Yehuda Steps Forward
Yehuda draws near to the Egyptian ruler and pours out one of the most moving speeches in the Torah. He retells the whole story of how they were questioned and required to bring their youngest brother, and he describes how deeply their aged father loves Binyamin, the last living son of his beloved wife Rachel. Losing the boy, Yehuda says, would surely send their father to the grave in grief. He therefore offers to remain in Egypt as a slave himself, so that Binyamin can return home to their father.
I Am Yosef
Overwhelmed, Yosef sends every Egyptian out of the room and, weeping aloud, reveals himself to his brothers: I am Yosef; is my father still alive? They are too stunned and frightened to answer, but he gently calls them close and reassures them. Do not be grieved that you sold me here, he tells them, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life through the years of famine that still remain. He urges them to hurry back and bring their father and all their households to settle in the region of Goshen, where he can care for them.
Reunited in Joy
News reaches Par'oh (Pharaoh) that Yosef's brothers have come, and he is delighted, inviting the whole family to Egypt and sending wagons to carry them. Yosef sends his brothers off with gifts and provisions, giving Binyamin an especially generous share. When they reach Canaan and tell their father that Yosef is alive and rules over all of Egypt, Yaakov's heart goes numb, for he cannot believe it. But when he sees the wagons Yosef has sent, his spirit revives, and he says, Enough! My son Yosef is still alive; I will go and see him before I die.
Down to Egypt
Yaakov sets out with all that he has, and at Be'er Sheva (Beersheba) he offers sacrifices to the God of his father. That night God speaks to him in a vision, telling him not to fear going down to Egypt, for there He will make him into a great nation, will go down with him, and will surely bring his descendants back up again. The Torah lists the seventy members of Yaakov's household who come down to Egypt. When they reach Goshen, Yosef rides up in his chariot to meet his father, and the two fall on each other's necks and weep for a long time in each other's arms.
Before Pharaoh
Yosef presents five of his brothers to Par'oh, and they explain that they are shepherds seeking to settle in Goshen, which Par'oh readily grants, even inviting the ablest among them to tend his own livestock. Then Yosef brings his father before the king, and Yaakov blesses Par'oh. When Par'oh asks his age, Yaakov replies that the years of his life are one hundred and thirty, few and hard compared with the long lives of his fathers. He blesses Par'oh once more and departs, and the family settles securely in the best of the land, in the region of Goshen.
Bread for a Starving World
As the famine drags on, Yosef gathers all the money in Egypt and Canaan in exchange for grain, and when the money is gone the people trade their livestock, then their land, and finally themselves, becoming servants of Par'oh, though the priests keep their own fields. Yosef resettles the population and sets a fair tax of one fifth of the harvest for the crown, and the people gratefully declare that he has saved their lives. Meanwhile the family of Yisrael (Israel) settles in the region of Goshen, where they acquire property and grow fruitful and very numerous. What begins as a famine relief effort quietly becomes the beginning of the nation's life in Egypt.