“The sons of Jacob were engaged in selling Joseph, Jacob was taken up with his sackcloth and fasting, and Judah was busy taking a wife, while the Holy One, blessed be He, was creating the light of the Messiah.”
Midrash Rabbah
Cited at Chabad.org
“These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph…”
“Jacob and Joseph are considered as one (Rashi).”
Cited at REBBE NACHMAN'S TORAH: GENESIS�Breslov Insights into the Weekly Torah Reading (p. 271). �Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב יוֹסֵף
“The three Torah sections (Vayeishev, Mikeitz and Vayigash) that relate the story of Joseph and his brothers . . . are always read before, during or immediately after the festival of Chanukah. Since “to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose” (Ecclesiastes 3:1), certainly the arrangement of the festivals of the year, which are the “appointed times of G‑d” (Leviticus 23:4), as well as the festivals and fasts instituted by the sages, all have a special connection to the Torah readings in whose weeks they fall, since everything is masterminded by G‑d. Thus the story of Joseph was destined to be repeated with the royal Chashmonai family in the Greek era . . .” (Shaloh cited at Chabad.org)
Vayigash
Vayeshev
Mikketz
“And he dwelt”
Israel lives in
the land
The brothers
sell Yosef to the
Gentiles
“At the end”
Yosef is in
Exile from his
Family
Becomes the
Savior of the world
Seven year
tribulation
Tachlit
“The Goal”
The
Redemption
A many-colored coat (37:3)
“Ketonet passim in the Hebrew. The word passim can be translated as “colorful” (Radak; Septuagint), “embroidered” (Ibn Ezra; Bachya; Nachmanides on Exodus 28:2), “striped” (Ibn Janach; Radak, Shorashim) or “illustrated” (Targum Yonathan). It can also denote a long garment, coming down to the “palms” of the hands (Rashbam; Ibn Ezra; Baalei Tosafoth; Midrash Rabbah) and the feet (Lekach Tov). Alternatively, the word denotes the material out of which the coat was made, which was fine wool (Rashi) or silk (Ibn Janach). Hence, ketonet passimmay be translated as “a full-sleeved robe,” “a coat of many colors,” “a coat reaching to his feet,” “an ornamented tunic,” “a silk robe” or “a fine woolen cloak.”
The Living Torah cited at Chabad.org
“As a bridegroom puts on a priestly diadem” (Isa. 61:10)
“This text teaches that the Holy One, blessed be he, will put upon Ephraim, our true Messiah, a garment whose splendor will stream forth from world’s end to world’s end; and Israel will make use of his light and say: Blessed is the hour in which He was created! Blessed is the womb whence he came! Blessed is the generation whose eyes behold him! …Blessed is the forbears of the man who merited the goodness of the world, the Messiah, hidden for the eternity [-to come].”
Pesikta Rabbati, Piska 37, Yale University Press, pg. 689
“This is the history of the �generations of Jacob. Joseph…”�Genesis 37:2
“This is (Genesis 49:24) “…from there the Shepherd, the evan (the Rock) of Israel.” Onkelos translates [“EVaN” as a composite of] AV and VeN (father and son). This is the complete-statement: father and son as one . . .”�R’ Nachman of Breslov, Likutey Moharan I, 22:10, Volume 3, published by the Breslov Research Institute, pg. 381
“Indeed, this is the underpinning of the concept in the g’marah (Sanhedrin 104a) that “b’ra m’zakeh aba” – a son brings merit to his father through good deeds, learning Torah, etc. He does so because “b’ra kareih d’avuah” (cf. Eruvin 70b), a son is considered an extension – literally the leg – of his father, either because the son and father are part and parcel of each other (i.e., are joined together) or because the father is considered the gorem, the cause, of his son’s actions (i.e., since the son emulates him by following in his footsteps). In other words, the son’s actions and accomplishments are considered as the father’s and are credited to the father.” (Yitzhak Kasdan, Understanding The Mitzvah of Hesped)
“Rabbi Schneur Zalman delves further into the metaphor, examining the biological and psychological dynamics of the father-child model and employing them to better understand our relationship to each other and to our Father in Heaven. A microscopic bit of matter, originating in the father’s body, triggers the generation of a life. In the mother’s womb, a single cell develops into a brain, heart, eyes, ears, arms, legs, toenails; soon it emerges into the world to function as a thinking, feeling, and achieving human being. Physically, what has originated in the father’s body and psyche is now a separate, distinct, and (eventually) independent individual. On a deeper level, however, the child remains inseparable from his begetter. In the words of the Talmud, “A son is a limb of his father.” At the very heart of the child’s consciousness lies an inescapable truth: he is his father’s child, an extension of his being, a projection of his personality. In body, they have become two distinct entities; in essence, they are one.”�Yanki Tauber, The Head, Chabad.org [3]
“It was the Feast of Hanukkah at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Yeshua was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. The Judeans therefore came around him and said to him, ‘How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’ Yeshua answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Fathers hand. I and the Father are one.”�John 10:22-30
“…it is no accident that the festival of Hanukkah, with its tragic fratricidal overtones, always falls during the weeks when the portions regarding Joseph and his brothers are read. Similarly, the destruction of the Second Temple is attributed by the Midrash to the unwarranted hatred between brothers that is the plot of these Torah portions.”�R’ Ari Kahn, M’oray HaAish, The Light of Messiah, Aish.com
They took him and threw him into a pit; the pit was empty—there was no water in it (37:24)�
“Since it says “The pit was empty,” don’t we know that there was no water in it? What then is added by the phrase “there was no water in it”? There was no water, but there were snakes and scorpions in it.”
Shabbat 22a cited at Chabad.org
“The mind and heart of man are never empty. If there is no life-nourishing “water,” there are “snakes and scorpions in it.”
The Chassidic Masters cited at Chabad.org
"There is one Tzaddik who is a �combination of the two Messiahs."�Chayey Moharan, Tzaddik, Reb Nathan of Breslov, Tzaddik, translated by R' Avraham Greenbaum, pg. 131
208
אור = Ohr, Light�אין סוף = Ein Sof, Infinity�רז = Raz, Secret
“Each Chanukkah at the time of the lighting the candles, the concealed light of Messiah is revealed . . .”�Benei Issachar, Kislev-Tevet 2, 16, �cited in The Concealed Light, Tsvi Sadan, �Vine of David, pg. 159
"This eighth candle represents the hidden tzaddik, who embodies the Menorah. He is the totality of the Menorah, not just one of its candles. He is more than just the sum of its candles, just as the whole is more than the sum of its parts....On Chanukah we light eight candles as opposed to the Menorah’s seven. We reveal the spirituality that lies beyond in the physical world, we reveal the mind in the world of action, we reveal the tzaddik in our midst. Each of us is a potential tzaddik; each of us can enlighten the world.”
Chanukah with Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Starrett, Yehoshua. (Kindle Locations 930-932). Breslov Research Institute. Kindle Edition.
“They don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t belong to this world. Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. I made myself holy on their behalf so that they also would be made holy in the truth. “I’m not praying only for them but also for those who believe in me because of their word. I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I’ve given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one.”
John 17: 26-23
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”�John 1:4-5