2,682 related texts · 19 related myths · Page 4 of 56
It was also about how he handled a massive food crisis. a famine grips the land, and everyone is flocking to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, who's now second-in-command to Pharaoh....
Sifrei Devarim traces Zebulun's blessing backward into Joseph's presentation of his brothers before Pharaoh. What's so special about Zevulun in this context? The text points us bac...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Pharaoh — Joseph and the Lawgiver. We turn to the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), specifically chapter 33, verse 20. It speaks of the tribe of Gad. But the t...
Genesis 44 contains one of the most emotionally powerful speeches in the Hebrew Bible, Judah's plea before the Egyptian viceroy to take Benjamin's place as a slave. Targum Jonathan...
Our story comes from Bereshit Rabbah (Genesis Rabbah), a classical Rabbinic text that intricately interprets the Book of Genesis. The chief baker, seeing Joseph's successful interp...
Pharaoh knew that feeling all too well. (Genesis 41:8) tells us, "It was in the morning and his spirit was troubled; he sent and summoned all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wi...
As we read in (Genesis 41:14), "Pharaoh sent and summoned Joseph, [and they rushed him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his garments, and came to Pharaoh]." But did you ever st...
Sometimes, it's from the most unexpected places. Take the story of Joseph in Egypt. He rises from prisoner to become second-in-command to Pharaoh. And within that rise, hidden in P...
One minute you're celebrating abundance, the next you're facing scarcity. The story of Joseph in Egypt gives us a powerful glimpse into this precarious balance, and the ancient rab...
Jacob, seeing a famine in the land, tells his sons, "Why do you make yourselves conspicuous?" (Genesis 42:1). Simple enough. But the rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive co...
That’s kind of what happened to Jacob after Joseph disappeared, according to the ancient commentary, Bereshit Rabbah. The Torah tells us, "Jacob saw that there was grain [shever] i...
It starts with a small city, a vulnerable one. “There was a small city,” the text says, and the rabbis interpret this city as none other than Egypt. “And few men in it” – these, re...
There's a perspective, woven into ancient Jewish thought, that offers a slightly different angle?Now, midrash (מדרש) itself, broadly speaking, is a way of interpreting and expandin...
And Joseph was brought down into Egypt (Gen. 39:1). May it please our master to teach us whether one may recite the Havdalah (the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat (the Sabbath))...
They stood in front of him and did not know him. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:7) records the moment: Joseph saw his brothers, recognized them, and then "made himself as a ...
After three days in custody, Joseph reconsiders. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:19) preserves his revised terms: one brother stays in prison, the rest go home with grain "fo...
“When they [the king’s servants] spoke to him [Mordekhai] daily and he did not heed them, they told Haman, to see whether Mordekhai’s words would prevail; for he had told to them t...
The butler and baker give Joseph the standard complaint of prisoners in an ancient city. They have dreamed, and there is no court interpreter available in their cell. The Targum pr...
Jacob blesses his sons with a breaking voice. "God the Almighty give you mercies before the man," he prays, "that he may release to you your other brother, and Benjamin" (Genesis 4...
He wasn't just some guy with a knack for dream analysis. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of the Jews, he possessed something far more profound. Pharaoh, wasn't entirel...
Legends of the Jews turns to Benjamin Pleaded for Mercy and Joseph Could Barely Hold Back. The story unfolds with Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, testing his brothers who a...
Abraham didn't just go to Egypt to escape famine. According to Josephus, he went to debate the priests. When drought struck Canaan, Abraham heard that Egypt was prosperous and deci...
The story opens with a sage, simply called Rabbi, deeply engrossed in defining the precise borders of the tribe of Benjamin. Now, Benjamin was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, e...
The Book of Exodus opens with a list of names and a king who "knew not Joseph." Targum Jonathan transforms this into something far more vivid, adding a prophetic dream, naming Phar...
Book of Jubilees turns to Judah Pledges His Own Life for Benjamin's Safety. Our scene unfolds as Jacob, still grieving for the supposed loss of Joseph, is incredibly reluctant to l...
The familiar story centers on Joseph. Sold into slavery, falsely accused, imprisoned, but ultimately rising to become second-in-command in Egypt. But what happened after he interpr...
He wasn't a Canaanite, those ancient inhabitants of the land of Israel. But, like some of them, Korah serves as a cautionary tale: immense wealth, squandered by pride. The Midrash ...
A golden cup hidden in a sack of grain. That was Joseph's final test, not to punish his brothers, but to see whether they had changed. He planted his own drinking cup in Benjamin's...
The silver fell out, and the brothers' hearts stopped. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:28) preserves their reaction: "knowledge failed from their hearts, and each wondered wi...
Reuben tried the one guarantee that could possibly move his father. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:37) preserves the oath: "Slay my two sons with a curse if I do not bring h...
The speech closes where it began. Judah returns, at the end, to the same pledge he gave his father at the beginning of the story, and makes it explicit. "Therefore thy servant beca...
The Targum opens chapter 41 with a subtle theological edit. The Hebrew says it was at the end of two years, and Pharaoh dreamed. Pseudo-Jonathan adds a single phrase that rearrange...
Joseph named his second son Ephraim, from the Hebrew root meaning to be fruitful, to increase. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 41:52) preserves Joseph's explanation with a remar...
The nine brothers stopped for the night, and one of them discovered something impossible. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:27) names him: Levi, "who had been left without Sime...
The test had one price. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:34) states it through the brothers' retelling: "bring your youngest brother to me, and I shall know that you are not s...
There is a kind of tear a powerful man cannot afford to show in public. Joseph, vizier of all Mizraim, feels it rising, and runs. "Joseph made haste," the Targum reports, "for his ...
The Torah says plainly in (Genesis 47:7) that Jacob "blessed Pharaoh." It does not tell us what the blessing was. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan supplies the words: "May it please the ...
Benjamin, twelfth and last son of Jacob, born of Rachel, had lived a hundred and twenty-five years. He kissed his sons and began to speak. "As Isaac was born to Abraham in his old ...
It all starts with Jacob, also known as Israel, nearing the end of his life in Egypt. Asenath, Joseph's wife, notices Jacob's declining health. Knowing the power of a righteous man...
Legends of the Jews turns to Joseph Tests His Brothers Over Benjamin's Freedom. Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, is testing his brothers. He's been playing coy, hiding his t...
It turns out, that feeling might be more ancient and profound than you think. Jewish tradition actually has something pretty amazing to say about it. to a fascinating little teachi...
The plain verse of (Genesis 46:20) simply records that Joseph married Asenath, daughter of Potiphera priest of On, and had two sons, Menasheh and Ephraim. The Targum Pseudo-Jonatha...
Joseph was the second most powerful man in Egypt. He could have ordered the funeral procession with a wave of his hand. Instead, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves a curious diplomat...
The scene: Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, is reunited with his brothers, though they don't recognize him. He asks them, "Is all well with your father? Is the elder whom yo...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that retells and expands upon stories from Genesis, picks up the narrative with Joseph at a pivotal moment. It tells us that on the ver...
Book of Jubilees turns to Joseph Reveals His Identity and Weeps. What does it add to this already dramatic reunion? In Jubilees, 43, Joseph, overcome with emotion, tells his brothe...
Remember Joseph, the favored son sold into slavery in Egypt? He's now a powerful figure, and his brothers, unknowingly standing before him, are begging for the release of their you...
The why behind the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine might be more dramatic than you think. Remember how Joseph, after years of hardship, finally finds himself in...
