Parshat Vayeshev: The Fabulous Dress and Dreams of Joseph

This, then, is the line of Jacob: At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father.

Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons—he was his “child of old age”; and he had made him an ornamented tunic.*

*ornamented tunic Or “a coat of many colors”; meaning of Heb. uncertain.

And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him.

Once Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers; and they hated him even more.

He said to them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed:

There we were binding sheaves in the field, when suddenly my sheaf stood up and remained upright; then your sheaves gathered around and bowed low to my sheaf.”

His brothers answered, “Do you mean to reign over us? Do you mean to rule over us?” And they hated him even more for his talk about his dreams.

He dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: And this time, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

And when he told it to his father and brothers, his father berated him. “What,” he said to him, “is this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you to the ground?”

So his brothers were wrought up at him, and his father kept the matter in mind.

Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Go, and I will send you to them.” He answered, “I am ready (Hineini). ”

... So Joseph followed his brothers and found them at Dothan.

(18) They saw him from afar, and before he came close to them they conspired to kill him.

They said to one another, “Here comes that dreamer!

When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he was wearing,

He asked Pharaoh’s courtiers, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, saying, “Why do you appear downcast today?”

And they said to him, “We had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” So Joseph said to them, “Surely God can interpret! Tell me [your dreams].”

A Hebrew youth was there with us, a servant of the prefect; and when we told him our dreams, he interpreted them for us, telling each of the meaning of his dream.

And as he interpreted for us, so it came to pass: I was restored to my post, and the other was impaled.”

Thereupon Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was rushed from the dungeon. He had his hair cut and changed his clothes, and he appeared before Pharaoh.

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is none so discerning and wise as you.

You shall be in charge of my court, and by your command shall all my people be directed; only with respect to the throne shall I be superior to you.”

And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand; and he had him dressed in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.

Now Joseph was the vizier of the land; it was he who dispensed rations to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed low to him, with their faces to the ground.

When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them; but he acted like a stranger toward them and spoke harshly to them. He asked them, “Where do you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to procure food.”