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.
[00:00:09] For this week we continue with Parshas Vayigash.
[00:00:14] We're getting to the close of the book of Genesis, and this week is really a cliffhanger from last week's Torah portion, last week's Parasha, and we're going to jump right into it. But before we begin, as always, if you have any questions, comments, or just would like to say hello, please don't be shy. I don't bite.
[00:00:41] Send me an email at Rabbi Shlomokon Kohmil.com I'd love to hear from you.
[00:00:47] This week's Parasha is Parsha's Vayigash.
[00:00:50] And just to give a quick overview of this action packed Parsha, the Parsha begins with a continuation from last week's Parsha. Last week we finish off with Yosef Joseph imprisoning one of his brothers, Binyamin Benjamin. He wants to see if his brothers will stand up for his brother Binyamin Benjamin, who's also a son, Rachel.
[00:01:20] We know that the brothers had this resentment to the sons of Rachel, to Yosef, who's also a son of Rachel. And these brothers eventually led that envy, led them to sell Yosef. And now he wants to see if they are sincere in their repentance, getting that envy out of them. And he's holding Binyamin.
[00:01:43] And the brothers know they have to bring him back to their father. And Yehuda Judah steps up to advocate to get Binyamin free from Yosef. And the Torah tells us this dialogue of Yehuda Judah approaching Yosef and advocating for his reliefs.
[00:02:03] And finally, Yosef can't continue to hide his identity from the brothers and reveals to the brothers that he is Yosef.
[00:02:17] He is Yosef. And now everything comes into perspective.
[00:02:22] The whole story that happened, how they sold him and now he became the viceroy of Egypt.
[00:02:32] And, uh, the Parsha tells us how Yosef reassures the brothers, to draw them close to, to tell them that he's not upset at them. This was all part of the divine plan, that he should be here to prepare for the years of famine that the Jews needed to come down to Egypt and he had to be there first to set everything up.
[00:02:53] The Parsha continues with Yosef asking about his father. Is he still alive?
[00:03:00] He sends, um, food and wagons and packages with his brothers to go back to get Yaakov and his family, to bring them down to Egypt, because The famine is still going on.
[00:03:14] The Parsha continues with Yaakov hearing that his son is still alive, his spirit is rejuvenated, and he goes together with his entire family down to the land of Egypt. The Parsha continues to tell us about the family of Jacob, the family of Yaakov.
[00:03:35] That equaled a grand total of 70. They came down to Mitzrayim, to Egypt. They arrive in Mitzrayim, Yosef is reunited with his father.
[00:03:46] He settles them in the land of Goshen.
[00:03:48] And the parsha tells us about this interaction that Paro has with Jacob.
[00:03:55] And the. The parsha concludes with how Yosef handles the situation in Mitsrayim in Egypt with the famine.
[00:04:07] The first idea I want to share with you today takes us to the beginning of the Parsha. After Yosef reveals himself to his brothers.
[00:04:19] Now he's telling his brothers who he really is.
[00:04:22] He's not just the Viceroy of Egypt, he's their brother.
[00:04:26] He says, ani, uh, Yosef ha' uh, Odavichai, I am Yosef.
[00:04:32] Is my father still alive? Now, there's many explanations to what Yosef was telling his brother. There was many layers to it. But what I want to focus on today is that when Yosef asked his brothers if his father was still alive, it seems interesting because we know in the dialogue that we have between the brothers and Yosef in last week's Parsha, Yaakov was discussed. His father was brought up by the brothers.
[00:05:03] They mentioned him that we have a father who lost a son.
[00:05:08] And it couldn't be that Yosef was asking his brothers, is he still alive because he knew he was living already. And it's also interesting because if you look at this storyline further, we see the same usage of the word chai. Right? The Torah tells us that after the brothers go back and they tell their father that Yosef is still alive. What does the Torah tell Usher? Diber alem vayara sagalois, uh, asher shalach Yosef, Uh, it says, however, when they related to him all the words that Yosef had spoken to them, and he saw the wagons that Yosef had sent to transport him, then the spirit of their father, Yaakov, of Jacob was revived.
[00:06:02] And Rashi tells us that.
[00:06:05] What does it mean when the Torah says the spirit of Yaakov was revived?
[00:06:10] It says as, that the spirit of Yaakov was revived, uh, that the divine presence, the Shekhinah, came back into Yaakov after he heard that Yosef was still living.
[00:06:29] Now, it's interesting, we Know that the Talmud tells us, tzadikim, that the righteous ones, That even in their death, they're called alive. They're considered alive. What does that mean? After a person dies, they're still alive.
[00:06:51] I don't understand that.
[00:06:53] People pass away.
[00:06:55] That's it. They're done.
[00:06:58] So, uh, to get to the answer of this question, we have to understand what is life and what is considered living. You know, take human beings.
[00:07:10] We do all the same things that animal does.
[00:07:14] A cow eats.
[00:07:15] A cow, you know, goes to the bathroom.
[00:07:19] A cow cares for its young. They reproduce. They have, you know, calves.
[00:07:24] And human beings do the same thing.
[00:07:27] But what makes a human being special? Right? Everyone would agree, no matter who you are, that a person is on a higher level than a cow.
[00:07:38] What makes us unique?
[00:07:40] What makes us special?
[00:07:43] Um, and really puts us at the top of everything, that we're the pinnacle of creation.
[00:07:48] And the answer to that is that there's a spiritual component to us.
[00:07:56] We yearn for something more. We strive. We have seicha. We have understanding.
[00:08:01] But we have this certain aspect of spirituality that really gives us a purpose, gives us a mission.
[00:08:10] And when Yosef, when Joseph was asking about his father, is he still alive?
[00:08:17] He wasn't asking him, is he alive? He knew he was alive.
[00:08:22] He wanted to know, is he spiritually alive? Is everything. Is the divine presence resting in him?
[00:08:31] And similarly with Yaakov, when he found out that his son was still alive and his mission was going to be completed, because Yaakov, Jacob had this promise that if all his sons were alive, he knew that he completed his mission in this world.
[00:08:52] And he had this divine presence came back into him.
[00:08:56] Right? The life force came back into him. What does that mean, the life force? The shekhinah.
[00:09:03] Right. So we see this reference of life. Again, it's referring to spirituality, right? Yosef Referring to it as spirituality. Yaakov, it's referring to spirituality, and it's using the word life chai. And in general, in Judaism, when we talk about death, um, we think about a cemetery. The Hebrew word for a cemetery is beis hachaim.
[00:09:28] It's the house of the living.
[00:09:32] And even in next week's parsha, which talks about the death of Yaakov, it's says Vayechi, Yaakov and Yaakov lived. You know, isn't it strange that we're talking about a cemetery, a place of death, or the name of the parsha that's dealing with the death of Yaakov?
[00:09:51] And to add to this, even when it Comes to the death of Sarah. To the death of Sarah. It says the parsha's name is Chaye. Sarah. The life of Sarah. Isn't it interesting that we're always referring to death as life?
[00:10:04] And the answer to that is that the true legacy of a person is the spiritual legacy that we leave.
[00:10:13] We've talked about this before. You know what's real, what's fake. If you bang on a table, is that real?
[00:10:23] And the answer is no, it's not real.
[00:10:27] Because that table is going to fall apart in a couple of years, and it's going to disintegrate and it's going to be gone eventually.
[00:10:36] But when someone does a, uh, mitzvah, when someone does a good deed, when they do something spiritual, that action is credited to you forever.
[00:10:48] It's yours. No one can take it away from you.
[00:10:52] And it's going to be there forever, yours eternally.
[00:10:57] So it comes out. Is that what is living, what is real?
[00:11:02] It's the spirituality and the spiritual actions that we do.
[00:11:07] And thus the spiritual accomplishments that we have in this world is our true legacy of our life.
[00:11:17] And that's what it means in the Talmud, that the righteous ones, even when they die, they're still living. Because when a person lives with values and they live doing mitzvahs, learning Torah and trying to get closer to Hashem, so then they never die, they're continuing, their impact continues forever.
[00:11:43] Because when a person does a mitzvah, it's theirs, it continues forever and ever.
[00:11:49] Second idea I want to share with you takes us to the point in the Parsha where Paro, Pharaoh hears that Yaakov and his family are going to be coming down to mitzrayim to live in the land of Egypt. And the Torah says, as va' kol nishmah be's paro lemor bo ache ah Yosef, vayitav ve' ni parov' ne avadav. Uh, the news was heard in Pharaoh's palace, saying, Joseph's brothers have come. And it was pleasing in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants.
[00:12:29] Now, the svorno, one of the commentaries on Chumash, explains that Pharaoh and the people weren't just excited that the brothers were coming to live in Egypt, just, uh, because he actually was happy.
[00:12:46] Because he realized that if Yosef, who was the ruler of Egypt now, he was taking care of Mitzrayim, he was running the land of Egypt. So now it wasn't just going to be a relationship where he's doing this job his own Family was going to be coming down to Mitzrayim, going to be coming down to Egypt as well, and they're going to be living there to reside in Mitsrayim in the land of Egypt. So it wasn't going to be something that, you know, Yosef was this alien ruler.
[00:13:19] Paro felt that yosef would now feel connected and feel part of the land of Egypt because his family was there. He would feel, you know, vested to the success of the kingdom of Paro because his family was living in the same country now, uh, that he was ruling. So he would work even harder to make sure that the country was successful.
[00:13:46] And that's why Pharaoh was excited. The people were excited that the house of Yosef, the family of Joseph, was coming down to Egypt to live. And I think this brings out a very important point.
[00:14:00] Now, surely if Pharaoh is excited that yosef and his family were going to live in mitzrayim, we can learn out from this as well that when we feel part of something, when we feel connected, when we make ourselves vested into a cause, it pushes us to work harder that that cause should succeed.
[00:14:27] We see ourselves as an extension of that organization, that place that, you know, whatever it is, that project.
[00:14:36] And it's important for us to, number one, feel part of things.
[00:14:42] To not just go to a synagogue, to feel part of it, to not just be part. You know, even when we work, when we do our job, you want to feel part of things. You wanna. Because you wanna have success, you want the organization to be success. Their success is your success.
[00:15:00] And, you know, this is said number one, when it comes to spirituality, spiritual goals and good causes that we're part of, to not just, uh, say, oh, I'm part of this. You know, uh, I'm part of. I'm a member of the synagogue. I'm a member of this organization. To actually feel part of things and to put yourself into things. Because when you feel part of something, you're going to invest more of your time and energy and strength into seeing a project to success. You know, just like with your family, with your own projects, you want to be successful, you want it to be successful, and you're going to do your part, go the extra mile to make sure things get done. So too, when the other things we do in life, we should try to view ourselves as part of it to the best of our ability. Because when we do that, we're gonna put in more effort and there'll be a bigger chance, uh, there'll be a bigger.
[00:15:57] We'll have More success in the projects that we start.
[00:16:01] The next idea I want to share with you takes us to the point in the Parsha where Yosef is reunited with his father Yaakov.
[00:16:13] And the posse reads as Vaye Sar, uh, Yosef Meir Kavtoy Vayalik Royce Yisrael Aviv Goishna Vayere Love Vayipal Al Tsavarov Vayev Al Tzavorov Od Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father in Goshen, he appeared before him, fell on his neck, and he wept on his neck excessively. And it seems about the Torah tells us about this emotional reunion that father and son have with each other.
[00:16:49] Now. Rashi tells us that if you look at the words of the posseq, it says that Yosef fell on the neck of Yaakov.
[00:17:01] And the reason that Yaakov didn't fall on the neck of Yosef, right? Obviously Yosef embraced his father, but it seems that his father didn't embrace him back at that moment is because Yaakov was in the midst of reciting the Shema.
[00:17:19] He was saying, you know, the Shema Yisrael Hashem okena Hashem achad, the commandment that we have twice a day to say the Shema.
[00:17:29] Now the question is raised, why is it that Yaakov decided at this moment, when Yosef is coming to visit him for the first time in 22 years, I believe, to suddenly say Shema?
[00:17:46] Couldn't he have said it earlier?
[00:17:48] Right. Why suddenly now? He had to say, was plenty of time. Earlier he could have said this prayer, said this special tefillah.
[00:17:57] And the answer to that is that Yaakov had this. You know, there's this natural love that there is for a father and son, parent, child, both ways. You know, the child has to the parent and the parent has to the child.
[00:18:15] Now, that's natural. It's something that, you know, thankfully parents have, and we work on our relationship to bring it out even more and more, but it's something that's there now in life.
[00:18:32] Our relationship between father and son, parent and child, a lot of times mirrors our relationship with God.
[00:18:42] And you see, a lot of times, you know, like, a baby is totally dependent on. On its parents, right? But every other animal in the animal kingdom, within a few hours, the offspring is moving on its own already. Humans are the only ones that we are totally dependent. You know, the lesson there is that we're totally dependent on Hashem. We're like that baby. And obviously there's many connections between Parent to child. The love between parent to child is similar to God's love for us.
[00:19:16] And likewise, that should be our love back to Hashem, back to God.
[00:19:23] But the difference is that we have to channel that love. It's something which is there, that spark is there. But we have to fan those flames to get that love, that fire to grow into something intense as that love we feel for our parents.
[00:19:40] Now. When Yaakov saw Yosef and he had these overwhelming feelings of love, he said to himself, he says, if I'm having these feelings of love, I want to channel it to the ultimate purpose in life, to channel it to my love for Hashem.
[00:20:00] And therefore, that's why at that moment, he decided to say Shema, to say the Shema prayer, which embodies our mission in life, our job in this world, to declare God's oneness, to make that connection with him and to realize we're totally in his hands.
[00:20:20] And that's what he did.
[00:20:22] And I think the lesson here for us is that, uh, just like Yaakov, he channeled his feelings.
[00:20:32] He took that feeling of love that he had for his child, which is good, it's not bad, it's fine. But he took that moment which he had, and he didn't just let it go to waste. You know, obviously not go to waste, but he didn't just give it to his son.
[00:20:46] He took it and he channeled it to Hashem. He channeled it to God.
[00:20:53] I think it teaches us a very powerful lesson when it comes to our emotions and, you know, the things that we do, our strengths and our feeling that we need to take the things that we learn. You know, we're always learning, we're doing, it's an action based religion, Judaism.
[00:21:13] But we need to take the things that we learn and put them into action. We need to channel our emotions towards our relationship with Hashem. It doesn't come by itself.
[00:21:24] We have to actively do that. You know, I don't know, I'm reminded of this story, you know, when people have, you know, this. Sometimes they, let's, uh, say people who are very involved with animal rights and animal cruelty, so they become very caring. They're caring about the animals and caring that they're taken care of properly. Now, sure it's important that people shouldn't mistreat animals, but animals are animals and a human is more important than an animal. And it comes out sometimes that when people use their empathy and their mercy for animals, so then they don't have anything left for people.
[00:22:05] And it comes out from this that we only have a certain amount of capacity, of emotional capacity within ourselves.
[00:22:14] And we have to, whether it be mercy or whether it be love, whether it be empathy, whether it be sympathy, you name it, there's only a certain amount left in it. Because we are human beings, we're limited.
[00:22:27] And we have to do our part to make sure that the emotions that we have are channeled in the right places, channeled towards our service of God, channeled towards our family, our friends, to the places that they need to be to not be channeled to things which are maybe not the most important things, to waste a lot of our love and empathy on things which are not important.
[00:22:49] And I think that is really the lesson of Yaakov Avino of Jacob, when it came to reuniting with his son Yosef, that he didn't just let that feeling just go to his son on his level. Uh, he was on a level where he felt that he needs to use that feeling towards perfecting his service in God. And I think what we learn now from this as regular people is that we have to just be careful where we channel our emotions and our feelings to. To put it to the right places and to use our energy and emotions for the right things. So with that, I'm going to finish for today's podcast. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to me at rabbishlamokon kohen@gmail com. Have a great day.
