Parshas Vayeishev - Parsha Stumpers

~ Something to Think About ~

 וישבפרשת 

Parsha Stumpers

By: Daniel Listhaus

1. (37:2) The Torah and Rashi describe that Yosef would to tell Yaakov about things he saw the shevatim do. He claimed to have eye-witnessed his brothers eating eiver min ha'chai, degrading the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, and doing gilui arayos. If these claims were true, how could we understand that the shevatim did such things and why was Yosef punished? And if not true, then how could Yosef say such things about them?

2. (37:2) Yaakov grew up in a house of brother rivalry between him and Eisav. So, why did he anyway do so many things to single out Yosef over his brothers?

3. (37:3) Why didn’t Yaakov make a kesones passim for Binyamin?

4. (37:10) As we know, the Torah is written on many levels. When Yosef is telling Yaakov his dreams, Yaakov responds, “What is this dream that you dreamt? Are we to come – I and your mother and your brothers – and bow down to the ground to you?” Rashi explains that Yaakov was essentially saying that Rachel was dead and was not coming back to bow down to Yosef. Where is this hinted to in the passuk itself in what Yaakov said?

5. If the brothers decided as a beis din that Yosef was subject to death penalty, how could they not give it to him and sell him instead?

6. (37:25) Who cares that the caravan was selling nice smelling spices? Yosef was just thrown into a pit and is now being sold as a slave. Does he really care what it smells like in the caravan? Why is this so significant?

7. (37:27-28) Who sold Yosef? (Read the passukim carefully).

8. (37:33) If the brothers thought they were doing the right thing, why didn’t they tell Yaakov?

9. (38:35) We learn from Tamar that better for one to give up his or her life than to publicly embarrass someone. This is not so obvious for many reasons. First, as bad as embarrassment is death is unquestionably worse. Second, in this case Tamar was being publicly humiliated and being killed. Third, the embarrassing here was not a petty fight; it was standing up for innocence and go against the mistaken judgment. So how did Tamar know to do what she did?

10. The meforshim explain that Yosef was “taken away” from Yaakov for 22 years just as Yaakov was away from his house. Why should Yaakov be punished this way? His parents told him to leave home?

11. (Rashi 40:5) If the baker and the cupbearer each dreamt the interpretation of the other one, why didn’t they just tell each other?

12. (40:8) Yosef told the Sar HaMashkim and Sar HaOfim that, “Do not interpretations belong to Hashem?” Doesn't the Gemara in Brachos (56a) say that “Dreams go after the mouth (i.e-the interpreter)”?

13. (40:20) Who was the first one in the Torah recorded to have celebrated a birthday party?

14. (Rashi 40:23) The last few passukim and Rashi describe that Yosef was punished for asking the sar hamashkim to “remember him to Pharaoh”. What was wrong with Yosef’s hishtadlus?