Shabbat Shalom - 21 Kislev

This evening’s Erev Shabbat Service, conducted by Rabbi Dreyfus, will begin at 8:00 pm. Carole Fefferman will be the Cantorial Soloist.

Tomorrow morning’s Shabbat service, condcuted by Rabbi Dreyfus, will begin at 10:00 am. Larry Burrows will be the Cantorial Soloist. Bagels and a light lunch and discussion of the Torah Portion will be served after services.

The Parsha will be Vayeishev, Genesis 37:1 - 40:23. Although Joseph was mentioned last week, Chapter 37 begins the Joseph story. Joseph, a gossipy 17 year old shepherd wasn’t much liked by his older brothers, but was very much loved by his father. as the son of Jacob’s favorite wife, and the son of Jacob’s old age. His brothers have dreams, and he interprets them, suggesting that they will bow down to him. The brothers don’t like this very much and end up selling him off to a caravan of traveling midianites, telling Jacob that Joseph was killed by a wild beast.

In the midst of the Joseph story, the Torah breaks to tell of Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar. Judah had two sons, Er and Onan. Tamar married Er, who did something that G-d didn’t like, and died childless. Under such circumstances, Tamar was entitled to be impregnated by Onan, and would then raise her children as Er’s. Onan “spilled his seed” before entering Tamar, G-d killed Onan for that deed, and Tamar remained childless, where it became Judah’s duty to impregnate Tamar. Rather than doing that, he sent her away, and she conceived — a plot, wherein she pretended to be a harlot who serviced Judah, and conceived a child, and eventuallly embarrassed Judah into acknowledging her and his responsibilities.
We return to Joseph, going down to Egypt, being sold to a prosperous Egyptian with a bored and sensuous wife, ended up in jail, interprets some dreams for his fellow inmates, one of whom was executed after release and the other forgot Joseph and the accuracy of his interpretation.

The Haftarah is Amos 2:6 - 3:8.