The SECRET to beating ANTISEMITISM (It's EASY) | Parsha Perspectives | Vayigash 5786

Good morning, Booker. Welcome back to Pure Perspectives. For today, we have the privilege, the honor, the to learn Pash. If you have your notes, scroll stone in front of you. It's on page 250. And as always, we begin with gratitude. Thank you to our dear friends and sponsors of the series Becky Cats and family in memory of David Grossman. Our learning should be David. Our learning is also dedicated in honor of Rafu Schlma for Ra Nathan ben Merily should have a speedy complete painless rafu. Please God all those who are ill should have a full recovery. If you'd like to sponsor any upcoming parashir or any of the shirum bsline.org sponsor page 250 love you last week left off as a cliffhanger and we all know the way it ends because we know the story. We've read it several times, but originally, as we saw last week from Rabbi Sachs before the printing press, when people waited literally almost a week to hear how the story ended, they were left in suspense. What would happen? Would there be a big reveal, Yoseph and his brothers, demanding that Binyammen be left behind, the false accusation, the drama reaches its peak. And in this week's para, the drama the drama continues. They love Yuda. Yuda approaches and he says, "Can I speak? May I share something in the ears of my master?" It's so tempting to not get past the first Pa because there's so much to say on it. We've shared so much in the past and I encourage you if you enjoy the par each week, listen to the previous years too because those Torah were also remarkable. The ram according three steps forward the three times vayash is used. Maybe Yehuda is really speaking to himself. Vash love. Who's a love? Yehuda approached him. We've developed is he approaching God? Is he approaching Yoseph? Maybe he's mustering the courage within himself. Vash love. He's finding the courage from within. And then he speaks in the ears of his master. What a peculiar thing. You have an audience with the king. You have an audience with the prime minister. You have an audience for the president and you say in his whisper in his ear. How close are you going to get a little you're like fall back step back going and crouching into his face. And how does he position? He says you're like parro you're so great at this point in the relationship in the conversation the negotiation does he really still need to be telling Yoseph how great he is? You're almost like parro. So much to talk about and unpack in the first PK. Much of it we've discussed previously. Some of it we'll get to now. So let's start out with a few insights from Rabbi Saxs. And you all have access to this now because we have a bookcase full of the new Rabbi Sax. Vash begins with a climactic scene in which Yoseph finally reveals himself to his brothers. As we know now, Rabbi Saxs quotes something you may not have heard others. What do porcupines do in the winter? Has anyone here ever considered that? I haven't, but apparently Schopenhau has because Schopenhau asked and Rabbi Saxs echoes, "What do porcupines do in the winter?" Now, what's the dilemma? If they come too close to one another, they injure one another. If they stay too far apart, they freeze. So, what do porcupines do in the winter? Now you have a great topic of conversation for your Shabas table life. They go to Florida. That's good. That's good. Porcupines, they have to be 55 though to go to Centuryville. Whatever. Life for porcupines is a delicate balance between closeness and distance. It's hard to get it right and dangerous to get it wrong. And says Rabbi Saxs, so it is for us. The force of the word that gives our para its name vayash literally is and he came close. Perhaps the first time in his life Yuda comes close to his brother Yoseph. The irony is of course that he does not know it's Yoseph. But that one act of coming close melts all of Yoseph's reserve, all of his defenses. And as if unable to stop himself, he finally discloses his identity. This moment contrasts with another many chapters and many years earlier. What was the puss that we read? When Yoseph approaches his brothers in Shem sent by their father we'll talk about in a moment. The brothers they see oo here he comes. Here comes that dreamer and the puk describes he sees them. They see him rather they see him in the distance. By the time he reaches them, they've already plotted to kill him. At the beginning of the story, when Yseph was sent by his father to see the brothers were doing, tending the sheep, they saw him from the distance. They couldn't see his face. All they could see was that robe. All they saw was how he was favored, how he was spoiled. All they saw was their difference. All they had was their animosity. All they can see was their anger. so upset them because it reminded them it was not they whom their father loved. From far away we don't see people as human beings. When we stop seeing people as human beings, they become objects of envy or hate. Yseph and his brothers were too far apart in every way. Yseph and his brothers were too far apart. Which is why only when Yehuda comes close, the coldness between them thawed they became brothers, not strangers. Distance damaged the relationship. Yehuda's act of drawing close restored it. In that one word, Rabbi Sax sees the solution. Not only then, but I would argue now. Too many of us see our own brothers and sisters may ra. They're so far. They wear a different yarmaka or no yamaka at all. They send their children to a different school. They vote. They observe. They practice. They dress differently. They're mirror. We see them as the other. by Sax already developed so beautifully said we have to turn others into brothers turn the other into a brother others into brothers how do you do that the same way Yehuda did by closing the gap to break bread to spend time to connect I mentioned last week that was our trip to the UAE those who were others generalized can become brothers if you learn if you listen if you believe if you're willing to draw close. Not everyone, not even the majority necessarily, but if you're open didn't even know it was Yoseph, but the very act, the initiation of the willingness and the desire to draw close became the solution. And it's our solution. If we want to undo the sinum that really began this whole story now we cons continue to suffer from until today then the answer and antidote is to go from toash the willingness to draw close to not act like porcupines to not be afraid to be able to come close to one another. Yehuda's final confrontation with Bax continues can only be fully understood in the context of initial behavior towards Yoseph. It is Yehuda in his first recorded words in the Torah who suggests selling Yseph into slavery. Yehuda said to his brothers, "What do we gain by killing him by covering his blood? Let's sell him to the Ishmael, we won't harm him with our own hands. After all, he's our brother, our own flesh and blood." And the brothers agreed. ious. This is a speech of monstrous callousness. There is no mention of the evil of murder, merely a pragmatic calculation. The very moment he calls Yseph our own flesh and blood, Yehud is actually proposing to sell him as a slave. At this point, Yehud is the last person from whom we'd expect great ideas. And yet, however, Yehuda more than anyone else in the Torah changes. The man we see confronting Yoseph all these years later is not the same personality as the one who spoke when Yoseph was trapped in the pit. Then he was prepared to see his brother sold into slavery. Now he's prepared to suffer that fate himself rather than see Binyam held as a slave. And it's exactly this I'm pausing from Saxs. It's exactly this that makes Yosephe. He's unable to hold back. In fact, as far bring down brings down. Why does it say lo? He couldn't. He wasn't able. Why should he have? In fact, you could ask the opposite. Not only why are Yoseph's unable to restrain himself any further? Okay. Why is he restraining himself until now? Why didn't he the moment they walked in say, "Brothers, how are you?" No, she could have spoken to them in Hebrew. Here's my bris and Yoseph. Why wasn't there a reveal at the very beginning? Why was he restraining? Why was he holding back? Why was he disguising himself until now? The answer is he's trying to make the dreams fully come true. He's trying to see them unfold. He's trying to make his dreams become fully a reality. But in this moment, he can't hold back. Had he been able to hold back, had he been able to see it through this ruse that would have been the fulfillment of the dreams, there never would have been a in the future. Israel would have had a different history and a different destiny. The sin continues because Yoseph revealed almost too soon. Why? Because he was unable to hold back. Why couldn't he hold back anymore? Because what did he see now that was the indication to him that the ultimate chuva gamura the ram writes chuva is to become a better person don't repeat the same behavior avoid the people the places avoid the conditions the environment that led to those poor choices to begin with then the rabbam writes what's chuva gamura complete and absolute chuva is to be back in the same circumstance same place Same temptation, same desire, the same vitality to violate it. And yet this time you say no. That's chuva gamura. It's a famous question on the raam. Not for now. We'll save it for that if you undergo chuva properly, you never get to chaura. Chuva is avoid the place, the people, the circumstance, the environment. Chuva gamura is you're in exactly where you were. And yet this time a different outcome. So if you do chuva properly, you never get to chuva gamura. Question for another time. But Yoseph sees his brothers, Yehuda in particular. And there is a moment of chuva gamura. And what makes a chuva gamura? How did yoseph choreograph and curate and orchestrate things that this was chuva gamura? Yoseph only has one brother from the same mother, namely. He puts Binyammen in the pit, so to say. And now he's waiting to see, will the brothers walk away? Will they abandon that as they did to him? Or will they rise up? Will they advocate? Will they speak up? Will they stand for their brother? And when Yehuda gives this little speech, this little monologue love Yehuda. When this time Yehuda is ready to go to battle for a brother, he refuses to walk away empty-handed. Now there's Chuva Gamura. Yoseph sees this isn't the same brother Yehuda who when they were ready to kill him said, "Nah, why should we kill him? No blood on our hands. Why should we live with that guilt? Let's throw him in the pit. Let's sell him to the ishma." When he hears a very different speech from what seems to be the same person, he knows this is an altogether different brother. Chuva Gamura has taken place. This is a highly backed by Saxs a highly significant moment moment in the history of the human spirit. Yehuda is the first penitant the first in the Torah. Yoseph is consistently known as hats, the righteous. He also becomes Mishna Malik, second to the king. Yehuda becomes the father of monarchy. Yehuda Yehudah all of monarchy descends from Yehuda except for the no bitterness. Some suggest that's why there is no kanaka. We have rashana yuma. We have other why is it migill? Why is the Kaneka? So says because descends from Yehuda and he's bitter that usurped the throne and they shouldn't have and the punishment was no maka for you. That can't be the case. Again, we've discussed this in the past two. So Yehuda though is the father of monarchy. Where the penant Yehuda stands, even the perfectly righteous Yoseph cannot stand. Kazal tell us The person who's righteous, never fell, never failed, can't compare to the individual who fell down seven times and got up to the bala who transformed his or her life. So Yehuda who has to reinvent himself in this way is greater. Yoseph doesn't hold a candle because true Yseph is hatik. He overcame several tests but nevertheless he never fell. However great an individual may be in the virtue of his or her own character, greater still is the one capable of growth and change. That is the power of penitence and it begins with Yehuda. So really the beginning of this par is a story of transformation. We think we're reading a story of Yoseph. Yoseph was the one who was abandoned, sold into slavery, languished in prison 12 years. Yoseph rises to greatness. Yoseph is this ruse he's holding back. Yoseph, the big reveal. And yes, it's a story of Yoseph, but it's as much a story of Yehuda who underos this extraordinary personal transformation who fulfills at the highest level Chuva Gamura. Yehuda who gives in us that capacity for the courage of our conviction to not walk away, to confront an enemy, to stand up with pride, to stand up with strength and with faith. Yehuda. That's that the three steps forward we take before our is to walk up to Hashem by to approach and to say I care about the people around me. I'm domining for a fellow Jew. I'm domining for those who are underprivileged or those who need help. I'm standing up and I'm standing in and here I am. And then the para unfolds. Again, I'm tempted. There's so much to say, but we're really going to backend. We're going to do the second half of the para today. So Yehuda approaches, he steps forward. He recounts the whole story which Yose frankly doesn't need. He was there. He lived it. This is what happened. You fall and we went to our father when we came back and yeah, I I was there. I I'm the other person in the story. But nevertheless, Yehuda recounts it. Some say this is part of the strategy. If you want to evoke compassion, kindness, then you tell the story first person. you bring out and you try to elicit a sense of compassion from the other and in the story what happens let's go to you know that my wife gave birth to two that wife and this is what our father told us says Yehuda one is gone he must have been torn to pieces I've not seen him since yeah Yehuda is quoting Yakov. Yakov is repeating what the brothers told him, which is that that older son from that wife, Yoseph, was torn to pieces, writes Rabbi Sachs. One of the great questions we naturally ask each time we read the story of Yoseph, why does he not at some point during their 22-year separation send word to his father he's alive? Yseph's the vice of Egypt. He could send a messenger, carrier pigeon. Why doesn't Yoseph get in touch with his father? 22year absence, separation. Get word to Yakov. Dad, I'm alive. I'm here. Come down. I'll come to you. Yoseph knows how much his father loves him. He must know how much their separation grieves him. He does not know what YaKob thinks has happened, but he knows it's his duty to communicate when the opportunity arises, to tell his father he's alive and well. So why then does he not? Why did he wait till now? Cesar by Sachs. We've quoted this previous years from others. Story of Yoseph's descendant of slavery in exile begins when his father sent him alone to see how his brothers were fairing. Here Yoseph is languishing all those 22 years replaying the episode in his head over and over again. How did it happen? How did it unfold? How and why does Yoseph find himself in alone and secluded with his brothers in the middle of nowhere to begin with? because Yakov, his father, said, "Hey, Yoseph, go check on your brothers. Go see how they're doing." It was there at that meeting far from home they plotted to kill and lower into the pit and eventually sold him. What else could he conclude as he reflected on the events led up to a slave other than that Yakov deliberately placed him in danger? Why? Because of the immediately prior event. When Yseph had told his father, the son of the moon, that his father and mother would bow down, how did YaKob react? His father rebuked him. It was outrageous to suggest that his parents would bow down. It was wrong to imagine all the more so to say it. Yseph did not communicate with his father because he believed his father no longer wanted to see him or hear from him. His father had terminated the relationship. And that was a reasonable inference. The fact is Yoseph knew them. He could not have known Yakos still loved him. That his brothers deceived their father and that his father mourned and he refused to be comforted. We know these facts because the Torah tells us. But if you live through the eyes of Yoseph far away in another land serving as a slave, how could he know? Places the story in a completely new and tragic life. Yoseph's first thought when truth is revealed is not about Yehuda or bin Yemen. Right? When the truth is revealed, his first thought is about Yakov. A doubt he had harbored for 22 years has been shown to be unfounded. So what's his first question? Is my father still alive? Which is a very peculiar question because what did Yehuda just tell him? You're going to kill our father. If you don't send Binyama back, our father surely will die. Yoseph says, "Oh, I'm Yoseph. Is dad still alive?" He just told you dad's still alive. And his whole argument was if you don't send Binyam back, dad's going to die. So why is your first question is dad still alive? And the answer is that wasn't the first question. Yoseph didn't ask I don't know if he called him tati aba daddy dad. His first question was not is dad still alive. What was his first question? Ai my father. Yeah I I garnered through the story that dad's alive. But is he still my father? Has he asked about me? Does he miss me? Does he care about me? Was he behind this whole thing? That's all I want to I forgive you. We're all good. God orchestrated it. I was meant to be. As we've shared in the past, Yoseph understood psychology before anyone else. And he reframes. He reframes this whole story. In in DBT therapy, it talks about reframing the same picture, but if you put a new frame around it, you can have sometimes a tired, worn out picture, but when you put a new frame around it, comes to life. It's pretty. It's beautiful. Now, you want to hang it on your wall. We can have a picture that's tired, it's worn, but when we put a frame around it, it's beautiful. Yoseph reframes his picture. The picture was sold into slavery, falsely accused, languishing in prison, rises to viceroy. That was the picture. Not so pretty. But now he puts a new frame. He reframes his whole life. This wasn't you. Ashim is like a we spoke about previously. This wasn't you. He tells the brothers, this was Hashem. He orchestrated. He wanted this. Says where I was meant to be. Yoseph is the first to embrace his place and recognize he wasn't stuck in Mitim. That's where he was meant to be. He reframes. So he has no questions about everything. He doesn't say to the brothers, "How could you? Where were you? What were you thinking? What have you done the last 22 years?" He doesn't have any questions for the brothers. The only question he has is a abba daddy. Does he miss me? Was he behind this? Does he long to see me? Is my father still alive? Is he still alive? When it comes to the brothers, he's ready to move on. Rabbi Saxs continues. This is our last Rabbi Saxs of the day. This is the first recorded moment in the history in which one human being forgives another. So already in the first few of our para, we have the first act of chuva of courage and boldness of standing up for a brother and the first forgiveness. First time God forgives is Hashem does not forgive Adam or he simply mitigates their punishment. But mitigation is not outright forgiveness. Hashem does not forgive the generation of the flood or the builders of BL or the sinners of stone. Hashem in short does not forgive human beings until human beings learn to forgive one another. All through safer braces, Hashem does not yet forgive. He mitigates. He pardons. He offers clemency, but he doesn't forgive. Only when is he willing to forgive? What is the catalyst for Hashem's forgiveness? When we learn to forgive one another. It takes Yseph to bring forgiveness into the world. Had Hashem forgiven first, he would have made the human situation worse, not better. People would have said, "Why shouldn't I harm others?" After all, Hashem forgives. It's what Hashem is waiting for. Forgiveness transformed the human situation. For the first time, it established the possibility that we're not condemned endlessly to repeat the past. Genuine forgiveness only exists in a culture in which repentance exists. When I repent, I show I can change. The future is not predestined. I can make it different from what it might have been. And when I forgive, I show that action is not mere reaction as revenge would be. Forgiveness breaks the irreversibility of the past. Possibility of the kind of moral transformation simply did not exist in ancient Greece or any other pagan culture. To put it technically, Greece was a shame and honor culture. Judaism was a guilt repentance and forgiveness culture, the first of its kind in the world. Humanity changes the day Yoseph forgives his brothers. When we forgive and are worthy of being forgiven, we are no longer prisoners of our past. And once we demonstrate it, then Hashem is willing to practice it as well. Incredible and brilliant insight. So many lessons to learn just from the beginning of our para. So Yseph reveals himself all of their past, the last 22 years, the picture become clear. What happened? Why, when, who, where, what, and now the brothers are confronted by the reality of what they've done. That's what it's going to be like for each and every one of us when we watch the movie of our lives. When we have to see and undeniably confront what we've done, it's a painful, difficult reality. Yseph reveals and he reframes. He actually comforts and strengthens his brothers. Don't worry, I'm not taking revenge. We're good to go. It wasn't you. It was Hashem who put me here and placed me here. And it was for a And it was for a reason. extraordinary extraordinary capacity that he has. Last night, Bar Cooperstein spoke and we sang and we danced and we thanked Hashem, his return and all the living hostages. If you missed it last night, you missed one of the historic evenings in Bocarone Synagogue. It was amazing. And here he was 738 days in prison, also alone, far from abandoned from his family or his people, but alone. And yet he understood he found faith. He found Hashem there. He talked all about it. His longing all he wanted was to put on fillin. And his mother somehow sensing that took his fillin at home and asked in so many people to put it on since he couldn't. He talked about he talked about saying shma talked about prayer. He talked about shabas. And I asked him the only reason he ended up there is because he had gone back and forth 10 times to Nova to save and to rescue which he did many many people. And only because he went back, he was taken captive. Did he regret it? Did he regret it? Looking back and sitting there those 738 days, did he wish he hadn't gone back? He said he wouldn't change a thing. He was where essentially he was meant to be because he saved so many people and having lived through that time there. Extraordinary people. You don't have to only open the Kish and read about thousands of years ago. There are modern-day makabes and modern-day heroes of our people. Truly, truly extraordinary. So, Yseph reveals himself and now he sends a message back to his father perme identifies himself and he comforts his brothers and now he's ready now that after 22 years desperate to see his father and to be seen by his father which we'll speak about. So page 254 bottom sentence he's sending them back and he wants to send specifically in wagons. He gives them for the road. Jews always have to take some food. What if you get stuck? What if you're abandoned? What if you're sitting on the tarmac? What if the flight is delayed? Jews always have enough for a week. teach of his brothers. He gave a change of clothing to he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. We've discussed in the past. Isn't Yoseph just repeating the behavior of his father which started it all? The whole thing began because Yakov spoiled Yoseph. And what is Yoseph doing right now? His brother Bin Yammen, the only brother from the same mother, he's spoiling. He's treating differently. He's giving more to. Doesn't he understand? Didn't he see himself of a victim of exactly that? Turn the page. He sent his father 10 donkeys with the best Egyptian. 10 donkeys with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. to his father. He said, "Here's some Egyptian clothing, Egyptian cotton sheets. Here's some incredible food, grain, bread, food for his father for the journey." And here we quote Rabbi Weinfeld. Since Timely and Timeless came out, we haven't quoted Rabbi Winefeld. Everybody could read it on their own. I don't know if this one appears in there but says Winefeld Yoseph sends his father from the best of Egypt quotes the he sent his father a bottle fine wine aged wine. Why old did he get? Just like fine wine aged to perfection. That was the other name. We called it the empty nesters in the end. The other name way back when when we first branded that auxiliary of the shul instead of empty nesters, we were considering age to perfection. We didn't go with that. But older, the older you get, the more you appreciate those things which improve with time and age. So Yoseph sends his father an aged bottle of wine grease and shapool and he sent him also grease and shapool. He sent them this grain. Now what's the significance of these two things? If you think about the life of Yoseph, it's really incredible. Incredible how he's able to become who he became after such a series of tragic events. First, anyone know how old Yseph was when his mother died? His mother dropped dead on the road, buried on the side of the road. How old was Yoseph? He was eight years old as it says in Seder Olam. Then hated, marginalized by his brothers. Even his father seemingly betrays him, sending him off to his brothers. Then his brothers want to kill him. Instead, they settle on selling him into slavery. And there he rises in his master's home only to be falsely accused. languishes in prison for how long? 12 years, two extra years, 12 years. But even there, after having been victimized and suffering a troubled youth, does Yoseph see himself as a victim? Does Yoseph those 12 years in prison say, "Woe is me. Why me? Where is God?" No. He's sitting in prison. He sees the Sarah Mashkim and the Sufim and they're down and out. They're depressed and despondent. What does Yoseph do? Does he say stay to your corner? It's your problem. I got my own problems. Look at my life. Always me. I have no one. He says, "Hey, brothers. Why do you look so sad? Smile. Don't worry. Be happy." Why do you look so sad? Why do we look so sad? Well, we had these dreams. They're haunting. He says, "It's no problem. I'll interpret them for you. One of you some bad news, the other good news. When you get out, don't forget to remember me. Don't forget to remember me. Mupri Yoseph, after all he had gone through, lost his mother as eight, attempted to kill him, sell him into slavery, falsely accused, 12 years in prison, abandoned by the world, seemingly by the Almighty himself. Instead of being a victim, instead of living as a martyr, instead of complaining, Yseph sees the pain of others and wants to help. Even more so the gamot tells us that when parro met Yoseph he says ganuno I see our aristocracy in Yoseph. How did Yoseph maintain a demeanor of aristocracy after all that he had went through? How how did Yoseph persevere? How did Yoseph come out? How'd he do it? I'm not comparing them. about Bar Cooperstein last night. He was a young man, a boy, when his father answering a hatal call in Israel on his motorcycle got in a car accident was paralyzed and he had to leave school to man his father's falafel store. He's so responsible, takes responsibility for providing for his parents, for his family. And then he sits 738 days in tunnels captivity and he comes last night and he's singing oy terto oto smile and the highlight of the night for me was when he led all of us in the per of ms more to give gratitude to gratitude to hashem says anyone who has a right to feel or were you how could you how did Yseph maintain this demeanor There were two ideas that Yseph always had in mind that allowed him to overcome everything and become who he became says by Weinfeld. The first message is Greece and Shaul. What's Greece and Shaul comments was worried to go down to Egypt because he knew the Jewish people were destined to suffer exile in Egypt. And therefore there's a long but a essentially says let me let me skip to the endool. The message that Yseph embied which he was given over to Yakov was the idea that from great difficulty and challenge is where growth takes place. Just like these grease and these grain when they're crushed and multiply and grow so to the Jewish people when you try to crush us when you try to break us you just make us multiply and grow. There's an old expression. It's not a Jewish one. They tried to bury us. They planted us instead. They tried to bury us but they planted us instead. This message Yseph carried with him when things get difficult. That is where the main growth happens. What about the aged wine? It would seem it can be wine from its time and made by Egyptians. Can't be because that would be or at least not kosher. So suggests it must have been wine that Yseph himself made but had aged. Rashi says in on the that they drank that that the truth is from the day Yseph was sold neither he nor the brothers drank. So why would Yoseph had stored wine away? It must be they live with the message that one day it'll all be over and they'll be able to celebrate. Here you have Yoseph makes wine. He rises to be the viceroy of Egypt and he makes wine. Why? He's not drinking it. He refuses to drink until he's reunited, until it's all over. That aged wine was an expression of his faith. It's like Miriam, we'll read in a few weeks when they come out of Egypt and the men are singing as Yashir, Miriam leads the women with their instruments in their own song in the instruments. Where in the world did you get instruments? Moment ago, you're slaves in Egypt, miraculously liberated, and now you're playing your instruments. the band is back together again. Where'd you get instruments? Because the optimism, the faith of women in particular, to the whole time they're in Mit and leaving it is it's worth holding on to these instruments because we will dance again. We will dance again. We danced again last night. We will dance again. Miriam and the women knew we will dance again. Yoseph knew we will drink leim again. So he brought the aged wine. These were the two messages. One being that difficult times are what is necessary to facilitate growth and ability to believe and know one day it will be over. And those were the two foods that Yoseph sent his father because he was communicating to his father and to all of us what it takes and what we need to be resilient to have courage to recognize whatever hardship we're going through. It may be trying to bury us or break us. It's only planting us. It's only multiplying us. It's only elevating us. And that it's worth holding on to that bottle of wine or to have those instruments because we will dance again and because we will sing again. So they go to Jacob. They reveal carefully on call. They're ready as they reveal after 22 years. Guess what? Ysef is still alive. And they show him. They tell him all the story. They repeat everything Yseph had said and he sees the wagons that Yseph had sent. And when he sees the wagons that Yseph had sent, comes back to life. Finally, after 22 years, he can exhale. Finally, he breathes again. Vom. And how does he react? This Yakov is back to being Israel. Israel is the higher name, the name of destiny, the name of purpose. Yakov now becomes Israel. Now that he's brought back to life and he knows the continuity, the destiny, the story continues through Yoseph that Yseph is still alive. How great my son Yoseph still lives. I'm gonna go and see him before I die. What word in that is extra the word owed is extra. He could have and should have just said Yoseph my son is alive. What is owed? theatam themselves when the brothers report they too use that language that seems extra and unnecessary owed there's something special here about the word owed why is the word owed being used turns to a earlier owed He develops this idea. The mid of Yseph that he gets from Yakov is the mid of Ode. What's the mid of Ode? We spoke about it this past week in the N woman's kdish and Shir. The mid of OD is the Kaneka Mos to not say I'm done. I'm finished. I'm fixed. What you see is what you get. To never become apathetic or complacent. But no matter what age, no matter what stage of life, owed. There's more to do, more to grow, more to become, more to contribute. To live a life of owed. We're never done. We're never finished. We're never fixed. Oed. To live a life. The mida of owed. That's Yoseph's mida. That's why corresponds with Yoseph and Yseph's very name. Ysepher Yoseph's very name is Yoseph tophus more additional progress adding on not done not finished not fixed owed to live owed that's Yoseph what Yakov sees is that not only is Yoseph physically alive not only was he spared and physically he's back but Yoseph is back and he's better than ever is back and he's back and he still has the mida of owed intact. He still has that quality of more better greater additional owed owed owed. He still has it going on. He doesn't quote it but the holy mares says in we sing and dance to Hashem how OD with our ode when we live life o when we have a little extra ode when we live life with a sense of ode more additional extra I'm not done I'm not finished I'm not fixed owed a we sing and we praise Hashem how? By living a life of o of ode. By always doing more. Okay. [clears throat] Page 260. They come down. Yakov makes his way down to and the Torah recounts who he brings with him, the family, the hidden miracle of Y's birth. page 260 chapter 46 verse 28 now Jacob sends Yehuda ahead of him why says to Yehuda don't shle along with us you go quickly get there before us why to prepare ahead of him in Gam and they arrive in the region of Gan why does he send them ahead What does he meant to prepare? So says the you get there ahead of us because you need to identify a location. What location does Yehuda need to find and identify rent or buy prepare for the arrival of Jacob and the rest of the family? You need to find a yeshiva for what happens? What caused Yakov to send Yehuda in advance. Go identify, go find, go secure a location of Bajish. What was it? It was the wagons. What was it about the wagons? Yseph was embedding a message to his father in the wagons. He was signaling, Tati, dad, I'm still holding by what we were learning last 22 years. I'm embarrassed to admit. I'm not sure I remember what I learned in the DAFF early this morning. Yoseph is telling his father, I remember what we learned 22 years ago. We're in the middle of the sugu when a person a body is found and we don't know which city. We don't know who murdered and we measure which is the closest city. We snap the neck of the eggla the calf. Eggla arufah. How would he signal to his father? I'm holding by what we were learning. I'm still at Angatan learning. I'm still holding in the learning. I'm still thinking about the learning. Doesn't matter. I've risen to be the viceroy of Egypt. I'm running the economy of Egypt and the second most powerful powerful man in the world. But I'm still holding in what we were last learning. How is he going to tell his father Egla Arufa Agala Agalos? He sends him wagons. And when YaKob when YaKob sees the wagons, he says, "Oh, my son Yoseph is still alive and he's alive, not only physically, but spiritually. We need a bish to build around him." Yehuda, go ahead. We're a family. We're in real estate, of course. Go find a location. Go find a bes says Freedellander Mashia, the man of Ponovich. quoting from these because the med says not only does Yoseph remember where he was holding in the learning so did the brothers. But how did Jacob deduce that from getting the wagons says the Jacob was confident that even if he was separated from Yseph, he'd still be holding in the butler knew. How would he know if Yoseph is still holding? Because Yoseph when he would reveal himself after 22 years would say hey guys it's me anai new what was the terrors to the kash on the sheer cli 22 years ago guys you threw me in the pit you sold me into slavery I never found out the end of what Abba said in the s of egglufa we were all learning eglar rufa together with dad and you decided to throw me out of the bish you threw me out of the shir I didn't get to hear how it ends. I never got the terret to the kasha. No. Tell me the end of the year from 22 years ago. Y asked had Yseph not asked the brothers knew had the end no what was the answer to the question? Then Yoseph would not it wasn't Yoseph his Yoseph Jacob knew his Yoseph would still not only be holding in what they were learning would be asking knew had the sheer end of and Yseph knew his father would ask knew did he want to know what I answered that's why he sent the wagons when Yakov saw that not only Yseph remembered where they were learning but that he asked the brothers what was the answer to the question owed Yseph Now he knew now he knew that Yseph was spiritually still alive. The also has a comment here says that Yehuda he's coming a different angle. Yakov sends Yehuda in advance to go identify the location. Why Yehuda? Why not Yehuda? Of all the brothers, which do we associate with Torah? Torah relationship partnership. So maybe Ley Ley is Ley Kohanim. Tribe of Ley and the Kanim are the teachers of Torah. Is the one who sits in the tent of Torah. So it should be either Ley or Yehud does Mus. Why does he send Mus? Why? It's a very important powerful lesson says Eric Egypt is a decadent morally corrupt wicked idolatrous place and those who dwell there are morally perverted parro too made himself into a god. So Jacob understood he had to ascend for the Jew to not only survive but to thrive in exile says Bamb you have to not just be like Ley and Yakar know how to sit and learn but you have to be like Yehuda regal and royal malus don't recoil don't hide don't be afraid stand proud. We need to invoke and we need to express the mid of Yehuda inside us. The answer as we're facing this wave of anti-semitism is not to hide and is not to be afraid but to stand taller, prouder, and to practice more strongly and to carry ourselves with royalty to be regal to be malus to be therefore doesn't say that Yehuda's job is to be the rash. That's Ley. That's they'll be the and the ley and what's Yehuda's job. Stand up for the institution. Build that institution. Demand the respect and the honor of the institution. The safety of the institution. The mida we need in gullus is the mida of Yehuda. As high as we were last night in welcoming bar, I got a postcard in the mail yesterday here at Shul from some anti-semite depicted the idea of soldiers as accompllices of Nazis and Gaza. We've turned into Avitz. It's a picture of America and Israel with blood dripping all over Palestine. And guess what their name is? Correct. They're cowards. They didn't sign it. They're cowards. They didn't sign it. So if this anonymous [snorts] cowardly postcard with a stamp from Canada thinks it's going to make me afraid or that our sh is going to hesitate to stand with Israel and the heroes of the IDF of our programs online and offline, they couldn't be more mistaken because we descend from all of us Yehuda. We have Malus. We're not afraid. We're proud. We're practicing. Hashem is on our side and Hashem has a plan and they don't cause us to hesitate not for one second. We are like the mida. We have the mida of Yehuda inside us and that's what the moment calls for. That's why he doesn't send Ley and he doesn't send they'll become the once you get there. But the mid of Yehud of that's what the moment demands. [snorts] What happens Gna Yoseph harness his chariot went up to meet his father in Gen. And now he appears before. He appears before him. He falls on his neck and he wept on his neck excessively. Again, by the way, we don't know who's he, who's he, who's they, who. A lot of pronouns are being used. You could read it different ways. Now I can die once. I see you're still alive. I see you're still alive. What's going on here? O, there's so many things to say. Let's start with Rashi tells us that Yakov collapses on the n neck of Yoseph. And what does he do? He kisses him and he hugs him and he says, "I missed you so much." No. What does he do? He says starts reading Schma. It's a very antilimactic moment. 22-year separation. Yoseph desperate to see Yakov. Yakov ostensibly desperate to see Yoseph. And in that moment where they reunite in the embrace as they hug a father and his favorite son, what does Jacob do? He says schma. He says schma says, "How could it be? How could it be?" say maybe he was already saying Yseph walks in the room, hugs him and kisses him. Okay, it's interrupted. Whether he initi initiated Schma or he just kept saying, how could he keep going in that moment? In that moment, how could it be? And if it was, so you'll say, let's say you're a brisker and you'll say, you don't have to be a brisker. You're the man and the man says, well, it was Krishma was expiring. It was almost the last opportunity to say and Jacob says Krishma. If that's the case, why is only Jacob saying? Why isn't Yoseph saying this is the question of the moral? Many bring down the moral ask this question. If Jacob is saying because he's running out of time or maybe there's plenty of time left but Jacob thinks this is in this moment what a what a Jew should do. You memorialize and capture this moment by saying so why isn't Yseph saying too says the mar wasn't this manu aid who lives forem in this world while they get a personal enjoyment they have a moment of reconnection, of reconciliation, everything is experienced and interpreted through their relationship with Hashem. And before they can even embrace their long-lost son, stop and say, "Thank you, Hashem." One of the fathers of one of the hostages we saw did that before he hugged his son. He made a brahanu. He thanked Hashem for that moment. And only then, only when he put in that context did he hug his son. Not a criticism of those who didn't. But that was a modernday imitation. Lest you read this rashi and say, "Who could live that level? Did he really do it that way? That was so long ago?" No. Couple months ago, one of the fathers, one of the hostages before he would hug or embrace him again made a he thanked Hashem before he embraced his own son. So bashes he first was the saw the unity of Hashem the greatness of hem now Yseph couldn't reach what did Yseph have that Jacob didn't why did Yseph have another obligation that superseded his saying in that moment what was Yseph bound by so Yseph had to show cover to his father he'd get to the schma But Jacob not bound by first says and only then hugs Yseph's parents the stipler quotes he quotes and then he adds Jacob acted in extraordinary fashion. He was entitled to because there was no mitzvah to do. But Yseph who had a mitzvah to do was not entitled to act in another extraordinary fashion at that moment. Okay, that's that is that's the parrots. Rabbi Wininfeld also has something to say about this. Actually, we'll come back to Rabbi Winfeld in a moment. First Ravoba Roba writes and why specifically writes tried to channel the emotion, the relief, the joy into a connection, clinging to Hashem. Yes, he would celebrate with Yoseph. They'd break bread, they'd drink, they'd spend the rest of life together. But that moment where he was experienced this surge emotionally, he didn't want to squander it. He channeled it and used it and attached it to clinging to Hashem. How through tell us tells us a person has a what should you do to overcome the learn Torah if it doesn't work the methodology To overcome the is to connect to attach to because Hashem I see you and I feel you. I know you're everywhere. The whole world is you is you. We learn here the practice of our holy forefathers. Waited 22 years in this moment. He doesn't hug him. He doesn't kiss him. He doesn't cry. He doesn't say anything. He says that is the strength. That is the mindfulness, the presence of a Jew. And that's the madrega when we say he never forgot for a moment. Hashem, he lived. Hashem was opposite him always. And that's what we're capable of too. to live our life and to see Hashem in that same way. He continues says you see from this Jacob doesn't get too high to equinimity. It's all equal to me. Yakov has a even though he's meeting his son whom he missed, whom he longed for, whom he was worried was killed, was dead, he has a there's a certain he doesn't get too excited. There's a he has a right to live a life not to get too high, not to get too low, never too happy, never too sad. When a person is when you see Hashem equal and opposite you always, when you're living life knowing it's all orchestrated from above, then you're able to live with a with a Somebody who's really guided and lives Torah is able to maintain that incredible sense of that points out tells us what does that mean in this reunion what happened Yoseph appeared to Yakov it's not stressing Yoseph saw his father Trump. I saw this brought down also by uh by others the uh Kany also quotes that it's not stressing that Yoseph saw his father but rather that Yseph was seen by his father. Meaning as happy as excited as Yseph was for what it meant for him in that moment all he could think about was his father. I want to be seen by my father his father his needs. He was completely consumed by honoring by caring about by bringing a joy to his father. Why? Because being seen by his father was bring him joy. to know that he was giving his father he was restoring life in his very father that's what he lived for the same idea is quoted by the rebel of Nicholsburg says in specifically says not I long to see Hashem but I long to be seen by Hashem because it's not about seeing our creator. It's about being seen. It's about showing up. It's about caring about him. It's the same idea of the way that Yoseph lived it here as well. Ah, we had more. Okay, we'll have to pick up. Amusam Jacob says, "Now I'll only die once." What do you mean? How many times does a person die? We're not a cat. We don't have nine lives. Musa, now I'm only going to die once because I see you're alive. What did he mean? Mam explained what he meant was Yoseph, had you assimilated, had you intermarried, had you mixed into the Egyptians that you lost your identity and your values and everything I taught you, I would have been dead inside. I would have been dead. Okay, maybe I would have had a pulse. I would have physically lived longer, but I would have been dead inside. But now that I see that you're alive, not only physically but spiritually vibrant and alive. You remember what we were learning. I see you're alive now. Amusam, I'm only going to die once when I physically die. But knowing I have a continuity, a legacy, a future. Now I'm only going to die once. And who cares about that death? Physical death we'll all have. We're all mere mortals. That death I was never worried about. That one death I could live with. That one death I can live with. But now I know I'm only going to die once because I see you're alive. What a powerful idea. Pick up with Hashem next time. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy.