VAYEISHEV Parsha Cakes and Games

PARSHA SUMMARY

• Yaakov loves Yosef more than all the other brothers and makes him a special embroidered coat.

• Yosef's brothers are jealous.

• Yosef dreams that 11 bundles of sheaves are bowing down to his bundle.                        
•  Yosef dreams that the sun, moon and eleven stars  are bowing down to him. 
• Yaakov sends Yosef to look for his brothers. 
• When the brothers see Yosef in the distance they say here comes the dreamer.                       

• The brothers plot to kill him.

• Reuven, the eldest, suggests to throw him into a pit.

•  Reuven plans on returning later to remove Yosef from the pit.

• Yehuda suggests to sell Yosef to the Yishmaelim.

• The brothers do not know how to tell their father.

• They slaughter a goat and dip Yosef's coat into the blood. 

• Yosef is sold to Potifar.

•  The story of Yehuda and Tamar.

•  Yosef becomes Potifar's personal assistant.

•  Potifar's wife tries to get Yosef to pay attention to her.

•  Since Yosef refuses, Potifar's wife puts him in jail.

• The butler's dream.

• The baker's dream.....    

What will happen next?  Stay tuned until next week to find out.........


PARSHA PUZZLE: 

Yosef was the favorite,
or so the brothers thought,

It bothered all the brothers 
and they all felt so distraught.

They were very jealous,
because Yosef got it all,

They plotted against him, 
they wanted him to fall.

They despised the special coat;
they just wanted to scream,

When Yosef thought he understood, 
and told them about his dream.

First eleven sheaves 
were bowing down to one,

The next was to one star, 
11 stars, the moon and sun.

One day Yaakov sent Yosef 
into the fields of Shechem,

The brothers were caring for the sheep;
he should look out for them.

When they saw him coming,
they all began to plot,

That they will get rid of him 
and let his body rot.

One brother decided 
 that without a doubt,

He’ll come back when they’re gone 
and let Yosef come out.

Who was this brother?  
Where was Yosef thrown?

What was inside of it,
look at Rashi it’s well known.

PLAYING WITH THE PARSHA: 

This week’s parsha talks about the jealously of the brothers towards Yosef. We learn in Pirkei Avot,” Veahavta lereyacha komocha,” love your brother as you love yourself.  Here is a game called do you love your neighbor….

All the players sit in a circle except for one person who will stand and asks someone, “Do you love your neighbor?” If he/she says YES, then everyone moves one seat in any direction and the person that’s IT tries to get a seat. If he/she does, then the person left standing is IT. However if he says NO then the IT asks, “Who do you love?” The person that was chosen then answers by describing something about  other people in the circle (ex. hair color, glasses, eye color, style of clothes etc…) and those people move to any seat they can get except for their own. 

SHABBAT IMABBA:

Here is a great way for my father and I to learn a little bit of Parsha each week, even though we live far from each other. ( I like the play on words of Abba in the word Shabbat and Imabba meaning "with Abba" and Ima Abba written together!  Thanks Abba and Ima :-)!

 Here are 2 divrei Torah:

When Yosef told his brothers his dream, that their bundles of wheat bowed down to him, they replied: "HaMaloch Timloch Aleinu, Im Mashol Timshol Banu"? This question seems to be redundant. Does Yosef dare think he will rule over them?

  The Gra explains that the word Melech, which  means King,  is one who is chosen and  accepted by the people. The word Moshel means a ruler by force. 

The brothers said "HaMaloch Timloch Aleinu?" will you ever be a melech, a king over us? They all agreed that of course he would not, since they would never accept him. "Im Mashol Timshol Banu" If you do rule over us, your power will be by  force and you will be a Moshel over us.

For this, the brothers hated him even more.

The parsha starts out by saying "Vayehshev Yaakov beeretz migurey Aviv". And Yaakov settled in the land of his father's sojourning, in the Land of Ca'naan.

Why does the Torah have to tell us this?  It states previously that Yaakov came.  Why is it repeated?  The medrash Lekach tov states that all these years that Yaakov was in chutz laaretz, he was wandering in Galut.  Once he came to Eretz Yisrael, he is considered settled.  Vayeshev. 

It is time to come home- don't you think????

PARSHA CAKE: 

How "pit"iful that Yosef was thrown into the pit but this is such an easy and fun parsha cake.
Bake your favorite cake in a bundt shaped pan.
Wait until it cools.
I made a marble cake to give it the effect of sand and dirt.
Either bake a cookie and shape it into a person or put a figure inside.
Add gummy snakes and there you have it!
This is so cute and you will be so hospitable!

The pit was empty but there were snakes and scorpions inside.

Answer to Parsha puzzle:   (Reuven came back to get Yosef who was no longer in the pit.  There was no water in the pit but there were snakes and scorpions.)

Enjoy and have a wonderful Shabbat!!!  

Stay tuned for Chanuka!!!!

I would love to hear feedback.  Hope you are enjoying these ideas at your Shabbat table!

All the best!

Ruchie