Parashat Mikeitz: In This Week's Parashah

In This Week’s Parashah: מָה בַּפָּרָשָׁה​​​​​​​

Full Parashah Reading: Bereishit 41:1-44:17
  • Pharaoh has two dreams that he can’t understand.
  • Pharaoh’s cupbearer remembers Yosef and recommends him to interpret the dreams. Pharaoh sends for Yosef, who predicts seven years with plenty of food followed by seven years of famine.
  • Yosef advises Pharaoh to store food during the years of plenty. Pharaoh appoints Yosef as his most powerful advisor.
  • Seven years later, a famine begins. Yaakov sends his sons to מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, Egypt) to buy food, but he does not send Binyamin.
  • Yosef recognizes his brothers, but they do not recognize him. Yosef accuses them of being spies, imprisons Shimon, and insists that the others return with Binyamin to prove their innocence.
  • Yaakov refuses to let Binyamin go to Mitzrayim until Yehudah takes personal responsibility for him.
  • The brothers go back to Mitzrayim with Binyamin.
  • Yosef is so moved by seeing Binyamin that he leaves the room to cry.
  • Yosef has his silver goblet placed in Binyamin’s sack. When the goblet is discovered, Yosef accuses the brothers of stealing from him and demands to keep Binyamin as a slave.