Ari Goldwag - Miketz - Wake Up Call

You're listening to the weekly para podcast recorded with Hashem's never ending assistance in mammish Israel 5776 2015. This week's para is parasikates. We have the continuation of the story with Yoseph and his brothers and we have the beginning of the fulfillment of Yoseph's dream. Yseph dreamt that his brothers would bow down to him that they would come to him. They would be subservient to him in regards to the alumis, the sheavs of wheat. And indeed they came and they became subservient. They bowed down to him in regards to food. He provided them with their needs. And in the process of this whole story in this whole uh chain of events, the Torah tells us about the interaction that Yseph has with his brothers are the commentaries or sages explain that part of what Yseph was trying to do with them was to guide them to help them to help them see the mistake that they had made to create a tuquin rectification of it to really to also bring about as say the the completion of the fulfillment of the dreams such that all the brothers would bow down to him including his brother Binyam and Benjamin And the thing that I really would like to focus in on in the story, in this particular chapter of the story, because we're really in the middle of the story, we don't get to completion until next week. But the idea I want to focus in on is the idea that the brothers have a recognition very quickly that the story the the way that it's unfolding that which is occurring to them is a result of something that they did in the past is a result of their selling of their brothers selling Yoseph down into slavery. And the Pik tells us that the realization comes if we look at it carefully the realization comes at an interesting point in the story. Yseph has accused his brothers of being spies. And the brothers say, "No, we're not spies. We are 12 brothers. One is still back with his father. One of them is missing. But we're not spies. We're just 10 brothers, the sons of one person." So Yseph responds, and I'm going to read the verses inside in chapter 42:15. Yseph says, "This is how I'm going to test you." He says, "I swear by Pharaoh that you won't leave here unless your younger brother comes and shows himself here." First says, "Send off one person. He'll go and he'll bring back one of you this this brother that you speak about and the rest of you will be incarcerated." And in this way, we'll be able to test your words if the truth is with you. And if not, I swear by Pharaoh that you are spies. The verse tells us that he put them into incarceration for three days. And then at the end of the three days, Joseph says to them, you know, I changed my mind. At on the third day, he says instead, this is what you need to do if you want to live and you should know that I fear God. And for explained that his statement of I fear God is a statement of obviously you have big families. You are 10 people. You need to be able to provide for your families. So I'm going to send you back. I'm going to send all of you back except for one with enough food to provide for your families. Yseph continues and says, "If you are being honest, so one of the brothers, one of you is going to be incarcerated alone. And you go and bring the food for your families. Your younger brother, I want you to bring him along with you. Bring him back to me. I'll see the truth of your words and then you won't die." And that's what they did. Now what's interesting here is the next the next verse tells us that one said to the other each one said to to his brother they started to talk to each other they didn't know that Yseph understood them because Yseph was speaking to them in Egyptian and there was a translator between them as the verse tells us but they were speaking to each other and they were saying we are guilty we saw our brother they're referencing Yseph we saw his pain. He was pleading with us and we didn't listen. That's why this difficult situation is occurring to us. Ruin answers them. He responds says, "I told you do not sin against the boy. Do not sin against him and you didn't listen." Ruv confirms what they're saying and say and he says that now God is demanding of us of his blood meaning all of this is occurring as a direct result of our sin with selling our brother and selling Joseph and the Torah continues and tells us how Yseph heard this and he turns away and he cries he becomes very emotional but as in reading these verses I can't help but but question it's very strange the strange thing is that they are put in jail for 3 days right away they're incarcerated and then they come out of jail and Yseph says to them, you know, I'm sending you all back home and except for one person and all of a sudden they wake up. It's like, why didn't they wake up the first time? This question is actually asked by the or I'm not going to get into his answer, but certainly it's it's an important question to ask. Why are they getting why are they all of a sudden waking up to the fact that this is connected to the sin of Yoseph to selling Yoseph only after they're incarcerated for 3 days? They didn't think about it during They didn't think about it at the beginning of the story. They only notice at the end as as they're being sent off and Shimon is being placed in jail alone. At that moment, at that point, something changes in their awareness. They start to say, "Hey, this must be because of the fact that we did that great sin." What changed? What happened here? Why is that wakeup call? Why are they waking up to the wakeup call, so to speak, only after a few days? Why don't they make that comment right away? So to try to understand this, I want to share with you something that actually just happened to me over the last few days. I'm a little bit embarrassed about the story, but I feel like there there's a powerful message within the story within this this uh occurrence that happened to me just now that I think really explains what's going on here and is a powerful lesson powerful lesson in experiencing humiliation, experiencing difficulty and challenges. Two nights ago, I was on my way to Jerusalem to yushim in order to sing at a kanuka at a party for the kanuka for the celebration for yeshiva inim called toraa and I brought my son with me. We were we were driving my son was going to sing with me. He did sing with me and um as we pulled out of chameh I was in a car accident and I was responsible. I I was not focused on the road completely. I was a little distracted at the moment. car in front of me slowed down. I backended the car in front of me. The car I was driving, the front of it got smashed. The back of his car was smashed. Thank god I was okay. My son was okay. We were just a little bit shaken up. Person, the people in front of me also, thank God they were okay. But we were really shaken up. My son was more shaken up than me, interestingly. He was more aware of what had been going on. I had been distracted for the moment. And so he felt like, you know, he felt the trauma of it. And I felt more of a of a guilt, a humiliation over the fact that I was distracted from the road for the moment and I caused this accident. One of the challenges of the situation was that this was a rented car and so it had it had full insurance. Thank Godashem I had full insurance and so I didn't really have to pay anything. I had I had paid for the insurance and I caused I caused this damage but it felt very uh you know I felt like I had a lack of closure on it. I I did something wrong and yet I didn't have really a way to do a tikun to do a rectification of it. I also didn't have a full sense of of the danger that had occurred or was was I really in mortal danger. Did I do something that I could have I could have gotten killed. I could have killed someone else. I definitely had this sense that I could have hurt someone else. I personally didn't nothing happened to me. My son, we were okay. At least physically we were okay. definitely had this um challenging situation. The emotional factor of it, but the physical factor of it didn't seem to be so great. I had a discussion with my RV this morning with my with the rabbi Mashul as to whether or not I need to make a there's a when a person is in a life-threatening situation. So, there's an obligation to say a blessing, a special blessing to thank God that the person was saved. And I described in the situation, I said, "We weren't moving that fast. the car in front of us was moving about the same speed as us, you know, and he said to me, he's like, if you if he was going 30 km an hour and I was going 40 km an hour, so the the the impact speed was about 10 km an hour, it wasn't a major it could have been that it wasn't a major danger. And then I mentioned that the front end of the car was was became an accordion or at least to a certain extent it did. The car was still functioning right afterwards. Not so well, but it was still drivable. And um but he said look if the front of the car you know got smashed in so that means that the front of the car really saved you and you should indeed say you should indeed say this blessing thanking God for sparing your life. I felt like as as I heard this as my as my rabbi said this to me I it made me it gave me more of an opportunity to have closure on the incident because there's a recognition all of a sudden that hey I was in mortal danger. I was indeed in danger. I I did something irresponsible and it could have caused great damage to myself, to my son, to someone else. And by saying, by recognizing it's an obligation to thank God for saving my life, for preventing any major damage to h happening to me physically and to someone else in that statement, in that blessing is a recognition of the fact that there was a danger that occurred that it it just brought it home to me. It brought it home to me. It didn't really completely register until I until I heard that. And and I think that as we read the story as we read the story of of Yosesephadic as of his brothers, the first their first interaction with Yoseph, they didn't immediately as as I understand it, they didn't immediately register what was going on. It didn't completely penetrate to them that there was something that was happening. There was no recognition that they were in mortal danger. If you read the sukim and you read the verses, all Yoseph says to them is, "I'm putting you in jail because you are spies." He doesn't say anything about their lives. He doesn't say anything about the fact that their lives are on the line. That doesn't register for them at all. When they come out of jail, the verse says like this, this is in verse 18. On the third day, he says to them, when they come out of jail, do this if you want to live. do this if you want to live. Inherent in this statement of do this and you want to live is two things. First of all, you're in mortal danger right now. I'm accusing you of being spies. That's a that's a fatal offense. If you are really spies and you're coming to search out ways to penetrate into Egypt in order to do something because you're from a different country, a different nationality, you should know that that's a that that you're liable for death. That's one aspect of it. Another aspect of it is and this is what spoke to them perhaps that you have done something to be you've done something which makes you liable for death. You don't realize that you are liable for death for some action. All of a sudden they're hearing liable for death. Liable for death. What did we do to be liable for death? Again in verse 20, he says, I bring your younger brother to you, then I'll know the truth of your words and you will not die. Meaning again, he was saying to them, if you want to get out of here clean without being liable for death, you need to know that you need to bring this younger brother of yours, but you are liable for death. He didn't say anything about death until now. And then it's immediately after he says this, that's when they say to each other, we're li we've done something wrong to be liable for death. They start to hear the words liable for death. I did something. I did something which was a close call. I did something where I almost killed somebody. I almost killed somebody. The brothers realized and I'm realizing myself personally. I could have hurt somebody. I could have killed myself. I could have caused death to somebody who I love who is dear to I could have caused death to someone else with my carelessness, with my irresponsibility. And even more so, here they are coming into Egypt. And they need to they need to take care of their families. They came down here to get food to provide for their families. And here they are. Not only are they in mortal danger because of something that they've done in the past spiritually that they recognize now, but their very families, the very future of the Jewish people, the very future of the entire world is at stake. The very future of Kali Israel is at stake because if they don't bring back the food, their families could die. So what's hitting them is a recognition that that mistake that they made with Yoseph, that mistake that they made to sell him, they didn't listen as he pleaded with them. And Ruven, an amazing thing that the Mapor say, Ruven says to them, I told you don't sin against the child. Don't sin against this boy. the things that he was doing, the the the dreams that he was telling us, the things that have aroused our hatred, our animosity, it was all coming because he was a boy. He's just a child and you didn't listen. The mistake that we made is was a mortal mistake. We have endangered ourselves. We've endangered our children. We've endangered our family. We've endangered the Jewish people. We've endangered the world with our mistake. Yes. The mistakes that we make, the mistakes that we make have farreaching ramifications. For me personally, the the what just happened to me, this story, this accident that occurred to me, it it brought home to me. It's like, yeah, I've been distracted on the road before, but thank God, it's always been okay. I've never never gotten into an accident. I've been driving safely for 20 years. I've never been in an accident before. and and to for me to have that recognition and I had a discussion with my father as well about this for for for it's a recognition that hey I got I'm taking my life into my hands I have to be so careful I'm taking my family's life into my hands there's a responsibility that I have and it's true on a simple level on a on a physical level when I get in the car and and I'm driving around I'm I'm responsible for those around me and others are responsible for me as well I'm putting my life in the hands of other people when I when I drive out in my car, but also on a spiritual level, if I'm not being spiritually who I need to be, I'm affecting all of those around me. I'm affecting my family. I'm affecting my children. I'm affecting Kalisrael. I need to know that I have a responsibility. I think that's a central theme in the story of Ysef. The central theme is that every single Jew has a responsibility for every single other Jew. I have a responsibility toward myself and what I do affects all of those around me both in a spiritual sense and in a physical sense and I need to take that responsibility so seriously and I want to extend that even further and talk about the idea of if I have a talent let's say if I have a spiritual ability I have an ability to inspire others whether it's through speaking saying a dvar Torah it's at my family it's my children or or inspiring them to say what they have heard listening to what they have heard spiritual ideas if I have the ability to inspire people that way if I have the ability let's say I have a talent in art or singing or there's some myriad ways different different ways that I can inspire others that that I have Hashem is shining through me I have a chance to inspire others if I don't use that ability if I don't share that with others if I'm not willing to take risks in order to give that to to to to share that with others to inspire others is I'm not just affecting myself. I'm not just endangering myself. I'm endangering others. And another point which is within this idea is that sometimes it's possible for me to make my willingness to share with others to inspire others dependent on some selfish factor. I will only share my Torah at the table let's say if people listen to me if everyone gives me their complete wrapped attention. I will only share my music with people if if I sell 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 copies of my album. I will only share if if I get a million hits on my video. I'm talking for myself. That's the Yates. That's how the the selfishness comes in. I'm not willing to take a risk. Am I willing to take a risk in sharing what I have? Am I willing to take that risk? And if I'm not, so I'm withholding from myself and I'm withholding from everyone. The point is that there's a responsibility that I have on a spiritual level, on a physical level that I have to take seriously. Sometimes Hashem will give me a wakeup call and I won't get it right away. I won't it won't register right away and it will take the the the the statement of somebody else that, hey, this is your life. This is your life. You risked your life. You did something irresponsible that risked your life. The brothers saw that. I saw that each and every one of us has to know that our life is not just a physical life. There's a spiritual life. There's a life that we have which is sharing with others godliness. There's a life that we have which is inspiring others, inspiring ourselves. And we have to be able to do that. We have to recognize that that's what that's what it means to really be alive. We can't give up our lives. This is what you need to do in order to live. You have to recognize that your life is at stake here that the distractions the the things that take us away for our focus from our focus. It's so easy to lose focus to lose the opportunities that are there in front of us for us to to imbue within our lives spirituality to share that spirituality with others to do things in our lives that are real accomplishments on a spiritual level that really bring God into the world. I want to bless you and please bless me back. Hashem should help us to be able to recognize that this is our life. this is what we need to do to live and sometimes there's a wakeup call that's necessary and sometimes it's enough to hear it from someone else to help us to recognize especially during this time of Kaneka when we're lighting up those minoras we have a chance to to to show the the light of the manora is the light of our souls it's the light of Hashem in the world it's the recognition that Hashem is there with us in everything and we have an opportunity at every second to live not to die but to live and to live not just for ourselves but for our families and for all of Am Israel, for all of the Jewish people and for all of the world. So I bless you and please bless me back should help us to be able to light up that light to recognize what it is that we need to do in order to really live. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabas. 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