I actually chanted a portion of this parsha in synagogue, um, 2 weeks ago. This parsha contains 2 major themes, each of which is repeated once in Jacob's family, and once in Pharaoh's household.
The first theme is dreams and their interpretations. These stories are quite well known. First Joseph brags about his dreams of dominating his brothers, which leads them to get rid of him by selling him to Egyptian slavery. There he descends even lower as he is wrongly incarcerated and plants the seeds of his own redemption by interpreting the dreams of his fellow prisoners.
The second theme is frequently glossed over by grade-school bible classes. It is the theme of sexual impropriety. First Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar (after the early demise of her husband and then his brother) seduces him in order to conceive a child to continue the line. She does this in the guise of a prostitute. When her pregnancy shows, he denounces her for her "harlotry". She then produces his staff and seal as proof that the child is his.
Later, Pharaoh's wife attempts to seduce Joseph. He resists her advances, and she retaliates by falsely accusing him of attempted rape (sounds eerily modern!), for which he is incarcerated -- tying up the two themes!
I am a bit low on imagination right now. This is just the Freud chapter of the bible. Dream interpretation and sex. Feh.
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