Parshat Vayigash
Yehudah approaches Yosef (Joseph) to plead for the release of Binyomin (Benjamin), offering himself as a slave to the Egyptian...
Parshat Vayigash
(Bereishit 44:18-47:27)
Yehudah approaches Yosef (Joseph) to plead for the release of Binyomin (Benjamin), offering himself as a slave to the Egyptian ruler in Binyomin's stead. Upon witnessing his brothers' loyalty to one another, Yosef reveals his identity to them. "I am Yosef," he declares. "Is my father still alive?"
The brothers are overcome by shame and remorse, but Yosef comforts them. "It was not you who sent me here," he says to them, "but God. It has all been ordained from Above to save us, and the entire region, from famine."
The brothers rush back to Canaan with the news. Yaakov (Jacob) comes to Egypt with his sons and their families — seventy souls in all — and is reunited with his beloved son after 22 years. On his way to Egypt he receives the Divine promise: "Fear not to go down to Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation. I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again."
Yosef gathers the wealth of Egypt by selling food and seed during the famine. Pharaoh gives Yaakov's family the fertile county of Goshen to settle, and the children of Israel prosper in their Egyptian exile.
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