Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, my friends, and welcome back to this week's episode of the Practical Parsha Podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen, and I hope you are well.
[00:00:09] This week it's Parshas Vayigash.
[00:00:13] And in fact, the Parsha left us last week at a cliffhanger. I hope you were able to, you know, sleep at night. What's going to happen next in the story of the brothers and Yosef?
[00:00:27] And we'll get to that in just a bit. But before we do, as usual, if you have any questions, comments, just would like to say hello, see how I'm doing, send me an email@rabbi shlomokonkohnmail.comm I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:45] This week's Parshas Parshas Vayigash.
[00:00:48] And as I mentioned just a moment ago, the parsha begins as sort of a continuation from last week's Torah portion.
[00:00:58] Just to refresh ourselves very quickly. Yosef is the Viceroy of Egypt. His brothers come m down to Mitsrayim to Egypt to get food for his families. He recognizes them. They do not recognize Yosef.
[00:01:11] And he's testing them to see if they're, you know, they have done teshuvah, they've returned, they've fixed up their sin of selling Yosef. And he wants to see, are they going to do whatever they can to get the their brother Binyamin's freedom? Because Yosef has framed him and put in this special goblet into his bag. And now he's told the brothers that since he quote, unquote, stole it, I'm going to keep him as a slave. And Yehuda, Judah is approaching Yosef in this week's Parasha to speak to him, to, you know, to advocate for his brother Binyamin, who is also from the same mother as Yosef. He wants to see. Yosef wants to see, is he willing to give up everything for his brother Benyamin?
[00:01:59] And the Parasha tells us that Yehuda approaches Yosef and he's willing to give up anything for his brother. And Yosef sees that his brothers have made amends. They've gotten rid of that hatred that they had in their heart for the sons of Rachel and Yosef. At a certain moment, he's not able to hold himself back anymore. He shoos everyone out of the room, all the Egyptians, and reveals to his brothers that he is Yosef.
[00:02:29] His brothers are shocked.
[00:02:32] And the Parsha goes on to tell us how Yosef reassures them how everything was part of Hashem's, uh, Plan, you know, he should get there first, so he should prepare that there should be food for his family, and he should prepare the land for the eventual, you know, arrival of the family of Jacob.
[00:02:51] And Yosef tells the brothers, sends them back with provisions and wagons to bring back the entire family to Mitzrayim to give them food and to sustain them. The parasha also tells us about this meeting that happens between Yaakov, the brothers, and Pharaoh, the king of Mitsrayim.
[00:03:15] And we're going to talk a little bit about that today, this interaction that Yaakov, Avinu and the brothers have with Pharaoh.
[00:03:24] Yosef sets the brothers up in the land of Goshen, and he gives them what they need to be successful.
[00:03:32] And the parsha continues with a detailed list of the souls of Yaakov that are coming down to Mitzrayim. Um, the parsha finishes up with how the famine is to continue and how the land of Egypt continues to prosper, because that is the only place in the world right now that there's food. And Yosef acquires a tremendous amount of wealth for the coffers of the land of Egypt.
[00:04:01] Now, now, the first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha.
[00:04:08] So the beginning of the parsha is about Yosef revealing to his brothers who he really is.
[00:04:15] Right.
[00:04:16] So beforehand, before he reveals his identity, there's this confrontation that's happening, and the brothers can't figure out why this person is after them. But Yosef is testing them. And obviously, there's a lot of commentary that what was Yosef trying to accomplish? He was trying for the brothers to recognize what they did on their own, recognize the situation. And in fact, other years on this parasha, I've talked about this idea about Yosef revealing himself to his brothers.
[00:04:48] But what I want to talk about today is a little bit past that step.
[00:04:53] After Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he asks, is my father still alive? How is he doing?
[00:05:01] And the parsha goes into this, segues into, you know, sending them these wagons to go get his father and his family and bring them down to Mitzrayim. And the parsha tells us that when Yaakov and his family is approaching Egypt, Yosef goes out to, uh, greet him. The posse reads as Vayesar Yosef Merkav to Vayalikras Yisrael Aviv Gaishna Veyiro Elav Vayipa Al Tsavorov Vayevh al Tsavorov Oid Joseph harnessed his chariot and Went up to meet Israel, his father in Gaishan, he appeared before him, fell on his neck and he wept excessively.
[00:05:44] Now what we are going to talk a little bit about today is this idea here about Yosef and how, you know, he just saw his father for the first time in 22 years.
[00:05:55] There's a tremendous amount of emotion.
[00:05:59] But what I want to focus on first is if you look at Rashi, Rashi explains when it says in the verse vayes er Yosef merkav toi says that Yosef harnessed his chariot. Rashi says as follows asusim that he himself, like normally the viceroy of Egypt, is not preparing his own chariot. He has his servants, he has people who do it for him. But you know, in order to see his father in the most quick way and to, because it's a mitzvah to go see his father as well, he did it himself. He didn't wait for his servant to do it. He wanted to go see his father. And therefore it was a mitzvah on him to see his father. Keep it avayim, honor your father and mother.
[00:06:43] And he harnessed the chariot himself, even though normally he would have someone do it for him. But if you look at the next Rashi Fayarelov and he appeared before him, Rashi explains on those words Yosef Nira ah el Aviv that Yosef appeared to his father.
[00:07:03] Now the question is, what is Rashi telling us here on those words? Right, so I understand that Yosef, in order to see his father in the most time efficient way to do the mitzvah properly, he didn't wait for anyone else to make the chariot, he did it himself.
[00:07:22] Right, but what does it mean here? Vayarelav and he appeared before his father, Right? He appeared to him. It seems a little bit extra. Right?
[00:07:31] What's going on over here? What are these words in the pasuk that tell us that he got the chariot ready, he appeared to him and he wept upon his father's neck excessively. Right? So Rabelli Lapian explains on this, a very powerful idea. We know that at any given moment we're pulled in different directions.
[00:07:53] There's a lot of things going on in our lives and we have to multitask.
[00:07:59] But sometimes, and really, uh, we need to do this, we need to focus sometimes, right? We need to try to focus on ourselves, our work, more important than that, our families, um, really on what we're doing at the moment.
[00:08:15] It's very hard for us to focus.
[00:08:20] And I think this is compounded by the fact we live in a time where the reality is there's so much going on, right? There's our phones, and a person could be pulled in different directions. I mean, if you think about it for a second, I think, you know, TV producers, when they're making a show or a movie, each scene or clip, the frame moves in about a second or two. Everything's moving, moving, moving. There's movement like crazy. It's very hard in this generation for us to focus, right? They call us the add, adhd, all the A's generation, right?
[00:08:55] We're just so hyper and jumping around. And it's hard for us to think about one thing totally and give our energy to one thing and to totally put our focus into one thing to what we're doing right then at that moment, you know, how many times do we speak to people and we feel like they're not even talking to us, they're not even engaging with us, they're not even recognizing we're there. And how do we feel when we experience that? But the question is, how often do we do it to other people, right? So this is the reality that we live in. Lapiyan explains from this week's Parsha a very important idea when it comes to focusing.
[00:09:34] We know, you know, if you think about the karate masters, the karate dojos, they take all these boards, or it could be even bricks, and they're able to hit it at just the right, you know, angle. And with the correct amount of energy, they focus all their strength, all their energy on one spot on the board or on the brick, and it splits, right? They're able to take all their energy, put it into one spot and to let it out of their body. And it smashes, you know, 10 pieces of wood or 10 bricks. I'm m sure we've all seen scenes like this. Similarly, Rabbi Torsky brings down a laser beam. A laser beam is a highly concentrated amount of light into one spot. And it could burn through things, right? A laser beam could destroy something because it's highly concentrated light. It's focused. The light is focused.
[00:10:30] Now, taking this to like a biblical situation, right? We know Yaakov, Jacob, Yosef's father, few parshas ago, when he sees Rachel for the first time, he rolls this boulder off the well, right? Normally when Rachel comes to the well, there's this boulder on the well which all the shepherds normally have to do together. But Yaakov, he pushes it off himself, right? And in fact, I saw Rabbi Twersky brings down that we say in one of the prayers when we ask for rain that Yaakov dedicated his heart and rolled the boulder off, meaning to say is there was certain level of focus since he knew exactly what he wanted to do. You know, he knew in his, I guess, his love for Rachel that he wanted a helper, and therefore he was able to focus all his energies and push the rock off the well.
[00:11:18] So I think we see over here there's an important lesson when it comes to focusing that yosef that even though his emotions could have been pulled in different directions, he could have wanted to see his father just to. He hadn't seen him for years.
[00:11:30] He knew what was priority number one for him is that priority number one was the mitzvah of kiber avaim, of making his father happy, that his father should be happy to see him. And that's what it means in rashi um vayare elav yosef nira elaveh, that Yosef's singular goal at that moment was to appear before his father, that even though he had his emotions and his pulls and his feelings, he didn't let that get in the way.
[00:12:03] He was totally focused on one thing. He focused all his energy and his strength on appearing before his father to, you know, that make his father happy. His father hadn't seen him for 22 years to show him that he's good, he's healthy, he's still in the same place that he was originally. He didn't change.
[00:12:22] That was his goal. And I think the lesson for us is, is that, you know, being that we live in a society where things are pulling us in so many different directions, it's incumbent upon us to focus, to try to, you know, appreciate the things that we're doing, you know, think about for a second. You know, we have our phones. They're always ringing all the time and buzzing.
[00:12:46] Do you ever think about leaving our phones on the side when we come home, putting it down, putting it away, not touching it, or when we go to daven, we go to pray, leave our phone in the car, Right? I'm not saying I'm perfect, right, with these things, but it's something. I know it's a good feeling when you detach yourself, to be able to focus in on the things that are truly important.
[00:13:08] It's just a better feeling.
[00:13:10] We want to be able to be in control, to use our energies into one place. And I think it's something we should keep in mind, especially in this time that we're in, to not be pulled in a hundred directions because we know how it feels to be on the other side, to be on the receiving end, where people aren't giving us the time of day, where we think people are looking through us and not speaking to us.
[00:13:33] So if we think about that for a moment, I think it's a push for us to try to focus, to try to think of what we're doing, have a singular purpose. What are we doing at this moment? What am I trying to accomplish? And I think that's a very powerful idea we see from this week's Parasha from Yosef.
[00:13:50] The second idea I want to share with you today also focuses on this episode of Yosef meeting his father.
[00:13:58] So the posseq tells us that Yosef cried, but Yaakov, his father, did not cry. It's very clear in the pasuk, it says, and he wept on his neck. Excessively doesn't say that Yaakov wept. The father only says yosef cried on his father's neck. And the commentaries discuss why this is so.
[00:14:24] And one of the reasons that are given, brought down in Rashi, is that Yaakov was in the middle of saying Shema.
[00:14:33] He was in the middle of saying the Shema prayer.
[00:14:36] And therefore, in the Shema prayer, you're not allowed to interrupt. And he was doing that. Therefore, he didn't, you know, even though he naturally would have wanted to cry, he didn't let his natural emotions overtake him.
[00:14:49] Now, I saw another understanding of this, of why Yosef wept, but Yaakov did not.
[00:14:57] And I think it's something very important for us to internalize.
[00:15:03] Rav Hirsch brings down that during the 22 years that Yaakov and Yosef were separated, there was two different existences going on.
[00:15:18] Yaakov was in a state of constant mourning.
[00:15:23] He never was able to get over the fact that his son was gone. And he thought he had, he had died. But he was in this constant state of mourning and challenge, and it was hard for him.
[00:15:37] Yosef was in a different world.
[00:15:39] Yosef was in a situation where he didn't have time to mourn or to cry or to even think about the whole situation to begin with. You know, on a deeper level, right? He was sold into slavery. He was a servant, um, in his master's house. He was in jail.
[00:16:01] Then he rose to be the king of or the second in command in Egypt. He didn't have a moment. He had a very busy life. He didn't have a moment to process, to cry.
[00:16:14] And only now, after these 22 years, finally, when he meets his father, he Cries because it's all coming out.
[00:16:27] All the 22 years that he had to, you know, push down and cover over, it came out. Yaakov, on the other hand, he was dealing with it for the past 22 years. And at this moment, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't, uh, any. I guess it was. It wasn't this overpowering emotional moment because he was grieving already from beforehand.
[00:16:50] But Yosef, it was the.
[00:16:53] It was the. I guess the.
[00:16:55] What broke the dam? What broke the dam? Because finally, after all that time, he was able to process and I guess to let himself cry beforehand. He couldn't. And I think the, uh, powerful idea here is that when things happen in our lives, and I'm thinking about myself as well, you know, how do we deal with the situations?
[00:17:20] Sometimes the situation affects us right then and there, and it's very hard for us to keep moving.
[00:17:28] Other times, we have to just keep going forward. You keep moving. You don't have time to sit there and cry. You just have to keep going.
[00:17:38] But I think, ultimately, I think what we're seeing from, maybe from this idea on the parsha is that even if we're not able to process and to grieve at a certain moment, we need to have that moment at the right time.
[00:17:53] It has to come out. We have to process it eventually. And I'm thinking of myself, you know, just being a little personal here, being a little vulnerable. You know, I know myself, I guess I'm the oldest in my family, so, you know, different things. The oldest always deals with things. You feel responsibility for your family.
[00:18:10] And obviously, I have my own family, thank God. And different things come up, you have to deal with. And in life, everyone has things.
[00:18:18] That's how it is. We have to get through it. That's what Hashem wants for us.
[00:18:23] And sometimes I know that you got to keep moving, got to keep doing things, but sometimes you could have, like, a back pain. I know I get a back pain sometimes in my back. That's when the stress is building up, building up, building up. I don't feel nervous in my head or in my heart, just in my back, trying to think about it. Sometimes I think it's, you know, maybe I'm not processing things in the right way. Maybe all that stress, it's not coming out. Maybe I need to cry, you know. But actually, uh, as a side note, I do run for that reason. I do try to exercise because it helps process. It helps get all that stress out. But the point is here is that I think we see from Yosef it's okay to cry.
[00:19:10] And if we do have to push things under the rug for the time being, we have to remember that we need to deal with it at the right time, you know, hopefully sooner than later. We shouldn't wait till something breaks the dam and everything comes out. But I think we need to deal with life that comes our way, with the challenges that come our way.
[00:19:29] Speak to somebody, have a good friend, do exercise, whatever it is for you. Healthy outlets to get, you know, to grieve, to get stress out, to overcome challenge. And I think that's a very powerful lesson we see from this week's Parasha. The last idea I want to share with you takes us to the interaction and the meeting of the, uh, of Yaakov and the brothers with Paro.
[00:19:56] Now, Yosef instructs the brothers that when they're going to meet Pharaoh, they should tell him what their occupation is, meaning he's going to ask you what you do for a living. And Yosef instructs them to answer honestly.
[00:20:15] And the verse read as follows, says, now when Paro calls you and asks, what is your occupation?
[00:20:25] Vah, uh, amartem. You should.
[00:20:28] Ansh mikna hayu avodecha minu reinu va' arata gama nachnu gama vasenu b' avor teshvu b' eretz geishen ki toevas mitzrayim ko reitzayin. You should answer. Your servants have been breeders of herds from our youth until now, both we and our fathers, so that you may dwell in the land of Goshen. For every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Meaning Yosef is telling his brothers that tell Paro exactly what you do. Right. We know Yaakov and his sons were shepherds. And Yosef instinctively recognized that Pharaoh was going to ask this question to the brothers. What's your occupation? What do you do? And he told them, be honest, tell him what you do do. Don't be afraid, you know, to say that you're a shepherd. Because it was known at that time that the mitzriim, the Egyptians, uh, they worshiped a sheep, they worshiped cattle, and they despised this profession of being a shepherd.
[00:21:40] So even though you might say to yourself, Yosef was telling his brothers, you might say, maybe, maybe I shouldn't tell him that we're shepherds. They're going to hate us.
[00:21:49] That's not what Yosef answers them. That's not what Yosef answers them. He actually tells them to do precisely the opposite Tell Pharaoh that you're shepherds.
[00:21:59] Why?
[00:22:01] And Yosef knows that the Egyptians don't like shepherds. He wants the brothers and his family to be hated by the host country.
[00:22:12] But it seems from the verse here that that's exactly what Yosef was trying to do. He was trying to make it that his family would be separate, right? Because Yosef tells them so. Tell them that you're shepherd, so that Pharaoh's gonna put you far away in the land of Goshen, out of, you know, the inhibited civilized area of Egypt. The Jewish people will dwell in their own area because shepherds are an abomination to the mitzriyim to the Egyptians.
[00:22:40] So there's a very powerful idea here. You see what Yosef was trying to preserve. And the answer is that Yosef wanted the brothers to be honest about who they are so that he could preserve them as a people.
[00:22:56] Because the Egyptians would not want to be next to sheep herders.
[00:23:03] It would be necessary for them. Pharaoh would let Yosef push the family of Yaakov or separate the family of Yaakov to a, uh, different area. And in this, what this would do is that Yosef knew that the family of Yaakov, his family, the Jewish people, would be in mitzrayim for a few hundred years, and there would be this exile. And he foresaw this.
[00:23:29] And therefore he set up a situation where his family, the Jewish people, would be separate.
[00:23:36] And I think this idea here, I think, gives a little insight into us as a people and maybe even a little bit anti Semitism, you know, we talked about before. I think this concept of anti Semitism, it's the longest hatred.
[00:23:54] And. And you could think about it in different directions. Doesn't make any sense.
[00:23:59] Jewish people have been hated for being rich. We've been hated for being poor.
[00:24:04] We've been hated for, you know, being communists. We've been hated for being capitalists. We've been hated for being anything you fit it in. I mean, different peoples, different.
[00:24:16] Different religions.
[00:24:18] Everybody hates us, right? And doesn't make any sense. It defies logic, this hatred, right? Normally. And also to make it even stronger, we're hated if we're too much like the non Jewish nations, and we're hated if we're different, right? So what is it? What is it?
[00:24:38] And the answer to this sometimes hard for some people to hear this answer is that Hashem put this hatred into the world to keep us separate, because it's up to us. We can either separate ourselves on our own, but if we don't God forbid, Hashem, uh, will send his messengers to remind us that we're separate because we always will be separate and it's the reality. So either we can separate ourselves by doing mitzvahs, by learning Torah and my personal feeling, uh, and uh, obviously we do what we can, uh, on his due diligence to protect ourselves and to advocate to the government for the betterment of the Jewish people.
[00:25:25] But we have to always remember that when we do what we're supposed to do is my feeling is that there's a certain respect that the non Jewish nations have for us when we live according to the Torah, when we do the mitzvahs, when we stand up for what we believe in and we're not, we don't feel like we have to give in to what they say is right. When we stand up for what we believe is true, which is based on the Torah, not for, uh, our personal ideals. It's what the Torah says. We stand up for Hashem, we stand up for the mitzvahs. There's a certain level of respect that the goyim that the non Jewish nations have for the Jewish people when we do that. And I think we see that from Yosef, that number one is he recognized this hatred and he used it to his advantage, to our advantage, to keep us as a people. Because if there wouldn't be this hatred, we would be gone a long time ago. We would be assimilated just like the Greeks, the Romans, the Babylonians, the Persians, you name it, they're all gone. But we're still here. And I think this is a, uh, very powerful idea, to not be afraid. Also we see from the brothers of not, you know, not being afraid to say who you are, to, to be who you are, right even in the face of anti Semitism, to be proud to be a Jew, to be proud to do mitzvahs, to be proud to be in Hashem's army. I think this is a very powerful idea we see from this week's Parsha. And with that I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions, comments or would like to reach out, feel free to send me an email at Rabbi Shlomo cohenmail.com have a great day.
