Vayeshev - Light in the Darkness

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast recorded with hashem's never- ending assistance in ra Isel 5775 2014 this week's par pares vev and in par VV we have the story of ysep and his brothers how ysf is treated in a special way by yob you by Jacob and how yoseph his brothers are jealous of him Etc the whole story which we're not going to get into at length or in a deep way but what I do want to share with you is again a really beautiful idea the RN shares in helping us to try to understand the character of Yos what is his his K what is his Direction in life what is his intent what does he learn from yobu what does he learn from Jacob the the para starts off and it says this is in chapter 37:2 it says a told us yov these are the generations of Jacob y so ysep his son he was 17 years old he was shepherding the Sheep alongside his brothers ziv and he would spend time with his brothers who were from who were the sons of the of the maid Servants of Bila and zilpa and Joseph would bring their negative report to the father to their father to yov now in describing what was ysf who was ysf what was his k life what was his Direction what was his personality like what was he doing RN tells us that y was somebody who was involved in finding those Sparks of goodness the N the good points within every human being within every single Jew ysep was searching for them and bringing them out yob also Jacob we find that he was marar people he was bringing people close to the light of godu Abraham also did that and Y followed in his footsteps on this as well ysf was continuing the line was continuing the Monumental task of bringing people into the light of God of godliness i' like to read this to you inside he says like this we find that there's an argument between the schools of B and the school of H these were great T from the times of the mishna and they had their schools and they had their diverging View points now they had an argument they had a disagreement when it comes to trying to bring back the souls who are very far away people who are very distant from God who very distant from spirituality what do we do with those people do we try to bring them back are we open to receive them if they're interested in coming back so there was a there was a disagreement the Carvin so really a person shouldn't get involved with those people if anything getting involved with people who are distant from God who are distant from spirituality could could drag a person down drag a person away from hem we find that B's understanding their gisha their approach to reality is that and it's represented by the kanaks on khah WE light the candle so we all know that we we light the first day we Light One Candle second day we light a second candle two candles third day we like three Etc till we get to eight now that's the opinion of B which we P like we indeed we we do based on what B says that we add on a candle each night now sh says no B sh says we actually are you start off with eight candles you start off with eight and then the second night you light seven the third night you light six so B what they're coming to teach and what they what they represent is that it's important to sometimes or many times to limit the light you have have to be limiting it more and more so that those who are distant not be able to come back that they not have that light that they're not drag down those who are still in the light this is how we this is how we hold says no we need to add on light we need to add on light the first night is a one candle the second is a second candle Etc you keep adding on till the eth night you have eight candles burning bright and the idea is is that we always need to add on more and more vessels constrict ourselves more that it would enable in order to enable that the light should be able to shine even in those who are distant Fromm so that even those who seem distant and as it seems as if they don't have access to spirituality and they never will have access to spirituality Bas says it doesn't matter you try you constrict yourself more you bring yourself down to their level in a certain in a c certain sense in order to Shine the Light even there if we try to understand what is this argument what is this disagreement between this is the aspect of this General argument a disagreement every generation has the same exact disagreement between the the righteous ones who try to bring those Souls who are distant from hm back there are many who stand up and they say there are many righteous individuals who argue because they are in a certain sense they are enclosing the attribute of divine Justice and they say no those people are distant they're going to have a negative effect on us we need to not get involved with that those are that's one opinion but there are those who are of a different opinion and here is referring to RAB himself who indeed went to those who were the leaders of the Enlightenment movement in the late 1700s and early 1800s and he was trying to be M them he was trying to bring them back to to have a relationship with hem to have spirituality now this is the aspect of the argument the disagreement that the the other the other 11 tribes had whether it was Ru shim and Ley all of the other members of the Jewish people at that time the brothers of Ys they disagreed with Y Joseph was somebody who was the aspect of the righteous one who tries to bring close those who are distant he tries to add on light every single day like we saw the the direction of which we indeed follow because each time he creates deeper constrictions and wondrous vessels in order to enable those who wish whoever wishes to to be able to come close to hasem to have a relationship with God and that's why he was called Y what does y mean means to add on he was adding on light he was continuously adding on light now when it came to the other members of the Jewish people at the time the brothers even though they were all righteous IND ual they were very great they disagreed with him this is also the understanding it says that Jacob lived in the land of the dwelling of his father yob lived in the land of Y of Isaac our s tell us what does it mean the word which means the dwelling of his father can also be translated as the word from the word GM has the same root as proelite because he was somebody Yu he went back to the land of Isaac but he was also going back to the to the methodology of Isaac Isaac was somebody is was somebody who was bringing people close to hasem and so yob also continued in that way told us y now this is the explanation of that which the verse continues and says that these are the generations of Jacob Joseph why because Joseph was continuing ways of his father Jacob Joseph was somebody who was noticing where those who were distant from Hashem needed help needed a hand in order to return to Hashem and so he was also doing that which yob did that which did that which Abraham did he was following in that path we find that there's a general the general rule our sages tell us that whatever happened to Jacob also happened to Joseph Joseph was a continuation of Jacob explains that yobu whatever he had received in his learnings from theas of Shame and a he also gave over to his son to Ys whatever happened to yov also happened to Ys goes through numerous examples Yakov was hated by his brother asov yose was hated by his brothers and it goes through many many different uh parallels between the life of yob and ysf butas is trying to show us that just like yob was involved in bringing people close to hem bringing those Sparks or finding those Sparks in the darkness so too ysep was involved in that and now this whole idea is is right next to the the concept of the dwelling place of his father this is to hint to the fact that y was involved in bringing people close to Hashem and Yosef continued working on that great task immediately after that it says that these are the generations of Jacob Joseph and this is to teach us that that yakob gave over all of his wisdom to Yosef and just like yakob had the wisdom to be able to constrict himself to bring himself down to the level of the people who were distant from Hashem in order to raise them up and to be able to bring that light into their lives y was also continuously involved in this as well because had given over this ability to the main wisdom is to bring the conception of God to bring an understanding a connection of God into this world to make known to people the greatness of Hashem the greatness of God now this is the aspect of that which it says in the verse that Joseph was 17 years old and he was shepherding sheep with his brothers Ro what is the concept of shepher in sheep and this is something that we see it's a theme in the Torah that this is the aspect of the leader of the generation that we find just like mosu it was true of him we find that it's true of you know all of our great the the great ones of the Tyra they became leaders of the Jewish people and they were called they were called a Shepherd so also had this aspect that was shepherding the sheep say something very interesting he was 17 so 17 is the gatri is the numerical value of the word to which means good which means that Joseph was good to everyone or good for everyone he was completely good and because of that he was able to bring many many people everyone was was able to come into the light of Hashem because he was able to find even in the lowest of the low good points he was able to find their good points the spiritual points and in this way he was able to bring them close to Zila and this is what it means in the verse when it says that he was spending time with the children the the maid servants the children of of Bila and zilpa what is the aspect of Bah what is the aspect of Zila what are these words talks about the fact that the word b and the word Zila denotes those types of people who the the evil inclination the forces of evil have attached themselves to those people and despite that despite the fact that they were distant from Hashem of the 12 tribes so these these children of the maid servants had a certain negativity around them a certain spiritual darkness that surrounded them nevertheless went into the darkness the great righteous person the one who has this aspect of Joseph he gets involved with him he lowers himself to them in order to bring them close to Z this is what it means that he was acting in a young way the word n so I said I was translating before as he was spending time or or he was involved with the children of the maid servants but the word v means that he was he was doing childish things he was doing young things rash tells us that he was doing childish actions he was fixing his hair he was looking at his eyes he was trying to make himself look nice so so what was the idea what was the idea because a true righteous person in his great wisdom he lowers himself to them them he acts childish so to speak he lowers himself so much to the point that it seems like he's doing a childish thing you know a person wants to be somebody wants to bring someone close to God so he has to talk to him on his level he has to see what is it what interests this person what is it that this person likes you know if I'm going to want to entertain you I want to I want to bring you a little bit of of spiritual understanding I I've got to start off with something that you can relate to so so a person who's a righteous individual he'll start off speaking you know kind of General things General topics interesting topics politics whatever and he's going to eat and he's going to drink with them sometimes he's just going to go for a little trip with them or he's going to play games with them entire intent is in order to bring them close to hem he doesn't mention it here but but so as we mentioned earlier he was involved in speaking to the leaders of the Enlightenment movement at that time time one of the things that he would actually do with them is he would play chess with them he wouldn't discuss any words of Torah but eventually what happened was as near the end of his life he would say a sheer he would say something for his and these people the leaders of the Enlightenment movement they would actually come and sit and listen to his Shear they still maintain their connection to to these heretical ideas to the to to the ideas that were antithetical to Torah but still they would come and hear what raban had to say because he had come down to their level he brought himself down he didn't bring himself down he he communicated to them from where they were speaking from where where they were and in fact after RAB passed away they said that that if RAB would have continued to be alive he would have brought them close to God he would have they would have come back to yish they would have come back to Judaism and spirituality completely instead of being involved in the in their false Enlightenment but the idea is that it's possible to go down to the level represents this aspect like like we can see in the words of how much a righteous person lowers himself to the world that for him it's all considered a childish act but this intent the intent of thead the intent of the person is we're talking about a very righteous individual who can do this a person has to of course be careful to really be holding on a level in order to to be able to do such a thing but idea is that is saying that that this intense is what wishes that thead is trying to bring close those who are very distant from hem the only way to get them to access them is in this way and this is what it means in the verse the aspect of as we said that he was involved with the children of the maid servants and i' just like to share an experience that I had this past week actually a week ago was in New York CU I was filming a video for uh to to promote my new CD and to promote my Kaneka song so we're seeing you can go on YouTube and and see it type in khaka light that's the name of the song and what I did was the the concept of the video is that I went into Manhattan and I was there in Manhattan and I lit a manora in Time Square and and it was amazing the the the idea here this very idea of rabman of that you have to go into the darkness in order to find the light or if you want to really Shine the Light you have to go into that deepest place of darkness and the experience that I had there in Times Square was like it was night time and it was as bright as day and it was as dark as night like the on a spiritual level clearly it was it was like so Stark the darkness there even though it was so brightly lit the the spiritual Darkness was so great and and lighting that manura there the the experience of of standing there in Time Square lighting a manora which represents incredible spiritual light which is soft which isn't as bright anywhere near as bright as all the lights that were flashing around me but that experience you know going down into the darkness I mean I'm not a sadic I'm not you know but but having that experience anyone can have that experience of being willing to to shine that light or finding that light in the darkness I want to bless you and please bless me back hasem should help us that we should be able to find that light in the darkness we should be able to truly you know when we're interacting with whoever it is that we're mentoring whether it's our children whether it's our students whether it's just being an example out in the world you know sometimes we need to to to speak to them on their level speak to our children on where they are sometimes we need to talk to them you know on at at the place where they are and and by doing so we can bring that spiritual light down to wherever it needs to be brought thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag