בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
בְּרוּךֶ אַתֶה חֲוָיָה שְׁכִינּוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדַשְׁתַנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתֶיהֶ וְצִוְתָנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָהּ אֱלֹהָתֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קֵרְבָתְנוּ לַעֲבוֹדָתָהּ וְצִוְתָנוּ לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה
Blessings for learning and studying Torah
Berakhot 11b:
Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la’asok b’divrei Torah
Nonbinary Hebrew Project:
B’rucheh ateh Khavayah Shekhinu ruach ha’olam asher kidash’tanu b’mitzvotei’he v’tziv’tanu la’asok b’divrei Torah
Feminine God Language:
Brukhah at Ya Elohateinu ruach ha’olam asher keir’vat’nu la’avodatah v’tziv’tavnu la’asok b’divrei Torah
(5) Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. (6) It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. (7) God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. (8) So, it was not you who sent me here, but God—who has made me a Pharaoh's chancellor, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, "Vayigash: Choosing Again," https://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2020/01/vayigash-choosing-again.html
Heraclitus famously wrote that one can't step in the same river twice. But Rambam argues that we can. In fact, that's precisely how he says we can tell if our teshuvah -- repentance and re/turn -- is genuine. When we are presented with the same opportunity to miss the mark, and we choose differently, then we know that we've really made teshuvah. We've done the work to actually change.
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Judah's teshuvah leads to their family becoming whole again. It leads to plenty and prosperity instead of famine and sorrow. I believe that doing the work of teshuvah can open us to abundance too. Not necessarily a full pantry and a family reunited -- but surely the comfort of knowing that we're doing the work and "walking our talk." That we are living up to who we say we are.
(17) So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, for the stocks of sheep and cattle, and the asses; thus he provided them with bread that year in exchange for all their livestock. (18) And when that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, “We cannot hide from my lord that, with all the money and animal stocks consigned to my lord, nothing is left at my lord’s disposal save our persons and our farmland. (19) Let us not perish before your eyes, both we and our land. Take us and our land in exchange for bread, and we with our land will be serfs to Pharaoh; provide the seed, that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become a waste.”
(20) So Joseph gained possession of all the farm land of Egypt for Pharaoh, all the Egyptians having sold their fields because the famine was too much for them; thus the land passed over to Pharaoh. (21) And he removed the population town by town, from one end of Egypt’s border to the other.
Rabbi Shai Held, "Saving and Enslaving: The Complexity of Joseph," https://www.hadar.org/torah-tefillah/resources/saving-and-enslaving-complexity-joseph
The ironic turns in the text are intense and powerful and thus require explanation: Brought to Egypt as a slave, Joseph now becomes Egypt’s enslaver. And soon enough, a new Pharaoh rises and “the House of Israel [finds] themselves once again on the wrong end of the enslavement process.” Joseph displays remarkable administrative prowess, but he unleashes forces that eventually end up oppressing and degrading his own people.
Jonah Simcha Chaim Muskat-Brown, "Parshat Vayigash: A Tale of Two Brothers," https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/parshat-vayigash-a-tale-of-two-brothers/
Our sages teach that Joseph was born a righteous person, and his merit lay in not succumbing to society’s many temptations. He resisted several attempts at seduction by the wife of the Egyptian official Potiphar. He didn’t lose his connection to God while sitting in Egyptian prison on false charges of rape. And he didn’t abandon his Jewish identity upon becoming Pharaoh’s second-in-command, despite having every reason and opportunity to do so.
Rabbi Lizz Goldstein, "Lifesavers and Enslavers," https://www.nershalomva.org/community_blog.html
I appreciate the nuance of Joseph as both a lifesaver and an enslaver. To me, this truly illustrates how deeply and easily we can become entrenched in the power structures of the societies we find ourselves in, how quickly privilege starts to feel deserved, and how easy it is to overlook the problematic side effects of all our best efforts to help others. Even when we see ourselves as allies or co-conspirators, we may miss areas where we fail to live up to our most righteous potential, or we make assumptions about who needs ally ship or co-conspiratorship. Joseph is still hailed as a hero, and probably did more good than bad in the world. And so can we.