Session 49: Parashat Vayeishev

The Fire Next Time - "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation," James Baldwin, 1963

Parashat Vayeishev begins with the story of Joseph, Jacob’s favored son, betrayed and sold into slavery by his jealous and resentful brothers. This story reveals the depths to which people can fall when they are so motivated by hatred that they can justify any decision or outcome. The 20th-century writer and intellectual James Baldwin wrote about hate as a socially and spiritually destructive force in America after World War II, particularly in the context of race.

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