Yosef HaTzaddik was the son of Yaakov and of Rachel, Yaakov's beloved wife, whose firstborn he was. Yaakov loved him especially and gave him a striped coat, which aroused his brothers' jealousy. His dreams, of the sheaves bowing to his sheaf and of the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing to him, deepened their hatred.

Sent by his father to his brothers, who were pasturing the flocks near Shechem and Dotan, he was thrown into a pit and then, at Yehuda's suggestion, sold to a caravan of Ishmaelites who brought him down to Egypt. His brothers dipped his coat in the blood of a goat, and Yaakov mourned him as dead.

In Egypt he was sold as a slave to Potiphar and put in charge of his household. Potiphar's wife repeatedly tried to seduce him; he steadfastly refused, fled leaving his garment in her hand, and was thrown into prison on her false accusation. There he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's butler and baker. Two years later, summoned to interpret Pharaoh's dreams, he foretold seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine and advised storing food. Pharaoh made him viceroy and named him Tzafnat Paneach.

When his brothers came to Egypt to buy grain, he eventually revealed himself to them: "I am Yosef; is my father still alive?" He brought Yaakov down to Egypt and settled his family in the land of Goshen. His wife Asenath bore him Menashe and Ephraim, who became two of the tribes of Israel. The Sages saw in him the model of the tzaddik who masters his impulses and bears no grudge for the wrongs done to him.

He died in Egypt at the age of 110, after making the children of Israel swear to carry up his bones. At the Exodus, Moshe took his bones with him, and they were buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground Yaakov had bought, traditionally identified with Joseph's Tomb near Nablus.