The Wealth Joseph gathered for the Jewish Nation in Exile

Hey Tevet Parsha’s V` Yigash   תשע’ב

There are several Kabalistic commentaries on the wealth that Joseph accumulated for Pharaoh during the seven-year famine in Egypt.

The original source material is found in the Talmud (Pesachim, page 119 a).

“Gimmel Matmonius hitmin Yosef” (Joseph took the silver and hid it for posterity after dividing it into three portions).

The Talmud then relates that Korach (who led the rebellion against Moses) took the first portion; and Anteninos the Emperor of Rome seized the second portion when he ransacked the Second Temple.

But the Talmud says that the third and final portion remains concealed as a reward, concealed for the righteous.

Both the Alter Rebbe (Torah Ohr, V’Yigash) and the Mitteler Rebbe (Torah`s Chaim), discuss the “Matminim” (Treasure) through a metaphysical prism.

Kabbalists like the Megaleh Amukos (Rabbi Nassan Shapira, Rosh-Yeshiva in Krakow from 1617-1633), and the Ben Ish Chai, (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1834-1909) emphasize that Joseph`s “treasure” was not only his material assets but his “Chein” (spelled in Hebrew as    חן (, which is numerically 58. (Noah,  נח which is numerically 58); in whom G-d found favor. When Joseph was sold, and even imprisoned, he continued to find favor in his Master`s eyes).

When “Matminim” is replaced with “Chein”, the resulting Gematria is 58 x 3 = 174.

That is the same Gematria as “Kessef” (silver, =160) plus “Zahav” (gold=14) =174.

To the Ben Ish Chai, when the letters are re-arranged, they form the words “Kiseh` B` Paz”, כסא בפזa formula for wealth.

To the Megaleh Amukos, silver “Kessef” was the currency that Joseph used as a levy to sustain the financial and social stability of Egypt during the famine.

Since Egypt then became tyrannical and the first Super-Power to oppress and persecute the Jewish people, there had to be a subsequent atonement for the suffering it inflicted.

According to the Megaleh Amukos, the Gematria of Kessef is “Eitz” (tree=עצ =160), and the “atonement” was when Joseph`s great-grandson Mordechai had Haman hung from a fifty-, foot tree (עצ =90 plus 70= 160).