Overcoming Setbacks: The Inspiring Story of Joseph

1. e-handout To have these notes without taking notes Go to OrHaOlam.com Click on downloads, messages, 2018

4. Yosef / Joseph had a G-d given dream and calling.

7. Ber/Gen 37.18-20Now they saw him from a distance. Before he was close to them they plotted together against him in order to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes the master of dreams! Come on now! Let’s kill him and throw him into one of those pits, so we can say that an evil animal devoured him. Then let’s see what becomes of his dreams.”

8. B’resheetבְּרֵאשִׁית (Genesis) 37:26-28 וישב(from) Vayeshev (He continued living)

9. גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ B’resheet (Genesis) 37:26 גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ • וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְהוּדָ֖ה אֶל־אֶחָ֑יו מַה־בֶּ֗צַע כִּ֤י נַהֲרֹג֙ אֶת־אָחִ֔ינוּ וְכִסִּ֖ינוּ אֶת־דָּמֽוֹ׃ • Y’hudah said to his brothers, “What advantage is it to us if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

10. גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ B’resheet (Genesis) 37:27 גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ • לְכ֞וּ וְנִמְכְּרֶ֣נּוּ לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִ֗ים וְיָדֵ֙נוּ֙ אַל־תְּהִי־ב֔וֹ כִּֽי־אָחִ֥ינוּ בְשָׂרֵ֖נוּ ה֑וּא וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֖וּ אֶחָֽיו׃ • Come, let’s sell him to the Yishma‘elim, instead of putting him to death with our own hands. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers paid attention to him.

11. גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ B’resheet (Genesis) 37:28 גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ • וַיַּֽעַבְרוּ֩ אֲנָשִׁ֨ים מִדְיָנִ֜ים סֹֽחֲרִ֗ים וַֽיִּמְשְׁכוּ֙ וַיַּֽעֲל֤וּ אֶת־יוֹסֵף֙ מִן־הַבּ֔וֹר • So when the Midyanim, merchants, passed by, they drew and lifted Yosef up out of the cistern

12. גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ B’resheet (Genesis) 37:28 גכִּי שֵׁם יְהוָה אֶקְרָאסהָבוּ גֹדֶל לֵאלֹהֵינוּ׃ • וַיִּמְכְּר֧וּ אֶת־יוֹסֵ֛ף לַיִּשְׁמְעֵאלִ֖ים בְּעֶשְׂרִ֣ים כָּ֑סֶף וַיָּבִ֥יאוּ אֶת־יוֹסֵ֖ף מִצְרָֽיְמָה׃ • and sold Yosef for half a pound of silver shekels to the Yishma‘elim, who took Yosef on to Egypt.

14. In Egypt Yosef was A household slave An incarcerated sex offender A distress adviser to Pharaoh Prime Minister to Pharaoh!!

15. In G-d’s economy, what seems to stop our dreams is what fulfills them…if we respond right.

16. T’hillim/Ps 105.17-19 Yosef…was sold as a slave.They shackled his feet with chains, and they bound him in irons; until the time when his word proved true, God’s utterance kept testing him. בַּרְזֶל בָּאָה נַפְשׁוֹ. עַד-עֵת בֹּא-דְבָרוֹ-אִמְרַת יְיָ צְרָפָתְהוּ.Refined him

17. In G-d’s economy, what seems to stop our dreams is what fulfills them…if we respond right.

18. Two criteria for right response: Commitment to vision Gratitude & Joy in the pursuit Task joy, relational joy!

19. Historical affirmation of scripture from Timothy Mahoney: Pattern of Evidence

23. They call it a “mushroom” hairdo and it’s specifically related to non-Egyptians from the area of ancient Canaan/ Israel. Interestingly, it’s quite the “do”, and the Talmud goes out of its way to tell us that Joseph was quite the fashionista (Gen Rab, 87:3).

24. In fact, the Rabbinic Midrash TanhumaVayyesheb 8 specifically talks about Joseph curling his hair. The statue was found in a layer corresponding to the year c. 1,700 BCE.

29. Tomb of Yosef in Avaris?

30. In G-d’s economy, what seems to stop our dreams is what fulfills them…if we respond right. Setback  stepup

31. Two criteria for right response: Commitment to vision Gratitude & Joy in the pursuit Task joy, relational joy!

33. Summarized Story of Hanukkah And how this relates to theme of Setback  stepup

34. Alexander fighting the Persian king  Darius III. From the Alexander Mosaic, Naples National Archaeological Museum.

38. In the 2nd century BCE, Judea lay between the Ptolemaic Kingdom (S., based in Egypt) and the Seleucid empire (NE, based in Syria), monarchies which had formed following the death of Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE). Judea had initially come under Ptolemaic rule, but fell to the Seleucids around 200 BCE.

39. Some Jews, mainly those of the urban upper class, notably the Tobiad family, wished to dispense with Jewish Torah and to adopt a Greek lifestyle. According to the historian Victor Tcherikover, the main motive for the Tobiads' Hellenism

40. was economic and political. The Hellenizing Jews built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, competed in international Greek games, "removed their marks of circumcision and repudiated the holy covenant.”

41. In the conflict over the office of Cohen HaGadol / High Priest, traditionalists with Hebrew / Aramaic names like Onias  חוֹנִיוֹKhonio [grace of YHVH] contested with Hellenizers with Greek names like Jason and Menelaus.

42. When Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ca. 215–164 BCE) became ruler of the Seleucid Empire [northern part] in 175 BCE, Onias III חוֹנִיוֹKhonio[grace of YHVH] held the office of כוהן הגדולCohen HaGadol, High Priest in Jerusalem.  

43. He was the son of the  יַדּוּעַYaduamentioned in Nekhemiah Nekhemia 12.11-12 Yeshua was the father of Yoyakim…and Yonatan was the father of יַדּוּעַYadua. In the days of Yoyakimthese were the cohanimwho were heads of fathers’ clans.

44. Nekhemia 12.8,9 The L’vi’im: Yeshua…who was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving …singing antiphonally with them in the service.

45. To Antiochus, the High Priest was merely a local governor within his realm, a man whom he could appoint or dismiss at will, while Jews saw the holder of the Cohanut / High Priesthood as divinely appointed. 

46.  Jason, the brother of Onias  חוֹנִיוֹKhonio [grace of YHVH], bribed Antiochus to make him High Priest instead of OniasKhonio.

47. Jason abolished the traditional theocracy and received from Antiochus permission to convert Jerusalem into a Greek polis called Antioch. Built a gym.  However, Menelaus then bribed Antiochus and was appointed Cohen HaGadol in place of Jason. Menelaus had OniasחוֹנִיוֹKhonio assassinated.

48. Menelaus' brother Lysimachus stole holy vessels from the Temple; the resulting riots led to the death of Lysimachus. Menelaus was arrested for OniasחוֹנִיוֹKhonio’s murder, and was arraigned before Antiochus, but he bribed his way out of trouble.

49. Jason subsequently drove out Menelaus and became High Priest again.

50. OniasחוניוKhonio [grace of YHVH] Cohen HaGadol, High Priest, son of the  יַדּוּעַYaduamentioned in NeKhemiah Jason his brother, stole the cohanut by bribery.