Parshat Vayeshev and Chanukah 5784 by Rabbi Baruch Taub

thank you thank you for everything okay uh let's learn a little bit so I put down here V K I'm going to do something from the para um which these two items on the sheets it will not be uh uh it will not realize immediately what the the connection has to do with um our matv but I think we'll we'll see a connection okay umov this is the number one on the sheet um when they brought back uh the brothers the brought back the coat of many colors in blood um they thought he was dead he tore his garments he he started to mourn and he mourned many many days actually he mourned 22 years for uh for uh yoseph and uh the question the question here that the balvi uh deals with um the balvi um is uh actually the grandfather the great-grandfather of the great great grand father actually R salic of Our Generation and um he is he's asking a question here that Yehuda in this para um had a lost uh uh two sons and a wife and yet it doesn't say by Yehuda that he mourned so much so what what was the tragedy of the death of Yosef more so than than the other tragedy in the par yoseph you UD losing two sons and and his wife um so let's see what he says concerning that now we picked up in the middle of this piece it's a very long piece from the Bas Bas the the extraordinary uh pain the suffering of Yakov ainu the loss of the seeming assumed assumed loss of assumed loss of Y I don't get it if you look in the and here he goes He mourned so he mourned he finished Mourning so what what's the tragedy here the tragedy here is that he lost 12im he thought he was going to have 12im this was the last this was from from uh from uh Rael right the minions there who melis um this is a a fundamental number 12 we'll see he's going to go into it a little bit the the basis of is is the 12 tribes and this is the language of the med for example he took 12 Stones remember the dream not he took 12 Stones um the K who was go that there'll be 12 tribes based on the 12 Stones that he took so was not to have the 12 tribes which we were foretold we were going to be did not if I put these 12 Stones together so I know that I will be the one who is who privileged to raise the 12 tribes and this was his his desire his dream his spiritual Quest all of his life not to build up B is laon sh because of that he was willing to work 20 years in the house of laon excuse me I just want to get aish and check something um the Isel one minute please okay sorry so this was this was his whole onra um all of the the suffering that he he had to endure from his brother as was only [Music] foram that he would he would gain the bras he would receive the bras of abah and Ison caronus you also have the number 12 is involved in carbonis doesn't go through explain how but um but but in carbonis there there is a series of 12 also Y and now when he saw that ysf was assumedly dead so he doesn't have the minion of 12 the whole basis is is 12 right everything that he worked for is is is is gone so therefore 12 years 20 years he 22 years he suffered I mean 12 months of the year 12 signs of the zodiac the number 12 is a very significant Yus number in in the world right he I'm going to die in suffering and mourning all my life for my son because this this put an end to everything every dream that ysep had for building up Israel so now the Bas ask a simple question why did he do this why did he suffer right he lost his son nothing worse than losing a child and he'll he'll feel it for the rest of his life but far it's true that the imos had finished giving birth they could no longer have children and they were not it was not for them to have more children simple question let him take take another wife right this is not an uncommon feature by the Yos and the we see in in the Kish let him take another wife I mean incidentally we're all aware of the fact that according to the Torah one can have more than one wife forbids it at this point in time so um not that I'm complaining but that's the situation he could have taken another wife why didn't he take another wife he could have a 12 son and save the day and and back to the building of the 12 tribes based upon the TW signs of the zodiac the constellation of the cosmos right and uh Etc and can come back first full circle to the fullness of why why couldn't he do it now this is absolutely an astounding idea put forth by the B he swore to love on love on he swore to love on that I I will not take another wife other than your to daughters right he promised this to love one and because of that he he couldn't he would be breaking his promise to love I found another qu uh the the whole Covenant of the tribes has fallen apart how hard I I I worked to make 12 beautiful perfect tribes UD base maos 12 signs of the zodiac the constellation 12 hours in the day 12 hours of the night 12 months of the year it all started with the 12 stone that I took and 12 Stones the the a the a had 12 Stones it fell apart but he didn't want to take another wife to have a child because he promised he swore to to love on harha that he's not going to take another wife now could you think maybe he could go around it somehow and he suffered 22 years he didn't want no you know there's you can go to we know there's a thing called and we do it on a russan sh and if the women can't make it the husband does it for the wife also we're M and what's the obvious the easiest way to be M you find a p an opening the opening is if I would have known that I would lose one of my sons so maybe I can be out of the N of not taking another wife he had a way out he did have a way out right he didn't want to get out of it was fearful be to love so this was a a tremendous test for him you know this is even harder we can we can surmise the B says this was a more challenging test for Yu than the actual the AA right that there was not all over yet here you know here's sh he felt he concluded all of his all of his promises hopes desire 22 years and he didn't want to be Z shov Etc goes on that he whatever whatever the Met says this is an astounding thought now why am I bringing this well maybe I'll hold back let's do the second piece that I have here on the second page and we what does this have to do with the mat okay with what we're going through now so number two this is um a saer called diona This is written uh by a a talmid of um of uh R Weiss Mandel M Weiss Mandel that's all I'm sure many of you have heard of him he was one of the sadim who survived the showah and um he built a community in Mount kishko New York of all places and but he was a very holy Jew in fact he he the famous story that he went to akman he went to Amman and asked him to arrange for trains to not to go to aitz to return from aitz to bring back to Germany Jews from aitz Imagine the the the courage and actually akman Rene but he sent one train there was one train of Jews that came back from aitz and I happen to know uh children and grandchildren of of people who were actually on that to Hungary rather back to Hungary who were on that that train back to Hungary so you know what I don't know what he saved the Thousand there were a thousand Jews that he saved out of 600,000 but can you imagine what he did the what he did so he was a a great um a great person and this a student of his rights uh brings a mice something from him now if you go this is called number three on page two and skip the first paragraph it's the second we start in the second paragraph um you know um he was talking about a certain period in time in Europe when uh the our hosts host countries were very cruel to us and uh took everything from us and European Jews devised ways to go around the government right to circumvent the government um G stealing from a non-jew right notwithstanding the fact that the UR who was Aon actually brings this in if if a non-w makes a mistake let's say you're at the cash register and the non-jewish cas we're not talking about a Jewish own store right you're you're in Foods whatever and and the cash makes a mistake right the mistake of mut that the the technically you don't have to give the money back right however the the writes this is not really yours in fact there's a commentary called the bear hative uh which is um or the I think it's on in the no it's not in the be hative I don't have I'm not going to open up a to find it but there's a commentary on the side which generally brings the sources of the in the gamar of where this is coming from in the and it's usually very short and tur but here this particular commentary um goes to Great length he writes a whole thing that even though we have the basic technical thing that you could keep it if the go makes a mistake the non-jew makes a mistake it's a we we should not do it is we should not do it never do it return it that's what you have to do you have to make a kesem so very strong right but remember we're dealing with communities in Europe that were suffering Terrible by from the governments and this was the only way they could survive right so they relied on this this heter this basic technical Al I want to tell you something I once heard from Mand he wanted to explain during the the Holocaust even though the beginning of this was in Germany Germany was the source and then it spread to all of the other countries all of the other nations Yer but the Jews in Germany were were privileged to to get out more than any other Europe Eastern European comp country they were allow get able to escape and escape with their possession more so than Jews in the other countries German Jews were able to pull out much more of their property and and money and possessions than the Jews in other countries Mas everything was left the non-jews took it our hosts took all of our money all everything they took everything what's the reason listen to what he says the German Jews thei Jews the German Jew as is well known were much more ethical very ethical and very particular in their in their handling with the non-jewish their non-jewish house in business their business ethics were pristine they never try to deceive in business the non-jewish hosts of their their country so their money was really more theirs than any other part of Europe it didn't mix in with any of the the non-jewish money that was let's say stolen right nor those other countries the poverty was beyond the German Jews were not the the the level of their existence was on a much higher level socially but the other countries were tremendous poverty and the suffering that they had the second call so they they relied on this heter they relied on this this poetic license to skirt around the law in in this area um so therefore not going to read it inside but uh basically he says that's why the German Jews were saved more so and came out with more property and more money than the other Jews not he's not saying this is the reason why the others were punished right not we don't give reasons for what why the Holocaust happened he is giving a suggested reason why the Germans came out better off than the those who came out the from the other countries and and he wants to say it's because of this extraordinary um ethics of the German Jews and going back to the Bas right that he would make AEM to uh to love on so what do I want to say with this what do I want to say with it or we go on to Kan look what's going on in the world today the accusations the lies that are being perpetrated against the Jews the demand calling it genocide genocide right the fact no one knows the facts the anti-Semitism in the United States is Beyond if you would ask nine out of 10 people where Palestine is they wouldn't even know uh what sea what river they wouldn't know somebody actually did went out and spoke to people and they didn't know what they were talking about so it's beyond I mean it's out of control and yet we know that no other Army in the history of warfare ever did what that sa is doing to send out to drop leaflets from the sky that were coming get away to to send messages all kinds of stories how they got telephone numbers of of uh of Palestinians to get out of the of the of the north go to the South get out of here and now that they divided up the area of sou of Gaza they divided up South Gaza now into four they put four areas areas where they can go and escape and they'll tell them to go here when we're tracking here there's no other nation in the world there's no no other no other Army today or ever as moral and as ethical of the Jewish people and you can say to yourself why right believe me the Americans bombed schools in Afghanistan right they they didn't they didn't they killed thousands tens of thousands of innocent civilians um it it's it's War it's a terrible tragedy but it's War you have to save yourself and here we're dealing with we're dealing with people they're not people we know what we're dealing with so certainly you would think that but here we we have to be so we are sensitive because that's that's what that's what the B taught us this comes from Yakov ainu not to make a not to make a to love on the Russia and that's what we have that's what we're doing right now so we won't make aill AEM for Love on the Russia right and every country including our our greatest friend the United States are already pushing back on pauses and ceasefires and we're watching what you're doing and it's you know others to R nations are saying that we're we're genocidal it's all genocide it's genocide in Palestine genocide in Palestine I mean we we it it makes our blood boil and really it's not healthy to watch the news because because we know the truth we know what the truth is and we have to rather than watch the news doru right that the that like Ms like oil speaking of kah Rises to the top and and the the truth will come out so that's why I I brought this here okay let me conclude with a little bit of a discussion about kanuk I want to ask eight questions uh symbolically and um and give an answer to these questions uh I think the questions are are interesting um the first question is um the miracle of Kan took place in the B mikdash so why isn't the principal Mitzvah of lighting the candles in sh mikash um why is the why is the it has to be done in the house why is it in the B why not in sh and not only that but we light Manor in the but it's it's only it's only a Min it's not we're not y the Mitzvah of nous if you go to Sho and oh I heard I heard luus nous I was there I don't have to light at home no you have to light at home have light at home this is only for the people let's say who used to live in the Sho that we continue there you know people less fortunate would would be put up in the Sho that was the custom of many communities but also it's it's a minut right P to uh say just like kabad you know kabad does extraordinary things they light a manur in the cities all of all the countries they go out they light a minora um that's a wonderful thing for puma and to bring people back to yish kite right but it's not the the Mitzvah of lighting the minur there's Puma they're celebrating that that's an important part of the N of the of the Y but the actual of lighting has to be done at home okay that's question number one um question uh number two um question number two is it says in in talking about that says your children came your your sons came uh the of the whatever the exact is in I ask you a question there are two ways of describing Jewish people we are Bim to hasem we are his children but we're also aim we're also servants if you're speaking about the kohanim in the bikash if you were writing Alim how would you how would you write um the words of Al right these are your your servants the they're theim are doing the a the right so um I actually I actually thought I had all the the questions in front of me and I don't on second one second oh here it is okay so that's question number two okay um next question the rambam says in the lighting the Kana candle he says that the candles have to be lit why does he have to say what's the emphasis now please bear in mind that the rambam any extra word in tonim in Russia and the rambam it doesn't exist there's no such thing as an extra word in in the R so if the r is repeating it every house and house has to light it there has to be a reason for it right also the MIT of is the next question is is we say a candle for every man and his and his b right and we do mahad mahad we light one 2 3 to eight right but the basic Mitzvah is is why is it said just the one for like a mza it's Mitzvah is for the house what do you mean n what what what's the emphasis um also hilus there's an interesting that that if one does not have enough money for either for both shabas candles or Kana candles then you have to light use the money for shabas candles right because of shom right shom that's why we like shabas CS to have sh shom in the house create an energy of we can see what we're doing this is brought in in the ra why isn't it brought inab now in the it's brought in two places but in the r he only brings it in why is this that if you have only money for shabas candles and Kan you like shabas right next question the laws of Kana are not we there's a there's a tractate A in the called Manos inos that's where you have the laws of the minur but the laws of the kanak Min are in chabas when the gorah talks about the Wicks that are used for the chabas candles so the gorah kazal the rabbis chose to put Kaneka after that discussion rather than in the discussion about the minora itself why what's the reason what's the the reason for that also at the end of Hil and the r and we know that the rambam generally the end of many of his discussion discussions he says something hash he says something because he says something defining what the essence of this whole chapter this whole section of my book is all about and he writes at the end of that shom is is a very special thing very important very important thing that's his emphasis at the end of H what why is why is that emphasis there okay next question I think this is the last question I think we've we've got the eight is that every other y has an all consuming Mitzvah all all week you go through during the day lul you can take you can take Suka it's all day you have to be in the Suka right p is is matah right right there's only one Mitzvah and it's it's when is it it's like a half hour at night essentially the Mitzvah is the time you have time to light the candles until the last person gets home and the street is empty there's nobody in the street that's when you have to light it right in other words it has to be light at home but you have to wait till everybody gets home to light them in so what what's this all about I want to say what is kanuk what is Kaneka really all about Kaneka is about it was not physical destruction to kill us that was purin Kaneka as we know is was spiritual destruction they wanted to destroy Tores shabal they wanted to destroy the teaching of Torah and teaching of Torah that's why we have this custom of Sona gelt giving money to children because they returned to the ability to learn Torah once again we want to encourage them um where is how does tar actually work right the gamorra says that rishin raan gam rishin gam was was will be remembered forever because he established a school system for the Jewish people he established teachers in every town right famous gamar right um and in fact uh people say sociologists point to this the T of the Jewish tradition that the Jews were ahead of the their the of the times right an official system of public schooling for example in England didn't happen until the 19th century right so we were ahead of our time with education right with pass passing on Torah from parents to children comes along Rev hutner and he says the world is the sociologists are making a big mistake this idea of setting up schools that Rua B gum did was a Bev it was not the the ideal situation the ideal situation was B and Bim the bay the home that's where Torah was taught to children but because of the growing ignorance that parents were themselves not equipped to teach their children the reishu B gumy established a school system to augment to give the children the message the lessons of Torah so an educ a complicated sophisticated educational system of schools was a Bev it it was a necessary thing because the Original Classic way of giving over Torah was not we were not able to do it so and they knew that the Greeks knew that they tried to destroy the home home they they did not allow us they made us build our homes that the doorway should be facing the doorways and the window should be facing the windows the M says of their neighbors there was no privacy right they wanted to make make the the the privacy of the house should be the street right to bring the street into the house right this is what they wanted to do destroy destroy the house the bay and really that is the Mir that the that we were able to restore the sanctity of be Israel that which Greece really they understood this was the source of our strength and they tried to destroy it that's why that really answers all of these questions that the emphasis is the bay it and therefore the Mitzvah is not in shul where the miracle took place yes but that's that was a public demonstration of the of the miracle but what really happened here was not you know it's not just about the oil right um it's about a metaphor great metaphor for Torah by the way is oil and uh it was about the attempt of Greece to destroy our whole tradition which is based upon the the the sanctity of the house the parents giving over to their children and that's why the actual Mitzvah has to be in the house it has to be lit in the house that's why the rambam emphasis izes it and he says every house and house that's what the r is saying that's why in we say right right that the and his sons even though it should say right but twice an emphasis in on on on children and that's why that's why uh we have this in in in h khah that if you only have enough money for shabas candles or Y of candles shabas candles come first because it's all about Shalom Bas right that's why the ram ends his whole discussion of H KH with with the the greatness of Shalom and that's why the laws of kanah and the lighting the minur are not in Minas with the with the minur but they're in chabas with the lighting of the chabas candles and right after that the lighting of the Kaneka candles because it's about shom by it's about the the return the victory the miracle of establishing reestablishing The Jewish Home Again and finally the only time we have this Mitzvah this little Mitzvah of lighting the minora not during the day yes we light it in the morning and Sh without a br but again to celebrate to celebrate the miracle but that's not the the is at night that that little window of time that we have at night to light the candles right right what nothing nothing extraordinary the entire time so why is that two things I would say number one this is the emphasis on normaly in Jewish life we return to normal the normal healthy environment of a Jewish Community mothers fathers Sons daughters living Torah doing Mitzvah learning transmitting the m normal SE not a special Mitzvah like a lul and or Suka right or a matah right something special something unique no the the greatness of Kaneka is normaly nothing unusual we're back to normal and therefore why that only that little half hour period because that to the last Jew comes home then we have to wait till give the to the last Jew comes home to the bay that's the time for the Mitzvah again it's an emphasis on this whole idea that this is really the essence of Kaneka so everyone should have a and uhem the light of our manora will will bring light for all of Cl Israel and Willem get out of this m that we're in very soon in the of our MIT all the best