Summary of the Parasha

Jacob settles in the land of Canaan. Joseph, 17, tends the flocks with his brothers and brings his father bad reports about them. Jacob loves him more than the others and makes him a colorful tunic (ketonet passim). Joseph has two dreams: sheaves bowing to his sheaf, then the sun, the moon and eleven stars. His brothers’ jealousy grows.

Sent by his father to check on his brothers in Shechem, Joseph finds them in Dotan. They want to kill him; Reuben suggests throwing him into an empty pit, “with no water, but full of snakes and scorpions” (Rashi), intending to rescue him later. At Judah’s suggestion he is sold to a caravan heading for Egypt. The brothers dip the tunic in a goat’s blood; Jacob believes his son has been devoured and refuses to be comforted.

Then comes the story of Judah and Tamar: Judah’s first two sons, Er and Onan, die; Tamar, denied the third, disguises herself and conceives by Judah himself. When she is about to be condemned, she quietly sends Judah’s pledges without shaming him publicly, and Judah admits: “She is more righteous than I”. The twins Peretz and Zerach are born; from Peretz will come King David, and the Mashiach.

In Egypt, Joseph is bought by Potiphar; God makes all he does succeed, and he becomes steward of the house. Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him; he refuses (“how could I do this great evil and sin against God?”) and flees, leaving his garment behind. Accused, he is thrown into prison, where he wins the warden’s trust. There he interprets the dreams of the cupbearer (restored in three days) and the baker (hanged in three days). Everything comes true, but “the cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him”.

Summary of the Haftara

“Koh Amar Hashem Al Sheloshah” (“Thus says Hashem: for three transgressions”)
Text in Amos 2:6–3:8

The prophet Amos, a shepherd from Tekoa, rebukes the kingdom of Israel for its injustices: “They sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes”, they trample the weak. God recalls all He has done for them, from the Exodus to the prophets and Nazirites He sent them. “You alone have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will hold you to account for your sins.” The haftara ends: “The lion has roared, who will not fear? Hashem has spoken, who will not prophesy?”

Parasha-Haftara Connection

The Midrash reads “the righteous sold for silver” as the sale of Joseph by his brothers, and the “pair of shoes” as what they bought with the proceeds. Tradition links this sin to the ten martyrs of the Roman era, whose story is recited on Yom Kippur. The haftara shows that justice between brothers is the condition for the people’s life on its land.