Kindness at the Speed of Light | Parshas Vayeishev

all right so Farmer Brown was in an accident with a truck on the highway and he went to sue the trucking company for negligence and as he's on the witness stand the lawyer for the trucking company is cross-examining him and he says Farmer Brown is it not true that at the time of the accident you told the state troopers and I quote I'm perfectly fine Farmer Brown says well you have to understand no no just answer the question did you tell the state trooper that you are perfectly fine so we have to understand sit so the deployer says to the judge I want the witness stand to the question he says look let him answer how he's comfortable answering go ahead it's a farmer Brown says you have to understand I just loaded my favorite mule Bessy into my wagon and I was riding down the the highway and the truck came out of nowhere and hit us and Bessie went flying one direction into one ditch and I went flying the other direction into another ditch and then I hear the state troopers caught me I hear the sirens and I hear the state trooper get out of his out of his squad car and here I'm walking around and I hear him walking over to where Bessie is and they hear a gunshot and then the trooper comes over to me and he says your mule was in really bad shape I had to put her down how are you feeling I said I'm perfectly fine get it they got you when a mule or a horse is really really important is Ryu kill them they can't be cured right so yes the farmer how are you doing if you would have said I'm in bad shape he was afraid they would shoot him so he said I'm perfectly fine I'm fine right like don't leave me alone okay okay anyways I'm perfectly fine this week's Pasha Pasha is veracious falls in the week of your test gisla 4 maybe we should say your tests Kislev falls in the week of variation and we in general look for the significance it's a it's a concept from the shelah solution a Lukas a bris that although the Torah reading is based on dividing the 53 pouches to be read over the over the year there is by divine providence an underlying connection between the parsha of the week and the events that transpire in the week and and historical events that are commemorated during the week so we're looking for a connection between variation and your test kissless which is the rosh hashanah look see this the day of the redemption from imprisonment of the altar Abba and it's known as a day a turning point for the dissemination of panini cetera the inner secrets of the 3rd Oh also we're getting close to connect us who are ramping up to that were preparing for Hanukkah already so we're looking for that connection so we're looking for connection between the parsha and you tests Kozlov and Kanaka so I'm gonna tell you a story and then we'll get back to the parsha and to you discus levantar Chanukah the story takes place in Argentina what was going on there was a there was a period of time when they used to run a cheetah ritual slaughter in in Argentina and shocked him the ritual slaughter is from wherever they were from usually from America would fly down there and they'd lived there for months at a time and it was very rigorous work basically the shlok plays the the plant would open up at 6:00 in the morning and it would 5:00 in the morning before dawn and it would close at 6:00 p.m. after dark and they had security there the security was because of thieves you know that equipment didn't want the equipment to be stolen so basically there was one time in the morning when everyone couldn't be let in and they'd opened up the place and then there was one time at night when everyone could be let out and then they would lock it up for good and then the night watchman would sit and nobody could come back in till until the morning that was that was the way that it was run at any rate there were a group of about 20 shopton 20 slaughterers and they had finished a day of work it was six o'clock it was dark and what they would do is they would gather in sort of a like a courtyard in front of the plant but before the the gate and when they would all be gathered then the guard would open up the gate and let them out and then lock it up and then the night watchman would come so one evening they're waiting to be let out of the gate and and they don't really speak Spanish and the guard doesn't really speak Yiddish or Hebrew or English whatever the language is a Russian or polish whatever language is these these guys spoke why do I say Russian or polish because one of the people in the story was actually originally from Poland from Warsaw but I'll get to him one second the guard is telling the shocked him that he's not going to open up the gate and they're getting very annoyed and he can't really speak their language and they can't really speak his so they're they're yelling at him open up the gate we want to go home it's late gonna let us out he's saying no no I'm not letting you out so they're there they're yelling gonna open the gate so he says no you I cannot know how to open the gate he's telling them there's one more there's one more so there's there's no more there's no more yes there's one more one more rabbi one more rabbi they said there's no more rabbi we're all here let us out he said no no I'm not gonna let you out so finally they they went back in the plant and they went around and they all they opened up a deep freezer and they found one of the rabbi's was in the deep freezer he'd somehow gotten locked in I couldn't get out and he would have been left there overnight and he would have died so they took him out of the freezer and they warmed him up and after they you know they saved his life so they said to the guard how did how did you know what you know there's a stereotype that you know all all all rabbis look alike right especially if you're not from somebodies culture so you look at them a group of them as all looking alike so this local guy from Argentina is non Jew he sees 19 rabbis how does he know 1 rabbi is missing I mean it's very useful he would notice the one guy and they were all saying no nobody's missing so they asked him you know how did you know so the guard says every morning the workers come you you guys the rabbi's the shock him and they walk in I let everyone in they walk in there's only one rabbi every morning he comes in he says hello good morning and every night when he leaves he says good bye good night this morning this rabbi said hello good morning but tonight I did not hear good bye good night so I know he wasn't here and that's that's how that's why I insisted you have to go and find him and that that's how they found now who was this this was a Yid named Avram Siskind a harsh of a Yid he was from Warsaw Poland he became close to Lubavitch there when the previous rebel was in was in Poland he came over to America first to Israel and then to America he was actually married to one of three sisters so his two brothers-in-law also very lush Avedon Misha Pincus Katz and Murdock I meant Lick were his two brothers in law he himself was the first Roche colo in in Crown Heights in 770 he actually was the first person to start a women's Shearer and Exodus in Crown Heights the first has that distinction the first one to do that and many other accomplishments happens to be it was also a show hit so he was down there in Argentina you know making making a living for a few months and what saved his life and what enabled him to continue to come back to to New York and to do all of the things that he did in it to teach Tyra and to help so many people is only because of this small seemingly small habit he had of saying good morning and saying good night to somebody who everybody else overlooked okay so in this week's partial partial valuation yes of exotic is he's already he's a slave then he's framed for a crime he didn't commit he's thrown in prison he's thrown in prison and when he's in prison he's there at the same time as Providence would have it with the chief Baker and the chief Butler and it says that when he gets there he arrives in prison the Ave alayhim Yusef by Baker Joseph came to them in the morning the are a some Mahina Ze'ev him he saw them and they were so effing means they they were sad or they were distraught the chief Baker and the chief Butler the ye shall and he asked as city safe odd right these attendants officers of Padre I sure you tell you that we're with him Beamish Mar they're in prison base I don't know if in the house of his master Pettyfer lime are saying Joseph says to the two other prisoners Madhu open ahem Roy mhmm why are your face is bad meaning why do you look distraught today it's a miracle if you think about it the yeas have even asked this question first of all this was the lowest point of his life this is before the dream interpretation thing started this is before he became Viceroy this is as he's arriving in prison for a crime he didn't commit he's at his lowest point okay he's been torn away from his home torn away from his family his father doesn't know his true whereabouts he becomes a slave then as a slave he's framed for a crime now he's thrown in prison at this point any normal person would say you know what I'm sorry I can't notice what's going on with other people I have my own problems so that's one number two who did he ask hey what's wrong guys why do you look upset Sudi say father a officers of Padre that's the power structure that's oppressing him and put him where he is put him in jail so why should he care about two of these these didn't insiders they're they're part of the problem they're part of the system that's oppressing him so he shouldn't care about them or maybe even if he's really full of self-pity he should be so resentful and say good I'm glad a little at least there's some misery being spread around let them suffer and third of all it takes an extra I don't know outgoingness to ask them why do you look sad today they're in prison everybody looks sad right so to even notice and say oh you but you look extra sad right so there's so many reasons why yes if should never have even asked them hey what's up guys what's wrong it would have made so much sense if he didn't ask them and yet he did and because he did they answered the question they said well we both had dreams that troubled us from that his dream interpreting skills became revealed and from that it actually freed him from prison it freed him from prison because he became a dream interpreter but that's not all the ultimate reward for going out of his way and asking somebody hey what's up how you doing how you feeling wasn't just that he was freed that was only big the beginning of his reward what was the ultimate reward you know but you didn't we have an interesting expression there's an expression we use Tuscola mitzvos we say it so often we don't even think what it means but like you know how many times I've picked up somebody on the side of the road and where are you going going a mile down and you drive them the mile down and you drop them off they say Tuscola mrs. disken limits this means you should be saying how you should merit to do mitzvos hold on a second I just did a mitzvah I do I do a guy a favor Disko limits was you should merit to do mitzvahs well what do you say I just did a mitzvah and I should merit to do a mitzvah what does it mean it means mitzvah guerreras Mitzvah a mitzvah causes a mitzvah so if somebody just did a mitzvah what's the nicest thing you could tell them keep it up you should merit to do more and more stuff like this in other words the greatest reward for doing good is not just that I'm gonna be personally helped the greatest reward for doing good is that Hashem gives me more opportunities to help so I can do more of the same so yay subs reward for going out of himself and saying hey guys what's up what's wrong how can I help you it only started his reward only started when it got him out of prison but what was his real reward for going out of his way and seeing if he could help a couple strangers his real reward is he went out of his way to help a couple strangers and that enabled him to help the world he saved the world from famine he saved the world from famine so you go out of your way a little bit and not only does it help you but the greatest reward it allows you to help others that's the lesson of valachia and that's the connection both to your test kiss love and death Annika get this case live shuttle city the city is compared to oil to light Chanukah is a festival of light we literally we liked the menorah with actual light there are a lot of reasons we use the metaphor of light but I'll tell you one thing that light represents this is something when I saw this in the sickness that ever said this as I thought only that ever could say this heart what's light light travels incredibly fast 186,000 miles per second that's how fast light travels the circumference of the earth is 25,000 miles okay that means from any point on the globe all the way around the long way back to that same point is gonna be 25,000 miles what does that mean that means in theory if you light a light anywhere on the face of this earth if it is unobstructed it doesn't get blocked the light will travel around the world right if takes one second to go 186,000 miles how long does it take the light to go around the world point one for something seconds in other words the light can go around the world over seven times in a second basically instantaneously it's such a nominal amount of time that is considered non time so what do we see light work super super fast so there's no such thing really as just a local effect everything's a global effect that you light a light anywhere on earth and it covers the entire earth instantaneously that's what light represents that's what sidess allows us to appreciate that there's no small Mitzvah and there's no such thing as me in my little corner of the world or a small interaction or a small person or a small a small action nothing small because everything is light it travels instantaneously around the entire world and back so we appreciate that sometimes just going out of your comfort zone and and thinking about others even when like yes if he was at the lowest point of his life and he had plenty of reasons to be resentful and really had plenty reason to rationalize there's no reason to even ask people how they're doing and yet every reason to just not go out of himself but if you put yourself aside put aside the ego and just look out for another human being or like Rambo from the show you could just say good morning to a person or good night so that this quote/unquote tiny act can have global repercussions again at the beginning of a of a chain reaction where you can actually save the whole world