Becoming Israel: Facing Demons, Facing Blessings - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

hi everybody I want to discuss an interesting pattern that appears throughout the portions that we've been studying starting through the yako stories and going all the way through the stories of ysep and his brothers I want to try to identify a message that's sort of uh a meta idea that's developed through these stories in their you know when they're put together I think that one let's start from the end one of the most intriguing and perplexing stories in these portions is the elaborate scheme that you Joseph has around revealing himself to his brothers he could have just revealed himself he could have had a beautiful resolution oh my gosh you guys have come here hugs kisses let's talk you know let's talk about how our father is doing it could have been a beautiful thing but instead he he has this scheme around the Goblet and it's a very strange and perplexing story why does he need to do this he has his fancy uh bedazzled goblet and he hides it in Bam's bag and then he says you know they stole it sends all of his people to run after them chases them brings them back and they say oh my God if anybody stole your goblet that person should die and then he says well no they you know they can be my slave and then he searches all of their stuff for it to ultimately be in binyamin's bag it's a weird story right now when we look at it is it ringing a bell does it remind us of any other story that we've read in the recent Torah portions do we see anything well I I imagine that perhaps it's reminding you of another story that we just read a couple of weeks ago because in the portion of vet Yakov wants to leave Lavan and Rael goes and steals her father's traim this is interpreted in the translation as Idols but let's call them traim Rael takes them Lavan goes to chase after them looks through all their stuff Yakov says death penalty to whoever stole it only for that to sadly seal rael's fate in the future and the items that Rael stole interestingly while translated as Idols the word traim in the Bible is a pagan idolatry of sorts but actually primarily used for like fortune telling divination knowing the future you could see that in a bunch of places like inel Ezekiel 24:26 when the prophet says that net uh you know asked questions to the traim and many other places in the tanak and so if you aren't really sure that the story of Rael stealing the idols from her father similar to the Joseph story twice Joseph mentions that he uses his goblet not for drinking his morning coffee or for having like cocktails with his friends but for doing n which means fortune telling telling the future so we have these two items that are planted or stolen and hidden and everyone is searching for them and they're both used for the same thing it's like hello these are similar stories and look at who those stories are taking place with one is done by Rael and one is between her two sons this can't be a coincidence that the the the the similarities are overwhelming but seeming like a mirror image Rael really took the traim and is you know cursed with a death penalty binyamin didn't take the Goblet but is and has ultimately spared the death penalty but what like what are these stories trying to tell us that they must be related so I want to dig in and suggest that the Torah is linking the stories to serve as a reference point saying oh you want to understand this story well first understand its predecessor so if the Goblet story is weak weird then the traim story the story of Rael stealing her father's Idols is even weirder in a lot of ways let's look back at that story Yakov sees that his you know cousins lavon's children are gossiping about him and thinking bad things about him and that he became Rich at their father's expense Hashem says you know what it's time for you to go home and yov is also feeling that and he shares that with his wives Rael and Leia say you know what we feel the same way and then there's sort of a Twist instead of just going and saying goodbye sayara he decides to just make a break make a run for and at that point Rael snatches the traim from her father and causes Lavon to chase after them like mad now why so many of the interpreters say that it was actually to keep her father away from idol worship that's like what Rashi says but really I mean he's a very rich guy in an idolatrous Society can we imagine that she took the traim thinking well you know I guess it's an unsolvable problem for my father he's never going to be able to I don't know go to the idol store and buy new ones he'll just become a monotheist and worship the one creator of the universe cuz what cuz he can't make it out to the mall to buy new Idols come on others like the rash bomb and it's a difficult thing to say but hint that maybe she even you know used them for herself it sounds terrible I don't want to even think about that like do we really want to even accept the possibility that she was stealing idolatrous paraphernalia we don't have to call them Idols but something that was used for you know Pagan practices like neither of those explanations really sit well so sometimes when you don't know why someone is doing something you can look at the outcome that they achieve and work your way back and try to figure out what she was doing so assuming that Rael is pretty smart and she can see the likely outcome of her actions it's probably reasonable to assume that if she is causing something with her perplexing actions maybe that's actually what she wanted to achieve so if we want to know why she did it let's see what happens as a result of her stealing her father's traim so they're running away leavon chases after them but if you look carefully at his words he makes a lot of noise oh you took my children and my grandchildren I wanted to kiss them goodbye but it seems that the primary reason that he chases them is not because of that he says listen I get it you miss home you want to go to your father's house but why did you take my gods why did you take my Idols meaning it seems that the main motivation for the chasing is really the traim more than the actual sadness of missing his grandchildren and this is an idea posited by Ariel stolman he says if the outcome of taking the traim is that Lavan chases them and we don't really have a satisfying other explanation for why Rael would have had any meaningful use for the traim maybe that outcome was what she was trying to accomplish maybe she was trying to force a confrontation between lvan and Yakov because if you look back at the verses it's really interesting when Rael is stealing the traim it is juxtaposed and paralleled in terms of the wording to Jacob running away in chapter 31: 19 it says now Labon had gone to his sheep and Rael stole her father's traim and then the ve very next verse it says and Jacob concealed from Lavan by not telling him that he was fleeing but that's not what it says in the Hebrew the Hebrew uses the exact same word as it uses to describe Rael stealing her father's traim it says that Yakov stole lavan's heart meaning he didn't tell him he was running away it's like using the exact same word to tell us pay attention these verses are related she stole the traim perhaps because yakob was stealing her father's heart he was stealing a way he was making a run for it again if you read it like that then Rael is doing something beautiful jakob's entire life is running away from conflicts his mother Rifka said run away from your brother he runs he doesn't say wait wait wait wait maybe I'll talk to him maybe I'll hash it out maybe I'll give him back his BR maybe I'll work this out with our father let me make things right give me a chance to just explain to him that I didn't mean to hurt him he just took the blessings and made a run for it when Lavon is totally abusing Yakov switching his wives switching his salary Yakov is just like okay he says why why'd you switch my wives Lavon and leavon says oh yeah we don't let the older one get married after the younger one that's just not how we roll around here and he's like okay I guess I'll work another seven years leavon is constantly not giving Yakov what he deserves and he never actually opens it up he's running away from conflict and running away physically literally so now look what happens she steals the traim as a direct result they finally have out Yakov says you have stolen from me day and night you have abused me and wronged me day and night and then when Yakov starts talking it's amazing he's a man of so few words and it's like a damn bursting and we have probably the long I mean it's like it's it's this the longest conflict he ever has with anybody usually Yakov is is quiet he lets it all out and he says everything that he needs to get off of his chest and not only that he puts to rest this rumor that's been flying amongst love 's family that Yakov has been stealing from Lavan because what happens by by by stealing the traim Lavon actually gets the opportunity in front of all of his friends and all of his family all of his cronies that come along with him to dig through all of yakov's possessions he's going from tent to tent and yakob says you've checked everything did you find anything that you have a claim is yours so if he would have just left and run away the rumor would have hung on yakob stole from Lavon that's why they that's why he's so wealthy that's why he made a run for it now all of lavon's crew are there seeing him go through all of yakov's tents and not one thing that he can claim is his Yakov says you look at everything did you find anything so the truth comes out his innocence comes out and then Lavan speaks his truth too how does he answer he doesn't say you know what sorry I wrongly accused you what does he say he says Yakov everything you have is mine his real character comes out too he always said of course Yakov I want you to be successful I'm looking out for your well-being I want you to build yourself up I want things to be fair for you oh yeah because when push comes to shove you literally sees yakob and sees everything that Yakov has and says yeah it's not that you were stealing one item and another everything that you are everything that you have is mine just like Abraham separated from L and said you go there I go here just like he made a covenant with a just like y made a covenant with a in the Next Generation it's yakov's time to come say this is mine this is yours I know you think that everything that's mine is yours but no you have what's yours I have what's mine let's lay down the ground rules let's lay down the border and if he had run away all of those rumors all of that unclarity all that uncertainty would just be hovering like a dark cloud for who knows how long leavon could have at any time just showed up in the land of Canan saying Hey I want to claim this and I want to claim that what's marvelous is that right after that story that's when yakob reaches out to asab when he runs away we don't actually know when he starts back towards the land if he's planning on reaching out to ASA or if he's just sort of planning on avoiding the subject laying low somewhere maybe building building a barbed wire fence around his little town maybe he's going to do that or maybe he's going to initiate a resolution we don't know the very next story after this meeting with Lavan is that Yakov sends Messengers to his brother ASV he's going to try to make things right and on the way to doing that what happens to him he's attacked by an angel of God seemingly an angel of asov and he wrestles with him now even though he didn't initiate that wrestling he also doesn't back down that's a very different Yakov than the one who's getting pushed around all the time by everyone the angel actually says uh can you let me go it's getting to be the morning meaning yakob was not letting go he was not letting go he was not trying to run away from the angel he was holding him down he's like no we're going to work this out I want a blessing and then his name gets changed to Israel and he says because you wrestled with man and God and you've prevailed so I get that you've struggled with the god it's a it's a you know a Celestial being you've wrestled with an angel what does that mean you've wrestled with man and he's not struggled with any man in this fight well what was the story that just happened right before this he had two struggles he struggled with the angel and he struggled just a moment ago with Lavon and so we always think of yakov's name changing because he struggled with an Angel that's not what the angel says he says your name is changing for two reasons you struggled with me and you struggled with a man and all of that was precipitated directly by Rachel stealing the traim her action equally contributed to Yakov contributed to Yakov becoming Israel so why did she steal them it's not imposs possible that she wasn't trying to take her somewhat conflict averse husband and make him into a Israel and even if she wasn't meaning to do it even if it wasn't intentional who knows you know it it doesn't even matter because in the bottom line the direct outcome of the traim story was that so now when we read the story of the Goblet with Joseph that story is going out of its way to hint to us that there is something to learn in order to understand that story we need to understand the traim story so you want to understand the Goblet scheme read it in the context of the traim story Joseph could have just revealed himself but then so much would go forever unsaid they would immediately be like oh sorry bygones bygones water under the bridge right yoseph needed to be able to chase after them and retrieve this hidden goblet in order to have the conversation that needed to be had in order to precipitate the conflict that would lead to a resolution because without conflict you don't have resolution you just have lingering stuff you just have skeletons in your closets and bad feelings that are swept under the rug so he is forcing them to come and get hash it out you know and they say we'll all be slaves to you he's like no no no no only one of you the one who stole which you know is going to be bamin only one of you should be the one who has to stay behind now on the one hand this would of course you know be difficult for the brothers to break to their father obviously but in a real way he's offering them their dream come true their way out Rael is gone ysep is gone he can make bamin dis disappear and go away and they would have the full inheritance to share with no one no competition complete dominance that's what they wanted wasn't it so yeah they would have to dis disappoint their father but they even had a perfect they even had the perfect way out listen be stole the Goblet what could we do we tried our best we even offered ourselves up but no he wouldn't listen he wanted you know to punish the the the thief there'd really be no real reason not to take this deal sorry Dad we tried our best they could have said but Judah Yehuda steps up and says what needed to be said yoseph instigated this conflict in order to lead to the ultimate resolution just like in the time of his mother he is reliving it in a way that forces the people around him to face things with courage and the willingness to accept the outcome whatever it is just like yakob couldn't become isrel without that story Yehuda could not become what he was destined to be the leader of Israel the House of David without this resolution and just as a side point it might not even be the first time this is happening to Yehuda I'm not sure that this story isn't also in some ways echoing the story of Yehuda and Tamar because Yehuda was avoiding conflict telling his daughter-in-law the truth about why he didn't want to give her another one of his sons it's not quite the same story but she is also holding on to something of his she is she runs off with an item of his he sends his friend to go retrieve his items but he can't find her so she's kind of like stealing his items and then he pronounces the death penalty for her in you know the circumstances of her showing up pregnant and then she ends up using those items that she had you know hidden away from him in order to say what needed to be said to have the conversation that needed to be had and then Judah becomes who he needed to be as well so it's not quite the same but I don't I think that we're definitely seeing a theme in these portions of people avoiding saying what needs to be said and then using this method of you know of this this theme of the The Hidden items being revealed in order to lead to a resolution of the Hidden feelings being revealed and it's a profound lesson that problems never disappear they just morph into other problems we see our fathers and mothers in the Torah going through the same thing again and again until they finally understand the lessons that they need to learn and become who they need to become until they have the courage to face you know until we have the courage to face our demons they don't go away we don't become who we could be and each time it might be very painful Yakov is seriously damaged he is limping the the brothers are seriously terrified and probably traumatized by facing the possibility of losing you know of becoming enslaved or or having beamin God forbid punished but that's what it takes to become Israel and I think before our very eyes right now we are meriting to see Israel become Israel when we look at our recent Year we're injured we're like Yakov but if you can see past our pain and past our limp we can see ourselves becoming Israel for how long have we been acting like Yakov we see our enemy enemies arming themselves lying about us terrorizing us claiming that we stole the land the land that was given to us by our forefathers promised by Hashem and we're just like okay we'll defend ourselves we'll have an Iron Dome let's not get into a conflict we don't want to initiate things let's turn a blind eye another stabbing another shooting another rocket attack who wants to open up and actually solve this we're going to get hurt we're going to get injured we're going to maybe limp but now we've been forced to actually become Israel from the north to the South to end Hamas to endah to end the Syrian military threat hopefully to do the same to Iran and anybody who threatens us until they say please let us go like the angel said to Yakov let us go let me go this here has forced us to stop running away and to actually say the truth we haven't stolen anything you've stolen from us we haven't stolen the land of our forefathers you are the ones mistreating us you are the ones lying about us and claiming untruthful things about us it's time to set up a border to set things right to take what is ours not like thieves but proudly with our right the price that we pay may be a horrible pain constant pain for what we've lost in order to become Israel for the for the righteous people that we've lost but the other side is that we've faced our courage faced our conflict courageously and for Israel to say we are not letting go we're not letting go until you bless me we're not letting go until this curse this suffering all of this this this the lies that have been told about us until they are turned into a blessing for Yakov to become Israel and for Israel to say we struggled but we prevailed May that happen and continue to happen in our times with that I wish everybody a beautiful week bye guys hey this is Jeremy gimpel if you enjoyed that content then you will enjoy all the content on the land of Israel Network at www. thelandofisrael decom and if you want to take it up a level you can join our Global community of people that learn together that work together that are all a part of a global movement of over 1,000 families all over the world and you can join the land of Israel Fellowship check 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