Torah Classes

Chp. 2 verse 16 - chp. 3 verse 10: Moshe goes to Midian and there by the well he mets Yisro's daughters. He marries Zipporah and she bears him a son. The king of Egypt dies, the Jews cry out, and Hashem remembers them. Chp. three begins with Moshe tending the sheep of Yisro in the wilderness. Hashem appears to him in the burning bush. Hashem tells Moshe that He is ready to free His people from bondage and to bring them to the land of Canaan, and that Moshe would be His messenger.

Chp. 2 verses 1 - 15: We are introduced to Amram and Yochevet. Moshe is born and she hides him for three months. Moshe is put in the Nile and found by the daughter of Pharaoh. She adopts him and names him Moshe. He kills the Eygptian, and Pharaoh tries to execute him, but he flees.

Chp. 1 verse 1 - Chp. 2 verse 1: The book begins with the names of the sons of Yaakov who came down to Egypt. The B'nai Yisrael multiplied miraculously. The Egyptians embittered their lives. Pharaoh tries to get the Jewish midwives to kill the male babies but they refuse. So then he has all male Jewish babies thrown into the Nile, but he allows the females to live.

Chp. 50 verse 20 until the end of sedra: Yosef assures the brothers that just like they were not able to inflict any true harm on him so too he would not be able to inflict any harm on them. Yosef lived to see three generations and was the first of the brothers to die at the age of 110. He was embalmed and they put him in a coffin in Egypt. End of the Book of Bereishit.

Chp. 49 verse 27 - Chp. 50 verse 20: Concludes with the blessings to Binyamin and the command to bury him in the Machpelah, and then he dies. Chp. 50, deals with the embalming of Yaakov's body and Yosef and his brothers taking their father to Canaan with a military escort. All the kings come out to show their respect and he is buried. They return to Egypt, the brothers perceive a change in Yosefs' attitude towards them, but he denies it and assures them that he will continue to support them and their families.

Chp. 49 verses 15 - 26: Continues with the blessings of Yisaachor, Dan, Gad, Ashur, Naftali, and Yosef.

Chp. 49 verses 1 - 15: Yaakov gathers his sons around his deathbed before he dies. He tries to tell them when the Messiah will come but the "Schechinah" (Divinity of G-d) leaves him. He begins to Bless his sons starting with the eldest Ruevain, then Shimon and Levi. Next Yehudah, Zevulun and Yisaaachor.

Chp. 48 verse 7 until end of chp: Yaakov blesses his two grandsons. There is some confusion about the order. Gives them the blessing that is still used today to bless our sons. Yaakov gives Yosef Schechem as an inheritance over and above that which the other brothers' would inherit.

Chp. 47 verse 28 - chp. 48 verse 7: Yaakov lives in Egypt for seventeen years. When he is close to death he calls Yosef, and asks him to swear that he will bury him in the land of Canaan, and Yosef swears. Chp. 48, Yosef is told that his father is on his deathbed and so he takes his two sons with him to receive their last blessing from Yaakov.

Chp. 47 verses 6 - 27: Pharaoh offers the family the land of Goshen. Yosef introduces him to Yaakov and he blesses him. Yosef supports his family during the famine. The people sell themselves and their land to Pharaoh so that they don't die. Israel lived in the land of Goshen and they were fruitful and multiplied greatly.