Torah Classes

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. 4 verse 2 - chp. 5 verse 22: Hashem gives Moshe signs to show the people. Moshe refuses and G-d gets angry. Hashem tells him that Aaron will be his spokesman. He returns to Midian. He leaves with his family and Zipporah circumcises their newborn son to save his life. Aaron goes out to meet Moshe and they return to Egypt and tell the people what they were commanded to say and are believed. Chp. five, they go to Pharaoh but he refuses to release the people. He increases the burden on the people by making them gather their own straw.

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

Chp. 46 verse 8 - Chp. 47 verse 6: Names the people who came down to Egypt with Yaakov. Yosef goes out to greet his father. He coaches his brothers on what to say when they meet Pharaoh. Chp. 47, Pharaoh is introduces to five of the brothers. They tell him what Yosef had told them to say.

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.