Parshas Vayigash: Going to and Living in Galus

 

Parshas Vayigash: Going to and Living in Galus

 

Dedicated to a refuah shelaima for Chana Zelda bat Gittel Yita, Batya Dina bas Chava Tzivia, Chaya Sarah bas Esther Leah, Moshe Aaron ben Necha Itta, and Binyamin ben Simcha.

 

Hindsight is 20/20 they say, and when you look at history from the present day you see all the twists and turns that brought about great triumphs and cataclysmic failures. And when you read a story from a historic time and you read about an individual or family’s first step into history – perhaps their purchase of a place on the Titanic – it is natural to want to call out a warning: “Wait! Don’t do it!”

 

In some ways, that may be exactly the case of parshas Vayigash, this week’s parsha. After Yosef’s revelation that these are his brothers, “Pharaoh said to Yosef, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do as follows: load up your beasts and go at once to the land of Canaan. Take your father and your households and come to me; I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall live off the fat of the land.’ And you are bidden [to add], ‘Do as follows: take from the land of Egypt wagons for your children and your wives, and bring your father here. And never mind your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt shall be yours’” (Bereishis 45:17-19).

 

I mean, wow! What incredible generosity. What kindness… What a trap! Not in the short term. In the short term this was, seemingly, the best of opportunities for there was no famine in Egypt. In the long term, however, we know how that relationship with the Mitrzim turned out. In truth, that is not a fair statement. After all, Bereishis 46:3 relates that Hashem called out to Yaakov and said: ““I am God, the God of your father’s [house]. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation.” 

 

But as with all moments in the Torah, there is here a warning for the future… the lure of creature comforts, of promises of comfort and luxury often come at a heavy price – not necessarily for the first generation, but for future generations. It is not often discussed when we study the role call of nations who, over the course of our very long history, banished Jews from their lands, but many of those communities that later suffered oppression and exile had initially been invited by a local ruler to come because it was known that the presence of a Jewish community was often key to invigorating an economy. And far too often, those “invitations” came with appeals of tax breaks and promises of security that did not last once the economy was flourishing.

 

We often ask ourselves why Hashem has set us such a difficult history and such a long exile. It is a question to which there are many answers. We know from the Torah that Hashem expects our nation to be a mamleches kohanim, a kingdom of priests, which can be understood as a nation that demonstrates avodas Hashem to the rest of the world, and here in this parasha we also find a fascinating example of the possibilities we have to fulfill the role of being a light until the nation. In just one pasuk, 45:1, one can find two dynamic possibilities of kiddush Hashem. Yosef, overwhelmed by Yehudah’s speech, declares that everyone must leave the room. He then breaks down and sobs in front of his brothers, reveals himself, and immediately tells them that all was for the good.

 

The commentaries ask why it was that Yosef sent everyone from the room, and there appear to be two primary answers in the mepharshim. The more commonly known response is that Yoseph did not want to embarrass his brothers since there seemed no way to reveal himself without his path to Egypt coming to be revealed, and it would shame his brothers for others to know that they had sold him as a slave. A kiddush Hashem! Yosef sent everyone else away so his brothers would not be embarrassed.

 

On the other hand, some mepharshim explain Yosef’s sending away his men as a desire not to have his plans for his brothers disrupted as the men around him were deeply swayed by Yehuda’s speech. The servants were struck by Yehuda’s heartfelt words, his pinpoint argument, and his obvious care for this youngest brother. And this too was a kiddush Hashem.

 

Living in galus has its highpoints and its lowpoints. (Yes, we do have to be honest that it isn’t all bad.) Indeed, those two are often quite the extremes of each other. Whatever the situation, whether we are sitting in a seat of power or wealth or just comfort or we are prisoners facing unfair accusations, we remain Bnei Yisrael with an important role in the greater world and a responsibility to make a kiddush Hashem.

 

I wish you all a beautiful (and cozy) Shabbas.

I thank you for bearing with me as I recognize that this dvar Torah really ended up as two mashed together and not as developed as I would have liked….as I can probably say for most of them this year!

 

 

Chanukah/Parshas Miketz – A DT with No Title

One of the incredible talents that we, the Jewish people have, is our ability to darshen out ever interesting understandings of our sacred texts and moments.  Some of our most profound concepts come from the way we look at words anew, so what about Chanukah – and ok, let me say this clearly now: this is totally me. I have zero source for this… but let’s have a little fun anyway. 

Within the word Chanukah we have the name of Chana – an extremely powerful woman’s name and a name that is tied to the holiday in several ways. Additionally, one can pull out of the word – anagram style – the word kavana, with a left over ches – so 8 days of intention. Hmm interesting… 

That the name Chana is connected to the idea of kavana is not surprising, given the original heroine of that name. Indeed, Chana the mother of Shmuel was a woman of unimaginable kavana. Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that two separate women bearing her name are associated with Chanukah.

The story of Chana and her seven sons comes from II Maccabees, Chapter 7, where it describes how 7 sons and their mother were jailed by the Selucids. They were brought before the king, who demanded that they consume the pork he put before them. One by one the boys refused and were tortured to death in front of their brothers and their mother. Even when the youngest was brought forward, the mother encouraged his faith, and he too was killed. The mother died after her sons (there are different opinions about how she died, so we will just leave it there). This is one of the stories we often hear about women’s connection to Chanukah – although I feel it is only right to note that the name Chana was attached to the mother of this story only many centuries later. 

Now we know that, al pi halacha, one does not have to give up their life rather than not eat treif. Indeed, there are even occasions where it is permitted for a person to eat treif if it will save their life…but this family faced something very different. In eating the pork before the king, they would have been declaring their lack of faith in Torah, and so their actions were all about the underlying intent. Look at the incredible kavana these 8 Jews had in such a terrifying situation. She is hailed in the text of II Maccabees: “It is true, who will not be in awe of the mental fortitude of this woman. Is she not fit to be a banner of nations?”

The second story associated with Chana and Chanukah is one that, to be honest, I hadn’t really heard about until this year. However, there is a medieval midrashic source, based on an earlier work called the Midrash Antiochus, that reveals that one of the instigating factors of the Maccabee rebellion came from Mattisiyahu’s daughter – Chana. There was an inhumane law that a Jewish woman had to go to the local governor before she could go to her chupah – yes, read the inference. Many women, it says, refused to marry at all in order to avoid this debased requirement. Chana, on her way to be married to Elazar of the Hashmonayim, stopped the procession, disrobed, and declared: 

Listen, my brothers and uncles! So what — I stand naked before you righteous men with no sexual transgression and you get all incensed?! And you’re not becoming incensed about sending me into the hands of an uncircumcised man who will abuse me?!!!!!!! You’ve got something to learn from Shimon and Levi, the brothers of Dinah, who were just two men who became incensed/vengeful on behalf of their sister, and they murdered a walled city such as Shechem and gave up their souls for the sake of HaMakom! And Hashem helped them, and they were not destroyed. And YOU are five brothers – Yehudah, Yoḥanan, Yonatan, Shimon, and Elazar – and you, youth of the priesthood, are more than 200 men! Put your faith in HaMakom, and He will help you, as it is said: ‘There is no stopping Hashem from winning’

And the rest, as they say, is history. 

The third woman associated with Chanukah is Yehudis, who plied the general Holofernes with dairy and wine and then cut off his head while he slept. I am mentioning this in a brief way only because there is legitimate room to debate when she actually lived, as the original text of her biography is associated with the Assyrians more than the Selucids. Also, I’ve probably gone on long and you all know the story…

So woman and Chanukah… we’ve got our brave heroines here, and that is lovely but most of us, thankfully, are not being faced with men with swords demanding we eat pork or wanting other um, things. The battles we face today are much more subtle. Let’s look at things a little deeper though.

The lighting of the Chanukah candles is a time-bound positive commandment, you know, one of those from which women are generally excused. But, it is quite clear in halacha that women are equally obligated in the mitzvah of Chanukah. The reason given is that we were equally saved by the miracles, or the responses reference these great heroines. Both true. 

There is something else, however, that is very special about the mitzvah of lighting the menorah. In the most ideal situation, where is it done? At home. Chanukah was a war against more than one enemy – most prominently the Selucid-Greeks but also, most dishearteningly, against the Hellenized Jews who had allowed the spiritual siege to cross into their homes. 

Ches is for Chana – a name that symbolizes the ultimate sacrifice a woman will make to protect Torah and Judaism and family. Take that ches and envision how it surrounds the rest of the letters of kavana and remember that ches is also the letter of that which goes beyond nature. Hashem gave these heroines strength to go beyond nature to protect that which is most precious, and it is the same strength that each and everyone of us taps into not just on Chanukah but throughout the year. 

A quick add on to reflect on this week’s parsha, which is parsha Miketz. In Miketz, the sons of Yaakov go twice to Mitzrayim to get food, and it doesn’t go so smoothly for them. First Shimon is made to stay as collateral for the brothers returning with Binyamin, and then, when they do come back, Binyamin is accused of thievery. We, of course, know how this all ends, but perhaps if one were to look at this week’s parsha in isolation, one could see a warning. We don’t have a choice about being in galus. Hashem put us there at the time of Yosef, and Hashem put us in galus in our own time. Before the Children of Israel went down to Mitzrayim, however, Yosef gave them a warning of what he himself had experienced. Life in galus is hard. It’s unwelcoming. It’s dangerous. It’s full of false accusations and deliberate misunderstandings. But we have to follow in his footsteps and hold strong to the ways of our forefather…and, as we stare at the beautiful Chanukah lichts, we should say also, the ways of our foremothers. 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Parshas Vayeshev: The Dream of Joining

The word dream is, if you think about it, a rather interesting word. Like many words in our language, it has more than one meaning. On the one hand, it refers to that which happens in our minds while we sleep - which scientists will tell you is most often the way the brain processes the overload of information and experiences we each have. On the other hand, we use the word dream to refer to something we hope for ourselves in the future. It is more concrete than a wish, but not by much.

So when we say that this week’s parsha is full of dreams, we really are not just referring to the dreams that shape so much of the story of Yoseph. We are also, one might say, referring to the dreams that shape the actions of the two women in this week’s parsha: Tamar and Eishes Potiphar. Both of these women, according to tradition, dreamed of being linked to the Children of Israel, and perhaps in exploring that fact, one can also see how the Torah demonstrates an important lesson for all those who, in the future, will dream of joining the Jewish people. 

Let us look at Eishes Potiphar first. As the narrative tells us, the wife of Potiphar, the master of Yoseph, waited until her household had all gone to a festival and she was left alone in the house with only the servants. She then waylaid Yoseph and attempted to seduce him. When he refused her overtures, she accused him of trying to assault her (using nicer language…ya know). In Beresihis Rabbah 85:2, however, it is stated: “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: She saw through her astrology that she was destined to bring forth a child from him, but she did not know whether it would be from her or from her daughter…” 

The problem was that Eishes Potiphar might have believed that this was her fate, but she saw it as something surface level. She felt that she had a place among Bnei Yisrael, and she attempted to force herself in without doing the inner work necessary to understand what it meant to be part of a nation meant to dedicate itself to connecting with the Divine. She acted in the most physical means possible, and with raw, untempered emotion, to accomplish that which is meant to bring the spiritual into the world. 

Tamar, on the other hand, exemplifies patience. She married into the family of Yehuda - which, of course, Eishes Potiphar was not free and available to do - and, in so doing, accepted upon herself their ways. But it wasn’t easy. She married imperfect youths and was left a young widow. She had joined the family and was then, one might say, ostracized and pushed a way because Yehuda was afraid for his youngest child to marry her. However, Tamar herself didn’t falter. She knew that this was who she needed to be. And yes, similar to Eishes Potiphar, she did take some extreme measures of physicality - we won’t go into that here! - she maneuvered that action into one of spiritual dignity. 

Those who choose to join the Jewish people even today do not always find it an easy path, They are, however, people whom we should all look to with admiration for their conviction and their dedication and for the power to transform their dream into reality.