Israel & The Jewish People: At War With Enemies of Body Mind & Soul - The Soul Never Dies

[Music] we begin with the verse vov lived in Egypt for 17 years now ironically Egypt was the worst place in the world and Yakov was because of circumstances you know the famine forced to go and settle in Egypt one would think that this is the worst place and the last place he wants to be however the Z says on the the words that these 17 years in Egypt were the best years of his life literally this was the good life for Yakov and this needs to be understood how can Yakov the holiest person in the world find be comfortable find his home in MIT which is called the nakedness of the land the place where where they were steeped in AAR idol worship priscu lying cheating it was the worst place in the world to be yet here we're told that Yakov has the good life and we have to you have to understand this uh seeming uh you know contradiction so the way we could appreciate it is this Yakov knows that he's eventually going to leave the world and leave his descendants in in Egypt and he should be afraid that God forbid Egypt will affect them in a bad way so what is it about yov that he could be so happy and live out his years of retirement so to speak in this Bliss when he should be screaming inside afraid of the uh Doom that awaits his descendants so there are two things that we could say that help him calm down first of all we know that yosf came in front of him settled in Egypt and became the ruler of Egypt now seeing Yosef survive this encounter with Egypt and remain righteous and remain holy was certainly a positive thing for for Yakov to see more than that ysep raised his children in Egypt and they came out also righteous it is for that reason that we bless the children when we bless our children we bless them and said that they should be like Ephraim and manhe the children of ysf because Ephraim and manhe were the first two children to grow up in galut so to speak in MIT and they were able to come out holy and that strength to come out holy in Egypt is the blessing we give because right now in Exile we need that type of extra power the second thing that that we we can say is why Yakov can relax and enjoy the the last years of his life in Egypt is because before he himself went to Egypt to settle with him and the entire Jewish Family at the time all of his sons and extended grandchildren was first and foremost he sent Yehuda in front of him to instruct everybody the rabis tell us that this instruction was to set up a a base medish where there would be Torah learning and where rinic instruction when guidance and direction would come out from the Bas Mish so if if a nation is committed to following its Torah Scholars it's its Jewish leaders then they are going to follow in a good direction and so Yakov prepared this ahead of time knowing that that was the necessary component for the survival and and continuation of the Jewish people but perhaps the most important element of what was the key to the success of the Jewish people in Egypt and why yov was content that they would survive was the fact that ysf in his genius understood that the only way for the Jewish people to survive in Egypt was if we would seclude them separate them from the masses there is for example the idea in modern terminology we talk about living in a suburb you know people could work in in New York City but living in New York City is is Terri terrible imagine a Jewish Family trying to thrive in the heart of New York City with everything there we won't get into the details so there's the idea of a suburb and that's exactly what we see here in the paraa of the the Jewish people in Egypt when the brothers of ysf come to town so of course power's excited he took over the world with one ysf now he's told he's got yosef's brothers and they're bigger and stronger than ysf all I could imagine in parro's eyes all he could see are the dollar signs so to speak how he's going to take over the world with ysep and his brothers but ysph understanding that brings the weakest of the brothers and and he explains to them what to say to parro and he tells them to explain that we're Shepherds and that's what we do for generations and that's our expertise now let me try to give you a little bit of of an analogy a little bit of a joke as well how I inter interpret this whole dialogue between the brothers and parro imagine in America you know you bring you bringing you bring to the biggest corporate leader Donald Trump or whoever you bring him your your brothers because you're of course A Million Dollar Man you make him millions and you bring him your brothers which are supposed to also make him millions and as soon as they start talking he asks the brothers so what are you what do you do let me figure out how I can use you to become even more rich and more powerful and the Brothers answer well we're garbage men we've garbage men my dad is a garbage man my granddaddy was a garbage man we've been garbage men and all our life we're garbage men we are garbage experts so what are you going what's going to happen obviously the the face on this businessman is going to you know smile is going to turn into a frown because he was imagining how he can make dollars off these people and in the end they're talking to about garbage that's to some degree what how we could appreciate the dialogue between uh between the brothers of Yosef and parro what what exactly happened then was par was expecting to see all of these great talents and how he can use them to control the world and but and they tell him that they're Shepherds now in that time and place in this modern civilized Egyptian Society being a Shepherd was like being a garbage person that was what being a Shepherd was like and so when they told him that we're Shepherds our father was Shepherds and our grandfather was Shepherds that's what's in our blood being a Shepherd they were essentially telling them that you have no use for us and by being told that you have no use for us so of course when Joseph comes with the solution let's send them off into a far off place gocean like the suburb let's put them there let's get them out of the way and they won't be an embarrassment to parro so parro's like great yoseph you're a genius you saved me let's get them as far away from the Egyptian society as we can can because they're just going to be an embarrassment for us and in doing so ysf understood of course the what was happening and he saved the Jewish people because in order for the Jewish people to survive which is we have to maintain a level of Purity and sanctity and wholesomeness and if we're in the heart of Manhattan you know 48th and Broadway I think that's pretty action-packed over there if that's what you're trying to raise your daughter to be a modest Woman and that's where you're trying to raise your son to be devoted to serving Hashem that's not the place and so by sending the Jews off to Goen which was a place where where they would be isolated and they would be able to maintain Purity sanctity wholesomeness so the added benefit which was really what saves the day is that the divine presence could come and stay with them there had they been in Egypt proper so in all that impurity who says that they would have been able to connect with Hashem and same way and as a matter of fact we find later on that Moshe Renu himself had to leave Egypt in order to pray to Hashem because Egypt was full of all of the these bad things so with this and everything we're saying now we could appreciate that how does Yakov live out his golden year so to speak in Egypt without being so worried is because everything was set in place for Success he had the Bas medish he had Jewish leadership and we had isolation from the influences and the uh fortunate negative things that that our children would be exposed to with all that we can appreciate how kazal tell us that throughout the generations the Jews kept kept their Traditions they kept their Jewish names they kept their same clothing and they kept their names and you know these are just you know simple things were being told but the depth of keeping their names and keeping their their look unique and keeping their language unique meant that they were staying true to the way of their ancestors and in that sense they survived as a people through that Exile now of course history is important but if history is not being used to teach us about the future then then it's just a history lesson and that's that they do in you know secular schools here when we have a history lesson understanding how the Jews survived in Egypt it's really a lesson for us here and now because how do we survive in this time of Exile with all of the the uh exposure we have today in our living room you can have anything you want you turn on the computer click a few buttons and the whole world is there the greatest test we've ever faced we perhaps faced today how do we survive well we survive with these same messages a Devotion to Traditional Values you know the base measures has to be the main thing Torah and the guidance of our rabbis we have to stay out of the Limelight and the fancy idea of trying to conquer the world because you know when you conquer the world in the end of the day you get conquered with it you think that you could be involved D and mingled and not get get affected and get tarnished no you get affected as much as you're affecting and so we have to know how to maintain a little bit of a secluded type of Lifestyle in that that we can maintain our Purity and sanctity and hope for children and grandchildren to continue in a way of Torah and MIT the modern approaches unfortunately we see the the results and it doesn't have the continuation that that that we see in the traditional approach so we're not trying to compare who's better who's not but when we're talking about this saving our children and seeing our children continue so we want to not take any chances and again anytime you you remove these barriers you you just you know make it more risky and more dangerous for our children to survive so that's the the same way that we survived in Egypt is the same way we're going to survive now and tomorrow