Vayigash - For Heaven's Sake

you're listening to the weekly partial podcast with ari goldwag recorded with hashem's never running assistance in ramappache israel 57 81 2020. this week's parasha is parshas vayigash with the climax of the story of yosef and his brothers yosef and yuhuda face off yehuda says you can't take the sun this one son of yaakov of jacob my elderly father their souls are bound and then yosef finally reveals himself and sends his brothers back to the land of canaan in order to bring his father and his whole family to egypt so that he can support them there and give them all of their needs the torah tells us that as yaakov is informed of the fact that yosef is the leader in mitsrayam in egypt first he doesn't believe it it's unbelievable thing then he says that's it i gotta i gotta go see him before i die yaakov was very old at that time he's 130 years old he would indeed live to be 147 but he knew he was you know he was old so torah tells us that he comes down and that yosef appears to him that yosef appears to his father and they hug each other and it's a great moment in their lives when they're reunited after 22 years of separation now i'd like to share with you usually i'm sharing with you madrushim and uh you know i looked through them in russian and i was always looking for something that's going to speak to me and i didn't this week i didn't find anything in the madrish but what i did find was a piece from abraham levitz in sikhs moser which inspires me it's a very lofty level that he speaks about but i think that we can all try at some level to incorporate the ideas that that is uh that he's teaching the ideals that are awesome yes sir yosef mercaft is us that yosef he tied up his merkabah his chariot he went up to greet his father israel went towards goshen by ye love he appeared to him by paul al-savarov and he fell on his neck pierce rashi rashi explains but he really loved yes if neera i love you yosef appeared to his father because i love it's not clear who's appearing to whom but rashi tells us yosef appears to his father it's our beer becoming so we need to understand what do these words mean what does it mean that yosef appeared to his father ube the fact that yosef appeared to his father those those words seem to be um unnecessary words obviously if they fell on each other's shoulders obviously they appeared to each other the ramban over there explains this point but reprimand explains an amazing thing we can understand that yosef had not seen his father in 22 years he had a powerful desire to see his father doesn't say this but you know when he was talking to his brothers he kept asking about their father is your father still alive first thing that he says after his revelation first thing he says is my father still alive right clearly yosef had a very strong desire to see his father he cared about his father he he was his father's favorite it was his father's the gem of his father's eye he he missed him so much yesterday that we find that generally speaking there's a concept that can mind putting up on when a person has a relationship feels a certain way towards another person the feeling is often mutual and we know that yosef was beloved by his father higher than all of his other brothers so certainly yosef had that feeling towards his father as well it was a reciprocal feeling um another point is that yaakov was his teacher besides for being his the father who loved him he was also his teacher everything that yaakov had learned from shame and ever he had given over to yosef he certainly had a powerful desire to see his father um listen to this carefully because it's so powerful and teaches us such an important lesson an approach in life a powerful approach in life there was another motivation for yosef to see his father he certainly knew how much pain his father had been through and availas the mourning that his father had experienced as a result allah prayed for the 22 years that they were separated he knew that he was his father's favorite son even he understood how great would be his father's pleasure and his desire to see him what a joy what a great joy yaakov would experience when he would be rejoined reunited with his son foreign how i can die now that i've seen your face he was so moved he was so joyous he felt like he had everything he needed when he saw yosef when he indeed registered the fact that yosef was really alive and that he was a leader in egypt israel said jacob said oh my goodness my son joseph is still alive let me go and see him before i die his first thought which is beautiful yosef all he could say was asking about his father is my father still alive allyaki could say is let me please see yosef let me see my son yosef the great desire the great for the aspiration of yaakov to see his son [Music] he appeared to him what does it mean rashi says yosev to his father this is to testify to an amazing an amazing attribute of yosef that although he had a powerful desire an awesome desire to see his father why is there some question which of course is an absolutely kosher desire a perfect a wonderful desire had one thought in his mind when he's when he appeared to his father when he came to greet his father lahari's heroism to appear to his father his what was going on in his mind he was thinking i just want my father to be happy that he sees me huh joseph is not involved in his own desire to see his father says would have an amazing thing he wanted his father to see him that was his focus this was his only aim is he didn't have any personal desire mixed in he was able to control his motivation to the point that what was his focus what was his desire what was he doing at that moment because it because remember whenever we do something whatever we're doing the motivation the motivation is so important in yiddishkai it's not it's not good enough you know the ends don't justify the means the means have to be pure the motives need to be pure to the extent that we're able of course right this is a very lofty level we're speaking about here but rebecca is saying this is explaining that yosef was able to purify his motivation to the point that his focus was just i'm sorry he appeared to him yosef appeared to his father his focus was just i'm here to appear to my father since returning he wasn't involved in his own desire to to see his father his focus was just to give his father pleasure the pleasure of seeing him when you're the huffington's he says we can understand this based on what we said in a different place the amazing importance of the concept of performing actions in a more perfected way or a perfected way there's a unique obligation that when we do the mitzvah when we perform a commandment that we do it with pure motivation you know it's very easy and it's common and it's normal and it's even and sometimes desirable to do things like to do things for the wrong reason a person wants to learn in order that he get respect a person wants to accomplish things in order that people show him honor that's a good starting point but that is not the end point the end point is where we have grown up where we have matured and each one of us instinctively consents when someone else is doing something with shema when someone is doing it for a pure motivation or when they're doing it for self aggrandizement we're doing it for their own benefit for their own honor we have a special obligation that when we do a mitzvah to do it perfectly without having loyalism in it we need to perform the commandment for the sake of heaven to the extent that it's possible and again this is a high level brahms is talking in the yeshiva smear in the 1970s he was talking to people who were uh bali madriga on high level uh mavaccine people who were seeking greatness and spirituality but we can glean a little bit by listening to this schmooze we can clean a little bit perhaps for ourselves of how we can be a little bit more shame shaman we can be a little bit more for the sake of heaven so he says that when we do a mitzvah it shouldn't be you know that we have personal benefit and we should try as best as we can to do it for god to do it for god's sake to do it a scary thing who performs the commandment and he should be at a higher level we're speaking about somebody who could be and should be at the level where he does it with shema so such a person if he's if he doesn't do it la shmoop he doesn't do it for the sake of heaven but rather he does it for his own honor for other people to to give him honor he's not it's called night to last when he's taking something for himself so such a person can receive a great punishment and he brings an example of you he says that we find that this was the great sin of nothing a view that what had they done the sons of our own when they were at harcina when they were at mount sinai and god revealed himself to the jewish people so they saw a revelation of god an open revelation of hashem and they ate and they drank this pasta in exodus chapter 24 verse 11 and the idea here is what was the sin their mistake was they missed the target what was their aveira that they were involved in a mitzvah they were on this awesome elevated level where they saw a revelation of hashem yes but there was some aspect there of eating and drinking financial nutrition they took for themselves for their own personal benefit in the wrong way even though indeed they were seeing hashem they had that awesome experience and that's only something that's possible for somebody on a very exalted level the result ultimately was that they were liable for death because they took something for themselves even though this very thing that they took for themselves was a spiritual benefit they ate and drank doesn't mean that they literally ate and drank but rather it means that they had some kind of spiritual benefit which akin to what the body benefits from eating and drinking they had a spiritual benefit to their soul when they saw god but they took something for themselves even though it was indeed an eating and drinking of a mitzvah maybe it was like a sudas mitzvah [Music] he brings others examples of this thing but what i'd like to share with you is that it's very interesting because he goes through the evolution of yosef himself himself of yosef because here we are looking at him after the entire um process that he went through 17 years old he brings i don't know if i'm going to read it inside but let's bring that idea outside that that yosef attack when he was 17 years old he was sold and he was brought to the house of potiphar and in that house of potiphar so he was given tremendous power he was given tremendous responsibility and he felt on top of the world there and the message tells us the pastor says if you faith he's very good looking and rasheed says kevin shiraz asked my mother since he saw himself as a leader there he saw himself with power so and you're playing with your hair i am going to cause the bear to attack you who's the bear me advertise immediately after this after yo let's call it immature behavior of getting involved in eating and drinking and playing with his hair the result was that he was that he was attacked by the bear which was the asia's poitify the wife of potiphar he was given a terrible messiah a very difficult challenge which he was able to overcome but what was the problem what was he doing he had power hashem had given him power hashem had given him a certain talent an ability the ability to be in charge to to be a faithful servant to be able to manage the household of potiphar but what did he do with it he was knight to lots when he took something for himself from it the result was issues potiphar attacked him the result was he ended up in jail and what happens when he comes out of jail this is something that we've discussed previously but also speaks about it what happens when he comes out of jail power says to him i've heard that you're able to explain dreams well etc yosef says bill died he's learned the lesson he doesn't he's not that's the unique thing that paul saw in yosef that paul realized this is a person that i can trust with power this is a person that i can trust with being in charge here because he doesn't take it to himself he's not interested in self-aggrandizement he's not interested in the honor he's not interested in in taking credit for his own talent he gives the credit where the credit is due which is god so joseph goes through this process and ultimately he grows through the process he starts off being an immature 17 year old who's looking for honor looking for what he can get out of it and by the time he gets to the age of 39 takes us takes us all the human beings takes us time to to develop really by 30 already he had it but in his interaction with his father he was already 39 by that point he already understood that the great milo the great advantage the great spiritual accomplishment of not taking it for himself not being involved in his own his own desires his own motivations but but being involved in pure motivations in pure impure uh retziness in involved in giving his father the hana that's what he was involved that's what he was thinking about i'd like to read to you the end of this piece yes this is kind of a classic thing that what the bodily muslim all speak about which is not getting not getting benefit not enjoying the covered person gets honor a person does a good thing he does he deserves to honor a person gives his duck to him to a mice to an organization he gives a hundred thousand dollars to an organization he deserves the honor i once told a story about a certain great individual who was a tremendously wealthy individual who gave a lot of to meisters and he did not want his name on the my city didn't want his name to be featured and of course i'm not coming to say that there's no there that they're it's not appropriate i'm just talking about a higher level that we can strive for shigamazon asked me when a person benefits and enjoys the honor he's taking something for himself it takes away from it and so too we find with eliezer the servant of avraham shivataram hey khalid he was somebody who looked like his master he looked very similar to avraham and he could have been confused for avraham the first thing that he says that is that there should not be any confusion evidence i don't want you to give me honor as if i am avraham avinu i am not i am the evid i'm the slave of avraham you want to treat me in a certain way treat me correctly give honor where honor is due right give credit where credit is due so we need to be careful when a person is careful not to take too much from it not to take too much try to grab for himself that enjoyment of the honor besides the fact that the person gets away from a sin he ain't on a very high level this is the meda this is the character trait of a king a true king a jewish king the trait of a jewish king is when a person is not interested in taking for himself he gives up the honor he says let the honor go to somebody else let the name of the building be inscribed on someone else's name i'm not interested in the honor he brings what we said we find by yosef that he said bella die it's not me this is the idea kimani is this was his way this was his way yosef he recognized that a true king is not interested in the honor contrast this with the leaders of the western world a true king is not interested in honor for himself he wasn't interested in being given any credit for his talents he was talented he was amazing he was able to interpret dreams he was a spiritual person he could channel he could receive god's god's ver could understand a dream even within that statement was a statement that god is going to ask you through me he didn't say the words through me but clearly he had an incredible talent an incredible ability and and paro understood that he says now that hashem has shown you this so who could be more wise than you but but he didn't take the credit for himself he wasn't interested that's not what he was trying to say he said explicitly clearly this is not my wisdom um this ability to say it's not me it's not mine it doesn't belong to me it belongs to god that's the power of malchus that's the power of kingship is this was yosef's the way that he conducted himself when he was second in command in egypt shall i name the power of the lord he never took any credit for himself he was not interested in the honor he was not interested because he understood that it's a deeper power a deeper power a deeper ability a deeper show of greatness to not take the power to ourselves now as i said from the beginning this is a very high level a very lofty level but i think that it's something that we can all take to heart that such a personal central level exists and second of all each and every one of us has opportunities to face off with such such a level such a such a how shall we say such a challenge in our videos hashem our service of god sometimes we get honored sometimes it's a small thing we're at the table we say advar torah our family likes it do we say it over shame umrah do we save it over from the person we heard it from or do we take credit for ourselves what does it sound like what is the implication the the sikhs is teaching us that the ideal is lovely to attack don't take for ourselves and when we just like when we see somebody else who's humble and is not interested in their own honor it's not interested in making themselves great even though they are great even though they have the talent when we see that it's inspiring it's inspiring we read a story about yosef assad we see what a great person he was we can aspire to that at some small level might be a small thing for example i'll share with you that when i put out a video i put out music i want to see the numbers i want to see how it's doing i want to see hashem people are watching this people are enjoying this there's feedback yesterday after i read this so i felt you know i can control myself from looking at my youtube analytics for a little bit seeing how this video is doing so how that video is doing how many views it has i can control myself for a little bit and not look i don't need to always be taking for myself it's enjoyable to see that people are enjoying it and it's okay it's human it's normal it's fine but i can i can back off a little bit i can control it a little bit so i want to bless you and i ask you to bless me hashem shall help us that we should be able to learn from this amazing paragon of humility from yosef azadek from the way he interacted with his father we interacted with paro chef should help us that we should be able to develop this ability and indeed i'm sure that each and every one of us will see how we benefit from it from the humility of the degree that we have this humility should help us indeed to develop it thank you so much for listening have a wonderful show miss this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.ariegoldwag.com or search on itunes ahri goldwag