VayigashBereshit (genesis)

Before setting out, Jacob prepared a burial place for himself in the Machpeilah Cave, suspecting that he would not be returning from Egypt before dying. After arranging that, Israel set out from Hebron with his entire family and with everything he owned. He arrived in Beersheba, and he offered up sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

God spoke to Israel in a vision by night and said affectionately, “Jacob! Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am.”

God said, “I am the Almighty, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for it is specifically there that I will make you into a great nation. When I told your grandfather Abraham that I would make him into a great nation specifically while in the Promised Land, I meant that only there would he merit having children; I did not mean that only there could they grow into a nation.

Furthermore, I will go down to Egypt with you and I will make sure that your sons bring you up from there as well after your death, in order to bury you in the Holy Land. When you die, Joseph will place his hand on your eyes.”

So, in the year 2238, Jacob set out from Beersheba. Israel’s sons transported their father Jacob, together with their young children and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

They took their livestock and the possessions that they had acquired in Canaan, and they arrived in Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him. Jacob also took along acacia trees to plant in Egypt, for he foresaw prophetically that God would command his descendants to build a portable sanctuary out of acacia wood to use during their journey through the desert on their way back to the Promised Land.

His sons and grandsons were with him, and he brought his daughters, his two granddaughters, and all the rest of his offspring with him to Egypt, as well.

These are the names of the children of Israel who were now coming to Egypt, i.e., Jacob and his sons. Jacob’s firstborn was Reuben.

Reuben’s sons were Chanoch, Palu, Chetzron, and Karmi.

Simeon’s sons were Yemu’el, Yamin, Ohad, Yachin, Tzochar, and Sha’ul son of Dinah, who was the woman from Jacob’s household who had been violated by Shechem, the Canaanite.

Levi’s sons were Gershon, Kehat, and Merari. Levi’s wife gave birth to his daughter, Yocheved, as they were entering Egypt.

Judah’s sons were Er, Onan, Shelah, Peretz, and Zerach, but Er and Onan died in Canaan; and the sons of Peretz were Chetzron, who was born in 2237, when Peretz was eight years old, and Chamul, who was born in this year, 2238, when Peretz was nine.

Issachar’s sons were Tola, Puvah, Yov, and Shimron.

Zebulun’s sons were Sered, Elon, and Yachle’el.

The above are the offspring of Leah whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, besides his daughter Dinah. All these sons and daughters came to 33 persons.

Gad’s sons were Tzifyon, Chagi, Shuni, Etzbon, Eri, Arodi, and Ar’eli.

Asher’s sons were Yimnah, Yishvah, Yishvi, and Beri’ah, and their sister was Serach. The sons of Beri’ah were Chever and Malki’el.

The above are the offspring of Zilpah, Leah’s half-sister, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah as a bondwoman. She bore these to Jacob – 16 persons.

The sons of Jacob’s main wife Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

Manasseh and Ephraim were born to Joseph in Egypt by Asnat daughter of Potiphera, lord of On.

And Benjamin’s sons were Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Na’aman, Echi, Rosh, Mupim, Chupim, and Ard.

The above are the offspring of Rachel who were born to Jacob – 14 persons in all.

Dan’s son was Chushim.

Naphtali’s sons were Yachtze’el, Guni, Yetzer, and Shilem.

The above are the offspring of Bilhah, Rachel’s half-sister, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel as a bondwoman. She bore these to Jacob – seven persons in all.

Thus, all the people who were now coming to Egypt along with Jacob and who were his own issue were altogether 66 persons. This number was aside from Jacob’s 14 other daughters, who had become the wives of Jacob’s sons, and his one remaining wife, Bilhah.

Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. Thus the total of Jacob’s household who came to Egypt besides Jacob himself, his wife Bilhah, and his other fourteen daughters was 70 persons. All of Jacob’s offspring were loyal to his religious teachings and served the One God.

He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to make advance preparations in Goshen. Chief among these preparations was setting up an academy for the study of the Torah, to which Jacob’s family would be able to turn for instruction in God’s ways. They then arrived in Goshen.

In honor of his father’s arrival, Joseph harnessed his chariot himself and went up to Goshen to welcome his father Israel. He presented himself to his father, embraced him around his neck, and wept on his neck for a long while. Jacob, on his part, neither wept nor reciprocated Joseph’s embrace, for when he saw Joseph, he was overcome by the open manifestation of God’s providence, and in response reaffirmed and declared his belief in God’s oneness as well as his love and awe of Him.

Then Israel said to Joseph, “Now I can die content, having seen your face and having seen that you are still alive.”

Joseph then said to his brothers and to his father’s entire household, “I will go up to the palace and tell Pharaoh that you have arrived. I will say to him, ‘My brothers and all my father’s household who were in Canaan have come to me.

These men are shepherds, for they have always owned livestock, and they have brought along their flocks, their herds, and all their possessions.’

Now, when Pharaoh summons you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’

you should answer, ‘Your servants have been livestock dealers from our youth up until now, both we and our father and forefathers, and we know no other trade,’ so that you will be able to settle in Goshen, which is a land of pasture. When Pharaoh hears that the only vocation you know is shepherding, he will make sure you settle far away from the capital city, for all shepherds who raise sheep for food and do not distinguish between firstborn sheep – which the Egyptians worship – and other sheep are, for this reason, abhorrent to the Egyptians.”

Joseph then came and told Pharaoh as follows: “My father and my brothers have come from Canaan, together with their flocks and their herds and all their possessions, and they are now in Goshen.”

He selected from among his brothers those five men who looked the least robust and introduced only them to Pharaoh, so that Pharaoh would not be inclined to conscript them into his army. These five were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Benjamin. Using different criteria, the five who looked the least robust were Gad, Naphtali, Dan, Zebulun, and Asher, and it was they whom Joseph introduced to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh asked Joseph’s brothers, “What is your occupation?” They replied to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we and our father and forefathers.”

They further said to Pharaoh, “We have come to sojourn in the land, because there is no grazing for your servants’ flocks in Canaan, since the famine is severe in Canaan. So now, please, let your servants settle in Goshen.”

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Now that your father and your brothers have come to you,

all Egypt is at your disposal. Settle your father and your brothers in the choicest part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know that there are men among them who are capable shepherds, you must appoint them as stewards over my livestock.”

Joseph then brought his father Jacob and introduced him to Pharaoh, and Jacob greeted Pharaoh.

Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How many are the years of your life?”

Jacob replied, “I have been a sojourner all my life; the years of my sojourning have been 130. The years of my life have been few and hard, and have not equaled the happiness of the years of my forefathers’ lifetimes in the days of their sojourning.”

With that, Jacob blessed Pharaoh that the Nile would overflow and irrigate the country whenever he would approach it, thereby ending the years of famine. He then took leave of Pharaoh and left Pharaoh’s presence.

Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them an estate in Egypt, in the choicest part of the land, in the Rameseis region of Goshen, as Pharaoh had instructed.

Joseph provided bread for his father and his brothers and all his father’s household. He gave them much more than they needed, as if he were providing for the needs of young children who tend to crumble their bread, wasting a significant portion of it.

The Torah now resumes its narrative of Joseph’s administration of Egypt during the years of famine, which it had interrupted in order to describe how his family came to settle in Egypt. In the year 2237, the first year of the famine, there was no bread in the entire region, since the famine was very severe and, as described above, all the grain that they had set aside during the seven years of plenty had rotted. Therefore, the people of Egypt and Canaan languished due to the famine.

The grain that Joseph had set aside, however, had not rotted. Everyone therefore went to buy grain from him. Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and in Canaan, which the people had given in payment for the produce they were buying, and Joseph brought the money to Pharaoh’s palace.

When the money from Egypt and Canaan was exhausted, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread! Why should we die before your very eyes just because the money has run out?”

Joseph replied, “Bring your livestock, and I will give you bread in exchange for your livestock, if there is no more money.”

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for their horses, flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, and donkeys. Thus he took care of them during that year with regard to bread, in exchange for all their livestock. He regulated his distribution of foodstuffs so that a sufficient quantity would remain to provide for their needs during the coming years of famine, as well.

When that year came to an end, they came to him the following year (2238, the year that Jacob came to Egypt) and said to him, “We will not deny the truth to my lord: inasmuch as all our money and livestock are gone – since we gave them all to my lord last year – there is now nothing left for my lord to receive from us as payment for food other than ourselves and our land.

Why should we perish before your very eyes, both we – by starvation, and our land – by becoming barren? Buy us and our land in exchange for bread, and we with our land will be serfs to Pharaoh. And now that the Nile has started once again overflowing and irrigating the land, thanks to your father’s blessing to Pharaoh, give us seed so that we may plant a crop for next year, and thus live and not die, and so that the land not become barren.”

Egypt Enslaved to Joseph
So, in this way, Joseph acquired all Egypt for Pharaoh, for each of the Egyptians sold his field because the famine had become too severe for them, and the land thus became Pharaoh’s.

Joseph then transferred the Egyptian people from city to city, in order to impress on them the fact that they were no longer owners of their own land, and to remove the stigma of being alien residents from his brothers. He put this relocation plan into effect from one end of Egypt’s border to the other.

The only land he did not buy up was that of the priests, since the priests had a food allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment that Pharaoh gave them; they therefore did not have to sell their land.

Joseph then said to the people, “Since today I have acquired both you and your land for Pharaoh, here is seed grain for you so you can sow the ground.

When harvest comes, you must give a fifth to Pharaoh. The remaining four parts will be yours, for seed grain for the fields, and for food for yourselves and for the servants in your households, and for feeding your young children.”

They said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in my lord’s eyes, and please, do as you have said: let us be serfs to Pharaoh, paying him this twenty-percent tax annually.”

Joseph made it a permanent law regarding all the farmed lands of Egypt, which until today was never changed, that one-fifth of its produce belong to Pharaoh. Only the lands of the priests did not, according to this law, belong to Pharaoh.

Thus Israel settled in Egypt. Even though they settled in its choicest part, Goshen, it was still part of Egypt, and thus they fulfilled God’s prophecy to Abraham that his progeny would dwell in a foreign land. They established residence in the estate that Joseph gave them there, were fruitful, and increased greatly.