Parshat Vayigash: What Does 'Jew' Mean - Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

a standing by the side of the road suddenly a large limousine about half a block long pulls up right next to him then one of the tinted windows of the back rolls them with an expensive electronic pearl from inside the car emerges a hand wearing a white cotton glove the hand is waving a crisp $50 bill silently the gloved hand beckons to the the does a double take and looks behind him convinced that the hand must be beckoning to someone else and then he realizes that this $50 bill is for him beaming from ear to ear and back again he walks up to the hand to the limo and takes the money the window closes and just as quietly and mysteriously as it arrived the limo glides away and soon lost in traffic the stands gazing after it for a long time the next day again the limo draws up next to him this time however he's somewhat less surprised and also a little less grateful the same thing happens the next day and the next and the next and the next and this goes on for a month one day the limo draws up next to the but the window doesn't go down after a few seconds he taps on the window lightly but it still doesn't go down so then he starts to knock on it harder and harder and harder he starts to shout and kick the door where's my $50 where's my $50 we're grateful for a gift in direct proportion to our feeling that we don't deserve it the name jus comes from the name Yehuda the root of yahudah is laho dot which means to thank we Jews are quite literally the thank us but la Haddad can also mean to admit what's the connection between thanking and admitting to the extent that I can admit that I really didn't deserve something to that same extent while I say thank you the job of the Jewish people in this world is to testify that there is a God as the prophet Isaiah Isaiah writes you are my witnesses so if our job is to be witnesses why we call the Jews the thangkas or the admittance the answer is that if you don't feel that life is just one enormous present you'll never see God but if you see the gift you can see the giver [Music] [Applause]