Emmanuel's Email : Shabbos Tzetl: Mikeitz

Friday 18 December 2020

Shabbos Tzetl: Mikeitz

CANDLE LIGHTING

7:12pm - early candle lighting

8.22pm - Candle Lighting, Friday.

9.28pm - Havdalah, Saturday.

These times are for Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Eruv Status: KOSHER

Shabbat Shalom!

YESHIVA SHULE TIMES

Please click here to view the Yeshivah Shule Tzetel for Shabbos Parshas Miketz.

Please click here to view the PDFs of the Weekly Publications previously distributed in Shule each Shabbos.

PARSHAH IN A NUTSHELL

Genesis 41:1–44:17

Joseph's imprisonment finally ends when Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows that are swallowed up by seven lean cows, and of seven fat ears of grain swallowed by seven lean ears. Joseph interprets the dreams to mean that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of hunger, and advises Pharaoh to store grain during the plentiful years. Pharaoh appoints Joseph governor of Egypt. Joseph marries Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, and they have two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

Famine spreads throughout the region, and food can be obtained only in Egypt. Ten of Joseph's brothers come to Egypt to purchase grain; the youngest, Benjamin, stays home, for Jacob fears for his safety. Joseph recognizes his brothers, but they do not recognize him; he accuses them of being spies, insists that they bring Benjamin to prove that they are who they say they are, and imprisons Simeon as a hostage. Later, they discover that the money they paid for their provisions has been mysteriously returned to them.

Jacob agrees to send Benjamin only after Judah assumes personal and eternal responsibility for him. This time Joseph receives them kindly, releases Simeon, and invites them to an eventful dinner at his home. But then he plants his silver goblet, purportedly imbued with magic powers, in Benjamin's sack. When the brothers set out for home the next morning, they are pursued, searched, and arrested when the goblet is discovered. Joseph offers to set them free and retain only Benjamin as his slave.

HAFTORAH IN A NUTSHELL

I Kings 3:15-4:1.

This week's haftorah opens with the words "And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream," echoing this week's Torah portion which opens with Pharaoh's dreams.

Though not included in the haftorah, in this dream G‑d granted King Solomon his legendary wisdom. The haftorah relates a famous episode that made all of Israel aware of their new monarch's keen intellect.

Two harlots approach King Solomon to adjudicate their dispute. They lived together in the same house, and each had given birth to an infant three days apart. One night, one of the infants wass accidentally crushed to death by her mother, and one woman accused the other of switching infants in order to have a live baby. Each woman claimed that the live child is theirs and the deceased child was the other's. King Solomon asks that a sword be brought and orders that the child be cut in half with each woman receiving one half. At this point, the mother of the living child exhorts the king to give the child to the other woman so that he may live, while the other woman says, "Let it be neither mine nor yours, divide!" The king ruled: "Give her the living child, and by no means slay him: she is his mother!"

SAGES ON THE PARSHAH

It came to pass . . . (Genesis 41:1)

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)

https://w2.chabad.org/media/pdf/49645.pdf

LAMPLIGHTER
1483 Mikeitz

ZICHRON YAAKOV
Miketz 5781.pdf