Mitzvot Reference Notes

"Living with Dreams, Responsibility, and Hidden Light"

#4 — To love Him — Deuteronomy 6:5

In Vayeishev, Yosef’s steadfast trust in Hashem — in the pit, in Potiphar’s house, and in prison — is an inner avodah of love. He speaks of Elokim naturally, lives with constant awareness of His Presence, and accepts every turn of his life as coming from Above.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:23–28; 39:2–3, 21–23; 40:8.

#6 — To sanctify His Name — Leviticus 22:32

Yosef refuses Potiphar’s wife not only out of fear of sin but out of loyalty to Hashem: “How can I do this great evil and sin against G-d?” His moral courage, in private and at great personal cost, becomes a model of kiddush Hashem. Rav Avigdor Miller links this same spirit to the Chashmonaim, who risked everything to keep Torah pure.
Narrative roots: Genesis 39:7–12; thematic link to Chanukah through Vayeishev–Chanukah drashos.

#11 — To emulate His ways — Deuteronomy 28:9

Abarbanel and Rav Miller both highlight how Yosef walks with Divine traits: integrity in money matters, compassion and service even as a slave or prisoner, and generous forgiveness. Hashgachah is not only something Yosef believes in; it shapes his patience, loyalty, and kindness.
Narrative roots: Genesis 39:3–6, 21–23; 40:4–7.

#13 — To love other Jews — Leviticus 19:18

Vayeishev dramatizes both the tragedy of failing this mitzvah and the greatness of fulfilling it. The brothers’ jealousy and hatred toward Yosef tear the family apart, while Reuven and later Yehudah take risks to protect their brother. Rav Miller reads the parsha as a call to see every Jew as part of “Hashem’s business,” where each act of care is eternally recorded.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:4–11, 18–22, 26–27; 42:21–22 (echoes of guilt).

#15 — Not to hate fellow Jews — Leviticus 19:17

The brothers’ inner resentment toward Yosef — silent at first, then expressed in speech and finally in violence — is the classic Torah warning of what happens when hidden hatred festers. Their “וַיִּשְׂנְאוּ אֹתוֹ… וַיְקַנְאוּ בוֹ” becomes the negative backdrop against which the mitzvah not to hate another Jew in one’s heart is later given.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:4–5, 8, 11, 18–20.

#16 — To reprove wrongdoers — Leviticus 19:17

Rav Miller reframes Yosef’s “dibasam ra’ah” as courageous responsibility: he feels obligated to report what he sees as dangerous behavior in his brothers. Even if Yosef’s method or timing is imperfect, the parsha raises the question of how to practice tochecha: caring enough to get involved in another Jew’s spiritual welfare.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:2; midrashic motifs about Yosef’s reports.

#17 — Not to embarrass others — Leviticus 19:17

Tamar’s moment of truth is the prototype of this mitzvah: rather than publicly expose Yehudah, she sends the signet, cord, and staff and says, “הַכֶּר נָא.” She allows him the option to admit fault on his own. Chazal see in her restraint the rule: better to be burned than to shame another Jew in public.
Narrative roots: Genesis 38:24–26.

#19 — Not to gossip about others — Leviticus 19:16

The parsha opens with “וַיָּבֵא יוֹסֵף אֶת דִּבָּתָם רָעָה” — a charged phrase that Chazal treat as the classic case of problematic speech. Even if Yosef’s motives were mixed with responsibility, the brothers hear it as lashon hara, and generations of commentaries use this story to define the danger of speaking negatively about fellow Jews.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:2; see also 37:4–8.

#75 — To repent and confess wrongdoings — Numbers 5:7

Vayeishev is a laboratory of teshuvah. Reuven regrets not doing more to save Yosef; Yehudah publicly declares “צָדְקָה מִמֶּנִּי” and reinterprets the whole past in light of his mistake. Abarbanel and Rav Miller both see their growth as models of admitting guilt, accepting responsibility, and changing course.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:21–22, 29–30; 38:26; 42:21–22.

#128 — To do Yibum (levirate marriage) — Deuteronomy 25:5

Long before Matan Torah, the story of Yehudah and Tamar turns on the core idea of yibbum: “הָבֹא אֶל אֵשֶׁת אָחִיךָ וְהָקֵם זֶרַע לְאָחִיךָ.” Er and Onan’s refusal to build their brother’s line brings Divine punishment, while Tamar’s risky, l’shem Shamayim actions secure the future of Malchus Yehudah. Later halachah of yibbum and chalitzah is rooted in this narrative prototype.
Narrative roots: Genesis 38:6–11, 26–30.

#160 — Not to have sexual relations with a married woman — Leviticus 18:20

Potiphar’s wife embodies the future issur of adultery: she is a married woman persistently seeking forbidden relations. Yosef’s refusal — and his fleeing rather than even remain in her presence — becomes the paradigm of how a Jew must distance himself from arayos altogether, guarding both action and environment.
Narrative roots: Genesis 39:7–12.

#162 — Not to marry non-Jews — Deuteronomy 7:3

Yehudah’s descent to “בת איש כנעני ושמו שוע” sets off a chain of tragedies in his family. Abarbanel reads his social and marital move “וַיֵּרֶד יְהוּדָה מֵאֵת אֶחָיו” as a spiritual yeridah, foreshadowing the later prohibition on intermarriage and the dangers of attachment to Canaanite culture. Rav Miller connects Vayeishev to Chanukah, where the Chashmonaim fight precisely this pull toward assimilation and mixed identity.
Narrative roots: Genesis 38:1–5; thematic link to Deuteronomy 7:3–4 and the Chanukah struggle.

#476 — Not to covet and scheme to acquire another's possession — Exodus 20:14

The brothers’ resentment begins with coveting: Yosef’s special status, Yaakov’s love, and the ketonet passim. Their jealousy turns into a scheme — first to kill him, then to sell him — in order to remove the “rival” who has what they want. Vayeishev becomes the cautionary story of how תַּחְמֹד can slide into planning, violence, and lifelong guilt.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:3–4, 8, 18–28.

#477 — Not to desire another's possession — Deuteronomy 5:18

Even before they actively plot, the Torah notes the inward state: “וַיְקַנְאוּ בוֹ אֶחָיו” — they are eaten up with jealousy over Yosef’s dreams and imagined future greatness. Abarbanel and others see this inner kin’ah as the spiritual root of the entire tragedy, illustrating the prohibition against even desiring what belongs to another Jew in heart and imagination.
Narrative roots: Genesis 37:4–11.

Parsha Reference Notes

"Living with Dreams, Responsibility, and Hidden Light"

Vayeishev

Yosef’s dreams, family tension, the sale of Yosef, Yehudah and Tamar, Yosef in Egypt, and the opening of galus all directly shape the themes of responsibility, hope, sin-repair, guarding human dignity, the clash of Yosef vs. Yehudah worldviews, and the hidden Divine hand in the “pits” of life.