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Vayigash: Faith in Man · A Thought for the Week

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Welcome to a Thought for the Week, a Torah in
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  Speaker 1: Motion podcast. I'm Jake Hellman, founding director of Tora in Motion,
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  Speaker 1: and it's a pleasure to have you here with us.
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  Speaker 1: This week's podcast is sponsored by Stephen Aufman in remembrance
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  Speaker 1: of the passing of his brother Neil Nafteli hertze ben
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  Speaker 1: Ski Paltil Hakowan on the ninth of Kreshban. May Our
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  Speaker 1: learning anti La serve to light his pathway to Olamhaba.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe A'll be blessed with long life and good health.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard to picture the scene when yose finally reveals
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  Speaker 1: his identity to the brothers. He clears the room, doesn't
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  Speaker 1: want anybody there. There's a big announcement is coming somebody
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  Speaker 1: and we knew something big, but we didn't exactly know what.
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  Speaker 1: And there's crying Dan and kloba F they're yelling and
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  Speaker 1: crying and everybody heard by Isishmu meets rym by Ishma,
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  Speaker 1: big Ber, everybody who was going on. And then he says,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your brother, Josef is our father still alive. And
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  Speaker 1: of course the brothers are speechless. Had they not been
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  Speaker 1: speechless and would have been a problem. I mean you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's impossible for them to say anything. The shock was
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  Speaker 1: overwhelming the loya, they couldn't They couldn't answer him. So
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  Speaker 1: Yose speaks again. He said, no, it's me. It's me.
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  Speaker 1: I'm you know, the one you sold to Egypt. But
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  Speaker 1: it's okay. Don't be upset because because of you, because
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  Speaker 1: you sold me here where we can all live. Heal
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  Speaker 1: him with Fiashla Anielheim, with Nikhim. This was part of
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  Speaker 1: the plan and it enabled me to save you. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I know you wanted to kill me. I know he
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  Speaker 1: threw me into pitt and saw me. But thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much, guys, brothers, because you know, look at all
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  Speaker 1: honky Dory's all great. You are God's messengers. So even
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  Speaker 1: if all that is true, who cares doesn't really matter.
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  Speaker 1: Based on that logic, the Egyptians could claim they two
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  Speaker 1: were God's messengers. After all, God told Abraham that his
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  Speaker 1: descendants would be slaves in a foreign land, and the
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  Speaker 1: Egyptians to say, we're just carrying out God's will. So
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  Speaker 1: it may be true they're carrying out God's will, that's
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  Speaker 1: part of God's master plan. But we have nothing to
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  Speaker 1: do with God's master plan. We don't get involved in
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  Speaker 1: God's planning. We don't know God's planning a little bit,
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  Speaker 1: but chutzpic to think we might. And God doesn't speak
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  Speaker 1: to Joseph, by the way, unlike the avote. That's I
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  Speaker 1: guess what distinguishes the patriarchs from Joseph. He doesn't beak God.
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  Speaker 1: He does. We don't know what God's plans are. We
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  Speaker 1: are responsible for actions, period, so don't tell me. What's
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  Speaker 1: he telling is? You know, great guys, great, great plan,
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  Speaker 1: and thank you very much. So it appears I think
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  Speaker 1: I'd being loved to hear any any suggestions you might have.
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  Speaker 1: But I think yose felt that the brothers had already
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  Speaker 1: taken responsibility and we're sorry for what they had done.
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  Speaker 1: In last week's parsia in Mee Kates, when Yo Safe
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  Speaker 1: accuses him of being spies, they talked about themselves. Actually necklace,
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  Speaker 1: our faults were responsible and it's all terrible, and Yo said, crict.
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  Speaker 1: We spoke about that last week, and Yo say is
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  Speaker 1: crying seeing how his brothers who was weighing on their
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  Speaker 1: mind for twenty two years. So clearly the brothers had
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  Speaker 1: taken responsibility for what they had done. Once that had happened,
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  Speaker 1: Yo say, realize, what's the point of yelling at them?
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  Speaker 1: What did you do to me? It's time to move forward.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes just let the past be and let's move forward,
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  Speaker 1: as we say. And it seems to me that this
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  Speaker 1: is an idea that Yo Safe learned in prison. This
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  Speaker 1: wasn't not an easy idea. It's hard for us to
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  Speaker 1: move on to just the pass is over time to
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  Speaker 1: move on. It's very difficult, but very important to do
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  Speaker 1: much of the time, not necessarily always, but as it
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  Speaker 1: maybe it'll be that as an a. It seems that
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  Speaker 1: Joseph learned this when he was in prison. He had
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  Speaker 1: interpreted the butler's dream correctly. And the butler gets out
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  Speaker 1: of jail and is reappointed by Parro, and clearly yose
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  Speaker 1: thought he too would be next to get out of jail.
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  Speaker 1: All he asked for the butler is to just, you know,
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  Speaker 1: mention it to Parrow. I'm innocent, and get me out
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  Speaker 1: of here, and look what I did to you. And
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  Speaker 1: of course the butler forgot Yo Safe. He had no
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  Speaker 1: reason to mention it, and Yosef languished in jail for
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  Speaker 1: two more years. It's rather than that eve of Yo
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  Speaker 1: Safe to think that the butler would try it again
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  Speaker 1: matter show what was in it for him? There was
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  Speaker 1: nothing for him to be gained, and you know, just
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  Speaker 1: the cruel world of political calculations. The butler wants to
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  Speaker 1: rise up and be in Pharaoh's royal court. What's he
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  Speaker 1: going to tell him that there's this guy Joseph who
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  Speaker 1: interpreted my dreams. There was nothing for him in it, until,
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  Speaker 1: of course he thought there is something in it for him.
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  Speaker 1: When Parrot had nobody to interpret his dream he thought,
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  Speaker 1: oh great, I'm the one who brought to Yo safe.
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  Speaker 1: Now this and that's the meat rush. I think this
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  Speaker 1: is what the meat rush is picking up on. The
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  Speaker 1: meat rush claims that Yosafe was actually punished for trusting
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  Speaker 1: the butler, putting his faith in the butler, and he
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  Speaker 1: should have put his faith in God. And because of
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  Speaker 1: that he had a stay in show for two years.
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  Speaker 1: So this too, is an extremely difficult meat rush. What
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  Speaker 1: do you mean we don't rely on God for anything.
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  Speaker 1: We you have to do things ourselves, not a Jewish approach.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe that was God's messenger that through the butler. So
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  Speaker 1: why in the world does the mean rush stay he
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  Speaker 1: was punished for trying to get out through the means
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  Speaker 1: of the butler. So I think what we could argue
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  Speaker 1: is that that's true. It's you are supposed to do
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  Speaker 1: what you can and I'll rely on God. But you
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  Speaker 1: know what, relying on the butler was. That made no sense. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: you don't any long God, but don't rely on the butler.
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  Speaker 1: And that was great not iv t Joseph's part, and
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  Speaker 1: he had to learn. He had to learn where we
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  Speaker 1: can put our trust. But more than that, Josef had
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  Speaker 1: to mature over those two years. When he tells the
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  Speaker 1: butler that I want to get out, he says, remember me,
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  Speaker 1: you know, tell tell power all about me. And he
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  Speaker 1: says I was stolen. He unaft me erics me. He
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  Speaker 1: dream I was stolen the gum poe and here too
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  Speaker 1: la cti muma. I didn't do anything wrong. I did not.
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  Speaker 1: He was accused of rape heer by Poti for his wife.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't know that he did nothing wrong to me.
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  Speaker 1: Dressed says he was about the symmetry. Didn't in the end, okay,
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  Speaker 1: but clearly he did something wrong with the brothers. It's
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  Speaker 1: not like he was this innocent bystander who they threw
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  Speaker 1: into a pit. Yes, it wasn't nice what the brothers did.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe it was terrible what the brothers did. But Yosefe
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  Speaker 1: is clearly not blameless in the story. And for Yosafe
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  Speaker 1: to say loa ct gumpo here too, there and here
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  Speaker 1: I didn't do anything wrong. God says, it's not time
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  Speaker 1: for you to get out of jail. You have to
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  Speaker 1: learn to take responsibility for your actions. And that's what
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  Speaker 1: Josef presumably is thinking about or learning in the two
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  Speaker 1: years extra that he sits in jail. He began to see,
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  Speaker 1: as he understood, at this hand of God in ensuring
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  Speaker 1: he would stay in jail for two more years. And
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  Speaker 1: he saw this hand in God and the fact that
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  Speaker 1: he was sold. And once he saw the brothers take responsibility,
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  Speaker 1: he in a sense saw the hand of God. Not
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  Speaker 1: that it excuses him, but there's no reason too. As
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  Speaker 1: I said Joel, in the past, let's move forward. It's
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  Speaker 1: interesting that the turning a point in the story is
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  Speaker 1: of course vahemi ke time. I mean it's two years
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  Speaker 1: later when Paro has this dream the term shna time.
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  Speaker 1: That's exactly what Josef says to his brothers when he says,
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  Speaker 1: I want you guys to come to Egypt. He sna time.
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  Speaker 1: The famine has been here for two years already, it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be five more years. It's time to come.
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  Speaker 1: These two shna times, these are indicate a complete change
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  Speaker 1: in situation. The word shahna a year comes from the
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  Speaker 1: same route as the shannat, which is to repeat a
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  Speaker 1: year is a cycle. We go back to where you
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  Speaker 1: know this day of the year we were last year,
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  Speaker 1: So that's repeating shnataim here, in a sense, is momentous change.
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  Speaker 1: It's not the same. It's kind of the opposite of shahna.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph becomes the viceroy. After Mikaamim, and after the Snataim
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  Speaker 1: avra Ab the Jewish people come to Egypt and formed
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  Speaker 1: as a nation. It's interesting, there's only one other time
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  Speaker 1: the wordna taim two years is used in the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: and that's after the flood, where the Tora tells us
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  Speaker 1: that snatayim two years after the mabul shame no sunscape birth.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, mankind was reborn. So the time seems
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  Speaker 1: to indicate this total change, this looking forward. A new
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  Speaker 1: world is upon us individually, nationally, for the Jewish people,
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  Speaker 1: and for the entire world. That's the three times of
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  Speaker 1: the Sha time in the Torah. The secret of Jewish
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  Speaker 1: survival is having the ability to know when to look
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  Speaker 1: backwards and when to look forwards. We have a long history,
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  Speaker 1: a glorious history, but we also have many tragic moments
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  Speaker 1: in our history, and we know that what we always
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  Speaker 1: are hoping for things to get better. We look forward
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  Speaker 1: to shah nahaba what can be and what will be
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  Speaker 1: in the future. And it's that balance of taking the
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  Speaker 1: past and building on it that allows us to dream
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  Speaker 1: and to prepare the world for a better future. This
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  Speaker 1: we just finished the holiday of Khanika and the bait
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  Speaker 1: Hill and Beisham I famously debate whether we light candles
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  Speaker 1: from one to eight and eight to one. So the
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  Speaker 1: more famous reason has to do at least bait Hill
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  Speaker 1: is more famous reason. Malba coutish we go up. But
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  Speaker 1: that's the secondary reason. Bishama says, because on sout we
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  Speaker 1: went down the cows from thirteen to seven. How many
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  Speaker 1: sacrifices that we go down on Kanaka, that's the second reason.
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  Speaker 1: The first reason has to do with do we look
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  Speaker 1: forward do we look back? Where's bit SHAMAI says, we
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  Speaker 1: go eight because they're eight days left. You know, even
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  Speaker 1: Nick seem the eight days and there's seven days to six.
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  Speaker 1: They say, if you always look, what will be? And
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  Speaker 1: bathe Hilla says, no, it's connecta Jimmy mayosim that we've
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  Speaker 1: had one day, we've had two days, you've had three days.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously they're both correct. Yeah, we have to look forward
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  Speaker 1: and we have to look back. They're just arguing what's
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  Speaker 1: the fundamental aspect of Judaism. But it's the combination of
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  Speaker 1: taking a building on our past to make a better future.
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  Speaker 1: That is the highest level of holiness, and let us
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  Speaker 1: merit to reach that to use our past to properly
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  Speaker 1: build for the future. Shabbat Shalom. We hope you enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: a thought for the week a tourre in motion podcast.
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• 12:04
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• 12:10
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  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, looking forward to learning with you
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  Speaker 1: next week.