by RABBI AVI COHEN | December 23, 2025 4:33 pm
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had two consecutive baffling dreams, which even his wise men could not satisfactorily interpret.
The situation, though, prompted Pharaoh’s butler, who had been in prison two years earlier with Yosef, to recall that Yosef had accurately interpreted his dream and that of the baker. The butler came forward and told Pharaoh how Yosef had interpreted their dreams, and that he would surely know the meaning of Pharoah’s dreams. Sure enough, Yosef, unlike Pharaoh’s wise men, interpreted the dreams in a way that made sense to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh was so impressed with Yosef that, on the spot, he made him, second in command in Egypt.
Pharaoh’s first dream concerned seven healthy, beautiful cows that ascended from the Nile followed by seven scrawny, ugly cows. The scrawny cows devoured the healthy ones yet remained as scrawny as before.
In Pharaoh’s second parallel dream, seven healthy ears of grain were consumed by seven thin and beaten ears of grain. Once again, the thin and beaten ears looked the same despite having just eaten the healthy ones.
Yosef explained to Pharoah that the two dreams were really one, and that the seven healthy cows and the healthy ears of grain together symbolized seven years of plenty. Egypt would experience unprecedented prosperity for the next seven years. Next, however, would come seven years of extreme famine, so severe that the seven years of plenty would be forgotten. The reason for the “double dream” was, that these events were imminent.
Having the king’s ear, Yosef advised him to store all the extra bounty during the plentiful seven years so that it would be available for sale during the seven years of famine. Because Pharaoh did not know how to preserve grain for so long without it rotting or being eaten by mice, he would need to rely on Yosef to do so. The Midrash tells us that Yosef knew the secret of mixing some of the earth in which the grain grew with the grain, which would preserve it for many years.
Realizing that Yosef possessed knowledge that neither Pharaoh nor his advisors had, Pharoah placed him in charge of storing and selling the wheat.
This miraculous turn of events symbolizes Jewish history. In a split second, Yosef went from a forgotten prisoner to a ruler, second to the king, over the world’s greatest empire. Hashem’s salvation can happen in the blink of an eye. This is possible with the nation as a whole, and with each of us.
The Midrash gives us an insight into the process.
מדרש רבה בראשית – פרשה פט פסקה א
קץ שם לחשך זמן נתן ליוסף כמה שנים יעשה באפילה בבית האסורים. כיון שהגיע הקץ, חלם פרעה חלום
The Midrash quotes a verse in Job 28:3, Hashem sets a limit to the darkness. Yosef was to be in prison for a limited time; when that time was up, Pharaoh had his dreams.
Before the darkness even sets in, there is a limit to how long it will reign. We may not know exactly when sunrise will be and when Hashem’s salvation will come, but we do know that Hashem has put a limit to our suffering and that, ultimately, the sun will come up at the end of the night, even as it gets darker just before the sun rises.
The stage was now set for Yaakov and his family to come to Egypt for the slavery that had been foretold to Avraham.
Yosef had become Egypt’s de facto ruler, and the seven-year famine had begun. Egypt now had enough food stored up to sustain the entire region thanks to Yosef. And because Yaakov and his family were going to need food at some point, they would have to venture to Egypt to get it.
When Yosef’s brothers came to Egypt to purchase food, he recognized them but they did not recognize him. Yosef immediately saw that something was amiss. In his dream (that we read two weeks ago), Yosef saw 11 stars bowing down to him; but there were only ten brothers here. Binyamin was missing. To bring him to Egypt, and complete the information in the dream, Yosef accused his brothers of being spies. To prove to him that they were not, he demanded that they bring their brother Binyamin back with them to Egypt when they next came. To guarantee their return, Yosef imprisoned Shimon, and sent the rest of them home with food and, unbeknownst to them, the money that they brought with them to purchase the food.
During the seven plentiful years, Yosef stored the grain in government warehouses, where it was carefully guarded and rationed. All food in Egypt was under government control. No individual, especially foreigners, could access the food without permission and payment. When one came to purchase food, he would deposit his donkeys with the officials, see Yosef, pay his money, and receive the donkeys back loaded with the purchased food per Yosef’s instructions. For his brothers, however, Yosef commanded those in charge of loading up the donkeys to secretly return the brothers’ money to their saddle bags with the food. The brothers were dumbfounded when they discovered the money, and on their next trip to Egypt to purchase food, they brought the money to give back, thinking that it had been a mistake.
They returned home without Shimon, reporting to Yaakov how the difficult ruler of Egypt had accused them of being spies. To prove their innocence, they would need to return to Egypt with Binyamin. Hearing this severely distressed Yaakov. He had only two children from his beloved wife Rachel. Yosef was gone, and now, Binyamin, her remaining son, would be in danger, something unthinkable to Yaakov. But after much difficult deliberation and discussion with his sons, when they were desperate for more food, Yaakov ultimately relented to let Binyamin go, but only after Yehuda took full responsibility for his safe return.
The brothers returned to Egypt with Binyamin, and everything went well with the ruler. Soon they were on their way home with Shimon and Binyamin and their new ration of food. But they didn’t go very far when they heard the sound of horses galloping after them. Who was this chasing them? None other than the king’s men! “What could they possibly want from us?” they said. They quickly found out. The king’s horsemen had a very serious allegation against the brothers: “How did you have the gall to steal the king’s goblet?”
“The what?” came the response. “We would never do a thing like that! The one with whom you find the goblet will be put to death, and the rest of us will be slaves to your master!”
After a thorough search of their saddle bags, the goblet was sure enough discovered in Binyamin’s. The brothers were brought back to Yosef who scolded them for stealing something so precious and dear to the ruler. “How could you think that I wouldn’t notice that it was missing?”
Something is very perplexing here. The brothers knew that they had no control over their donkeys. They were deposited and retrieved with whatever the Egyptian workers put into their saddle bags. They knew that from their money that they found in their bags the first time that they came. So how did the brothers so passively just accept the guilt and agree to be slaves to Yosef? It would seem that they would be able to easily prove their innocence. They had no access to their donkeys! They were completely under government control!
The brothers were prepared to accept the idea that they would be slaves for a crime that they did not commit, because they understood that nothing could happen to them if Hashem did not want it to happen. Even though someone had falsely framed them, it was Hashem’s will, and there must be a valid reason for it. It must be a punishment for a crime that they had committed.
The brothers did not have to look far for the source of the problem. They had already identified it. Yehuda explains this to Yosef when he said,
הָאֱלֹקים מָצָא אֶת עֲוֹן עֲבָדֶיךָ “Hashem has found the sin of your servants.”
Yehuda acknowledged that they are guilty of a crime. “We understand that it is not you who is doing this to us. It is our problem because we are in need of atonement for not having had mercy on our brother. You are just the stick that Hashem is using to punish us.”
Yehuda tried to clear Binyamin of the crime by telling Yosef that if Binyamin had stolen it, he would not have put it in his own saddle bag. Binyamin is the least likely person to have stolen the goblet, so he should go home to his father, and the rest of us will remain as slaves to pay out the sentence.
Yosef would not hear of it, saying, “That would be unjust! Just the one who stole it will be my slave and the rest of you can go home to your father.”
Yosef’s not responding to the logic of Yehuda’s argument, insisting that only Binyamin remain as a slave, threw a monkey wrench into their thinking. Binyamin was not a party to Yosef’s sale! He could not possibly need atonement for not having mercy on Yosef. How is it possible that he is the only one being targeted? There must be a different idea at work here.
At that moment the brothers realized that Hashem was giving them the opportunity to correct the sin that they had so many years ago committed with Yosef. Here they were being given the chance to save Binyamin and restore him to his father, the antidote to what they did to Yosef. They would not squander this opportunity. They would spare no efforts to secure Binyamin’s release, even if it meant that they would have to fight against the entire country.
This is where our parshah Vayigash begins, and it begins with the words (Bereshit 44:18):
יח) וַיִּגַּשׁ אֵלָיו יְהוּדָה
And Yehuda approached him.
Yehuda is the brothers’ leader and spokesman whom they all recognized for his superior leadership qualities. Even when Yaakov later blessed each of his sons, he singled out Yehuda as the king of Israel, stating that all royalty must come from his lineage. What characteristic of Yehuda qualified him to all as a natural leader?
The secret to his special quality lies in his name Yehuda, which comes from the word הודאה, which has two meanings: to acknowledge and to give thanks. Yehuda had the innate ability to acknowledge Hashem’s goodness and thank Him for it, even under the most difficult conditions. When things seemed impossible, Yehuda would inherently acknowledge that this was the Divine plan, and that the situation is exactly what it needed to be, to bring forth the next step in his growth.
This is why his mother named him Yehuda. When Leah gave birth to her fourth son, she said (Genesis 29:35):
לה) וַתַּהַר עוֹד וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן וַתֹּאמֶר הַפַּעַם אוֹדֶה אֶת יְדֹוָד עַל כֵּן קָרְאָה שְׁמוֹ יְהוּדָה וַתַּעֲמֹד מִלֶּדֶת:
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