Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I have great news for everybody. Welcome back for this week's episode of the Practical Parsha podcast. This is Rabbi Shlomo Cohen. I hope you are well, and the exciting news I want to share with you is that right now, at this moment, I'm sitting at my desk with a brand new professional grade podcasting mic. Not the type of mics that people get when they want to start off podcasting. This is already a step up. I'm so excited and. And I'm sitting with these special headphones that go over my ears with this boom arm holding the mic, and I'm starting to think that I'm actually a real podcaster. It's crazy.
Uh, before I begin, I would like to thank my dear friend and listener, Yehuda Bleiberg, for dedicating this mic set in memory of his late mother, Etelhena Bas. Rabbi Yeshua Heschel. May our Neshama have an aliyah. May our soul have an elevation in heaven.
And before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, you have any comments, you'd like to say hello, you'd like to wish me a happy Hanukkah, please feel free to reach out to me at. Ah, Rabbi shalomhocon.k o h nmail.com I'd love to hear from you.
This week's Parsha is. Is Parshas Vayeshev.
And it's very unique because there are so many different storylines in this week's Parasha that it's almost hard to keep track of.
You have talk about Yaakov Avino, about Jacob.
We bring down Yosef, his travails, his challenges. We discuss the other brothers. We focus in on the story of Yehuda and Tamar, and. And then the parsha concludes with Yosef Joseph's challenges in Egypt. He's sold as a slave and is in Egypt and the different dreams he interprets.
So being that there's so much to discuss and just giving an overview would take a lot of time, I'm going to jump right into the lesson this week because it's sometimes very difficult to encapsulate a Parsha in about a few minutes, especially this week's Parsha. So to get a full overview of this week's Parsha, I'm going to tell you to go to last year's episode, the rebroadcast, where I give a full description. And I actually listened to it this week. It's about seven minutes long and you could go there to get that interview, to get that overview. I hope you don't mind for this week to give me a pass on giving this overview? Sometimes a little challenging, because I really want to jump into some of the important lessons of this week's parsha.
The first thought I want to talk about for this week's parasha is this concept is the fact that the parsha tells us very clearly that the brothers hated Yosef. Now, just to give a little background over here, the Torah tells us how Yaakov avinu Jacob favored Joseph.
Now, there's different reasons why he favored him.
And it seems like we're a little bit. The Torah is a little bit critical of the fact that Jacob favored Yosef. He gave him a special coat, this kasones passim, with a special garment that he gave just to Yosef. And it caused a certain jealousy in the rest of the brothers.
Now, this hatred became more intense when Yosef had these dreams.
And Yosef, instead of just keeping the dreams to himself like he maybe should have, he decided to tell them to his brothers.
And in the dreams, he tells his brothers that he sees the stalks of wheat bowing down to his stalk of wheat.
And that's the first dream. And then he sees the stars and the sun and the moon bowing down to him.
And the Torah tells us, vayusifu lisna oso. It caused them to hate him more.
Now, on one hand, the commentaries do tell us that we see a, uh, praise of the brothers and the fact that they didn't pretend to act to him in one way and really hate him in their hearts. They were people who were through and through. They were authentic people. They were righteous people. Now, obviously, it's hard for us, uh, to understand how could these righteous people hated their brother. And there are different commentaries that deal with that. And I'm not going to talk about that today. But I want to talk about one point which I saw, which is very interesting, which brings down a very important lesson for us.
The Torah tells us that the brothers hated Yosef so much that they were not able to speak to him.
V' yeshnu oso vayakhlu dabrushat le shalom.
And they hated him, and they were not able to speak to him in peace or for peace.
And Rab Jonas and Aibishut explains that it's possible that if the brothers would have talked over their issues with Yosef, like I mentioned before, they had legitimate concerns with the dreams that Yosef had with the things that he was doing. The Torah also seems to be critical of Yosef in the way that he acted as well. And it seems that the brothers had a reason for hating him. But he explains for Beyotus and Aipshitz that if the brothers would have sat down and had a conversation and spoken calmly about what had transpired, about what was bothering them, then it would have been possible for them to resolve their issues.
The everything could have been solved.
But since they were not on talking terms with each other, they were not able to speak to each other in a calm way. So therefore, they were not able to resolve any of their problems. And one bad thing came out from the next. The lesson for us to take out of this is that, number one, when we have a problem with someone else, and I'm talking about normal people who we care about, who are friends with, and they do something to us, do we just stir inside and let it get angry at us, and we're just angry at them, and they pick that up and then we get into a fight, or do we try to resolve the issue in a calm and dignified way?
Because sometimes if we go to somebody and say, you know, you said this and this thing to me.
Did you mean to insult me?
Many times, they didn't even mean to make someone feel bad.
And even if they did, if a person says, you know, when you said that I was this and this way, you insulted me and you hurt my feelings.
Most people when you tell them that you hurt your feelings, were hurt, they'll want to reconcile with you. You'll be able to deal with the issue at hand and move on and become better people from it.
Along this vein, it's also important to note that most arguments that people have with each other is not because they're actually arguing. It's not because they have a difference of opinion. It's because they don't understand each other. One person says one thing, another person says another thing.
Your statement goes over his head, his statement goes over your head, and no one's connecting. You're not communicating properly.
But, uh, if we learn how to communicate with other people and we clarify the positions of other people, so then we won't get to a point, we're going to be arguing and, um, be in a fight with someone else because we have clarity. And that's another benefit of speaking things over in a calm way. A second idea I wanted to talk about is that if you fast forward in the story of the brothers with yosef, with the brothers throw yosef in a pit, and now they're sitting down to eat, and they see a caravan of yishmaelim of Arabs approaching them.
The Torah tells us something very interesting. It says.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: They sat to eat food. Referring to the brothers, they raised their eyes and they saw, behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilad. Their camels bearing spices, balsam and lotus on their way to bring them down to Egypt. Rashi comments. He asks the question lama pirsum hakus of asmasum, why is it important for the Torah to tell us what the Yishmaelim were carrying? Meaning the point of the story that the Yishmaelim were coming and now they see this caravan and they sell Yosef to this caravan of Arabs and they bring him down to Mitzrayim. Why is it necessary for the Torah to tell us what they were carrying in their load? It's not integral to the story here. That's what Rashi is asking. So Rashi answers.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: M.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: To teach us the reward of the righteous.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Aravim loses el naft v' itran sherechan ra. Because it seems at that time, these Yishmaelim, these Arab merchants, what they usually would be hauling is tar resin things that smell bad.
But over here for Yosef, Hashem made it that they were carrying perfume and good smelling things.
So it should be not as harsh for him. It should be a little easier for him to handle the trip down to Egypt.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: That's why Hashem g d made it that they were carrying spices, shlo yusak mirechra, that Yosef should not be damaged from the bad smell that they normally would have been carrying.
And the obvious question on this, Rashi, is that Yosef was just sold as a slave.
He doesn't know where his life is going. He's going to his Egypt. His brothers just sold him. We could all just imagine where he is, his mindset.
And he doesn't know what's going to be. He might be in servitude for the rest of his life. He might be killed. He might might be sold again. And he was sold many times till he actually got to the house of Paro. What's the reward over here that Yosef's getting? That he's going down to Egypt in a good smelling caravan, right? You know, someone's going to prison and, uh, the back of the prison van smells nicely. Why is that a reward? Why is that a good thing?
And the lesson that we see from this and that's brought down the commentaries is that even if we're facing a challenging situation in our lives, even if things seem bleak, so number One is, we don't know how things are going to turn out. But that's going to be the next idea which I want to share. But the point is, is that when we see things, even in the dark situations, even in the times which are challenging, when there's a small thing that goes right for us in that moment, in those times, we should take it as a kiss from Hashem, from a, uh, pinch on the cheek. I'm still with you. I'm still here. And we should savor that moment. We should cherish it. You know, I myself think of something that was going on recently, and it was bothering me a lot.
And then it just happened that later that night that someone told me something, and I felt like it was a message from God. Just give me a little, you know, a pinch in the cheek. I'm still. I'm thinking about you, Shlomo. I care about you. I love you. You know, the situation wasn't solved, and it's not solved yet.
But G D was telling me, don't worry. It's going to be okay.
And the message, the Torah is telling us that when Yosef went down to Mitzrayim, even though his future looked bleak, even though it didn't look good, he was telling him, yosef, I care about you. I love you. Focus on the good things that happen to you, even in the darkest moments, because it's those moments that keep you going, that keep you going forward, to keep you focused on the road ahead, to get through something, to get through that challenge. One last thought, which I want to share with you about Yosef before I segue into the connection of Hanukkah in this week's Parsha is that the. The Torah tells us that Yosef was sent down to Mitzrayim. V' yosef hurab mitzrayima vayikneu Potiphar srisp paro sara tabachim ish mitzri miya Yishmailim, Asher, Hayridu, Shammah and Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, a courtier of Paro, chamberlain of the butchers, a prominent Egyptian, purchased him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.
Now, if we would see the scene of Yosef being sold by his brothers, going from the favorite son of his father to being sold by his siblings to a caravan of Arabs going down to Egypt away from his homeland, away from his family, to be sold as a slave.
We're looking at that situation.
We would feel bad for Yosef.
We would say his life doesn't look like it has much promise to it. It looks like this situation now that he's in is the worst thing that has ever happened to him.
It looks totally bad, but yet we know that the moment that Yosef was sold into slavery by his brothers was the beginning of the redemption from Egypt. It was the seed that brought the Jews down to Egypt. To prepare for Yosef's eventual uplifting, he became the viceroy of Egypt, saving his family during the years of famine.
Even though the Jewish people were enslaved by Pharaoh after the death of. Of Yosef, but they came out from Egypt liberated through the 10 plagues, through the crossing of the sea, to the accepting of the Torah.
The moment that Yosef was sold began those chain of events.
So really, even though we look at the moment that he was brought down to Egypt, it would seem very bad.
It really was a great point. It was something which sort of brought the salvation of the Jewish people eventually. And really, the important lesson that we get from this is that we truly don't know what is good for us or what's not good for us. Obviously, we make decisions based on what we see and what we understand.
But sometimes the situations that we're placed in by God, we think that they're either horrible or it could be on the flip side as well, that it's amazing.
But we truly don't know if it's. The bad things that happen to us are really so bad. Maybe there's a good point to it. We're only limited to how, as far as we can see, as far as our media eyes can see. But God in his omnipotence, um, he knows everything. He sees everything. He has a plan, and he has a reason why he does everything.
And there's a reason why we go through challenges so many times.
The bad things that we go through is actually good, and it could be even helpful.
You know, I've said this story before about my great grandfather.
He was a wealthy individual in Europe, and he lost everything after World War I.
People were telling him, declare bankruptcy.
You don't have to pay back your creditors. Just declare bankruptcy and forget about it. Go further in your life.
And he decided he was a very upstanding individual. Rabzarach, um, Spira, he decided he was going to pay everyone back. He went to America, worked at Push cart, worked his way up, and was able to pay off all the people he owed money to. And in the process, he brought all his family to the United States or to Israel.
And we all know what happened A few years later, to Europe, World War II, the Holocaust, extermination.
So even though he could have thought to himself that losing his money was the worst thing that ever happened to him, it was really something that saved his family.
And really, there's so many things in life like that that we think are bad, but they're really good. And things that we think are good are really not so good.
And Rabbi Plissken actually brings down on this idea that it's best always to not go to the extremes with our emotions. Sure, we go through things and challenges and we're allowed to feel, but we shouldn't go to the extremes to feeling extremely depressed or. Or feeling extremely excited. We should try to moderate our feelings and our emotions so we stay in the middle.
Now I want to change focus for a moment to Chanukah. So tonight it's Hanukkah, the first night. And this Shabbos, aside from being Parshas Vayeshev, it's also referred to as Shabbos Chanukah.
And Parshas Vayeshev always comes out next to Hanukkah. Either it's Shabbos Chanukah or the week that we go into has Hanukkah in it. It's always connected to Hanukkah. And as we know in Judaism, there's always a reason for everything.
There's a connection between the story of Yosef and the story of Hanukkah. And I want to talk a little bit today about this connection and something that maybe an inspirational message that we could take out from it.
So we know that Hanukkah is eight days. We celebrate the miracle of the oil that after the Greeks had defiled the temple and contaminated every flask of oil, the kohanim, after they had liberated the Beis Hamikdash, the temple, from the heathens, they searched everywhere.
And the only thing they could find was one flask of oil with the seal of the high priest on it.
And they took that one flask of oil, which was only meant to last one day, and it lasted for eight days.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: And Rev. Pam, he raises an interesting question.
Because the halacha is, in Jewish law, if everything is contaminated, if the whole community is contaminated, if all the oil is contaminated, so then it's permitted to light the menorah with the contaminated oil, with the oil which is not tohar, which is not pure.
So really the question is, why was it necessary for G D to perform this miracle? Why? Where this one flask of oil lasted for eight days, the Only oil left. The only pure oil left in the temple lasted for all eight days. It wasn't necessary. The Jews could have used the oil that was impure, that was around. They had plenty of oil around. They just didn't have pure oil.
So if it's permitted, if everybody was tame, if everybody was impure, and it's permitted in that scenario to. To use impure oil, why was it necessary for g D to perform this miracle for the Jewish people?
And the peni Yeshua, he gives an answer that really this miracle of the oil was not necessary at all.
Because like we said, the Jews could have used impure oil, but God did it just to show his love for the Jewish people, to show them how much he loved them.
And we know that during the times of Hanukkah, when the Greeks took over the holy land, their goal wasn't to destroy the Jewish people physically, but it was to uproot the spirituality, to separate us from the Torah.
And there were Hellenists, Jews who lived like Greeks that had doped, that adopted Greek culture, that went to their sporting events, that worshiped their gods.
And some of them, it's brought down, even underwent procedures to have their bismillah, their circumcision removed.
And because of the miraculous victory of the Maccabees, that was also a miracle.
They came back to their heritage. They came back to the Torah. They did teshuvah. They did. They returned.
But we know many times when people come back, right, When a marriage is strained and people are separated and the couple comes back, rarely is it the same or better than it was before. It's possible that there could be some underlying issues, though. They just work through it. But very rarely does it get back to better than it was before. That separation by God and the Jewish people. It's not like that.
When the Jewish people do teshuvah, when we return, God brings us closer to him than we were before. We're restored as if we never sinned. And this is exemplified in the miracle of the oil that the second we decided to come back, Hashem showed us that love like nothing had ever happened. And that's the connection to Yosef.
Because Joseph was hated by his brothers, he was sold by his brothers.
And then through God's master plan, there was a change of events.
Yosef becomes the king of Egypt, and there's a famine, and the brothers are now depending on Yosef for everything.
But what does Yosef do? Does he hold a grudge? And is he angry at his brothers?
No, he totally forgives them.
He loves them even more than before.
And we're going to see in a few weeks how he brings them close after revealing himself that he's Yosef. And that's the connection between Parsha's Vayeshev, this week's Parsha Yosef, and Hanukkah.
It's this lesson that if we return and we go back to our heritage, God loves us even more than before. And really, I just want to share a story which happened to me today personally, and I think it's something that we can all relate to.
In the course of my work as a rabbi, people come through the synagogue that I work for, and today someone came here selling. They wanted to offer their services to the synagogue. And I actually happened to notice that he's Jewish right away, and I sort of flipped the script on him. Instead of him selling me something, some printing supplies, I decided I was going to sell him Judaism.
And, you know, obviously it was a very nice conversation. I invited him into the show, I showed him around, and in our course of conversations, I said, would you like to put on Tefillin? And he told me that he had never put on Tefillin in his life. But he asked me, is it okay?
I'm not really religious. Is it okay if I put on Tefillin? And in essence, what I felt he was asking me is that, you know, I'm not. He was saying to me, he's like, I'm not religious. Is it okay for me to put on Tefillin? Like, maybe I'm not good enough anymore to put on the Tefillin. And I turned to him and I said, you know, you're just as Jewish as I am meaning to say is that, you know, no matter how far a Jew strays, you always have that ability to turn right back and to jump right into things.
And that's the message of Hanukkah. The renewal, rededication, recommitting. That's what we should think about when we see the Hanukkah candles, when we see the lights of Hanukkah, to remember that G D loves us. And even if we've in the past maybe not paid so much attention to our Judaism, maybe we've not focused as much as we should have.
We could jump right into things, and God will love us just as much as before. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed.
If you have any questions or just would like to reach out, please feel free to send me an email at. Rabbi Shlomakon Kohn at gmail com. Have a great day.
