Glossary of Terms Used in the VaYeshev Weekly Torah Portion

Joseph

Joseph is Yesod, a quality that includes all our good qualities, the qualities of bestowal. It is a collection of all the qualities of bestowal, and because it has nothing of its own but the collection of prior qualities, it can connect with the quality of reception.

This quality can connect within it all the qualities of bestowal at its upper part, and all the qualities of reception at its lower part. It is Joseph because it collects all the qualities within it.¹

Joseph is also called “the foundation of the world,” since the world truly appears in this quality, a collection of two forces—bestowal and reception—where the Creator and the creature meet.

The Striped Tunic

The striped tunic is three stripes, which are actually two, seemingly black and white, because it is made of wool, which is both black and white. However, out of the black and white emerges a middle line that does not really exist. It does not exist in the tunic, but it is the human who makes it. When wearing the striped tunic, a person becomes the middle line between the two stripes.

I Seek My Brethren

Joseph understands that without the power of all the qualities above him—his brothers—he will not be able to handle Egypt. This is why when he meets them in Egypt he says, “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together” (Psalms, 133:1). It means that now it really does become apparent how good it is that they are mingled in Egypt, and that there is an opening for the correction of Egypt, a door for the correction of man’s ego.