Vayechi

The first words of our parsha inform us how long Yaakov lived in Mitzraim, ויחי יעקב בארץ מצרים שבע עשרה שנה , Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. Now this Parsha unlike all the others, is סתומה , closed, which means the Torah leaves no space between the end of Vayigash & the beginning of Vayechi, whereas the Torah normally leaves a space between Parshios. 

 

Rashi presents us with two reasons for this uniqueness. First, once Yaakov passed away, the eyes & heart of the Jewish people were closed because of their suffering, for the Egyptians began to enslave them. Second, because Yaakov wanted to reveal the ultimate end of all the exiles to his sons, but it was closed off from him. 

Rav Tzudok Hakohen questions the first reason: how could it be that the Parsha is closed because the enslavement of the Jewish people when we know that the enslavement didn't start until after all of the brothers died, too, over seventy-five years later?

He answers that, after Yaakov died, the Jewish people began getting caught up ‎in the culture of Egypt. 

The eyes refer to the wisdom & the heart to the understanding. They lost their spiritual intellect & started getting caught up in the Egyptian culture. 

Now if the spiritual descent started then & seems to worsen with each generation, how can we ever expect to get out of this exile?

The Malbim, in his explanation on sefer Daniel, ‎expounds on when the end of the exile should be. Based on hints from the pesukim at the end of Daniel, he even pinpoints a specific time when he thought the Moshiach would come. 

When his explanations became public, he received flak from other rabbis of the generation saying how could he try to reveal the end of time when chazal say that anyone who reveals the end, will be the victim of very bad things. Why, then, was he giving dates for the end?

The Malbim answered with a parable. A Jewish merchant took his small son with him and went from Polin to Liftzig on a wagon which, in those days, was a very long trip. It took weeks to get there. They got into the wagon & headed out. After an hour or so, the son asks, “Dad are we almost there yet?” The father doesn't even answer; he just gives him a look & the son knew that he asked a foolish question. So, for the remainder of the journey he didn't ask again. Then, after weeks of traveling from town to town, city to city, from one hotel to another, they are still traveling when the father asks the wagon driver, “Are we far from Liftzig?” The boy, hearing that, looks at his father & asks, “why, when I asked that question, you looked at me like I was crazy. Now, you’re asking the same question? The father explained, “my son, you’re right. We both asked the same question; however, when you asked it, it was at the beginning of the trip, so it was a foolish question. I'm asking it at the end of the journey, so it makes sense to ask.” 

The Malbim explains that the same rationale applies to our question. When we went into exile, Chazal saw that the road was very long, full of trials & tribulations, with many pitfalls on a journey lasting thousands of years. Therefore, had they revealed the end of time, the people, knowing that the end was so far away, would give up hope of ever getting out, so they said terrible things would happen to whoever would reveal the end & cause the people to give up hope. However, now when all the signs say that the end is near & we are coming to the end of the journey, it's ok to figure out how far we are from Moshiach.

‎‏How, then, do we not lose hope because of our spiritual decay; what do we have that shows us the we can still get out? Says the Otzer Hatorah, if one looks at all the spiritual treasures we were granted in exile, the Torah itself in the desert, the gemara in Bavel, Rashi in France, the Rif in North Africa, etc., one sees that the greatest Torah revelations were given in exile. ‎ 

As Reb Simcha Bunim of P'shis'cha said, even though the spiritual dimension of the soul lessens with each generation, the truth in the hearts of the Jewish people become purer & more refined as time goes on. Perhaps, because we have more challenges & manage to keep the Jewish people alive through even greater obstacles, it gives us the strength to carry on, knowing that any day, we will arrive in Luftzik!  

Vayikash

When last week’s parsha  ended with Binyamin getting caught with Yosef's goblet in his bag and the brothers brought before Yosef who admonishes them for stealing the goblet, Yehuda says to him, " what can we say? How can we justify ourselves? Hashem has found our sin, we're ready to be slaves to you.” Then Yosef magnanimously says that I would never do that.  I won't enslave all of you; just the one in whose possession the goblet was found, will be my slave & the rest of you are free to go.    

This week’s parsha, however, begins on a whole different tune. ויגש אליו יהודה,  Yehuda approaches Yosef & starts speaking tough to him, recounts the whole story of why they came down & how Yosef made them bring Binyamin against their father’s wishes.  The midrash tells us about Yehuda's  ‎strength & how the brothers were ready to destroy the whole Mitzraim. 

What changed?  Initially, even Yehuda agreed that they would all remain slaves‎ to Yosef & then when he said they could all go except Binyamin, everything changed. 

I saw two answers to this question in the name of the Bais Yisroel who said that the Shevatim knew that there was supposed to be a four-hundred-year exile, so when they were all going to be enslaved, they thought that the galus was starting & they accepted Hashem’s decree. However, when they realized that it was only Binyamin who was to be enslaved, they understood that this wasn't the start of the galus, so‎ Yehuda got tough. 

The Nachlas Yaakov‎ answers a little differently. He says that the brothers thought that all the bad things that were happening to them with Yosef were the hand of Hashem punishing them for the sale of their brother years before. Therefore, even though they had the power to destroy Mitzraim & get out, they accepted their punishment because they felt it was Hashem's retribution for what they had done. However, once Yosef said they could all go except Binyamin, they knew that this couldn't have been a punishment for what they had done since Binyamin wasn't involved at all in the sale of Yosef.  Once they felt that Yosef was just ‏harassing them, Yehudah got tough. 

The sefer לב אליהו adds that this demonstrates the emuna of the brothers. When they saw something happening to them & knew that they had some sin, they admitted right a‎way אבל אשמים אנחנו we are guilty. על כן באה אלינו הרעה הזאת , this is why this anguish has come upon us. 

The brothers realized that the only reason something bad would befall them was if they had done something wrong.. There had to be a reason that this was happening to them.

There's a story told about רב אליהו לאפיאן that shows that he, too, lived this way. Once, on arrival at the yeshiva, he was walking up the steps, tripped & fell. He didn't get up, but remained sitting on the steps. People came running over to see if he was ok & he said he felt fine but he still didn't get up. The people asked, “if you’re feeling fine why won't you get up?” They thought that he had broken something or was at least in a lot of pain but didn't want to bother them. 

He answered, “I am sitting & trying to figure out what I did wrong that caused me to fall. A person doesn't fall for no reason. If I fell, I need to make an accounting of all my deeds to find what I had done wrong.

The לב אליהו continues that this teaches us that if anything bad happens to a person, he has to know that the world is not a free for all.  There is a cause and effect for everything; one should take an accounting of his deeds to see what could be the cause of his problems. As Chazal say, “one doesn't stub his finger down here unless it was decreed up there first. Nothing happens by itself!”

Miketz

‎‎Exactly two years after the release of the Chamberlain of Cupbearers, Pharaoh had a dream.  ‎ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים ופרעה חלם , it happened at the end of two years to the day: Pharaoh was dreaming.  ‎The end of Yosef's imprisonment & the dream of Pharaoh seem to be two separate entities except that they happened at the same time. So why does the posuk connect them?    

The Bais HaLevi explains that everything that happens has a cause & effect; the effect is the result of the cause . It takes great intellect to discern what is the cause & what is the effect. For example, if a person invests his money in a certain endeavor & makes a huge profit, one would think that the reason he made a lot of money was because he made a good investment. However, that's a great mistake.  It's not the investment that made him wealthy; rather it was decreed in heaven that this person become wealthy.  Since that was decreed on him, heaven will lead him to the correct investment, to make sure the decree comes about. Therefore, the fact is the opposite of what people think; it's not the deal that's the cause & the wealth that is the effect; rather, it's the wealth that was decreed upon him in heaven that's the cause & the deal is the effect to make it happen. 

So, too, by Yosef.  The time for him to get out of jail was decreed on him in heaven, so Pharaoh had to dream. It’s not that Pharaoh had a dream & Yosef was the only one who could help him. Rather, because it was time for Yosef to get out, Pharaoh had to dream. When it's the time for something to occur, Hashem makes sure that whatever needs to happen, will happen. ‎Now the posuk makes sense: ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים ,it was at the end of two years that Yosef had to remain in prison, therefore now was the time, ופרעה חלם‏ , Pharaoh had to dream.

I heard a st‎ory that was told by Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro about a man who lost his entire family in the Holocaust. After the war, he wanted nothing to do with Judaism so he changed his name & moved to Alabama. By chance, he married a Jewish girl & they had two sons. When his oldest son, Jeffrey, turned thirteen,  he wasn't going to make a Bar Mitzva but decided to honor the day by taking his son to the mall & letting him pick out whatever he wanted. They go to the big electronics store in the mall, looking for the perfect gift when Jeffrey spotted something in the antique store across the mall & couldn't take his eyes off of it. He was mesmerized.  He told his father that he didn't want anything from the electronics store but he wanted to go across to the antique store. They went across where the boy pointed to an old wooden menorah. The father couldn't believe it!  He said, “I'm letting you get anything you want in the whole mall & this is what you want?” The boy was insistent so the father asked the owner how much for the menorah? The man replied, “sorry that's not for sale”. The father said, “what do you mean? This is a store I want to buy it. How much?” The owner said, “listen, I just heard the story behind that menorah. It was constructed during the war by a man who took months to build it out of pieces of wood he found & put together.  The menorah survived but the man didn't. This is going to be a collector’s item. I can't sell it.” Now Jeffrey wouldn't let up so his father offered more & more money until the owner agreed to sell. 

Jeffrey was so excited. He took the Menorah up to his room & he played with it every day. One day, they hear a crash from upstairs, run upstairs & see the Menorah on the floor in pieces. The father gets angry at his son saying, “how could you be so careless. I paid a lot of money for that!?” Then, seeing how hurt his son was, he offered to help him put it back together. As they were putting the pieces back, the father saw a piece of paper wedged inside. When he pulled it out & he read it, tears welled up in his eyes.  When he finished, he fainted!  

‎After they revived him, he said, “let me read you this letter. It was written in Yiddish. It said,

‎whoever finds this menorah, should know that I constructed it not knowing if I would ever get to light it. In all probability, I won't. If providence puts this into your hand, you, who are reading this letter, promise me that you will light it for me & my family; all of those that gave their lives for Hashem. 

The man looked up at his family with tears in his eyes & in a choked up voice said, “the letter is signed by my father.” The family was shocked but recognized the Divine Providence & came back to religion. Would one think out that, of all the places in the world, the Menorah ended up in a remote mall in Alabama by chance?  Hashem wanted them back & caused his father's Menorah to turn up in that mall in Alabama. We must recognize that Hashem is controlling everything. All that happens to us is part of the divine plan & when something is meant for us, there is nothing in the world that will stop it from happening. Conversely, if it's not meant for us, nothing we do will make it happen. We must put our trust in Hashem & He will do what's best for us!

Vayeishev

Having concluded the sale of Yosef, the brothers mislead Yaakov into believing that Yosef is dead. As much as they try to comfort him, Yaakov cannot be comforted. Remarkably, the Torah then interrupts the narrative of Yosef to relate the story of Yehuda, stating ויהי בעת ההוא וירד יהודה מאת אחיו, it was at that time that Yeduda descended from his brothers.   

‎Rashi cites a Midrash explaining the juxtaposition of the sale of Yosef to the phrase: Yehuda descended from his brothers, telling us that Yehuda was ‎deposed as the leader of the brothers.  Once they saw Yaakov's pain & suffering, they blamed Yehuda saying, " you told us to sell him; had you told us to send him back to our father, we would have listened!” 

The אוצר התורה asks an interesting question: why were the brothers angry at Yehuda for telling them to sell Yosef? Why didn't they blame Reuvain, instead, who had been the one to initially suggest that they put him in the pit? Why didn't they say to him, “had you told us to return him instead we would have listened?” 

A psychological insight from the Ralbag provides the answer - the Torah is teaching us how to wean people away from the wrong path. When one sees his friend about to commit a sin he has to assess how passionate he is about what he’s about to do. If one is totally set on committing the sin, telling him not to do it, won't work. One has to slowly wean this individual away from ‎his destructive path. 

While it's true that Reuvain wanted to save Yosef, he knew that a head on confrontation would never have worked because the brothers were so bent on killing Yosef that telling them to return him would have fallen on deaf ears. Therefore, he went about it in a way to get them to back down a little. By throwing Yosef in the pit, he could then save him. Reuvain’s plan worked. When Yehuda suggested that they sell him instead, they agreed since they had already “cooled down”. Had Yehuda suggested this plan when they were in the heat of their hatred, they never would have agreed. Therefore, they were not angry at Reuvain. They understood that they never would have listened at that point. However, Yehuda had approached them when they had calmed down. Had he said return Yosef to their father, they would have agreed. Therefore, they were upset with Yehuda for not forcing them to do the right thing. 

In reality, though, how could they be so upset with Yehuda that they deposed him? They had wanted to kill Yosef & Yehuda actually saved him. What right did they have to be so angry at him?

The Chafetz Chaim ‎would often tell over a story of a man who was in the whiskey business, who for years didn't pay the alcohol tax & became very wealthy. When he was finally caught, he was sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor in Siberia. As the police were escorting him in iron chains, he passed his hometown & asked for permission to speak to the rabbi. When he approached the rabbi, he said, “I'm going to Siberia now for fifteen years & it's all your fault.  You certainly knew what I was doing, yet you didn't say anything. Why didn't you tell me that I was breaking the law?  Why didn't you warn me about the punishments? As the rabbi, that was your job. Now I will have to work slave labor in Siberia because of you!  

The Chafetz Chaim continued: this man knew the severity of his crimes. He knew what the government would do when they caught ‎him, yet he blamed the rabbi for not rebuking him. Certainly, when the heavenly court sentences sinners to punishments much worse than fifteen years in Siberia, a finger will be pointed at those that could have influenced the sinners away from the path of sin but did not.  

It was Yehuda's job to prevent the brothers from selling Yosef, so he was punished for not doing so. We must learn from this ‎to get involved. When we see people that are not doing the right thing, we must intercede & lead them on the right path. The Torah is teaching us that the way to do it is slowly, one small step at a time.  If we can just help someone to take that initial step, we will have success in bringing them all the way back!