This is the beginning of the story of Joseph:
It starts with Jacob showing favoritism toward Joseph, son of his beloved Rachel. He gives the boy a colored coat suggesting nobility and then Joseph, who is a dreamer, relates to his brothers how they will be like sheaves bowing down to him. Their response: jealousy and anger.
They at first plot to kill him but Reuven the eldest suggests they throw him in a well surrounded by scorpions and snakes. As with some disasters they can lead to new possibilities. In this case the brothers decide to sell Joseph to Ishmaelites travelling on camels and this sale takes Joseph to Egypt where other turns of circumstances and Hashem’s intentions lead him to become powerful person there. How many times have we felt in the depths wondering if there is a way out? What can come from this suffering? In Joseph case it becomes an avenue of growth. Will it be that for us?
The brothers present to their father Jacob the torn colored tunic he had given Joseph. They have dipped it in the blood of a sheep and their father concludes his favorite son was torn apart by wild animals and Jacob goes into a long state of grief.
Joseph is bought Potiphar a high ranking official. Joseph proves himself to be an astute manger and Potiphar appoints him head of his household. Joseph was said to be very handsome, and Potiphar’s wife wanted to have sex with him. In Torah the words and the accent on one of them suggests that Joseph may have been tempted and even turned on dropping some semen but resisted when he looked into the woman’s face and saw his father’s face. That would put most of us off desire. Potiphar’s wife grabbed ahold of Joseph’s tunic and ripped it off him and later claimed that he had tried to rape her. He was sent to prison where he interpreted dreams and would, after years there, be brought before Pharaoh.