the centralization of power in a country where it was previously dispersed and the loss of the citizens\u2019 liberty. Ultimately that price led to a society in which a later Pharaoh was able to enslave the Israelites.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks describes this episode as illustrative of the ambiguity of power. The power that is required to sustain society, even in the hands of a righteous person using it with the best of intentions, which we are given to believe Joseph was and did, can become dangerous as power shifts. And shift it did with \u201ca new Pharaoh who knew not Joseph\u201d (Exodus 1).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joseph, the prophet, was not privy to foresee how his own use of power would be distorted in the hands of this new Pharaoh. Nevertheless, Joseph is not fully exonerated of the events that were to befall the Israelites in Egypt. The Talmud (Brachot 55a) recognizes the dangerous politics Joseph was engaging in and tells us that he died before his brothers because of this abuse of authority. Says Rabbi Sacks, \u201c<\/span>Even a <\/span>tzaddik<\/span><\/em> (righteous person) with the best of intentions, when he or she enters politics and assumes airs of authority, can make mistakes.\u201d We learn from this story that the Torah holds us accountable for the outcome of our mistakes, even when they are made through good intentions by righteous leaders.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":84946,"alt":"","title":"ps68-question","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question.png","width":1280,"height":1002,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question-300x235.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":235,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question-768x601.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":601,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question-1024x802.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":802,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1002,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1002,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question-1200x939.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":939,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-question-537x420.png","home_baner-width":537,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Did Joseph Have Good Intentions?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"After all, his policies did lead to the enslavement of his 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Me In Their Burying Place\u201d ","post_title":"\u201cBury Me In Their Burying Place\u201d","slug":"bury-me-in-their-burying-place","old_id":"103862","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":101758,"post_title":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam","slug":"naomi-bromberg-bar-yam","old_id":"101758","first_name":"Naomi ","last_name":"Bromberg Bar-Yam ","description":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam is a social worker and advocate in maternal and child health. She explores her work and life through Torah drashot, rituals and children\u2019s stories.","short_description":"Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam is a social worker and advocate in maternal and child health. She explores her work and life through Torah drashot, rituals and children\u2019s stories.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":101760,"alt":"","title":"-62028435af471--62028435af472Naomi Bromberg Bar-Yam.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","width":361,"height":449,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg-241x300.jpg","medium-width":241,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","medium_large-width":361,"medium_large-height":449,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","large-width":361,"large-height":449,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":361,"1536x1536-height":449,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":361,"2048x2048-height":449,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":361,"post_full_size-height":449,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2022\/02\/62028435af471-62028435af472Naomi-Bromberg-Bar-Yam.jpg-338x420.jpg","home_baner-width":338,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Burial is more than a final resting place\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Jacob is the first person in Torah who anticipated and could plan for his death. In a lovely midrash in Breishit Rabba, Jacob points out to God that his ancestors had all died peacefully, but also suddenly with no opportunity to plan and to communicate their wishes to their descendants. God saw Jacob\u2019s wisdom and allowed him to anticipate his death with a brief illness so that he could share his blessings, instructions and wishes with his children.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Anticipating his death, Jacob insisted that Joseph swear that he will bury Jacob with his ancestors. Why was it so important to Jacob that he be buried with his ancestors, and that his sons take him there?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Burial is important throughout Genesis. It is a final resting place, a connection to the land and the ancestors. We are told in some detail of Abraham<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s purchase of burial caves for his wife, himself and future generations in the land promised to him by God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I am a resident alien among you, sell me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead here (Gen. 23:4).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n

Jacob remained in Egypt long after the famine ended, and, our commentators tell us, these were contented years for Jacob. Jacob saw that his children and their families were also comfortable in Egypt. His grandchildren were born there and knew nothing else. Insisting on burial in Me\u2019arat Hamachpelah communicated tangibly that, while they had been in Egypt for many years and would remain there for generations to come, it was not their home. Their future lies in the land of their ancestors. Burial in Israel was Jacob<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s way of assuring the continuity of the land and God<\/span>\u2019<\/span>s promise to the next generations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Joseph was dying, he too asked his brothers to bury him in Canaan, which happened generations later when the Israelites left Egypt and entered the land.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":83770,"alt":"","title":"ps49-cemetery","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"\u201cBury Me In Their Burying Place\u201d","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Burial is more than a final resting place","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":83770,"alt":"","title":"ps49-cemetery","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ps49-cemetery-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"383","name":"Death","old_id":"783"},{"term_id":"430","name":"Land of Israel","old_id":"830"}]},{"order":6,"id":"40231","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Joseph: Saviour and Slaver ","post_title":"Joseph: Saviour and Slaver","slug":"joseph-saviour-and-slaver","old_id":"40231","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":37918,"post_title":"Shai Held","slug":"shai-held","old_id":"37918","first_name":" Shai ","last_name":"Held","description":"Rabbi Shai Held, theologian, scholar, and educator, is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar, where he also directs the Center for Jewish Leadership and Ideas. A 2011 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for excellence in Jewish education, Rabbi Held has been named multiple times to Newsweek\u2019s list of the 50 most influential rabbis in America. He holds a doctorate in religion from Harvard; Rabbi Held's first book, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence, was published by Indiana University Press in 2013; The Heart of Torah, a collection of essays on the Torah in two volumes, was published by JPS in 2017.","short_description":"Rabbi Shai Held is President, Dean, and Chair in Jewish Thought at Hadar,","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":37919,"alt":"","title":"shai held","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","width":150,"height":186,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","medium-width":150,"medium-height":186,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","medium_large-width":150,"medium_large-height":186,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","large-width":150,"large-height":186,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","1536x1536-width":150,"1536x1536-height":186,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","2048x2048-width":150,"2048x2048-height":186,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","post_full_size-width":150,"post_full_size-height":186,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/shai-held.jpg","home_baner-width":150,"home_baner-height":186}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The Torah passionately prohibits the Israelites from doing to one another what Joseph does to the Egyptian people","post_main_content_content":"

Sometimes the line between heroism and cruelty can be difficult to discern. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Faced with severe famine, Joseph brings the Egyptians back from the brink of starvation, and, at the same time, enslaves them. First, Joseph takes possession of the Egyptian\u2019s fields; then he takes a fifth of everything they own for Pharaoh (47:25); finally, he makes them slaves (<\/span>avadim<\/span><\/em>). In so doing, he runs afoul of the Torah's vision of how an ideal society should function. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

How does Joseph understand his own behavior? Earlier, Joseph had told his brothers that \u201cit was to save life (<\/span>la-mihyah<\/span><\/em>) that God sent me ahead\u201d (45:5). When the Egyptians thank Joseph, they use strikingly reminiscent language: \u201cYou have saved our lives (<\/span>hehiyitanu<\/span><\/em>)!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\r\n

But how does the Torah view Joseph\u2019s enslavement of the Egyptians? Commenting on Joseph\u2019s decision to remove the Egyptian populace from their homes (47:21), Rashbam compares Joseph\u2019s actions to the Assyrian King Sennacherib\u2019s (2 Kings 18:32). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Is Rashbam subtly condemning condemning Joseph\u2019s actions? Or is he merely explaining (one aspect) of what Joseph did by comparing his actions to those of another biblical figure? It is difficult to know.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

And yet I wonder. The ironic turns in the text are intense and powerful and thus require explanation: Brought to Egypt as a slave, Joseph now becomes Egypt\u2019s enslaver. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

And soon enough, a new Pharaoh rises and, in the words of Jon Levenson, \u201cthe House of Israel [finds] themselves once again on the wrong end of the enslavement process.\u201d Joseph displays remarkable administrative prowess, but he unleashes forces that eventually end up oppressing and degrading his own people. It is hard to imagine that the Torah makes no moral judgment at all on Joseph\u2019s setting this destructive process in motion. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

When the Torah imagines Israel\u2019s life in the land, it prohibits the permanent selling of land (Leviticus 25:23) and limits slavery to a limit of six years (Deuteronomy 15:12); permanent enslavement is unthinkable. In other words, the Torah passionately prohibits the Israelites from doing to one another what Joseph does to the Egyptian people as a whole. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

There is something to be said for administrative aptitude, but it is sobering to realize that it can be coupled with profound short-sightedness. It is also a great virtue to behave honestly and honorably with our superiors. But the greatest test of character may lie elsewhere\u2014in the empathy we display towards those who stand powerless before us. <\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":40272,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_238068115","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115.jpg","width":3000,"height":2385,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115-300x239.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":239,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115-768x611.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":611,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115-1024x814.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":814,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1221,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1628,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115-1200x954.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":954,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_238068115-528x420.jpg","home_baner-width":528,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Joseph: 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","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":39779,"alt":"","title":"aliza baronofsky","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky.jpg","width":1425,"height":1794,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-238x300.jpg","medium-width":238,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-768x967.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":967,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-813x1024.jpg","large-width":813,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky.jpg","1536x1536-width":1220,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky.jpg","2048x2048-width":1425,"2048x2048-height":1794,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-953x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":953,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/aliza-baronofsky-334x420.jpg","home_baner-width":334,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A servile population and a centralized economic system help us understand how Pharaoh enslaved the fledgling Jewish nation","post_main_content_content":"

Joseph\u2019s visionary leadership created the economic conditions that enabled his descendants\u2019 slavery, we discover in chapter 47.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It appears that during the years of surplus, Joseph amassed great wealth on behalf of Pharaoh (Gen. 41:47-49). Pharaoh owns all of the stored grain, so Joseph sells it to the Egyptian people during the famine. The people \u2013 formerly farmers \u2013 need money to buy it. Without crops of their own to sell, their situation becomes more desperate over the course of the famine. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When the Egyptian farmers run out of money, they sell their livestock to Pharaoh in exchange for food. The following year, the Egyptians have no livestock and must sell their land to Pharaoh in exchange for food. Put another way, Pharaoh gains control of the means of production in the entire land of Egypt. (A notable exception are the Egyptian priests, who get a designated amount of food and don\u2019t need to sell their land.) Now the ordinary Egyptians continue to work their own land in exchange for a set percentage of its crops.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Before enslaving the Jewish people, Pharaoh \u2013 at the hands of Joseph \u2013 enslaves, in a manner of speaking the Egyptian people. Do the ordinary Egyptians come to know Joseph is a Jew? Do they come to resent him taking from them their independence? Do they resent the more independent Jewish shepherds residing in neighboring Goshen? The text does not tell us. But a servile population and a centralized economic system help us understand how, when the time came, Pharaoh is able to, in a few short steps, first enslave and then begin to murder the fledgling Jewish nation.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103880,"alt":"","title":"-625421c320399--625421c32039agen48-piggy-bank money 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","short_description":"Shoshana Michael Zucker is a translator and editor and lives in Kfar Saba \r\n","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38048,"alt":"","title":"Shoshana Michael Zucker","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","width":231,"height":310,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker-224x300.jpg","medium-width":224,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","medium_large-width":231,"medium_large-height":310,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","large-width":231,"large-height":310,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","1536x1536-width":231,"1536x1536-height":310,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","2048x2048-width":231,"2048x2048-height":310,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","post_full_size-width":231,"post_full_size-height":310,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Shoshana-Michael-Zucker.jpg","home_baner-width":231,"home_baner-height":310}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The challenge remains: getting surplus food onto the plates of people in need, without degrading them in the process","post_main_content_content":"

Concealed, but not quite, within the story of Joseph in Egypt is an important lesson about the global food supply. As Joseph predicted based on Pharaoh\u2019s dream back in chapter 41, Egypt and the surrounding region have experienced seven years of plenty followed by drought and famine. Yet, because of shrewd management, there is food in Egypt, enough not only for local consumption but also for export.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The heart of Joseph\u2019s food management program was collecting surpluses, storing them and redistributing them in times of need. \u00a0Joseph\u2019s use of the food he gathered during the years of plenty as a means for nationalizing Egyptian lands, and enslaving the Egyptian people to Pharaoh in chapter 47 are controversial. They can even be understood as the immediate reason that a later Pharaoh \u201cforgets\u201d Joseph and enslaves the Israelites, but that is an another topic.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

I want to make a different, simpler point: the world produces enough food to feed its population (although population growth and climate change could alter that). Hunger (or \u201cfood insecurity,\u201d if you prefer) exists because of human-caused storage and distribution problems. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For example, based on official statistics, Leket Israel\u2019s \u201c<\/span>The Food Waste and Rescue in Israel Report for 2017<\/span><\/a>\u201d found that \u200e465,000 families in Israel live with food insecurity, but their needs could be met if only 20% of the 2.3 million tons of food wasted in Israel each year, 33% during production processes, was rescued. Leket Israel further estimates half of the food wasted is suitable for human consumption, and could feasibly be rescued, for less than 40% of the cost of closing the gap \u200ewith monetary allocations. The situation is only slightly better in other western countries.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From the story of Joseph, we learn not only that there is adequate food in the world and that it can be redistributed according to need, but also that the social consequences of doing it poorly can be almost as severe as not even trying. Our world is vastly larger and more complex than the one in which Joseph worked, but the challenge remains: getting surplus food onto the plates of people in need, without degrading them in the 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He is an activist advocating for moral limits on Israeli arms exports, and on behalf of African refugees, and a proud husband and father of 5. He received his rabbinical ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in New York, and from the Israeli chief rabbinate.","credit":"","image_url":"","short_description":"Rabbi Avidan Freedman is the Rabbi of Hevruta, the Shalom Hartman Institute's post high school program for Israelis and North Americans, and an educator in the institute's high school. ","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":33860,"alt":"Avidan Freedman","title":"Avidan Freedman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","width":856,"height":1024,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-251x300.jpg","medium-width":251,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-768x919.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":919,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-856x1024.jpg","large-width":856,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","1536x1536-width":856,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365.jpg","2048x2048-width":856,"2048x2048-height":1024,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Avidan-Freedman-e1532029306365-351x420.jpg","home_baner-width":351,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Egypt's response to otherness is fear, enslavement and oppression. The Jewish mission is to teach the world the alternative.","post_main_content_content":"

From God's mysterious last words to Jacob in chapter 46 about Joseph placing his hands on Jacob's eyes, we don't hear the idea of the \"eye of Jacob\" repeated until Moses' last words in the Torah. Moses describes an idyllic vision with the words \"And Israel dwells in security, the eye of Jacob in solitude.\" (Deut. 33:28)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

As Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik explains at the end of his essay Kol Dodi Dofek<\/em>, this is an ultimate vision of a solitude \"that is to be identified with a person's spirituality and individuality; it is a solitude that makes manifest man's dignity and freedom.\"<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This idea is at the very heart of the Jewish people's message to the world. It is what Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks calls \"the dignity of difference,\" a synthesis which celebrates individuality without worshipping individualism, and which affirms Divine Truth without demanding fundamentalism and uniformity. It is a message which calls us to fully see the Other, not as a threat, not in our own image, but in the Divine image.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

How can a people internalize this lesson and make it part of their identity? At the dawn of the Jewish peoplehood, God tells Abraham that before becoming a sovereign people in our land, before we can enjoy the privileges of power, we need to experience what it is to be a <\/span>ger<\/span><\/em>, to be an 'Other'. The Torah demands countless times that we not only remember that experience, but that we transform that memory into policy.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

More than anything, it is Joseph's actions in chapter 47 which guarantee Jewish otherness in Egypt. The Gemara goes so far as to suggest that he was trying to create this experience not only for his own family, but for the entire Egyptian people, by dislocating everyone from their homes. God's promise that we will be 'gerim<\/em>' is realized through Joseph's actions. Egypt's response to otherness is fear, enslavement and oppression. The Jewish mission is to teach the world the alternative.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The Other Is Us","tile_main_caption":"Egypt's response to otherness is fear, enslavement and oppression. The Jewish mission is to teach the world the alternative.","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"433","name":"Other","old_id":"833"},{"term_id":"503","name":"Power","old_id":"903"},{"term_id":"587","name":"Dignity","old_id":"987"}]},{"order":10,"id":"40168","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Famine Economics ","post_title":"Famine Economics","slug":"famine-economics","old_id":"40168","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36837,"post_title":"Ben Schachter","slug":"ben-schachter","old_id":"36837","first_name":"Ben","last_name":"Schachter","description":"Ben Schachter is Professor of Visual Art at Saint Vincent College. He is an artist, critic, writer, and teacher. His book Image, Action, and Idea in Contemporary Jewish Art was published with Pennsylvania State University Press. He lives in Pittsburgh with his wife and four children. ","short_description":"Ben Schachter is Professor of Visual Art at Saint Vincent College. ","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36838,"alt":"","title":"ben schachter","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446.jpg","width":1648,"height":1876,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446-264x300.jpg","medium-width":264,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446-768x874.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":874,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446-900x1024.jpg","large-width":900,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446.jpg","1536x1536-width":1349,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446.jpg","2048x2048-width":1648,"2048x2048-height":1876,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446-1054x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1054,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/ben-schachter-e1533449166446-369x420.jpg","home_baner-width":369,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Through his decisions, he kept the people fed and Egypt enriched","post_main_content_content":"

Joseph, in his wisdom, stored grain in Egypt in preparation for the famine. When famine came, Joseph charged money for the grain he gave to the people. Then, when the people ran out of money, Joseph accepted their cattle for grain. Then when their cattle ran out, Joseph accepted the land and the people, themselves, as serfs. Still, Joseph, under authority of the Pharaoh, gave grain to the people to plant and harvest. The people kept four fifths of what they produced and gave one fifth back to Pharaoh. And the people declared, \u201cYou have saved our lives! We are grateful to my lord, and we shall be serfs to Pharaoh.\u201d All that they had to eat came from Pharaoh.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joseph instructed Pharaoh and the people what to do. Through his decisions, he kept the people fed and Egypt enriched. This image depicts Joseph as the teacher or professor explaining the famine survival plan. It also reflects basic economics, an exchange of one thing for another. The people need food. They give Joseph goods in exchange for food. But the famine is so prolonged that the people go bankrupt and sell themselves into serfdom to survive.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0 courtesy of the author<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":40169,"alt":"","title":"Genesis 47","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47.jpg","width":1666,"height":1206,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-300x217.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":217,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-768x556.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":556,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-1024x741.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":741,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1112,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47.jpg","2048x2048-width":1666,"2048x2048-height":1206,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-1200x869.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":869,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-580x420.jpg","home_baner-width":580,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Famine Economics","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Through his decisions, he kept the people fed and Egypt enriched","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":40169,"alt":"","title":"Genesis 47","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47.jpg","width":1666,"height":1206,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-300x217.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":217,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-768x556.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":556,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-1024x741.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":741,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1112,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47.jpg","2048x2048-width":1666,"2048x2048-height":1206,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-1200x869.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":869,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Genesis-47-580x420.jpg","home_baner-width":580,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"369","name":"Visual Arts","old_id":"769"},{"term_id":"415","name":"food","old_id":"815"},{"term_id":"523","name":"Joseph","old_id":"923"}]},{"order":11,"id":"40459","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Nepotism ","post_title":"Power Is Cyclical","slug":"nepotism","old_id":"40459","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40453,"post_title":"Ruth Balinsky Friedman","slug":"ruth-balinsky-friedman","old_id":"40453","first_name":"Ruth Balinsky ","last_name":"Friedman ","description":"Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman is a member of the inaugural class of Yeshivat Maharat. She has served as the Maharat at Ohev Sholom - The National Synagogue\u00ae in Washington, DC for the past 5 years.","short_description":"Maharat Ruth Balinsky Friedman is a member of the inaugural class of Yeshivat Maharat. She has served as the Maharat at Ohev Sholom - The National Synagogue\u00ae in Washington, DC for the past 5 years.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":40456,"alt":"","title":"ruthbalinskyfriedman","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922.jpeg","width":289,"height":327,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922-150x150.jpeg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922-265x300.jpeg","medium-width":265,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922.jpeg","medium_large-width":289,"medium_large-height":327,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922.jpeg","large-width":289,"large-height":327,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922.jpeg","1536x1536-width":289,"1536x1536-height":327,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922.jpeg","2048x2048-width":289,"2048x2048-height":327,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-e1537251024922.jpeg","post_full_size-width":289,"post_full_size-height":327,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/ruthbalinskyfriedman-263x420.jpeg","home_baner-width":263,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"The Egyptians are starving, though the Israelites are safe. For now\u2026.","post_main_content_content":"

A family torn apart by betrayal and famine finally finds refuge in a foreign land. Pharaoh welcomes them with open arms and commands them to settle in the best parcel of land Egypt has to offer. Bread is in abundance. The brothers are no longer fighting. The decades of turmoil and fear that have carried us through multiple chapters of Genesis are finally put to rest. We all breathe a collective sigh of relief.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

But as we soon learn, our respite from harm is not as poetic as it seems. A foreign patriarch and his descendants are safe in Egypt, but the natives are starving. In desperation they approach the man that Pharaoh has appointed to do his bidding. The most powerful representative of the fledgling Israelite nation has not yet had to learn his people\u2019s core ethical principle - you must always treat others the way that you want to be treated. And so, rather than protect the vulnerable in his midst, he seizes an opportunity to capitalize on them. By the end of the famine, the Egyptians have transformed from <\/span>independent farmers into Pharaoh\u2019s serfs. They have enslaved themselves in order to survive, while the ancestors of the Jewish people look away, quietly enjoying their abundance. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Soon our ancestors will learn the lesson that our sages took for granted - power is always cyclical. As the commentator Bechor Shor bravely comments, it is precisely the Israelites\u2019 immunity from Joseph\u2019s cruel treatment of the Egyptians that leads the latter to enslave the former a few generations later. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cLove the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,\u201d declares our God. Just because you have money or power does not mean that you should act as though you deserve it. We must always remember that our vulnerability could reappear at any moment. Power is always cyclical.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103894,"alt":"","title":"-62542d9e22a1c--62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle circle process.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg.jpg","width":1920,"height":1152,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg-300x180.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":180,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg-768x461.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":461,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg-1024x614.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":614,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":922,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1152,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg-1200x720.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62542d9e22a1c-62542d9e22a1dgen47-cycle-circle-process.jpg-700x420.jpg","home_baner-width":700,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Power Is Cyclical","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"The Egyptians are starving, though the Israelites are safe. 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BCE ","post_title":"Egyptian Famine Relief - 24th C. BCE","slug":"egyptian-famine-relief-24th-c-bce","old_id":"40173","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":false,"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"From the collection of George Blumenthal","post_main_content_content":"

The funerary complex of Unas, an Egyptian Pharaoh of the 24th<\/sup> century BCE, includes this carved relief showing emaciated Egyptian nomads. The image is likely intended to show the king\u2019s generosity towards the destitute who supplicated him, perhaps during a time of famine. Set centuries after the reign of Unas, Genesis 47 narrates the disastrous effects of the famine in Egypt. Like Unas, Joseph shows compassion to the struggling Egyptians.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Image credit: Pritchard, ANET<\/em>\"\"<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"Biblical Archaeology Corner","tile_main_caption":"Egyptian Famine Relief - 24th C. BCE","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"From the collection of George Blumenthal","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":40174,"alt":"","title":"genesis47_image","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image.jpg","width":1173,"height":1010,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image-300x258.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":258,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image-768x661.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":661,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image-1024x882.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":882,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image.jpg","1536x1536-width":1173,"1536x1536-height":1010,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image.jpg","2048x2048-width":1173,"2048x2048-height":1010,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image.jpg","post_full_size-width":1173,"post_full_size-height":1010,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/genesis47_image-488x420.jpg","home_baner-width":488,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"555","name":"Archaeology","old_id":"955"}]},{"order":13,"id":"40176","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Joseph the Court Jew ","post_title":"Joseph the Court Jew","slug":"joseph-the-court-jew","old_id":"40176","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":34227,"post_title":"Eliot Sacks","slug":"eliot-sacks","old_id":"34227","first_name":"Eliot ","last_name":"Sacks","description":"Eliot Sacks is a recovering lawyer who now divides his time between reading philosophy books and singing choral music.\r\n","short_description":"","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":34228,"alt":"","title":"eliot","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot.jpg","width":1089,"height":1185,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot-276x300.jpg","medium-width":276,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot-768x836.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":836,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot-941x1024.jpg","large-width":941,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot.jpg","1536x1536-width":1089,"1536x1536-height":1185,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot.jpg","2048x2048-width":1089,"2048x2048-height":1185,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot.jpg","post_full_size-width":1089,"post_full_size-height":1185,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/eliot-386x420.jpg","home_baner-width":386,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"A position which is: precarious, vulnerable to the resentment of the people and to regime change, and also morally ambivalent \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0","post_main_content_content":"

Every Pesach, at the Seder, we commence the narrative of the Exodus with the words, \"We were slaves to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.\" Do we notice, though, that the first time these words \u2013 or a variant of them \u2013 appear in the Torah is <\/span>before<\/span><\/em> the exodus story?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the second year of the great famine the Egyptian people come to Joseph, now Pharaoh's chief minister, and say: \"Let us not perish before your eyes, both we and our land. Take us and our land in exchange for bread, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh\" (47:19). Joseph takes the people up on their offer. He concentrates ownership of the land in the hands of Pharaoh and, for good measure, implements a wholesale population transfer \"from one end of Egypt's border to the other\" (47:21). The people declare their gratitude and, so there's no doubt, confirm that they are now Pharaoh's slaves (47:25). \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What are we supposed to make of this incident? What does the Torah itself make of this incident? One of the difficulties in making sense of this passage is that it occurs towards the end of Genesis. In short order, the Torah's narrative shifts to a new epoch and the immediate ramifications of this event are left unrecorded.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Are we to view this event as the crowning achievement of Joseph's wise management of Egypt's economic crisis? Should we regard the people of Israel's subsequent enslavement by Egypt as a kind of measure for measure (\"midah keneged midah<\/em>\")? Did Joseph's dispossession of the people and concentration of property and power in the hands of Pharaoh unwittingly create the conditions which enabled Israel's subsequent enslavement?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

If such thoughts belong to the realm of the speculative, what remains is the image of Joseph as the archetypal court Jew. In order to ensure his family's security and prosperity, he becomes the loyal and indispensable adviser to the king. Yet his position is precarious, vulnerable always to the resentment of the people or to regime change, and also morally ambivalent. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Jewish people's generations-long dream of redemption from exile was, among other things, the dream of a nation, sovereign on its land, which would be in a position to defend itself against the vagaries of its enemies, and also to liberate itself from the moral compromises that powerlessness imposed upon it. To some extent, the creation of the State of Israel has magnificently achieved this. Experience teaches us, however, that the dividing line between power and powerlessness, autonomy and dependency, is never absolute; and also that political power brings its own moral challenges. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Image: L\u00e4mmle Seeligmann, the court Jew \/ wikipedia<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":97731,"alt":"","title":"dan4-court jew","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew.jpg","width":800,"height":1200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-683x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":683,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-683x1024.jpg","large-width":683,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":1200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":1200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Joseph the Court Jew","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"A position which is: precarious, vulnerable to the resentment of the people and to regime change, and also morally ambivalent \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":97731,"alt":"","title":"dan4-court jew","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew.jpg","width":800,"height":1200,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-200x300.jpg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-683x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":683,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-683x1024.jpg","large-width":683,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":1200,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":1200,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-800x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/dan4-court-jew-280x420.jpg","home_baner-width":280,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"503","name":"Power","old_id":"903"},{"term_id":"523","name":"Joseph","old_id":"923"},{"term_id":"539","name":"Israel","old_id":"939"}]},{"order":14,"id":"40220","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Joseph Enslaves the Egyptians ","post_title":"Joseph Enslaves the Egyptians","slug":"joseph-enslaves-the-egyptians","old_id":"40220","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":38066,"post_title":"Michael Carasik","slug":"michael-carasik","old_id":"38066","first_name":"Michael","last_name":"Carasik ","description":"Michael Carasik has a Ph.D. in Bible from Brandeis University. He teaches Biblical Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the weekday Torah reader at Historic Congregation Kesher Israel in Philadelphia, the creator of the Commentators\u2019 Bible, and hosts the weekly \"Torah Talk\" podcast on his \u201cBible Guy\u201d blog.","short_description":"Michael Carasik teaches Biblical Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania, is the creator of the Commentators\u2019 Bible, and hosts the weekly \"Torah Talk\" podcast on his \u201cBible Guy\u201d blog.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":38067,"alt":"","title":"Michael Carasik","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343.jpg","width":819,"height":1165,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343-211x300.jpg","medium-width":211,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343-720x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":720,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343-720x1024.jpg","large-width":720,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343.jpg","1536x1536-width":819,"1536x1536-height":1165,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343.jpg","2048x2048-width":819,"2048x2048-height":1165,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-858x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":858,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Michael-Carasik-e1534618207343-295x420.jpg","home_baner-width":295,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Historic inevitability, divine plan, or tragic error?","post_main_content_content":"

Why is there a book of Genesis?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The literary function of Genesis, in the context of the Pentateuch as a whole, is to set up the situation at the beginning of Exodus, where the Israelites change from a family into a nation\u2014of slaves. \u00a0Since God promises in Genesis 12 to give the land of Canaan to Abram and his family, what sense does it make for them to be enslaved elsewhere for a couple of centuries before that promise is fulfilled?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Yet the story the Israelites told about themselves included that interval of oppression in Egypt. \u00a0How to explain it? That is the task of Genesis, which it approaches in more than one way. Genesis 47 gives a socio-political explanation for the Israelites\u2019 enslavement, by describing its \u201cprequel\u201d: the enslavement of the entire Egyptian people by a Hebrew.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Joseph tells Pharaoh that after seven years of plenty famine will strike the land of Egypt, he is installed as grand vizier and accumulates a large enough store of grain to feed Egypt during the years of scarcity, by collecting the grain of the seven years of plenty in government storehouses. But when the famine strikes, instead of dispensing the grain that was collected for the emergency, he <\/span>sells<\/span><\/em> it back to the people who grew it. \u00a0Eventually, they tell him, \u201cNothing is left before your lordship but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, we and our land too? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh\u201d (Gen 47:18-19).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Gen 47:25 they literally say, <\/span>ve-hayyinu avadim le-Pharaoh<\/span><\/em> (\u201cwe will be slaves to Pharaoh\u201d), exactly matching what the Israelites are to tell their children ever after: <\/span>avadim hayyinu le-Pharaoh<\/span><\/em> (\u201cwe were slaves to Pharaoh,\u201d Deut 6:21). \u00a0The next time you sing \u201cAvadim Hayyinu<\/em>\u201d at your Seder table, give some thought to that irony.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

After this, what happens to the Israelites in Exodus is simply a case of measure for measure: Joseph enslaves the Egyptians unfairly (in return for the grain which they themselves grew), and the descendants of Joseph\u2019s family are, in turn, unfairly enslaved by the Egyptians. \u00a0It is presented as if it were almost historically inevitable.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Joseph\u2019s enslavement of the Egyptians does not merely provide a reason for the enslavement of the Israelites; it also serves as the plot mechanism which brings the Israelites to Egypt in the first place. \u00a0And this episode, of course, is just the culmination of the saga of Joseph\u2019s father Jacob. But that story will have to wait for the next time around.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Read more at<\/span> https:\/\/mcarasik.wordpress.com\/2012\/04\/03\/why-were-the-israelites-enslaved\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

image:\u00a0 Maler der Grabkammer des Rechmir\u00ea - The Yorck Project, c. 1500 BCE \/ wikimedia\u00a0<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103890,"alt":"","title":"-6254282bf20e3--6254282bf20e4gen47-brick making slavery 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Shaffir and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch ","post_title":"Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Stav Shaffir","slug":"stav-shaffir-and-rabbi-samson-raphael-hirsch","old_id":"40247","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36839,"post_title":"Yotam Tulub","slug":"yotam-tulub","old_id":"36839","first_name":"Yotam ","last_name":"Tulub","description":"Yotam Tolub was born in France to a French father and a Brazilian mother and grew up in Israel with the exception of four years in the United States when he was a child. He studied law and film, holds a Master's degree in gerontology, works as a lawyer promoting the rights of people with disabilities, and is a noted author.\r\n","short_description":"Yotam Tulub is a noted author, and lawyer specializing in rights of people with disabilities.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36840,"alt":"","title":"yotam tulub","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","width":115,"height":133,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","thumbnail-width":115,"thumbnail-height":133,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","medium-width":115,"medium-height":133,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","medium_large-width":115,"medium_large-height":133,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","large-width":115,"large-height":133,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","1536x1536-width":115,"1536x1536-height":133,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","2048x2048-width":115,"2048x2048-height":133,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","post_full_size-width":115,"post_full_size-height":133,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/yotam-tulub-e1533450746621.jpg","home_baner-width":115,"home_baner-height":133}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Leadership should depend on the public's appreciation, and not the public be dependent on the generosity of the leadership","post_main_content_content":"

In the era of Stav Shaffir in which we live (Stav Shaffir is the youngest female Knesset member in Israel's history, outspoken for demanding fiscal oversight and supporting a wide array of social justice-related issues), the second half of our chapter is not a pleasant section to read. Joseph exploits the economic distress of the years of famine to nationalize all of Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Guy Rolnik, a Deputy Publisher of the Haaretz daily newspaper, would not have allowed Joseph to evade his pen\u2019s penetrating editorial about the Egyptian Pharaoh\u2019s fortune, and rightly so. When the Egyptians ask Joseph for bread, Joseph demands in return all cattle and sheep and then all the lands of Egypt. The Egyptians have no choice but to sell their souls in order to survive the years of famine.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch stirred uneasily when he came to this chapter and gives an apologetic answer that it was not Joseph who came up with this idea, but rather the Egyptians themselves, when they suggested: \"Take us and our land in exchange for bread\" (Genesis 47:19). \u00a0Joseph settled for land taxes without turning everyone into slaves. In general, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch in his commentary to this chapter turns out to be a man with social sensitivity. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

In Egypt during the years of the famine, notes Rabbi Hirsch, all the lands belonged to Pharaoh except for the land of the priests that remained in their hands. In contrast, in the Israelite kingdom all the lands belonged to the tribes with the exception of the priests who had no property. \"Their entire existence,\" says Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch about Israelite priests, \"depended on the good will of each individual and the respect he accorded them.\" \u00a0It is a system where the leadership depends on the public's appreciation and not one where the public is dependent on the generosity of the leadership.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":40266,"alt":"","title":"hirsch-shaffir","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","width":662,"height":409,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir-300x185.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":185,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","medium_large-width":662,"medium_large-height":409,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","large-width":662,"large-height":409,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","1536x1536-width":662,"1536x1536-height":409,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","2048x2048-width":662,"2048x2048-height":409,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","post_full_size-width":662,"post_full_size-height":409,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","home_baner-width":662,"home_baner-height":409}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and Stav Shaffir ","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Leadership should depend on the public's appreciation, and not the public be dependent on the generosity of the leadership","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":40266,"alt":"","title":"hirsch-shaffir","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/png","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","width":662,"height":409,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir-300x185.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":185,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","medium_large-width":662,"medium_large-height":409,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","large-width":662,"large-height":409,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","1536x1536-width":662,"1536x1536-height":409,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","2048x2048-width":662,"2048x2048-height":409,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","post_full_size-width":662,"post_full_size-height":409,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hirsch-shaffir.png","home_baner-width":662,"home_baner-height":409}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"402","name":"Leadership","old_id":"802"},{"term_id":"523","name":"Joseph","old_id":"923"}]},{"order":16,"id":"40228","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Why Are We the People of Israel? ","post_title":"Why Are We the People of Israel?","slug":"why-are-we-the-people-of-israel","old_id":"40228","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":33923,"post_title":"Jonathan Sacks","slug":"rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks","old_id":"33923","first_name":"Jonathan ","last_name":"Sacks","description":"An international religious leader, philosopher, and award-winning author of over 35 books, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks served as the International President of 929.\r\nRabbi Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth years between 1991 and 2013, and was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005 and made a Life Peer. Rabbi Sacks passed away on 7th November 2020, aged 72. He was one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, who bridged the religious and secular world through his ground-breaking canon of work.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"short_description":"Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z\"k (1948-2020) was the former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, and the International 929 president.","link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36222,"alt":"","title":"JSacks","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","width":437,"height":548,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-239x300.jpg","medium-width":239,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-768x448.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":448,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-1024x597.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":597,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","1536x1536-width":437,"1536x1536-height":548,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","2048x2048-width":437,"2048x2048-height":548,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594.jpg","post_full_size-width":437,"post_full_size-height":548,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/JSacks-e1532858712594-335x420.jpg","home_baner-width":335,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"At the depths of Jacob\u2019s despair, he is lifted to the greatest heights of spirituality","post_main_content_content":"

Why is Jacob, i.e. Israel, the father of our people, the hero of our faith? <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The account of Jacob in the Torah seems to fall short, at least if we read the text literally. He has tense relationships with his family. In reply to Pharaoh he says of himself, \u201cThe days of my life have been few and hard\u201d (Gen. 47: 9). This is less than we might expect from a hero of faith.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

What makes Jacob unique is that he has his most intense encounters with God \u2013 they are the most dramatic in the whole book of Genesis \u2013 in the midst of the journey, alone, at night, far from home, fleeing from one danger to the next.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jacob\u2019s meetings with angels are described by the verb which means \u201ca chance encounter\u201d, as if they took Jacob by surprise, which clearly they did. Jacob\u2019s most spiritual moments are ones he did not plan. He was thinking of other things, about what he was leaving behind and what lay ahead of him. He was, as it were, \u201csurprised by God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jacob is someone with whom we can identify. We can feel his fear, understand his pain at the tensions in his family, and sympathise with his deep longing for a life of quietude and peace.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The point is not just that Jacob is the most human of the patriarchs but rather that at the depths of his despair he is lifted to the greatest heights of spirituality. He is the one who, at the very moments he feels most alone, discovers that he is not alone, that God is with him, that he is accompanied by angels.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Jacob\u2019s message defines Jewish existence. It is our destiny to travel. Rare and brief have been our interludes of peace. But at the dark of night we have found ourselves lifted by a force of faith we did not know we had, surrounded by angels we did not know were there. If we walk in the way of Jacob, we too may find ourselves surprised by God.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":75239,"alt":"","title":"ez37-dark dawn","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn.jpg","width":1920,"height":1260,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-300x197.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":197,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-768x504.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":504,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-1024x672.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":672,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1008,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1260,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-1200x788.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":788,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-640x420.jpg","home_baner-width":640,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Why Are We the People of Israel?","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"At the depths of Jacob\u2019s despair, he is lifted to the greatest heights of spirituality","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":75239,"alt":"","title":"ez37-dark dawn","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn.jpg","width":1920,"height":1260,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-300x197.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":197,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-768x504.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":504,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-1024x672.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":672,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1008,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1260,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-1200x788.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":788,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez37-dark-dawn-640x420.jpg","home_baner-width":640,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"354","name":"Rabbi Sacks","old_id":"754"},{"term_id":"384","name":"God","old_id":"784"},{"term_id":"442","name":"Journey","old_id":"842"},{"term_id":"490","name":"Jacob","old_id":"890"},{"term_id":"539","name":"Israel","old_id":"939"}]},{"order":17,"id":"40163","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Jacob\u2019s Sorrow ","post_title":"Jacob\u2019s Sorrow","slug":"jacobs-sorrow","old_id":"40163","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36544,"post_title":"Asa Kasher","slug":"asa-kasher","old_id":"36544","first_name":"Asa","last_name":"Kasher ","description":"Prof. Asa Kasher is Professor Emeritus of Professional Ethics and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, Israel Prize Laureate for Philosophy. He is noted for authorship of the IDF\u2019s Code of Conduct, which combines international law, Israeli law, Jewish heritage and the IDF's own traditional ethical code\u2014the IDF Spirit.\r\n","short_description":"Prof. Asa Kasher is Professor Emeritus of Professional Ethics and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, Israel Prize Laureate for Philosophy.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36576,"alt":"","title":"asa kasher","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","medium-width":150,"medium-height":150,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","medium_large-width":150,"medium_large-height":150,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","large-width":150,"large-height":150,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","1536x1536-width":150,"1536x1536-height":150,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","2048x2048-width":150,"2048x2048-height":150,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","post_full_size-width":150,"post_full_size-height":150,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/asa-kasher.jpg","home_baner-width":150,"home_baner-height":150}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Even the best news ever - \u201cJoseph is still alive\u05f4 - could not erase a broken heart","post_main_content_content":"

The encounter between Jacob and Pharaoh is described in four verses, a little that contains a lot.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The description \u201cJacob blessed Pharaoh\u201d appears twice (Genesis 47:7 and 47:10), when they first meet and at the end. In contrast, the text does not tell us the content of Jacob\u2019s blessing. \u00a0As a result, the gates of midrash and commentary are wide open. There are those who saw in Jacob\u2019s blessing good manners and politeness, that is, a greeting and a farewell bidding, \u201cas is typical in the case of all who are granted an interview with kings at long intervals,\u201d according to Rashi (in Genesis 47:7).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Others go in the reverse direction: \u201cJacob gave him two blessings\u2026.one that the Nile will flow up and irrigate his land and the other that the famine will come to an end,\u201d according to Midrash Ha-Chefetz. The difference is deep: A greeting of politeness sets up Pharaoh above Jacob whereas a blessing that would be actualized in reality sets up Jacob above Pharoah. \u00a0Perhaps the Torah\u2019s silence leads us to grab hold of both perspectives at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Pharaoh\u2019s question \u201cHow many are the years of your life?\u201d (Genesis 47:8), is answered by Jacob with a direct response \u201cThe years of my sojourn [on earth] are one hundred and thirty\u201d (Genesis 47:9), and with a historical addendum, \u201cthey do not come up to the life spans of my fathers during their sojourns\u201d (ibid). But at the center stands an astonishing personal addition \u201cfew and hard have been the years of my life\u201d (ibid.). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

There are those who saw something negative in this personal testimonial: Jacob voiced an objection and was punished. \u00a0I think otherwise. I think that I understand Jacob. In order to understand him, one must look at the story of Joseph and his brothers from Jacob\u2019s perspective. When the brothers show Jacob Joseph\u2019s bloody ornamented tunic, \u201cJacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days\u201d (Genesis 37:34). \u201cTo mourn\u201d means living a way of life of mourning that involves both an emotion and certain practices. This combination of expressions lasted \u201cmany days.\u201d Afterwards, \u201cAll his sons and daughters sought to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted\u201d (Genesis 37:35) because his soul desired to die, \u201cNo, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol\u201d (ibid.). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Later, David will say of Absalom \u201cIf only had I died instead of you! O Absalom, my son, my son!\u201d (II Samuel 19:1), in other words, exactly the same idea. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u201cFew and hard have been the years of my life\u201d (Genesis 47:9). Even the best news ever, \u201cJoseph is still alive\u05f4 (Genesis 45:26) could not erase a broken heart. It is a type of sorrow that touches one\u2019s heart more deeply and completely than any other.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

(Cover photo by\u00a0\u00a0Sergey Furtaev)<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":40270,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_785164294","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294.jpg","width":3616,"height":2411,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1366,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"","tile_main_caption":"Jacob\u2019s Sorrow","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Even the best news ever - \u201cJoseph is still alive\u05f4 - could not erase a broken heart","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":40270,"alt":"","title":"shutterstock_785164294","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294.jpg","width":3616,"height":2411,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-300x200.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":200,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-768x512.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":512,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-1024x683.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":683,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1024,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1366,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-1200x800.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":800,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/shutterstock_785164294-630x420.jpg","home_baner-width":630,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"363","name":"Midrash","old_id":"763"},{"term_id":"484","name":"Mourning","old_id":"884"},{"term_id":"490","name":"Jacob","old_id":"890"},{"term_id":"504","name":"Blessing","old_id":"904"}]},{"order":18,"id":"40242","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Jacob\u2019s Journey To Egypt ","post_title":"Jacob\u2019s Journey To Egypt","slug":"jacobs-journey-to-egypt","old_id":"40242","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":36669,"post_title":"Yakov Azriel","slug":"yakov-azriel","old_id":"36669","first_name":"Yakov ","last_name":"Azriel","description":"Yakov Azriel, who lives in Israel, has published five books of poetry in the USA and hundreds of poems in journals and magazines. His poems have won twenty-two prizes in international poetry competitions, and he has twice been awarded fellowships from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.","short_description":"Yakov Azriel is an English language poet who lives in Israel","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":36670,"alt":"","title":"Yakov.Azriel.Photo","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668.jpg","width":1099,"height":1519,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-217x300.jpg","medium-width":217,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-741x1024.jpg","medium_large-width":741,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-741x1024.jpg","large-width":741,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668.jpg","1536x1536-width":1099,"1536x1536-height":1519,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668.jpg","2048x2048-width":1099,"2048x2048-height":1519,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-868x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":868,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Yakov.Azriel.Photo_-e1533158407668-304x420.jpg","home_baner-width":304,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Did his luggage include \/ A star from Joseph\u2019s dreams?","post_main_content_content":"

\u201cAnd Joseph came and told Pharaoh, 'My father and my brothers and all their <\/em>
\r\nflocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan \u2026.\u201d<\/em> (Genesis 47:1)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

When Jacob packed his suitcase<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>For the journey down to Egypt,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>What did he pack inside? <\/span><\/p>\r\n

His father\u2019s old <\/span>tefillin<\/span><\/em>?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>His mother\u2019s candlesticks?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A stone from Rachel\u2019s grave?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Or did he place inside<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A passport labeled \u2018prayer,\u2019<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A visa stamped: \u2018Return\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Did his luggage include<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>A star from Joseph\u2019s dreams,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Shadows from Jerusalem\u2019s wall? <\/span><\/p>\r\n

And when he locked his bag,<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>To whom did he give the key?<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>Did he pass it on \u2014 to me?<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103884,"alt":"","title":"-62542343b63fb--62542343b63fcgen47-suitcase 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Poetry Corner","tile_main_caption":"Jacob\u2019s Journey To Egypt","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Did his luggage include \/ A star from Joseph\u2019s dreams?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":103884,"alt":"","title":"-62542343b63fb--62542343b63fcgen47-suitcase 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Museum: State and Temple Owned Lands ","post_title":"Brooklyn Museum: State and Temple Owned Lands","slug":"brooklyn-museum-state-and-temple-owned-lands","old_id":"40465","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":40024,"post_title":"Edward Bleiberg","slug":"edward-bleiberg","old_id":"40024","first_name":"Edward ","last_name":"Bleiberg ","description":"Dr. Edward Bleiberg is Senior Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum. A Pittsburgh native, he graduated from Haverford College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Bleiberg received an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He is the author of several books and articles on ancient Egyptian economy, Egyptian coffins, and the Jewish minority in ancient Egypt and ancient Rome.","short_description":"Dr. Edward Bleiberg is Senior Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":40025,"alt":"","title":"Edward_Bleiberg_335W","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","width":182,"height":204,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-300x280.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":280,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","medium_large-width":182,"medium_large-height":204,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","large-width":182,"large-height":204,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","1536x1536-width":182,"1536x1536-height":204,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","2048x2048-width":182,"2048x2048-height":204,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","post_full_size-width":182,"post_full_size-height":204,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Edward_Bleiberg_335W-e1537039197728.jpg","home_baner-width":182,"home_baner-height":204}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"","post_main_content_content":"

https:\/\/youtu.be\/2azoIlNW4Q8<\/p>\r\n

Dr. Edward Bleiberg, Senior Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum<\/p>\r\n

Dr. Aaron Koller, Associate Professor of Near Eastern and Jewish Studies, Yeshiva University<\/p>","post_main_content_image":"","post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"929 At The Museum","tile_main_caption":"Brooklyn Museum: State and Temple Owned Lands","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Who owned what?","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":"","tile_preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/2azoIlNW4Q8","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"369","name":"Visual Arts","old_id":"769"},{"term_id":"555","name":"Archaeology","old_id":"955"},{"term_id":"590","name":"Museum","old_id":"990"}]},{"order":20,"id":"68063","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"2","name":"Vayigash: Joseph Saves \u2013 And Enslaves \u2013 The People ","post_title":"Vayigash: Joseph Saves \u2013 And Enslaves \u2013 The People","slug":"vayigash-joseph-saves-and-enslaves-the-people","old_id":"68063","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":{"id":46171,"post_title":"Avner Moriah","slug":"avner-moriah","old_id":"46171","first_name":"Avner ","last_name":"Moriah ","description":"Avner Moriah is a prolific Israel artist who has addressed a wide range of Jewish and Israeli themes during the four decades of his artistic journey. Currently, Avner is completing a singular artistic and spiritual feat of illuminating the entire Chumash. The unique illuminated books contain hundreds of original drawings that offer a profound, provocative and humorous perspective. \r\nFor the entire weekly portion series, visit: https:\/\/avnermoriahprints.com\/collections\/parasha\r\nFor more of his work visit: https:\/\/avnermoriah.com\/\r\n","short_description":"Avner Moriah is a prolific Israel artist who is illuminating the entire Chumash.","credit":"","image_url":"","hide_writer":false,"link_for_pay":false,"image":{"id":46173,"alt":"","title":"avner moriah","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679.jpg","width":1387,"height":1425,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679-292x300.jpg","medium-width":292,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679-768x789.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":789,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679-997x1024.jpg","large-width":997,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679.jpg","1536x1536-width":1387,"1536x1536-height":1425,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679.jpg","2048x2048-width":1387,"2048x2048-height":1425,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679-1168x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1168,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/avner-moriah-e1545511134679-409x420.jpg","home_baner-width":409,"home_baner-height":420}},"tags":false},"related_cahpter":"1077","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"And lays the groundwork for the enslavement of the children of Israel\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

Acting on God\u2019s plan as revealed through Pharaoh\u2019s dream, Joseph had gathered and hoarded large quantities of grain and he now had sufficient stores to keep all of Egypt from starvation. What were the consequences of Joseph\u2019s economic plan? How did it affect the Israelites in the long run?<\/p>\r\n

The painting is divided into two large rectangles in the center and six squares, three on either side. The first scene, at the top right, visualizes the famine in the land \u2013 an emaciated couple with a dead baby in the woman\u2019s arms. The donkey between them is also only skin and bones, there is a vulture devouring a corpse. In these six squares the normally massive-looking pyramids that represent the burial place of the Pharaohs are rendered as thin constructions, reflecting the condition of the starving Egyptians.<\/p>\r\n

The center square on the right, visualizing 47:14, shows Joseph collecting the money that the famished people were obliged to pay for their rations. Receiving money from a gaunt figure painted yellow, Joseph gives him a sack of grain in return. In four of the squares, Joseph is standing in front of yellow, green, and white constructions, the granaries of stored grain that he collected from the Egyptians during the seven good years. The bottom square, which visualizes 47:16\u201317, shows a starving man, who no longer had any money, and thus was forced to give Joseph their livestock in exchange for grain.<\/p>\r\n

Another year went by and there was still famine in the land. The people had already lost all of their livestock, so they offered to exchange their land for food. The top square on the left shows a yellow skeletal figure giving Joseph a plot of land for Pharaoh. The next square down visualizes the verse: \u201cSo Joseph gained possession of all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh...\u201d (47:20). Joseph is sitting at a desk with a laptop computer designing a new feudal system because the once-free people of Egypt are now Pharaoh\u2019s serfs. In the bottom square on the left an Egyptian priest is standing on his own land: \u201cOnly the land of the priests he did not take over, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh\u201d (47:22).<\/p>\r\n

The large upper rectangle in the center of the painting pictures Joseph surveying all of the land of Egypt, where people are working in what are now Pharaoh\u2019s fields. Nonetheless, they are grateful to Joseph and Pharaoh for saving them from starvation during the long famine. The lower rectangle shows the way that Joseph\u2019s plan eventually redounded to the detriment of the Israelites. As the land now belonged to Pharaoh and he could treat his people as slaves, once Joseph died, a new king who did not know Joseph would consider the Israelites in the same light. This lower image is very similar to the one above it except that in place of the figure of Joseph we see Pharaoh overseeing the work of Israelite slaves.<\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":68064,"alt":"","title":"11 Va-yiggash","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash.jpg","width":2500,"height":2056,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-300x247.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":247,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-768x632.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":632,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-1024x842.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":842,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1263,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1684,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-1200x987.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":987,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-511x420.jpg","home_baner-width":511,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"","tile_top_caption":"The Chapter Illustrated","tile_main_caption":"Joseph Saves \u2013 And Enslaves \u2013 The People","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"And lays the groundwork for the enslavement of the children of Israel","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":68064,"alt":"","title":"11 Va-yiggash","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash.jpg","width":2500,"height":2056,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-300x247.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":247,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-768x632.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":632,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-1024x842.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":842,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1263,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1684,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-1200x987.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":987,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/11-Va-yiggash-511x420.jpg","home_baner-width":511,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","links":false,"tile_link_for_pay":"0","send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Prophets","book":"Isaiah","chapter":false,"chapter_main_number":false,"date":false,"wall_id":"1077"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"368","name":"Parasha","old_id":"768"},{"term_id":"438","name":"Slavery","old_id":"838"},{"term_id":"523","name":"Joseph","old_id":"923"}]},{"order":21,"id":"40281","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"MiliMiliM - The Hebrew Corner - Gen 47 ","post_title":"MiliMiliM - The Hebrew Corner - Gen 47","slug":"milimilim-the-hebrew-corner-gen-47","old_id":"40281","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":false,"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"\u05de\u05d9\u05d8\u05d1 - \u00a0Meitav - Best\r\n\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

47:6 - The land of Egypt is open before you: settle your father and your brothers <\/span>b\u2019meitav haaretz<\/span><\/em>, \u00a0<\/span><\/i>in the best part of the land\u2026<\/span>
\r\n<\/span>11 - So Joseph settled his father and his brothers, giving them holdings <\/span>b\u2019meitav haaretz<\/em> <\/span>in the choicest part of the land of Egypt, in the region of Rameses,<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The word \u201cmeitav<\/em>\u201d might be somewhat advanced, but its root, t-o-v<\/em>, \u201cgood\u201d - is pure Hebrew 101. A root isn\u2019t a word, but in this case the basic word coming from the root looks identical to the root. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

That word, <\/span>tov<\/span><\/em>, appears often in the Book of Genesis, right from the very Beginning. God saw almost every day <\/span>ki tov<\/span><\/em>,<\/span><\/i> that it was good, and Friday was <\/span>tov me\u2019od<\/span><\/em>, very good. Of course, by chapter 2, it was already the case that it was <\/span>lo tov<\/span><\/em>, not good, that the first Adam was alone\u2026 And then there was that pesky tree, <\/span>etz hada\u2019at tov vera\u2019<\/span><\/em>,<\/em> the one of the knowledge of Good AND Bad.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By chapter 4, being good indeed was a basic choice to be made. As God admonishes Cain (4:7): \u201cSurely, <\/span>im teitiv<\/em> <\/span>if you do right, There is uplift. But \u00a0<\/span>im lo teitiv<\/em> <\/span>if you do not do right Sin couches at the door; Its urge is toward you, Yet you can be its master.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This root has some offbeat expressions. For instance, \u201ctov<\/em>\u201d is good (the adjective), \u201ctiv<\/em>\u201d is the quality or nature of a thing, and \u201ctuv<\/em>\u201d is \u201cgood\u201d the noun, or even \u201cbest\u201d as in the signoff <\/span>kol tuv<\/span><\/em> - \u201call the best.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Meitav<\/em>, our word here, means \u201cbest\u201d or \u201cchoice.\u201d Contemporary Hebrew has <\/span>meitavi<\/span><\/em>, optimal, as opposed to <\/span>meiravi<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>maximal (from <\/span>rav<\/span><\/em>, or <\/span>harbeh<\/span><\/em>, \u201ca lot\u201d). And if you feel you\u2019ve received the best deal, you can make the blessing <\/span>hatov vehameitiv<\/span><\/em>, <\/span><\/i>(the causative form - \u201cdoes or makes good\u201d) - thanking God who is good, and beneficent.<\/span><\/p>","post_main_content_image":{"id":103860,"alt":"","title":"-62533416d104d--62533416d104fgen47-milim meitav.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","width":960,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","large-width":960,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":960,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":960,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":960,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"post_main_content_embedded_video":"","post_main_content_video_duration":"","post_main_content_show_fb_comments":"1","post_main_content_credit_media":"

Artwork by: Ben Schachter<\/p>","tile_top_caption":"MiliMiliM - The Hebrew Corner","tile_main_caption":"\u05de\u05d9\u05d8\u05d1 - \u00a0Meitav - Best","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"... a word from the daily chapter...","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":103860,"alt":"","title":"-62533416d104d--62533416d104fgen47-milim meitav.jpg","caption":"","description":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","width":960,"height":720,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","large-width":960,"large-height":720,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","1536x1536-width":960,"1536x1536-height":720,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","2048x2048-width":960,"2048x2048-height":720,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg.jpg","post_full_size-width":960,"post_full_size-height":720,"home_baner":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/62533416d104d-62533416d104fgen47-milim-meitav.jpg-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"tile_preview_video":"","tile_external_link":"","tile_tile_gallery_items":"","tile_credits":"Robert Kneschke (shutterstock 161025986)","alternate_tile_top_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption":"","alternate_tile_main_caption_size":"1","alternate_tile_sub_caption":"","alternate_tile_hide_media":"0","tile_group_preview_image_url":"","tile_group_main_caption":"","tile_group_sub_caption":"","tile_group_popup_package_extra_content":"","tile_group_read_time":"","home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo_seo_title":"","seo_seo_description":"","seo_seo_default_title":"","seo_seo_default_description":"","old_create_date":"","tile_link_for_pay":"0","links":false,"send_noty":false,"chapter_info":{"books_group":"Torah","book":"Genesis","chapter":"47","chapter_main_number":"47","date":"20251103","wall_id":"47"},"link_for_pay":false,"tags":[{"term_id":"361","name":"Hebrew language","old_id":"761"},{"term_id":"466","name":"Goodness","old_id":"866"}]},{"order":22,"id":"40258","color":"#e2f4fa","size":"1","name":"Chapter Summary - Genesis 47 ","post_title":"Chapter Summary - Genesis 47","slug":"chapter-summary-genesis-47","old_id":"40258","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":false,"related_cahpter":"47","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_url":"","post_main_content_description":"Chapter 47 Summary: Getting Settled\r\n","post_main_content_content":"

This chapter is about getting organized.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Verses 1-12: \u00a0Jacob\u2019s family is getting settled and is located in Goshen. Negotiations with Pharaoh about the land of Goshen succeed. The strong card was the fact that Jacob\u2019s family\u2019s occupation is grazing sheep. \u00a0Pharaoh, whose performance Joseph knows from up close, even suggests to his brothers to join the Egyptian ranks: \u201cAnd if you know any capable men among them, put them in charge of my livestock\u201d (verse 6).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Pharaoh meets Jacob. Jacob blesses Pharaoh (twice in verses 7 and 10). Pharaoh asks with diplomatic politeness: \u00a0\u201cHow many are the years of your life?\u201d (verse 8) and he receives, in addition to the mathematical answer (130 years old for those who are curious), a very personal response from Jacob \u201cFew and hard have been the years of my life\u201d (verse 9). <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Verses 13-26: \u00a0Joseph once again organizes the finances of Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The years of famine are at their pinnacle. The people have nothing to eat. The royal storehouses of food are full of produce that was acquired from the people during the years of plenty. \u00a0What do they do? They sell it to the common folk until they have no more money, until all their property is gone. And then Joseph purchases for the royal house the people\u2019s land and in that way transforms the entire Egyptian population into servants of the king. But what wouldn\u2019t you do to get some food?! <\/span><\/p>\r\n

Points to Ponder:<\/span><\/p>\r\n

    \r\n\t
  1. A few of the brothers. \u00a0Joseph arranges for Pharaoh to meet his family. \u00a0However, not with everyone. \u201cAnd selecting a few of his brothers, he presented them to Pharaoh\u201d (verse 2). \u00a0Why not with everyone? Who were the five people chosen and why specifically them?<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  2. Few and hard. \u00a0This is how Jacob summarizes the essence of his life. \u00a0How much pain is rolled up into this short phrase.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  3. The land of the priests. \u00a0The priests have special status in Egypt. \u00a0The royal family is responsible for their economic welfare, and only they aren their lands remain independent in the new order in Egypt.<\/span><\/li>\r\n\t
  4. Burial in the Holy Land. \u00a0In anticipation of his death, Jacob makes Joseph take an oath promising to make sure he is buried in the tomb of his forefathers.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","post_main_content_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to 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Daily Summary","tile_main_caption":"Points to Ponder: Genesis 47","tile_main_caption_size":"1","tile_sub_caption":"Insights and questions for personal reflection and group discussion","tile_preview_embedded":"","tile_preview_image":{"id":86314,"alt":"","title":"Points to 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on the Daily Chapter - Gen 47","tile_main_caption":"Short talks by Adam Mintz and by David Silber","tile_main_caption_size":"2","tile_sub_caption":"Rabbi Silber's teachings are dedicated in memory of Joan Silverstein Meyers and Ellen Goodstein Koplow. 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