Does Torah Disturb You? | Parshas Vayechi

so there's this senior fellow on an airplane and he's trying to get some rest and this his seat mate guys sitting next to him this young fellow says to him hey I got a game we can play the older guys really not in the mood for this at all he wants to get some rest but the younger guy says it's a good game you can make some money he says we're gonna ask each other questions and if I ask you a question you don't know you have to give me five dollars but if I ask you a question you don't know I have to give you 50 so it's much better odds for you so would you like to play so the the old guy is like no not really I say come on come on just just just try it's just fine I'm fine fine go ahead so the young guy says all right what's the diff the distance from the earth to the moon it's the old guy without saying word reaches into his wallet pulls out a five-dollar bill gives it to the young guy and goes back to sleep young guy says hold on hold on a second now you have to ask me a question fine okay I ask you a question uh what goes up the hill with three legs and goes down the hill with two legs the young guy says okay just hold on a second get back to you starts googling it doesn't find anything it starts texting his friends people who are smart people who know things nobody knows anything an hour goes by the old guys sleeping an hour goes by he can't find the answer finally he says the old guy okay fine I don't know what goes up the hill with three legs and comes down the hill with two legs the old guy takes out a five dollar bill gives it to the guy goes back to sleep today's topic is about questions that keep us up at night Judaism has a tradition of questioning and really really getting deep into our questions and in fact sometimes it looks like we're arguing or that we're angry about things but really were just very inquisitive and that's we're gonna talk about today the Jewish inquisitive tradition and where that comes from so we're going to start with a story an episode from this week's Pacha to set the scene we are talking about the last days of yankov Aveeno our forefather jacob he is on his deathbed and he calls his son joseph hatzadik joseph who had risen to prominence and become the second-in-command of the world superpower along with the aina clock has two grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh and Joseph is there to get blessings for the two grandchildren from from his father from Jacob and at that moment Jacob gives Joseph his last will and testament he has but one request what is his one request do not leave my body here in Egypt you must bring me immediately for burial in the Holy Land and not only in the Holy Land but specifically in the holy city of Heffron and even more specifically in the holy site of Marisa Michaela the the Cave of Machpelah the double cave which is the burial site of Aldermen hava and of Roman sorrow we know that Avram bought that land we read about in Paris Kyocera and of Yitzhak in Africa and Leia has been buried there and now yankov wants to join her there okay the elephant in the room you know I bought my friend a birthday present I bought him an elephant he said thank you I said don't mention it get it don't mention it oh the hilarious joke and even get a response okay at any rate what's don't mention it you're not supposed to mention the elephant in the room what's the elephant in the room okay Janka vinhos telling Youssef whatever you do please please do not leave me here you must make sure to bury me in heaven in the Matteson Machpelah that's the only place where you can bury me what's the elephant in the room Rocko not that he should be buried with her but she should have been buried with him right exactly so and who is Rahel I mean in relation to Yosef that's his mother so he's telling his son who's this powerful man he's really in in in title he second in command but really is the most powerful man in the world and he's saying to his son listen I want you to use all of your connections and your power to make sure that I'm buried in this special spot I don't want to be buried anywhere else oh yeah your mother was buried at the side of the road we buried her right where she passed away on the side of the road we didn't give her that benefit so in other words until that moment Yosef could have thought to himself okay so my mother wasn't buried in that place but maybe it's not such a big deal to be buried in that place but now the yankov is saying this is my last request and my only request it's pretty clear that it is important to be buried there so that's the elephant in the room and and yankov mentions the elephant in the room and and let's just look petting Memphis chapter xlviii pisaq Zion verse 7 the Omni Bhavani Padang and as for me when I came from Padang Mesa a lie rocco rocco passed away the edits Kanaan in the land of canaan bad data on the way on the road but aid given us edits Lavoie afro sir when there was still some way to go until a fraud the Akbar aha Shawn and I buried her there why is yankov relating this narrative because this like I said is the elephant in the room this is what needs to be addressed and now she tells us why she says Ronny Bhavani mcpadden will get mad when I was coming from Padang and Rashi says Rafa be shining my 3 of Calaca although I am burdening you or I'm troubling you lately hey Neely covered that it's Kanaan to bury me in that place and edits going on the like caca caecilia maja and I didn't do that for your mother Shari Mesa Simon Levay slack whom she died near base left him and then he explains why was that a little bit further in the round she says via dye tea and I know Yong Kim says - yes afiad ID and I know she yesh belieber ha a lie it's hard to translate Shh belieber ha a lie literally means you have something in your heart toward me but it means you're troubled you have something in your heart you're you're disturbed I know you're disturbed about this and then he tells him this story of a Dalek ah but here's what you ought to know ciao PID bhagavati hashem according to a divine command i buried her there tehila Ezra LaVon na ha she will be an assistant to help to her children she aglow i son Neuros Adam when the general of the Babylonians will exile the Jewish people and he tells the whole beautiful story of what will happen when the Jewish people are exiled that mama raka will come out and cry for them Rockville Mavic Alban fo the rock who will cry for her children and in the merit of the archetypical Jewish mother mama Rocco crying for the Jewish people as they're brought out into gullies they will be brought back so that's the explanation that's the beautiful story yeah he also passed by that's true yeah yeah yeah yeah but the point is yankov is giving an explanation now for why it was important that this be done and seemingly doing it so that yes if shouldn't have like we say he shouldn't be troubled his heart shouldn't be trouble so we have a question about this we have a very specific question about this not why was Rocco buried where she was we know why she was buried where she was we have a different question our question is why Yankee felt that he needed to excuse himself or he needed to but we say news for Zach he needed to give an excuse otherwise yes it would be disturbed he'd be troubled he'd be upset it's not it you know you're saying well why not why not because this is not a soap opera because it's not this is not a TV show these are not petty people who are we talking about talking about the DA voice think about first of all the relationship between yankov and Yosef says the yase of was Ben's acronym which the one meaning is that he was the the child of the old age of of yankov but Ben's acronym cording to uncle Ismene bark Hakim the wise son which means that he was the protege he was the star pupil of his father that everything that yankov knew all of his Torah knowledge he passed on to Yosef that was his that was his disciple that was his disciple what's a disciple disciple isn't just somebody who you know can quote you disciples is there's a certain level of subservience of surrender colum ahadith Arabica Mahara harsh kina because I'll tell us anyone who second-guesses his teacher is like he's second-guessing the holy divine presence itself so yes avatar dick who's the true disciple of his father isn't second doesn't make sense he's thinking to himself you know father kind of bothers me that you don't really have a good reason to justify what you did that wouldn't even cross through his mind second of all second of all think of the setting here even just on an emotional level this is he's on his deathbed and he yes have brought the the Dana Clough the grandchildren if and I'm Menasha to be benched by they're saying that before he passes away at this this poignant moment I mean maybe later maybe after but at this point yet moment Joseph is is is is questioning the motives of his father so it doesn't make sense on a couple of levels and a couple of levels it doesn't make sense the Yankee Vivino has to sort of excuse himself and give this explanation so I want to tell you a story that might help us to shed some light the story was actually was told by the rather in a short version and there's a longer version that was told by the Frida Kariba which is recorded in likutey de boredom just which is a safer of the secrets of the Frida Kariba it's a it's a well known Hasidic story and there are different versions of it but I'm going to tell you the version as it was told by the physic rabbit and and and published in Lakota the bottom has mentioned and it has to do with the tongue media maggot the disciples of the ms richer marketers we know the Baal Shem Tov had six D disciples he influenced many many people but sixty proper disciples and the Margot had peach name had double that number he had 120 disciples and of the hundred twenty disciples these were the all-stars of the Hasidic world they all became fathers of different aesthetic dynasties great great tsadikim including the altar Abba Dabba Latanya this particular story takes place where a group of the students specifically the Bala floor and his bro Malka the balla phone was a tap-in curse who later became the love of frankfurt germany he was a rob a great place ik a great pelagic mind his brother of schmoes malcolm nickelsburg who was also a great love a great a logic mind also the tildes yankee evasive Reb Yankel Yosef Paul Noah who was originally a Talmud of the Baal Shem Tov also a great love and her logic mind and they were once studying a passage of of Gomorrah from the Talmudic tract ik Aran and they were having a discussion about a particular passage what it meant and they were involved in this hair-splitting analysis and they were arguing back and forth trying to figure out what it meant and another one of the tell me then when absorber heard now the absorption I want to explain something people tell stories about absorption as if he was a simple person he wasn't a simple person he was a Talmud holcomb he was a scholar in his own right however relative to some of the other tell me them especially the ones we just mentioned he was not into that kind of depth of analysis in the same way it was obviously he was he was a scholar and he was well first in in the entire Torah but that depth or that type of hair-splitting analysis that wasn't his that was in his forte it was more known for his piety and for his his righteousness his envoy his service of Hashem so absortion is overhearing the conversation and he comes over says what what are we talking about and they tell him what they're talking about and he can't really follow the discussion it's very very deep so he took a Gomorrah the Gomorrah that they were discussing and he went to his room privately and he started crying and he said rabboni shillelagh master of the world Zosia has a new Shama and he wants to taste the sweetness of your Torah and he fasted for three days until some clarity on this particular passage came to him afterward to tell me them were in the room of the maggot there Dabba them is edition Magadh and they had an opportunity to pose this question or to relay this whole discussion to their rabbit to the maggot and so again these parties who were involved the bowel flora melka the young calf Yosef they they were explaining to them to the maggot this whole discussion they were having and each one offered his explanation and then seemingly out of nowhere they didn't know they didn't know what the ribs or she did they didn't know he went to his room that he had cried the maggot turns to the sucia he zeroes in on him and he says and what do you say and what do you say and which nobody expected that he would they didn't know who she was even part of this whole discussion he wasn't part of the discussion though she said you know here's my humble interpretation and he gave an answer and the market says and this is correct okay so I'm gonna ask you I know that we have a question on the backburner and then I told you the story in order to answer the question remember our question is the appropriateness or the likelihood that Yosef is really troubled by his father and is demanding an explanation right that was our original question and I said I'm gonna tell the story in order to answer that question but before we do before we answer that question I want to ask a question about this story and I'm gonna ask the question about this story with another story we have a lot of browser file to tabs open right now okay so you can do it okay fine we're gonna open up another tab here what's the most famous sort of social story you know the most famous in a position I think I didn't do a poll I don't know scientifically but I think the most famous deposition story is absortion was on his deathbed and he was crying and the talmidim said that a bear why are you crying he says I fear judgment rabbit why do you fear judgment you lived a life of perfect purity and piety if you fear judgment doesn't bode very well for the rest of us we don't hold a candle to you he says my children don't think that I'm afraid that I'm gonna pass from this world that I'm gonna come to the heavenly tribunal and they're gonna review my life and they're gonna look at me I'm gonna demand from you zushio why weren't you like a Brahma vino don't think that I'm afraid they're gonna look at my life and they're gonna look at me anything that's associate why weren't you like my should obey know what I'm afraid of is they're gonna look at my life or they're gonna look at me and they're gonna say sucia why weren't you like zojja okay famous story so here's my question if everyone just has to be the best them that they can be so who says you have to be a scholar so these other students they were the scholars so that's that was their thing why does it have to be his thing why does he have to go to his room and weep and cry that he's not able to participate in the scholarly discussion everyone should just be good at what they're what they're good at but the answer to the question is in the story he said sushi hasn't a shaman he wants to taste the sweetness of your Torah it's not a question about keeping up with others or comparing yourself to others it's a question of the fact that a neshama a neshama needs that connection and tasting the sweetness what does it mean to taste the sweetness of the Torah tasting the word for taste is tomm which is also the word for reason tessai in men when you know the reason that's the taste that's the gimmick of Torah every year with a neshama which means every kid needs to be able to taste that sweetness so it's not like I want to be smart or I want to compete with the scholars or I want to be known as a scholar has nothing to do with it I need that connection and I don't want to be deprived of that connection and therefore if there's some aspect of Torah knowledge that is being withheld from me that should disturb me that should upset me until I weep like sushi now I don't know if all of us are on the level that if we weep about it it'll be the answer will be revealed to us but definitely the weeping is something to emulate the idea that there's the entire that I don't understand and that itself is disturbing to me because I want that connection when the Jewish people promised Hashem before we received the turn a savanna Sh'ma what does that mean the GU mother says we were given two crowns one for NASA one one for nish ma if the whole point was was obedience that we put NASA before nish ma we will do before we will listen then we should have been given one crown a crown for obedience while we were given two Krauts why was nish Mele we'll listen we will later find out the reason also worthy of a crown it's very simple because it's not just we will do before we understand because if that's all it were then just do whenever understand its we will do and even after we're doing we'll be interested enough to say Hashem please you don't need to convince us to do it we're already doing it but we want to get to know you better and if we can have insight into your mitzvahs this will make us closer so NASA is I'll do it I don't need to be convinced because Hashem asked me to do it that's enough of a reason nish ma is and now I'm so fascinated and I'm so interested and I so much crave closeness with Hashem that if I have a way of getting close by knowing some of the reasons of his mitzvahs then then I mean I I desire that connection I learn for that connection that's the Jewish inquisitive tradition tell you one more story there was once a wealthy man who was somewhat of a scholar and he wanted a son-in-law who was a scholar so he went around to the different yeshivas and he would for hair he would give tests to the bathroom whoever the eligible bokram were who were ready to get married and go from town to town he had a certain problem Talmudic problem that he would pose to all the buckram and nobody could answer it so it comes to Montone he does his usual thing he asked the Rajah Shiva who are you top buckram and he has one-on-one meetings with them and each one he poses the same question and they offer different answers and nobody can answer it so he does this in one particular town and none of the buckram could answer it and then he tells his wagon driver tomorrow morning early in the morning right after diving we're leaving town so next morning gets up at dawn II dolphins and then he gets in his carriage and he's leaving town as he's leaving town he hears pounding feet behind him and as the pounding of feet gets louder he looks out the window and he sees this buffer one of the mahkum he had met yesterday is frantically running after the carriage waving after him so he tells the wagon driver stop a second he looks out the window it says baka what do you want he says don't leave don't leave don't leave he says what do you mean don't leave we're done we we did our thing we're done he says please don't leave he says buckle but don't do what don't you understand I asked you the question you didn't know the answer the I'm going to the next town now the buckle says fine that's fine he says but please you got to put me out of my misery I'm done I couldn't sleep all night just tell me the answer you can't leave town before you tell me the answer I know the test is over but don't leave town until you tell me the answer so the the wealthy man sitting in the carriage he looks at this buckers is you're the first one to do that get out climb aboard you're the son-in-law that's what he was waiting for he was waiting for the buffalo would run after say but you can't leave me until you tell me the answer so let's return to our original question Yankee Aveeno is on his deathbed he makes one request simple request this is where you got to bury me yes it's not questioning it he knows that his rabbit has a darn good reason it's not questioning it for a second so what does yank of Aveeno mean when Rashi says that he says you died TCH believe ho a lie I know that your heart is troubled because of me doesn't mean I know that you're questioning my motives or your you have hard feelings no what does it mean I know that because you're my student a real student that you're troubled it disturbs you that you don't know the reason for this and I never told you the reason and if not now when so now I'm gonna tell you the reason and he tells him this beautiful story that will happen in the future the future from from that point about how my miracle is going to cry for her children when they go into exile the point is if yes if hadn't been disturbed in other words if he would have said my father my rabbit he's at Sadiq everything he does is just everything he does is good I don't need his explanations of course you don't need his explanations but you should want his explanations you should thirst for his explanations right so yes of what I said well whatever it's I'm sure it's all good he never would have received that beautiful explanation and we would have never received or least not through these channels as we know it so this is a true student and yankov NU'EST his son was a true student that he was disturbed that it was keeping him up at night he couldn't sleep once he knew that it was C until that point he could have rationalized well I guess it's not important to be buried in Madison Michaela how do I know because my mother wasn't buried there but then when Yankee was so insistent upon it I must be buried there all of a sudden now the question arises oh then it is extremely important and once he knows it's that important he's disturbed that he doesn't have that piece of the puzzle not that he's questioning that that he's doubting that he's yearning for that clarity of Toyoda knowledge that will bring him closer to Russia and this is the lesson for all of us when you learn something in Torah does it disturb you or you just shrug it off and say it's okay it's fine Torah has its opinion I have my opinion I'm sure the Torah is right Tara's holy Torah is smart Tara's Hashem's wisdom it's right but you know I am my own view and that's okay no it's not okay it should trouble us on an emotional level when we cannot align our seho with Hamas mashella Kurdish particle and this is the Jewish inquisitive tradition to be troubled to be disturbed by Tyra it's a good thing to be disturbed by Toyota always asking the question always yearning for that connection