Rashi writes: “Ben Zekunim: A child of his old age, since (Yosef) was born when he (Yaakov) was old. And Onkelos translates it to mean (Yosef) was a ‘wise son to him.’ All that (Yaakov) learned from Shem and Ever he gave over to him.” A number of questions are raised here: Why did Yaakov feel the need to transmit the Torah he learned at Yeshivas Shem V’Ever only to Yosef and not to his other sons? What was so special about this Torah that he felt it only applies to Yosef? And what exactly is this “Torah” that was only studied in this particular yeshivah?

     R’ Pinchos Hoffman shlit’a offers a profound understanding of this entire parsha. The teachings of Shem and Ever were different then the Torah lessons of the Avos and were particularly pertinent to Yosef and not to his brothers. Shem, who lived in the generation of the flood (דור המבול) and Ever, who lived in the generation of the tower (דור הפלגה), were witness to the destruction as well as the tumultuous dispersal of the world, and they recognized the importance of forging a new path, blazing a new trail, and creating a new existence, by advancing the will of the Creator from the ashes and upheaval of a lost world. Their Torah was how to thrive and succeed in a new world, a world surrounded by heathens, a world where Toras Hashem is not known and His Name is foreign to the inhabitants. This was the Torah that Yaakov learned for 14 years on his way to Lavan - far different than the Torah he had learned during the many years he sat in the tent of Yitzchok.

     Yaakov foresaw that Yosef would need this Torah and not his brothers, and therefore taught it only to him. The brothers misunderstood their father’s intentions and thought that they were being left out, treated as an Esav or a Yishmael, and were therefore jealous. This jealousy set the stage for the future golus of Mitzrayim - which in essence is precisely why it was necessary for Yosef, the man who led Egypt to new heights of prominence through the harsh times of the famine years, to inculcate this knowledge.