Study Desk

Y'hudah said, "There's nothing we can say to my lord! How can we speak? There's no way we can clear ourselves! God has revealed your servants' guilt; so here we are, my lord's slaves — both we and also the one in whose possession the cup was found."

But he replied, "Heaven forbid that I should act in such a way. The man in whose possession the goblet was found will be my slave; but as for you, go in peace to your father." Haftarah Mikketz: M'lakhim Alef (1 Kings) 3:15–4:1 B'rit Hadashah suggested reading for Parashah Mikketz: Acts 7:9–16 (specifically vv. 11–12) Then Y'hudah approached Yosef and said, "Please, my lord! Let your servant say something to you privately; and don't be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, ‘Do you have a father? or a brother?' We answered my lord, ‘We have a father who is an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one whose brother is dead; so that of his mother's children he alone is left; and his father loves him.' But you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I can see him.' We answered my lord, ‘The boy can't leave his father; if he were to leave his father, his father would die.' You said to your servants, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.' We went up to your servant my father and told him what my lord had said; but when our father said, ‘Go again, and buy us some food,' we answered, ‘We can't go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go down, because we can't see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.' Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons: the one went out from me, and I said, "Surely he has been torn to pieces," and I haven't seen him since. Now if you take this one away from me too, and something happens to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sh'ol with grief.' So now if I go to your servant my father, and the boy isn't with us — seeing how his heart is bound up with the boy's heart — (ii) when he sees that the boy isn't with us, he will die; and your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sh'ol with grief. For your servant himself guaranteed his safety; I said, ‘If I fail to bring him to you, then I will bear the blame before my father forever.' Therefore, I beg you, let your servant stay as a slave to my lord instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers. For how can I go up to my father if the boy isn't with me? I couldn't bear to see my father so overwhelmed by anguish."

We answered my lord, ‘We have a father who is an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one whose brother is dead; so that of his mother's children he alone is left; and his father loves him.'

But you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, so that I can see him.'

So now if I go to your servant my father, and the boy isn't with us — seeing how his heart is bound up with the boy's heart —

For how can I go up to my father if the boy isn't with me? I couldn't bear to see my father so overwhelmed by anguish."

At last Yosef could no longer control his feelings in front of his attendants and cried, "Get everybody away from me!" So no one else was with him when Yosef revealed to his brothers who he was.

Yosef said to his brothers, "I am Yosef! Is it true that my father is still alive?" His brothers couldn't answer him, they were so dumbfounded at seeing him.

(iii) So it was not you who sent me here, but God; and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

I will provide for you there, so that you won't become poverty-stricken, you, your household and all that you have; because five years of famine are yet to come."'

So they went up out of Egypt, entered the land of Kena‘an and came to Ya‘akov their father.

So they reported to him everything Yosef had said to them; but it was only when he saw the wagons which Yosef had sent to carry him that the spirit of Ya‘akov their father began to revive.

So Ya‘akov left Be'er-Sheva; the sons of Isra'el brought Ya‘akov their father, their little ones and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry them.

(vi) Ya‘akov sent Y'hudah ahead of him to Yosef, so that the latter might guide him on the road to Goshen; thus they arrived in the land of Goshen.

and added, "We have come to live in the land, because in the land of Kena‘an there is no place to pasture your servant's flocks, the famine is so severe there. Therefore, please, let your servants live in the land of Goshen."

There was no food anywhere, for the famine was very severe, so that both Egypt and Kena‘an grew weak from hunger.

So they brought Yosef their livestock; and Yosef gave them food in exchange for the horses, flocks, cattle and donkeys — all that year he provided them with food in exchange for all their livestock.

Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be enslaved to Pharaoh. But also give us seed to plant, so that we can stay alive and not die, and so that the land won't become barren."

So Yosef acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, as one by one the Egyptians sold their fields, because the famine weighed on them so severely. Thus the land became the property of Pharaoh.

(Maftir) They replied, "You have saved our lives! So if it pleases my lord, we will be Pharaoh's slaves."