How to Store Light for When Life Gets Dark | Parsha Perspectives | Mikeitz 5786

Good morning and it is great to be back posture perspectives for today. As always we begin begin with an attitude of gratitude and thanking our generous sponsors. Our series sponsors Beckat and family in memory of David Gman and Manish learning should be in memory of Becky's father David Gman. The shar is also dedicated anonymously for the rafu schlma of raan ben mural should have a complete speedy and painless rafu schlma and also a thank hashem for the rafua of yose saddakb y rus should also have a complete continued complete rafua we are reading paras mik page 222 this is a para near and dear to my heart you're not allowed to play favorites among parios every one of them of course is all of our favorite everyone has timeless lessons for today. But uh I love this para even if it didn't always love me. But page 222, we uh continue with the story that we last left off. The drama that is unfolding, even though we know the way it turns out, nevertheless, every year when we reread it, we can't help but be gripped by the drama, by what is unfolding before our eyes, by what was orchestrated and choreographed from above all these dreams to actually come to fruition and come true in the most unexpected of ways. I want to begin with an insight of raita and his new safer para which really connects the para and kanaka. I'd be remiss if we came together to learn the minor is burning bright over there as it does in shul in the mornings not only at night and to not draw from the light of kaneka to illuminate our lives. So he has a beautiful idea beautiful essay here. can't learn or read the entire thing but just to bring the highlight and he says we know the para begins Yoseph interprets the dreams of parro and the two dreams that Yose that parro has in succession have the same interpretation and Yseph is able to do something that none of the other advisors magicians sorcerers none of the others can do and what is it exactly that appeals to parro about Yoseph's interpretation over the interpretation of others so much so that not only is parro moved moved by and does he accept the interpretation? But he indeed immediately pivots to recruit Yoseph to be the viceroy, his vice president, to be the secretary of the economy and to lead all of Egypt. What is it? Yoseph sees in the two dreams not only the same interpretation, but embedded within the dream was the outcome was what to execute, what to do, was the solution. Others interpreted the dream to be a problem. Yoseph interprets the dream not only to see what is a challenge and a problem, but to find the solution. And we'll get into a moment exactly what that means and how that manifests. But what's the solution? Of course, it's one that too many still haven't learned from these thousands of years later, which is to save in the good years, the fat years for the thin and the lean years. that when the economy is robust, when people are doing well, when people have a little surplus and a little extra, don't assume that will be your lifestyle or your income forever. Don't build a lifestyle around the best year you've ever had. Because when the economy is thriving and doing well, when you're having great years, it's all well and good. It's wonderful. But a person has to anticipate and be ready that the economy can also turn. And a person has to have savings. I'm not going to get into it now. I'm not an expert and it isn't my subject, nor do I even want to rant about it, but you can all Google and see. You'll all know, particularly among a younger generation, how many are living in debt as opposed to those who live lives and were raised to know you have to save. Save for retirement, save for a rainy day, save for a leaky roof, save to the ability that you can. It's a luxury not all have, but of course, there was a value and a virtue once to saving. Whereas today people are spending to the extent of going into deep debt. Not only not putting away for that rainy day but having debt even before that rainy day comes. What's the connection to Kaneka? So here's where and his wonderful safer describes that you make these days the light of the minora and the energy the electric energy of Kaneka. These are days of moas. If it's dark then you can't see. We come and light the manura and we illuminate the world and we have a certain clarity. We have a certain confidence. We feel miracles. We can be grateful. And even this Khan which is so painful and difficult attack and atrocity in Australia took the lives of too many. I just saw a video this morning of attack of Jews on a subway in New York. Everyone were bystanders and just watched as the Jews were were literally choked and attacked and God please God will be okay. You say how can we enjoy? How can we celebrate? How can we sing this Kaneka? The answer is with the challenges with the struggles. There are miracles. There are miracles all around us. So Kaneka there's mo Godless. We have a certain broader perspective. We can see more clearly. We feel more confident. We appreciate the miracles that are every day and that are around us. And what we need to do, says Ra Mashure, is bottle them on the yum toim. Why are they called yum toim? Jewish holidays are called yum to good days. Why are they good days? Because we eat well. They're good days because of lotas and sufanote. They're good days because of brisket and corn beef. They're good. Yes. They're good days because of all of that. Yes. But why are they called yum toim? He describes there are yum to and yim raim. There are the days that we see the good and feel the good and appreciate the good. There are the days that we are surrounded by family and lighting the monora and exchanging gifts and spinning a drreel and eating delicious donuts and attending concerts and events and supporting organizations and having the time of our lives. But as we're experiencing that, we need to know that there'll be difficult days ahead and that we don't live those eight days permanently. And we bottle. We take those yum and toim and we bottle them. So the days that feel like yum on the days there are no bad days, they're all dictated from above. But the days that are not as pleasurable and they feel painful, the days that we perceive and feel as yim, we can still draw from and be inspired by and feel empowered with those days. Let me read to you inside. Again, it's a long essay. I wish I could read the whole thing, but a little bit. Yoseph made a storehouse. This is what he introduced and how he was put in charge that when the economy was thriving, when there was a surplus, the great free state of Florida, so many advantages to living here, not least of which is the weather. Maybe we won't have any property taxes soon, state income tax, the ability to defend ourselves with the Second Amendment, and many others. We have a surplus state of Florida. We've had a surplus while other states have not. Yoseph takes that surplus and he buys a storehouse. He buys goods. He collects from the field. So in the fat years and the good years when there was a surplus, he built silos and storehouses. And he put away all the extra, the grain and the produce. Why? So in the seven thin lean years, there wouldn't be famine. They'd be able to live off of what they had stored. Every Jew has spiritual produce, spiritual grain, spiritual sustenance, that which sustains the soul. The holy say that which is what Yseph stored that produce that grain is the same letters as to love. our storehouse. What's our ozar? What's our storehouse? When a person lives with an awe, a fear, a connection, when a person feels highly connected, there are times that we struggle. We have very, we're buffering in our relationship with Hashem. It's funny. 10 years ago, no one know what I'm talking about. Buffer. We're buffering in our connection with Hashem. We're in, we're out. Are you still there? I can't hear you. It's a poor connection. It's a bad connection. There are those days that we're buffering. And then there are days high-speed connection. Total clarity. Wow. What a picture. What sound? High-speed connection. Highspeed. How to create the high-speed connection is that consciousness and awareness, that connection, that feeling of Hashem in our lives. We read this para in these days not just to recall or commemorate or study history. Story of Yoseph is not one of the past. Story of Yoseph is very much one of the present. Financially, economically it is a reminder. Yoseph was way ahead of his time of economic cycles. Top of the world, bottom of the world. There's a bull market and a bare market. How we a person has to save and store to be able to know that they'll have what to draw from how much based on your income how many months you have to put away in order to anticipate if you don't have person has to learn from the para certainly financially and economically but says we read when all is well and good when you're thriving When you have such high-speed connection and there is such income that you're downloading, you're on fire listening to and you're reading Torah and you're watching videos about and you feel so highly connected and you're sitting and staring and watching more talk more about another time the tragedy of Kaneka how it's become somewhat distorted. You know, the idea is to light the monora and sit there and gaze and look and bask in its light and count your blessings. Instead, what do we do? We run to the other room, fry the lock, spin the drreel. We got to get out. There's an event, a concert, the next thing. And we got to exchange the gifts and we got to get gut. And the manura is sitting there by itself. Seven seconds he lit it. However long it took to sing, and everybody was out of there. Everybody was out of there like Vladimir. And comes the manura all depressed and says, "Hey, hi." The mitzvah over here, the light, this is can illuminate the world is where you can bring redemption into your life. So where you can see clearly who you're meant to be and to become that person. So we got to get back to sitting and looking at that light. So right now we're living in a period not of darkness but of light. Khan these eight days. Sorry, sorry. I'm such a big talker. I told everybody to silence. I thought I put on do not disturb. I don't know what I'm doing. So these are the days that we're downloading that light. But a person who doesn't store and a person who doesn't have a storehouse in the fat years and the fat time will not have what to draw from in the so this is the idea of during the period in the time of the of the mo and the godless when we see clearly. When we have clarity and confidence, when we feel high connection, grab onto it, store it, bottle it, write yourself a letter about it, leave yourself a voice note about it, make yourself notes on it, draw from it, turn to it, and collect it. On the yam to the This is take from the great days, the high periods, the high connection. It's true for every area of life. You know in marriage which waxes and waines all marriages have ups and downs feelings of incredible connections and feelings of who is that person? I can't even recognize this behavior. Draw from and store and recognize the incredible times to remember and to radiate and to and to be able to project onto the challenging times to the yim. That's what we're doing in Kaneka. That's why according to we're reading mikates to draw and extract this lesson of Yoseph not only financially, economically but also spiritually and in our lives. Page 222. Back to Parik. It happened the end of two years. Parro is dreaming and here he is standing on the bank of the river. And here is from the river come seven cows. They're beautiful. They're robust. Zapig and they're grazing in the marsh and then seven seven frail me weak neb looking cows come out and they're standing right next to the other fat cows the bank of the river and what happens the cows that are ugly and me and meek they eat the fat at cows. And what happens? Parro wakes up. Now, we've studied in the past. What does parro do? If you have such a jarring dream, if you wake up in this cold sweat, if something is so disturbing and bothering you, you don't know how to interpret it what it means, what it portends, what are you going to do? Jump out of bed. You're going to grab a tahillum. You're going to call an adviser. You're going to turn to somebody who could help you interpret it. What does parro do? He turns overlaz [snorts] goes right back to sleep. Right back to sleep. Tells you everything about parro. There are dreamers who are so awakened by their dream they can't sleep. They're so driven. They're so excited. They're so ambition. They have such vision. They have such dream. The dreams drive them. What does do with his dream? He turns over. I'll deal with the dream if or when I wake up. And he has a second dream. And now it's not the cows, but it's the stalks of grain. again thin scorched by the wind the other fat and and uh robust grains but he wakes up he calls nobody can interpret it and the rest as they say is history I want to introduce you to a new safer so a gift from my friend Don Katz who's involved in this organization I met with its head it's called it was just published five volumes it is called the of the gioreim and it is a ksh that is dedicated in memory of all the soldiers who were killed since October 7th fighting in battle. And throughout each para of the Torah, each para has uh a biography of the soldier it's dedicated to and then a dvar Torah if that soldier lived in a community whose rabbi wanted to submit a dvar Torah about connected to the soldier and if not to Torah that the editors took and connected to it. It's a magnificent safer and you turn every page of our and you see our heroes in it and on Khan our modern-day makabes kashim our incredible heroic soldiers those injured should have should heal and have a recovery and those fighting should be safe on the front lines and those next to the kisod we think about them certainly on this on this kaneka I I I don't ordinarily do this but I'll mention that the wonderful um person who put this together and has the organization to commemorate to keep alive the memory of those killed did so he had a brother at 13 years old who was killed in a terror attack many years ago and uh he's been commemorating those who were killed in terror and now the soldiers they're trying to put it out in English translate it they need people to dedicate parios dedicate volumes anybody's interested let me know happy to make a connection so he has here in the beginning of mikates a lot of beautiful tora I'm tempted to share them all but we have a lot to cover but the first I'll share is a soldier diravid pim yik mo he was killed on the 15th of the 27th of December 2023 buried in Ban and there's a biography of each of these soldiers. So here it quotes from the great who lived long time ago and he interprets it or reinterprets it. There are so many people who sleepwalk through life. They're half asleep through their lives and they're sleeping while they're standing. Paul they're they're acting they're doing they're running but without any consciousness without any mindfulness without any awareness they don't really know who am I what's the essence of my life where do I come from where am I going they're living a physical existence but their spirit is asleep so it says how do you wake up it's hinted to in the kates is the end also means is to wake up. Wake upates parro parro is the same language as which is the uh the burden that puts us to sleep the stress what there is to do. How do you mik? How are you? How do we wake up to stand at the light? To look at the light to stand next to the light of a Torah or what's the light that illuminates our lives? Torah. Torah is the light that illuminates this world meaning and purpose and essence. Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? What do we live for? Or if a person wants to if you want to wake up and live life then attach yourself to Torah which illuminates life and illuminates the world. Connect I'll expand to the Kaneka candles. Look at the light. Don't run away from the manora after you light it. Sit and stare at those candles. See in it a reflection of who you could be. See your essence in yourself. Use it to wake up. And that is David. He has another on this opening pock. This is a memory of Uriel Seagel who died on the 7th. Was killed on the 7th of October 2023. Fought in Gdur 51 of Golani and he died fighting in Kisufim 19 years old. 19 years old. He lived in Petikva and his rabbi ber the admir of Mishkitz wrote the dvar Torah for him. And he writes the following. Again our opening. Every person has to be contemplative and thoughtful and be awake and aware every day of their life to look at the end of every day say did I live this day to its fullest? Did I make this day count? Do I even remember what I did today? What was today? If at the end of the day you don't even remember what you did at the end of the day it was no different than yesterday or tomorrow. The days just blend together. If you didn't live that day to its fullest, if you didn't embrace and lean in and live that day, the day didn't even count. And that's what the Torah is telling us. When you get to at the end of your life, if you want your years to be filled with, if you want your years to have been filled with days that you made the days count, then the answer is the name parro is parro means to reveal. to take away that which is blocking what's hidden to reveal. To expose to reveal at the end of your life your years if you want your years to have been filled with days then pull back and reveal the depth of what is hidden and live a meaningful and purposeful and a true life. Don't get caught up in the superficial. Don't just live in the rat race of life. Don't just live what is external but peel back. Peel back and see the essence of and his rabbi from describes that. He knew how to put a Torah perspective in his life. He came with his father to the bajger. She came to Davin. He attended Shirim and he gave his life on the base in Kisuim where he fought valiantly and was killed. Alkidesh Hashem that's how he lived. He was it says at the end of his biography when Uriel was brought into the army they asked him what would happen if he died in battle and he answered If I die, I'll have done it for the people who came before me and those who will come after me to protect my land and to protect my people. It's filled. It's a beautiful. If you can understand it in the Hebrew, great. I hope you can help them come out with it in English. It's really a very, very beautiful contribution with biographies of all these soldiers in connection to Torah. And is there another army or country in the world that honors its fallen soldiers by connecting them to our Torah roots and inspiring Torah different ways? It really is a very beautiful project. Rabbi Saxs at the opening of the para, we're going to get past the opening pock. We're going to I say it every week. Two years passed. Rabbi Saxs writes, "The first time in the whole story, Yoseph decided at the end of last week's para to take fate into his own hands. Knowing the chief butler was about to be restored to his position. He asked him to bring his case to the attention of parro. When it goes well with you, remember me and do me this kindness. Mention me to parro as to free me from this place. The truth is I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. Here too, I have done nothing to deserve being placed in this pit. A double injustice has been done and Yseph sees this as his one chance of regaining his freedom. But at the end of the para delivers a devastating blow. The end of last week's para pik says that still the chief cuper did not remember Yoseph. He doesn't remember him and he forgot him. The anti-limax is intense emphasized by the double verb. He didn't remember and he forgot. We sense Yoseph waiting day after day for news. None comes. His last best hope is gone. He'll never go free. Or so it seems. To understand the power of this anti-limax, we must remember that only since the invention of printing and the free availability of books have we been accustomed to tell what happens next merely by turning a page. For many centuries, there were no printed books. People knew the biblical story primarily by listening to it week by week. Someone hearing the story for the first time would have to wait a week to discover what Yseph's fate would be. Para break is thus a kind of real equivalent to the delay Yseph experienced in jail which as we know now took two years. It is then that parro has two dreams that no one in the court can interpret prompting the chief butler to remember the man he had met in prison. Yseph is now transformed within hours from a prisoner without hope to vicer of the greatest empire of the ancient world. Hashem answers our prayers but often not when we thought or how we thought. What a powerful insight message by Rabbi Saks. Torah says something very similarly says it on the after after the tells parro you know I was in prison this guy it's pretty good dream interpreter I think you should get him parro sends for he calls for and they rush him out of the pit writes again we read the story we know the story but it's being echoed here by Rabbi Saxs, not by name, but they write, "Imagine, picture it through the perspective of Yosephic, falsely accused, sitting and languishing in prison. Sarash goes out and he thinks, "This is my way out. Remember me. Please invoke me. Get me out." But day after day passes and there he is. You can picture on the prison wall. He's making the lines. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. on the wall of the prison in the dungeon of Egypt, hopeless and helpless, counting the days, a full two years. And he thinks, "This is it. Sold into slavery by my brothers, abandoned by my father, falsely accused in this foreign land. And this is it. I'm done. I'm finished. Hopeless and helpless. No way out." And in a moment's notice, there's a key opening the gate of his prison cell. say, "Hey, Hebrew Yoseph says, "Yeah, come quickly. Shave, take a shower. Here's an outfit. You're coming. Where are we going?" And moments later, he's named the viceroy of Egypt. Moments later, he's living in the palace. Moments later, he's running the economy of the greatest empire in the world at its time. And it all happened in a flash. It happened in a moment. And says to sometimes we are sitting in the boar. We're sitting in the pit of life longing and waiting. When will my shiv come? How many days, months, years, decades are people looking, lonely, longing, waiting for companionship, for love, for a shik? It feels like a pit, a boore. How many how many pregnancy tests come back negative? How many attempts to bring a child, to hold a baby in one's arms? How many bills with no idea how they'll be paid? How many people sit and suffer in their bore? But just like for Yoseph, it turns on a dime. When a person holds out hope, when a person endlessly davs, when a person has big dreams and big ideas in a moment writes, when your moment and when your time comes, Hashem doesn't delay. Not a millisecond. They rushed him to run. They ran him out of the pit. They rushed him up to parro. Why? His moment had come. Two years he suffered, but his moment had come. And Hashem says, "When it's your moment, when it's right, when you're going to find the when you're going to find out you're carrying that child, when you're going to have some relief and know how you're going to pay your bills, when please God, you're going to get a clean bill of health. It's going to feel like it could come in a moment." And similarly says gonna come it's not going to delay. It's not going to it's not going to take forever. It's not going to be a long line. Why isn't it happening yet? We're going to go from this pit called the gullis. The pit of the subway in Manhattan, the pit of the anti-semitic cesspool of Australia. It's going to be is going to take us from that boar from that pit. So, Rabbi Saxs back to Rabbi Saxs. Hashem answers our prayers often not when we thought or how we thought. Yoseph seeks to get out of prison. He does get out of prison, but not immediately and not because the butler kept his promise. Story is telling us something fundamental about the relationship between our dreams and our achievements. Yseph is the great dreamer of the Torah and he becomes a leader as he dreamed he would. But first he has to hone his practical and administrative skills in Potifar's house then in prison. Even when Hashem assures us that something will happen, it will not happen without our effort. A divine promise is not a substitute for human responsibility. To the contrary, it is a call for responsibility. But effort alone is not enough. We need the help of heaven. We need the humility to acknowledge that we are dependent on forces not under our control. No one embraces invokes Hashem more than Yoseph. He credits Hashem for each of his successes. He recognizes that without God could not have done what he does. And out of that humility comes patience. What a para. What an insight. In other words, we have dreams. We have aspirations. We even sometimes have a timeline of how and when we want to see them happen. But Hashem says, "Hey buddy, relax. Relax. I don't operate on your timeline of when you want to have that financial breakthrough, of when you want the date on the calendar you'll get married, of what pace you want to build your family. I don't operate on your timeline. I hear youros and I will answer them. And please God, the picture will come to be. Yoseph dreams come to fruition. But this is a story of how we surrender to Hashem's timeline. He doesn't operate on ours. But as we're going through the boar, the pit of our lives to hold out that hope and to keep and maintain that faith to have that courage and that clarity to know could come in a moment. It could come in a moment. I keep talking about it. I am going to do this series on because I get so many emails of people who are waiting and longing and wondering and it's such a difficult period of life to go through. But I mentioned to when we went to see the machba last year got a bra somebody who I said is inim and he corrected me. He said, "They're not in. They're in shak." Okay. I thought my Yiddish was off or something. You know, was telling me, not. And he said, "Yeah, because a person only needs one. You're not inim you're in they only need one. One that next call from that next that next event, that next meeting, that next opportunity person can be drawn and pulled out of that pit in a moment's notice. So don't lose faith and hope but recognize that it's not our timeline but hashem's but if we continue to d and turn to him we can walk in the footsteps of a yadic and we can draw from his strength to find our way out. So what happens remembers him in prison the cup bearer tells parro right because how's he initiating this conversation with parro he's present while parro's telling his advisers I had these dreams they were jarring not enough to get me out of bed I turned over and went back to sleep but after seven snooze buttons I'm out of bed and now I finally made this appointment and I'm telling you all my dream and what does it mean I need to know what does it mean and nobody's doing a And Parro's losing his cool. Saramashkim says, "Do I tell him that I got a guy? Do I tell him I know someone?" He's going to say, "How do you know your guy? Where did you meet him? When did he interpret your dream?" So, how does he introduce it? I need to My transgressions do I mention today? I have to mention my transgression today. The We started to study a little bit of he writes, "What do you mean?" It turned out that Mashkin was exonerated was released from prison. It was a false accusation. He was placed back in his position. So why does he say why does he say to parro I hesitate I demure I'm a little worried to mention it but you remember that time to fly in the cup he put me in prison well I met a guy I've got a guy what do you mean it wasn't he's exonerated the truth is he was guilty he wasn't exonerated has his gift that when Yoseph speaks, he can fix anything. When Yseph interprets a dream, when Yoseph offers a vision, when Yseph provides a solution, he has this incredible energy, this charisma, this capacity to fix anything. Yseph through his power of speech put the back in his position and solved it all. And that's what he's telling that's what he's telling parro too. And that's what he's telling parro is dreams can be good or bad. Yseph through his power of interpretation but even more his power of speech. Yoseph is the first Reb. You go to the Reb. So the Reb Yoseph turns it into a or a he can hear the dream and say, "Oh, that's bad news. That's a bad sign. That's not going to go well." Or he could dream and say, "No, no, that's a good sign. I give you a I bent you. It means soon you're going in three days, you're going to be back in your position. All is good. It's all going to be good." And that's what the mash is telling paro. The truth is I was guilty. There was a fly in the cup and I had this dream. But Yseph has that capacity to spin to turn even that which seems negative into positive to give a and make everything okay and he can do that for you too. And that's why it says that's why the says what's it mean to be to be p means turn it to the good. I'm sure this dream could be interpreted negatively and it can be bad. Turn it to the good. Turn it to something positive. That's what's going on. And that's why it was it was a that he was invoking. But listen to this. What word is extra in the Why couldn't he have just said, "Hey, I got a guy." Now, before you tell me how do I have a guy, I have to mention this. You remember the episode, the fly, the cup, the prison. That's where I met him. He interpreted it for me. He was right. I've got a guy. Why does he have to say? What does the word add? What does the word add? So, the I'm not reading to you from the primary source of It's a collection of the great all of his writings organized according to the par this comes from the but it seems extra and extraneous. He could have just said so is bothered is not the first was bothered by this question too. And he says dictate He says, "The only thing motivating and driving me to mention this mistake is the fact that I happen to be here while you're telling your dreams and you're disappointed by the failure to interpret them. It's this moment. It's this occasion. It's this meeting that's driving me to be." In other words, why didn't you tell him earlier? Sashim is never pouring a cup of wine for parro and says parro you know I was in prison I actually had a dream this was gonna happen you were gonna put me back in place there was this guy this Jew this Hebrew nobody liked him we mistreated him but he was good at one thing and that was he interpreted how come he never told him earlier so that's why he's mentioning says there was no reason why would I invoke that previous mistake that previous error he's only doing so because of because the moment calls calls for it. That is what the says. However, the has another says the whole time is in prison languishing himself. He's sitting thinking, "This isn't fair. It's not my fault. A fly flew into the cup. It's because the dishwashers didn't wash the cup." Well, it's because the exterminator never shows up on time. He missed a week. He didn't do a good job. That's why there were flies flying around. It's because the garbage man didn't collect the garbage and therefore they were flies. It's everyone else's fault but his own. And I can't believe here I am thrown in prison being blamed. Not my fault. What an injustice. What's going on over here? He blamed it on parro. He blames it on everyone else. However, now that he hears Parro's dreams and there's nobody who can interpret and satisfy parro, he realizes he now retroactively understands that he wasn't cast into prison because parro made a mistake. It was all of it was orchestrated from above. Only that day, only ha does he realize I made a mistake. Hashem wanted me in prison. So I'd have a dream so I'd meet this Jew. So later I can say I have a guy. I'd make this introduction. All of it was for the good of Yseph so he would ultimately be free and rise to the viceroy of Egypt. Only today did it all come clear. You know, we go through things in life and we don't understand. Why did I have to miss that flight? Why did that person mess me over in business? Why did that person say no in that sh? Why did they take my seat and sh that sha? Why? We don't know and we point fingers and we blame others and sometimes we get clarity. Sometimes the picture comes together. Sometimes things come and they make sense and that's for mashkim. It was dava on that day. I can now mention because now I see the picture and the way it unfolded and why it did in that fashion. It all came together today. Turn two pages. 226. Sorry, three pages. 228. This is after Yseph successfully interprets the dreams. doesn't only identify the problem that the dreams uh predicted but also offers a solution par says oh you're saying good that's for sure how parro answered you're saying good you're saying good no say more so the plan seemed good writes by sax in his yoseph had three gifts that many people have in isolation but few have in combination why is parro blown away parro sees something in yose that is amazing very rare, very unusual to see it together. This shabas we have a great visitor coming who's uh become my dear friend who's also a coach and mentor named S Schwarz. We are at our shul rolling out this system called EOS entrepreneurial operating system. Really excited by it to talk about it. So this show this afternoon he and I are doing conversation about EOS and life and its connection to Paras Mikates because it connects exactly to this interpretation. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it or don't care about it, but you should because EOS is really a phenomenal platform for how to live a most meaningful life designed for business but also in life. That's what he and I are going to talk about on shop this afternoon and I'm really excited about it. So in the EOS model, EOS has a library of books you can read. Primary one is called traction, how to gain traction in life. There's one called rocket fuel which is all about these two people in a business. the one who is the visionary and the one who is the integrator. Visionary and the integrator and how to how to set up a whole platform, a system that speaks to people's strengths and allows them to delegate and elevate and hold accountable. It's an entire it's an entire system delegate and elevate. It's an entire system of the visionary and the integrator. So most often in life by Sax points out you have the visionary you have the dreamer person who has dreams this organization this program this institution this idea this breakthrough there's the dreamer but the dreamer doesn't know how to put on his doesn't know how to match his socks you know the dreamer doesn't matur was a dreamer zatal he was a dreamer he didn't drive he was told the story I think it's true not apocryphal he got his license He drove once but his mind was wandering. He was thinking nearly got an accident. They took his driver's license away from him. The dreamer, the visionary who's lost in their dreams. They can't get behind the wheel of a car. For that, you need an integrator. The integrator says, "I don't have vision. I don't have dreams. I'm not a big thinker, but I can make anything happen. You give it to me. I make it happen. I hold others accountable. I follow through. I execute on dreams. I make it happen." So in any organization in a successful one there's the visionary and there's the integrator and the visionary has to let go of micromanaging and recognize stick with the visions. Let the integrator integrate and the integrator your skill set your strength is not having vision and dreams. You integrate and you execute. Okay more on that chab this afternoon. I'm looking at a bunch of blank faces. Most of you are retired and you don't care less about what I have to say about this. But those of you who are working, look into this and read these books and thank me later and whatever the difference of what you're going to make in your business between when you just heard this and then 10% comes back to BRS anyway. [cough] But you'll realize that EOS is not just about business. It's about life come Shabas afternoon. Why am I telling you all that? What does it have to do with anything? Says Rabbi Saxs Yoseph has three gifts many people have in isolation. A few have in combination. First is in other words, why is it what blew away par? Why is par so impressed? Why does par say he's got it? He's right. And not only has he got it and is he right? He's in charge. First is he dreams. He dreams dreams. Dreaming is often thought to be impractical. Not so. It is one of the most practical things we can do. There are people who spend months planning a holiday but not even a day planning a life. They let themselves be carried by the winds of chance and circumstance. It's a mistake. It is our dreams that give us direction. Second, Yseph can interpret the dreams of others. Leaders interpret other people's dreams. They articulate they articulate the dreams of others. They find a way of expressing the hopes and fears of a generation. It is not Yose's dreams that made him a leader. It's paras. Our own dreams give us direction. It is other people's dreams that give us opportunity. Yose's most impressive achievement though is his third gift. The ability to implement dreams. solving the problem for which they are an early warning. No sooner as he told of a seven-year famine that he continues without pause to provide a solution. Good leaders either are or surround themselves with problem solvers. It's easy to see what is going wrong. What makes someone a leader is the ability to find a way of putting it right. Dream dreams, understand and articulate the dreams of others, and find ways of turning a dream into reality. These three gifts are Yoseph's lessons in leadership, most often found in isolation. the visionary and the integrator. Yoseph is the whole package. Yoseph is the whole package in one. And that's what blows away. That's what really impresses parro ne. And here I saw something I always wondered. I probably brought up in previous param I always wondered but never really saw a satisfactory answer. Now elevates Yseph. I put you in charge. Takes his ring, his signate. He puts it on Yoseph's hand. He gives him the power. I guess this was the first auto pen. Yseph's got the power of the autopen. And he parades him around and he gives him a new name and he makes he becomes a shin. All of a sudden Yseph Parro becomes a he says you know it's that my viceroy is not going to be married. He becomes a he says, "Forget a resume. Forget reference calls. Just schedule the because I've got a girl for you." And her name is Osnas. Yseph says, "Os sounds good. I don't know. It was Egypt. They pronounced it oats." However they pronounced it. Ysef says, "Sounds good." Par says, "But there's one thing." Who's her father? Yseph, you may have met her father and mother before. I don't want this to be uncomfortable, butas's mother, last time you saw her, she grabbed your jacket and you ran away. And her father, you brought incredible success to his house, but it didn't go well. Yseph Yoseph goes to work. That's the PK. It always bothered me like there's no reference to the irony here. I mean, what did Thanksgiving dinner look like? What was the Kaneka Ma like when Yseph and Onas go to her parents to light candles one night? What what what what's going on? How does that work? And parro of all the young ladies of Egypt, of all the resumes that parro has in his hands, he can't think of anyone else other than basifah. What's going on over here? What's going on over here? And Potifar, what happened to his name? When did Potif become Potifer? So that already Rashi quotes. He became sterile. It was a punishment. He really was attracted to Yoseph himself. It's a whole separate story. But wonders, there's no better for me than the daughter of his former master who has this false accusation that he tried to hashme too, Mrs. Potifer. I'm paraphrasing. says, "There's a brilliant insight of the he got a guy. I got a guy for you." How do you know this guy? Says, "Remember back when I was in prison because the fly in the wine?" Yeah. Well, there was another guy in prison. Why was he in prison? Oh, he used to work for Potifar and Mrs. Potifar accused him that he crossed boundaries and he was inappropriate with her and he was there in prison. Oh, anyway, he interpreted my dream. He could help you. Parro stores that in the back of his mind and right away he says to himself, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I'm gonna take this Yoseph who was languishing in prison. Previously, anyone googles his name, I'm gonna make Yoseph the viceroy. He's going to be my vice president. He's going to be my secretary of the economy. He's going to run all What's going to happen? They're going to Google his name, Yoseph, the I. And what's going to come up on all the websites? The whole incredible salacious controversy of Asia's Potifer Parro says there's only one way about that. What am I going to do? He's marrying Osnas Basifer. They're going to be his in-laws. And because I'm parro, they're going to love him. They're going to praise him. they're going to accept him and no one's going to have anything to say about this whole episode because in the end it's Potifar and Mrs. Potifar who are going to be his his very in-laws and that's part way of avoiding a controversy around elevating Yoseph by Dafka having Yseph marryas the daughter of nasa list theo it will shut them up they will learn to love him Egypt will embrace him Yseph will be on the cover of all the magazines and we are good to Go. Fascinating. No, I still have some questions. It's always fascinated me. But an insight of why Parroka chose out of everyone he could have. Memb V. Perk memb. They have two children. The names of their children. We discussed all this in the past. You can relisten to previous Shirum online. Peric members to Egypt. Right. This is the drama unfolding. If you were running the theater, curtain comes down. Next scene back to Paya, right? We have we're alternating scenes between what's unfolding in Mitim and what's going on in Kanan. Yakov, his son's famine. Yoseph still missing. What's happening down in Egypt? Yoseph was in a pit. Moment later, he's clean shaven and showered. He's dressed like royalty and he's before and he's in charge. Curtain comes down. Car m curtain comes up. Next scene. Jacob sees, "Hey, there are provisions in Egypt." He says, "Why? Why do you make yourself conspicuous? I heard their provisions shown down there and hook us up. Take care of us. Make us better." So, how does he describe it? What word is used for provisions? There's food, there's produce, there's surplus. What uses word? go down there and purchase for us so that we will live and we will not die from these who are he is the mashbak keep going Yseph is the ruler he's the masher so the chev and yph is the mashb are in charge of the brothers come down and they bow says. Why did Yseph merit to rise to this position of power and prominence? Because he had to overcome his impulse and his instinct because he passed the test with Aisha's potif with his before she was the He is the in the merit that he broke his impulse his his ego. That's why he rose to the greatness. Every day Hashem showers all kinds of blessing to this world. But there are things that prevent there are blockages. There are there are things that get in the way. When we break the Hashem breaks the impediments that are blocking the pipeline of braha that we have waiting, there's a pipeline of braha waiting for us will break the block in the in the pipe. If we break the ego and we break the impulse that we ourselves are struggling with. And here we have this incredible reunion. The brothers come down. What do they do? They bow. Why is that significant? Yoseph's dream was my brothers one day will bow. And here it is. The dream that he had begun to give up on. the dream that he thought he had to abandon because it was never going to happen. Now the dream seems like it's back on schedule. Writes Rabbi Saxs, today's a heavy Rabbi Sax day, writes Rabbi Saxs. Listen to this in Hebrew that word. Go back to the P again. Yoseph sees his brothers and he recognized them, but he acted like a stranger to them. He spoke harshly. Where you from? They said, "We came for food." Do you notice the irony in this in this puzza means he made himself unrecognizable to them. So in Hebrew, this root of that same word is what Rabbi Sax calls a contr. You ever hear that before? A contronym. One word with two contradictory meanings. was worth coming today just for a little English lecture. We'll become educated together. It is a we have antonyms and we have synonyms and now we know that we have contr a contronym is one word with two contradictory meanings. It can mean to recognize or the opposite to be a stranger someone not recognized. The root appears no less than four times in these two. Three in the sense of recognition and one in the sense of arangement. Yoseph recognized his brothers one. They didn't recognize him too. Yoseph recognized his brothers three but he acted like a stranger four. In these two sukim that root appears four times but it's a contronym in contradictory ways. The power of this country is intense. The central question of bracius is are human beings friends or strangers brothers or others? I love that. Are we friends or strangers? Brothers or others? That has been hammering at our consciousness since kayen in heel. The first human children all those years before Yseph's brothers saw him in the distance. Pik says, we read a couple weeks ago that they saw him when he's coming in to check in on them. Yakov sends Yoseph. The brothers look up. They see Yoseph and they see him. [snorts] He's at a distance. He's far away. sees the other and by the time he reached them they plotted to kill him. This sentence like so many others in the story of Ysef has two meanings. On the surface it means what it says. They saw him approach and they planned murder. At another level however it is a philosophical statement about love and hate. They were able to contemplate fratricside because they saw him at a distance. They refused to allow him to come close. They could see his cloak but they did not yet see his face his reality as a person. Distant physically they would not let him come close emotionally. Soon after Yehuda uttered the devastatingly ironic words, "Let's sell him to the Ishmaam and not harm him." is about recognition and non-recognition in the deepest sense about the willingness to accord dignity to the other rather than see the other as a threat. The irony of Yseph is that his siblings do not recognize him in Egypt as their brother. They recognize him only as a stranger, as an Egyptian ruler called Safnas Pane, who wears Egyptian robes of office in whom they assume cannot even speak their language. Eventually, Yoseph forces them to recognize just as a brother could be a stranger, a stranger could turn out to be a brother. The dual meaning of the verb gathers itself into itself. The whole force and dramatic conflict of braces. It tells us if we only listen closely to the voice of the other, we'll find beneath the skin, we are brothers and sisters, member of the human family under the parenthood of Hashem. When others become brothers and conflict is transformed into consiliation, we've begun the journey to society as a family and the redemptive drama can begin. Very powerful. That same word is used both ways because it's all about our attitude, brothers or others. Do we see what's beneath the surface and what we have in common? Or is it m do we hold and keep people as a distance that they have nothing to do with us? They're unfamiliar. We have no commonality. I spent last week in the UAE, three days in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and I have a lot to say about it and I'm sure you'll hear about it over the coming days. I wrote an article I think it'll be in MSB this week about the experience and I'm not we're not Polyanish. We don't look at the whole Muslim or Arab world now. They're our cousins. They love us. Let's heal Kumbaya. All well and good. Tragically, sadly, we're seeing in real time that the overwhelming majority still hate and seek to destroy Pera Adam. They want to eliminate the Jewish people. However, what we discovered there in the United Arab Emirates is a country filled with people who genuinely and sincerely not only want to coexist, don't only want to have peace on paper, but want to go from others to brothers to come to know to connect not only for financial gain and cooperation, but because of common biblical roots and moral values and religious practices and really want to make connection. And I want to know I want you to know that I formed real friendships and connection. We met with high level Amiradis and people who really shared that perspective. They've demonstrated it. UAE was the first to condemn kamas after October 7th. While airlines all over America canceled flights. The UAE actually increased them. I think 16 flights a day between Israel and the UAE. But if there was any doubt that maybe it was performative, maybe it's insincere, maybe there's some ulterior motive on Sunday when we woke to the news of what happened in Australia. I saw online the people we had met, my new friends, were the first to be posting condemning and describing that what happened is a absolute distortion of their religion, doesn't represent it, standing with the Jewish people, standing with Israel, and I've seen much of it. Again, I share that with you not to say that we should kumbaya reach out in love. I actually wondered myself and it was a question I asked one of the leaders we met with there. When I come back here to Bokeh and I'm tempted to reach out to the local imam, how do I know if the leader of the mosque of Bokeh is more an Emirati or is more like the people who perpetrated what just happened in Australia? How do I know what's in his heart? How do I know how he aligns? How do I know whether it's worth forming a friendship or creating a relationship? I don't have an answer to that yet. But these words of this insight of Rabbi Saxon, this word vayakim that sometimes you have to travel thousands of miles to discover commonality and familiarity to bring others from others and to brothers to recognize not all but a vocal minority that we should celebrate and elevate. Don't dismiss and don't marginalize and don't just say ah they don't represent a lot and they're not having an impact on the others but to identify to celebrate and to elevate and to expand their voice of what we saw what we learned. Again I have a lot more to say about that but I really see it here in these words this insight of Rabbi Saxs of Vayaki Rim that can be read and interpreted in both directions. I had a lot more I wanted to share but there's some para perspectives for today eo shab this afternoon come here the conversation with schwarz you can apply it in your life no matter what age and stage of life and I think you'll find it worthwhile should bring a lot of light and a lot of hope and a lot of miracles for our people and only good things till next time stay happy stay healthy happy healthy and holy