Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parasha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well. Afrei Lechen Hanukkah to you and your family.
[00:00:11] Before we begin, this week has been a challenging week for the Jewish people that although Hanukkah is a very joyous occasion, it's been a very hard week for the Jewish nation.
[00:00:26] I'm sure, as many of you have heard, about the tragedy that occurred in Sydney, Australia, where a terrorist opened fire on Jewish people who are about to celebrate the holiday of Hanukkah. Um, and actually, we always, as Jews, we have to feel for another Yid for another Jew.
[00:00:49] But I feel especially connected and affected by this tragedy because, you know, as some of you know, thank God this podcast reaches throughout the world.
[00:01:05] And one of my good friends that I've connected with over the years is a fellow named Sam who we became connected through the podcast, and actually we studied together on a weekly basis.
[00:01:22] And my friend Sam, he lives in Sydney, Australia.
[00:01:27] And more than that, actually, whenever we learn, whenever we study together, he talks about his community.
[00:01:36] He talks about his rabbi with affection.
[00:01:39] And just from his conversations, it became very clear to me that his rabbi was a very special person, and his community is a very special place.
[00:01:54] And when I. You know, when I woke up Sunday morning and I saw a message from Sam and I saw what had happened, I heard what had happened, it was heartbreaking because the rabbi of Sam was Rabbi Eli Schlanger. Hashem yim kom damum that Hashem should avenge his blood, and may his soul be elevated. And the community that was affected was Sam's community.
[00:02:21] And it really hit home for me because although I have never been to Australia, and although I've never even met Sam in person, and I've never met his rabbi, just from us having that close connection, you know, especially through learning Torah and us talking as friends and telling me about his rabbi and his community, you know, I felt a sense of connection to Rabbi Schlanger and to the Bondi beach community as well.
[00:02:56] So, you know, again, uh, maybe, you know, I don't want to. Hanukkah is a happy time, and obviously, we don't. There's no words. There's just no words.
[00:03:05] But what we could do is we can go forward, and that's what Rabbi Schlanger would want us to do. And that's what the Kedoshim, the people who were killed, um, for the sake of God's name, because they're Jewish would want us to do. To do things, to elevate their soul, to bring more light into the world.
[00:03:25] And this episode is dedicated in memory of the Kedoshim of Sydney. May their neshamas have an aliyah as well as a refua shalema. A complete and speedy recovery for all the injured and all types of injuries. As people who have physical injuries, as people have different things they're gonna have to deal with for the rest of their life.
[00:03:51] And Hashem should give them that recovery and comfort them and comfort all of us. And we all are connected, really, really, you know, we should always feel very personal whenever another Jewish person, a tragedy befalls them. We should always feel it. I think for me, uh, this was a lesson that, you know, we need to have that mindset of feeling connected to every Jew. And I think, you know, just having that connection to Sam and the community gave me that feeling. But it's really something that I should work on for every single Jewish person. And I think it's really all of us should try to develop that feeling for each and every one of us. So with that, we're gonna start the podcast and hopefully today we'll get a little clarity on the parsha. We'll talk about maybe the connection to Hanukkah a little bit.
[00:04:43] And as always, if you have any questions, comments, or just would like to reach out to say hello, feel free to send me an email@rabbi shlomokon k o h nmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:04:57] This week's parsha is Parshas Miketz. And the parsha starts off with Paro having a dream.
[00:05:07] And, you know, I've talked in previous year's episodes. I've given a very in depth background, but I'm going to give a more of a basic overview of the parsha and then jump right into it. Paro has these dreams which he's not able to interpret, not able to understand, and all of his advisors are not able to give him a satisfactory explanation until one of his, um, you know, people tell him that, you know, there once was this Jewish boy when I was in prison. His name was Yosef, and he actually interpreted my dream and Paro calls him out of jail. Yosef interprets the dreams to the liking of Paro, telling him about these seven years of plenty, seven years of famine.
[00:05:53] And in fact, Pharaoh likes the interpretation so much that he tells Yosef that you're gonna be the one to implement these ideas and bring it into action.
[00:06:06] Yosef becomes the viceroy of Egypt. In a split moment like that, he goes from being in jail to becoming the second in command of Mitzrayim. He implements the plan which he gave over to Paro to stockpile during the years of plenty. And then for the years of famine, the rest, you know, people will come to Paro to get food. And that's what happens. The years of plenty come, and then the years of famine begin. And the only place in the world where there is food available is in Mitzrayim. And everyone is coming down to Mitzrayim. And Yaakov Avinu Jacob has to send his sons as well to acquire provisions for his family.
[00:06:47] And yaakov sends down 10 of his sons to the land of Egypt. Obviously, Yosef is there. That's 11. Uh, he's in Egypt already.
[00:06:57] And Binyamin, Benjamin stays with Yaakov.
[00:07:01] Now, when the brothers are going down to Mitsrayim to Egypt, they also have a aside for getting food and acquiring provisions for their family. They, they have a secondary intention as well, to try to find Yosef. And they, you know, they never thinking in their mind that Yosef is the viceroy in Egypt. But either way, when they come into Mitsrayim, um, Yosef is ready for them. He expects them to come. He picks them out and actually frames them. And he says, you spies.
[00:07:29] And through a course of, uh, events back and forth over here, you know, the, the brothers come to a point where there's, uh, a back and forth with Yosef. They don't recognize him. Yosef recognizes the brothers, but the brothers do not recognize Yosef.
[00:07:47] And he says, you guys are spies, and I'm putting you, one of you in jail. And they, they, they actually, they try to speak to Yosef to convince him that, really, no, we're not spies. And there's another brother with our father. And he says, okay, you shim' on, are going to stay here with me. Bring back the other brother Binyamin. And the brothers go back to Jacob.
[00:08:09] And he has no choice. He has to send Binyamin down. Reluctantly, he sends Binyamin back down with the brothers and Yosef again. He frames Binyamin. He puts this goblet in his cup to try to see what the brothers are going to do. Are they still going to be jealous of Binyamin, who was born from the same mother as Yosef, or are they going to advocate for him to get him out?
[00:08:37] And this is where the Parsha finishes off that Yosef accuses Binyamin of stealing, and the Parsha finishes With us on a cliffhanger with Judah trying to advocate for Binyamin's release. The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the parsha.
[00:08:56] Now, we mentioned before how Pharaoh has these dreams, and after everyone's giving these explanations which are not satisfactory to Pharaoh. The chamberlain, uh, of the, um, of the cup bearer tells Pharaoh about Yosef, how he correctly interpreted his dream when he was in prison.
[00:09:17] And what does the posseq say? The verse says, vayishlach Paro vayikras yosei vayrteyum and abar vayigaleach vayakalevsim laisa vayavoy el Paro says. So Paro sent and summon Yosef, and they rushed him from the dungeon. He shaved and changed his clothes, and he came to Paro.
[00:09:36] Now, there's a very powerful idea that the Chavitz Chaim brings down from this verse. You know, we think in life a lot of times we're in situations, and the situation, you know, we're dealing with it. It's not pleasant. We're going through something.
[00:09:55] It's hard, it's not fun, it's stressful, and it also seems never ending.
[00:10:03] Right?
[00:10:04] Now we see from this parasha something very powerful, specifically from this verse. Yosef was languishing in prison for years.
[00:10:14] And Yosef, you can just imagine what's going on in his mind. His brothers had sold him. He was down in Egypt.
[00:10:21] Uh, he got framed by his master's wife that she made accusations against him. And he's sitting in prison for years.
[00:10:31] He doesn't think it's, you know, what's going through his mind.
[00:10:35] And you see here, uh, that the moment that it was destined for him to be taken m out of the dungeon, to be taken out of prison, boom, Paro took him out.
[00:10:49] Uh, right. And Paro called him. You know, he told him this chamberlain of the Kupir, this advisor, told Paro about this boy, and boom, he took him right out. It wasn't like any process.
[00:11:04] The moment it was supposed to end, it was over.
[00:11:09] And the Chavitz Chaim brings down this powerful lesson for us that we have to remember that if we're going through something, we have a challenge. And he also brings it on a larger scale for the Jewish people as well, that if Hashem wants it to be over or the second it's supposed to be over, it will be over.
[00:11:30] Right? Remember that when we're going through something challenging, we have to remember that it could end in a moment.
[00:11:38] And the second that Hashem, uh, decrees it's supposed to be over, it will be over.
[00:11:43] And the way that the Chavatz Chaim brings us down on a more national level is that when it comes to the final redemption, we have to know that when the time for it to come comes, it will come, right? It's not going to be a second longer than it has to be.
[00:12:04] And I think it's important thing for us to remember, especially when it comes to things that are hard in our situations, everything is divinely ordained. Obviously, we don't daven for challenging situations, but if we have it, we have to realize it's for our benefit.
[00:12:20] And if we have something, it's here to make us a better person.
[00:12:24] Doesn't mean sometimes we shouldn't change the situation or try to change it. But if we're in it, we're in it. And we have to remember that the second it's supposed to end, it will end.
[00:12:33] And similarly, with the gullus, with the exile the Jewish people are in, the second that Mashiach is supposed to come, it will come not even a moment later than it's supposed to. And I think that's a very important idea we see from this week's Parasha.
[00:12:50] Another idea just going a little bit out of order here, is that we see from the dreams of Paro something very interesting.
[00:12:58] What was the dreams of Paro? Right, So I didn't really get into it exactly, but the dreams of Pharaoh were that there were these seven cows came out of the, uh, Nile, seven fat, big cows. And then after the seven fat big cows came these scrawny, emaciated cows.
[00:13:21] And the emaciated cows devoured the fat cows, but yet they didn't. They looked the same. They were still emaciated, right? And similarly, what happened with these bundles of wheat?
[00:13:35] First, there were seven beautiful bundles of wheat, and then all of a sudden, these seven scrawny bundles of wheat came next to it and, you know, sort of encompassed or took over the big bundles of wheat. But yet they look the same. They still look scrawny, right? That was the dream of power. But if you look at the verses, it says something very interesting, Right? It says in the verse that then, behold, seven other cows emerged after them out of the river. This is after the big cows of ugly appearance and gaunt flesh. And they stood next to the cows on the bank of the river.
[00:14:28] And the next verse says, uh, Paro says the cows of ugly appearance and gaunt flesh ate the seven cows of beautiful appearance and robust And Paro awoke. So the question that's brought down is what is the significance? You know, everything in the dream was significant, but what was the significance of the uh, fact that the Torah has to tell us that the seven gaunt cows stood next to the seven fat cows and then they devoured them? Right? It could have just said that the seven gaunt cows, the seven, you know, emaciated cows, came out of the, out of the river and just ate the big ones. What's the significance of being next to the, the big cows and then eating the cows up? Right, Valid question. Why does the Torah have to point that out to us? What is that significance? In the dream Rabbi Twersky brings down to explain this, we see a very important idea regarding bad associations, right? From the fact that the Torah pointed out that the skinny cows stood next to the fat cows and then devoured them teaches us this important idea that the skinny cows, these famished cows, the gaunt ones, could only have devoured them because they stood next to them first.
[00:16:00] First they stood next to them and then they ate them, right? So we see an, an idea here regarding bad associations, toxic relationships, being next to people that can have a negative influence upon us, right?
[00:16:18] If we have people in our surroundings who are not the best influence which, who bring us down, who, you know, have a bad association with us, they cause us distress, we have to know that it's going to affect us just a matter of time.
[00:16:38] And the Rambam brings down, Maimonides explains that if a person is living in a place and there's it's bad influences all around him, it's better for him to live by himself in the desert than to him for a person to have negative influence.
[00:17:00] Now obviously for us in the generation we live in, it's very challenging. There's so much negativity around us, there's so much bad influence.
[00:17:12] But for the very least we can do is make our homes a fortress to not let in the street, to make our mind keep it pure, keep out the negative influences. Be careful what we watch, what we see, right?
[00:17:33] Don't associate ourselves with people that are going to bring us down.
[00:17:39] And maybe even another step, which Rabbi Tursky brings down is the study of musr, the study of self development. It's important that each and every one of us in our learning schedules, whatever we're learning, we should include some study of musr, which is ethical development.
[00:17:58] There's the different, you know, works, the great works of the Mesillas, Yesharim, the path of the just there's obviously, even before that, there's ethics of the fathers.
[00:18:09] It's time for us to reflect upon our character traits, upon what we're doing, upon our mission, upon how we could be better people, to refine our traits, to make them better.
[00:18:22] That's another, you know, another point, another source of ammunition I guess we could do to push that street back, to keep the negative influence away from us and at a distance.
[00:18:37] Now, the last idea I want to share with you today is a thought about Chanukah.
[00:18:42] And perhaps we can make a connection from this thought on Chanukah to Parshas Miketz. I heard today from Rabbi Weinrib a sva semes. And I looked it up, actually.
[00:18:57] We know in on Hanukkah, there is a mitzvah, lahoyda Yisulah, to, you know, give thanks and to praise Hashem.
[00:19:09] Now, obviously, a lot of holidays, there's. It's. We thank God for the salvation the. That he provided for us.
[00:19:18] And Hanukkah as well, was a salvation. But there's a special emphasis on lehodo sulahal to give praise and to have gratitude to Hashem.
[00:19:30] And in fact, every day of Hanukkah, we say Hallel. It's a special prayer of praise, Full hallel. Not just half Hallel, right? Because sometimes we only say part of the hallelujah. But on every day of Hanukkah, even though it's, uh, a rabbinic holiday, it's not in the Torah. It was something which is added by the rabbis after the miracle of the oil.
[00:19:52] We say full hallel.
[00:19:55] So we see there's a special emphasis. Now, the sesame explains that. Actually, one of the verses we say in the Hallel is pischuli shar etzedek avam oide k Hanukkah.
[00:20:10] Open for me the gates of righteousness. I will enter them and thank God, right? So we see that giving thanks has to do with opening the gates.
[00:20:24] And perhaps there's a connection to this in Hanukkah, because the Greeks, they wanted to smash down.
[00:20:31] They wanted to break down the barriers, right? They wanted to smash the walls of the Beis Hamikdash.
[00:20:38] But we see this idea here that there's a connection of opening the gates and thanking Hashem.
[00:20:45] Now, what is the significance of this? What's the depth over here? And how does it connect into Hanukkah?
[00:20:52] So I heard it explain that, this idea of opening the gates, right? Pischuli shar e tzedek ave vamoedika Open for me. The Gates of righteousness, I will enter them and thank God, uh, that there's this connection from Hanukkah to opening the gates.
[00:21:07] And the svasemis explains that a person naturally, you know, he's never, you know, happy fully. The physical soul, the physical body always needs something more, right? We get a new car, but the car is not as good enough as my friend's car. I have money. I want more money, right? But the soul is eternally, you know, climbing higher and eternally grateful that the essence of a neshama, the essence of a person's soul, is something that always wants to give thanks to Hashem and always wants to give praise to Hashem and on Hanukkah. One of the ideas of Hanukkah is that this is a special time for us that we're able to open those gates within ourselves, to sort of open the gate within our soul, to not let the body which holds us back from giving that thanks to Hashem, uh, that praise to God, to open up, to reconnect that. To reconnect to the source that, uh, the soul wants to aspire, to be connected to, always wants to give praise to, always wants to thank, right? It's an opportunity for us to refocus, to open the gates, to not let the body, the body of the person hold back the soul from giving thanks to Hashem. So, and actually, in fact, we know that on Hanukkah, ah, we know that the neshama of a person, NER hashem nishmas, Adam, the light of hashem, is the soul of a person. That a person, Person's neshama is compared to a flame. And the miracle of the oil was that it lasted for eight days, even though it was supposed to last for one. Right. That flame in there never stopped. It kept going. And I think Hanukkah, the significance of Hanukkah, one of the significances of Hanukkah is the fact that there's always that flame inside of every person and every Jew.
[00:23:19] And it's a time for us to reconnect, to let the soul express that praise, to not let the body hold it back from, you know, not going higher and not connecting, you know, to Hashem. Um, and, you know, if you take this idea a little bit further, what's the connection to this week's parsha? So this week's parsha talks about Yosef at Tzadik, Yosef coming out of prison and becoming the viceroy of Egypt.
[00:23:53] And perhaps one connection which Rabbi, uh, Weinreb brings down is the fact that this coming out of prison represents this idea of this gate, right? The gates of Yosef were opened up.
[00:24:10] He was somebody who always strive for more. He always saw the good in every situation. He never let anything hold him back. That's a little bit of a connection to Shabbos, Chanukah, because Chanukah is all about the insides and Yosef is about the insides as well. The Panemius, the insides of the person and the Greeks, the Yavanim, they're all about the externals, right? And that's similar to the body and the soul, right? The soul is always grateful. It always is thankful to Hashem for everything it has. But the body, it's always excuses why it's not good enough. And that's this connection to Yosef at Sadiq coming out of prison because he himself represents this idea of Panemius, of things on the inside.
[00:24:57] But yet we see when he comes out of prison and Paro, you know, tells him these dreams and, and he interprets it correctly, he doesn't take credit. He thanks Hashem. I think this is a very powerful idea during these days of Hanukkah to, number one, be thankful for everything Hashem has given to us and to try to connect to the Panemius, to focus in on the insides, not on the outside. To not let the body, the Guf, hold us back from being eternally grateful to Hashem and, and wanting to eternally strive higher. Because when you're thankful, you want to do more. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments, would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo Konkohn at gmail com. Have a great day.
