Parshat Vayeshev: The Strange Origin of Yehuda's Sense of Brotherhood By Rabbi Ari Kahn

those of you who are interested in such things it's actually unusual that par Kana generally kanaka comes out on either mikash or both so it's one of these Oddities I'm not saying it's impossible but nonetheless that that is a a thing that it's somewhat rare Tov begins a story it's it it's a new story it's a story of Yosef and the brothers and that does continue through mikat and through Vash and to a certain extent through as well so therefore the beginning of the story is here so there there is something which is usual and I'll I'll just add another element to it that on khaka one part of the story and maybe this is one of the reasons that there's not so much information kazal about it but one part of the story is that it was a war between Brothers it was a war it started off as a civil war it was a war which uh uh between what was called the the Jews and theim those who had adopted Greek values and uh and therefore again I'm saying things which are obvious and everyone knows and everyone has either if not articulated it then at least they've thought it that in uh you know you're not supposed to speak lanara in the sua I mean by the way the truth is you're not supposed to Bear any place but you would think that the actually makes a point about it the how can he Lara there's actually a Yi that says that there were certain Jews who were uh who were thieves and and they would do terrible things and they would lie and cheat and steal but they wouldn't do it on chabas on chabas they tell the truth they would speak the truth on chabas and it me it mentions that uh there's a certain awe that we have for the holy an awe for the holy and uh but on suokas I remember there were people still sitting around and talking about the protest in Tel Aviv and it was the US and the them and then somehow the day after sukus there was no longer an Us and Them that completely disappeared so you know one one element of this of this holiday of kanaka is that it begins as something which we were people who were divided eventually the Greeks got involved in the war as well so whenever uh secular people in Tel Aviv would celebrate khaka I would find a great irony involved in this and and by the way there was an an active attempt or perhaps successful in order to hijack Kaneka to take God out of the story and a lot of the Zionist secular Zionist songs and ways of depicting Kaneka because again think about it if you want uh to try to find role models for a Jewish Army you'd have to go a little you know you got to go pretty far back to find a successful Jewish Army we haven't done that all that uh recently you know I mean we're not as bad as France I mean France their Maneuvers they practice holding White flags but we we just didn't have a uh we we we didn't have an army for an exceedingly long time so you have to go back to the time of the mbes in order to see again you go bar k but that didn't work out all that well go back to the macbes to find a time that we were successful at uh at fighting and uh but again sometimes we forget you know who was fighting whom and uh what the background to some of that was and then it really was it really was quite tragic so Le let's let's now go back and talk about Yosef and the brothers because apparently you know during Kaneka which begins with some kind of a civil war there is a Civil War which somehow explodes and you know that's the the famous Rashi that yov yov thought he was be able to live in tranquility and rosha Yosef and then the whole anger the story of ysep jumped him out of nowhere or y certainly shall we say Yakov didn't see it coming and had Yakov seen it coming presumably he would have done some things differently and kazal actually blame yako for some of this which you know it's not easy for us to blame Patriarchs matriarchs for things that they do the ramban does it a number of times kazal don't do not do it as much as the ramban does it but here's one of the places that kazal do uh blame yako for favoritism for getting a code so if any of you want to get for your kids grandchildren want to get them coats of Many Colors and get for all of them okay let's let's let's avoid these uh these problems just you know suggestions for your Kaneka gifts you know there's it's it's I don't know how many shopping days are left and uh and the funniest thing in Israel when they have Black Friday and nobody knows what it is so then someone decided that Black Friday was sounds wrong so they wanted blue blue Friday or blue and white Friday blue Friday what you have here and also no one knows what it is but it's uh apparently an opportunity to do retail therapy which is incredibly incredibly important so let's let's go and let's start and there's uh going to be certain things that I I'm going to try to stress along the way so we begin so I I've used that on occasion to uh pick on students and say did yako have a favorite and they say yes y fav who was his favorite then they would say that ysf was a favorite I would say it says no place that y if was yacob's favorite and they'll say of course it has to say it but it doesn't why is that somewhat unfair of me because it doesn't say yakob it says Israel and one of the things that we always suspect is that Israel is is this more national identity which means that he senses or he knows that Yosef is has this incredible capability mean the other part of is the continuation and normally the way to explain benim is that he is the child of his old age and the problem with that is that he has a child of old age who's much younger who is Benyamin so how can this be the benzak punim when he has a benzak punim so and there are a couple of Brothers who are not all that different from Yosef in age which is why it's complex which is why it it seems or it feels that it's not really talking about Yakov loving Yosef as much as yel seeing the capabilities of Yosef note the tarum and we're going to keep on visiting the tarum today you know where things were literal and where not over here I mean this is uh I he would say it was little interpretation so he says benim not as the son of somebody who's old the the Hebrew for Zak is generally a word which we would read as Sabah grandfather is Sab sabba is the is the Aramaic for Zak for old man I just wished the mazl to somebody who just became a grandfather and I told him that this means he's old and my wife was laughing on the side I said should I tell you what Safta means and she understood what Safta meant so over here he does not use the word for old he benim a child of his old age rather barim he was instead of benim a son of no he was a son who was wise because there are times in the Torah that the word wise is is described as somebody who's old and has developed wisdom as it continues so again it's here yov and and if you go back and read the para you'll actually see that yov and Yos go yob and Israel go back and forth so it's very interesting these times where it does say Israel is there something larger something National which is taking place over here and again the this bringing Yosef to go see his brother others is what's going to bring him down to Egypt and that's going to really be the beginning of the of the slavery so is there something much bigger taking place and Rashi does hint at that but but no again I want to note a word hell so note brother and it's not the first time that brothers were used Brothers is are used and that's the word that we're looking for throughout today the the word Brothers he goes N I want you to go see how your brothers are doing and ysf says here I am now now if there is any kind of Na it's probably equaled on the one hand between Yakov feeling that you know he can choose yosf and everyone will understand and it's yosf who thinks that everybody understands what his position is see how your brothers are doing and come back and tell me which of course is one of the things that the brothers were upset that ysep goes back back and talks too much and perhaps tells on them and again the mid speak of this and that's where Rashi notes from the depths of and all the way back from the Brit of for this Covenant that was made between God and Abraham that means that all that is coming to fruition [Music] excellent so this is really you know quite strange that it tells us you know who he asks you know instructions to that should not be all that notable unless this is the first time and maybe the last time in history that a man has asked for instructions and directions so maybe that's why it's notable but but other than that it's it seems to be just so coincidental or incidental and what significant is it that that he asks this person now now remember that Yakov had a meeting with an ish a mysterious ish in the field and there's many Echoes between the life of Yakov and the life of of yoseph and here is one one of them is that he meets this man in the field he says what do you want right almost sounds like go make a wish and he says something which is so poignant and so powerful and so depressing and that is y says I want my brothers and the problem is that they never reciprocated they never wanted him they were never looking for him they never desired him and ysep does again that's the na he wants his brothers where are they shepherding and the man tells him where to go he goes now we know that these places which are in the general vinity today of and jinin these are not nice places and they're still in our headlines today and they're still in the news today and there's still bad things taking place over there and then we get to this terrible almost incomprehensible they see from afar now that that's actually very important because they never they never see YF up front I hope you understand what I mean they see him from afar that means they really don't understand ysf they they only understand the general most really painting a picture with the broadest possible strokes and not understanding really what ysep was about not understanding ysf upfront not understanding yoseph in terms of what he really was interested in and what he was interested in was them was Brotherhood was was this kinship was this friendship was this Unity but they only see him from afar and even before he comes closer geographically they together they discuss the plans to murder him and we skipped a little bit they strip him throw him the thing they sit down to eat bread now I've I've noted before and I just want to strengthen this that's why we're here now um I've noted in the past that when they before they go down to Egypt because that's really where all this leads yoseph is about to be sent down to Egypt before they go down to Egypt yoseph um the brothers sit down and eat bread so I felt again more of intuition that therefore before we leave Egypt we need to sit down as a family and have a peser and then and then we can leave and that we do before we leave Egypt and that we do to commemorate it all the time so and and we invite brothers and we invite family even family who we don't want we we we invite them over there and and and as I said I always it always struck me so I just want to note for a moment if you look at the over here okay that was part we read sorry Stone source to now the pro the question is what does this word mean it's a translation they said to eat bread to eat so the the word is the problem what exactly doesn't mean because some of us our Aramaic is not all that good so if you look at source number three back where Yakov is deceiving his father which again you going have to then wonder you know part of these Echoes between yov and yosf ysf is going to end up the his sorry the brothers will deceive Yakov just as Yakov has deceived his father but now the word should be to sit that's come and come sit up sit and eat but over here uncus writes now is the same Aramaic word as so now just in case we still don't know what it means we go to Rashi in Source number five where where where he's dealing with the verse where yob says to sit up so he writes it means to recline by the table so therefore the way that people used to eat in the olden days is they would lie back so now it's really interesting so I I told you I intuited that this is kind of a source for the PES the brothers sitting around and and eating so it's even better than eating labor they weren't sitting up they were all reclining and uh and eating their bread so how interesting it is that on the the Seder we're all commanded to recline but I'm just saying that's actually here in the text at least according to uncus and that's how he renders the word vesu so we'll continue and then we have and now you could decide how you want to read this then we have an act of Brotherhood why is it active Brotherhood because you is speaking to his brothers what are we going to gain from killing our brothers now you could decide also was he being sincere now or is he being cynical and cover up his blood such a messy Enterprise is murder it's really you know something which is unadvisable or inadvisable instead let's go let's sell him to the let our hands not be guilty of killing him why cuz he is our flesh blood if you want we can bold that as well and his brothers listen to him so now what we have over here is something and the opposite we have Brotherhood seeking Brotherhood searching for brothers not recognizing Brothers but recognizing Brothers wanting to kill a brother not wanting to kill a brother let's not kill him because he's his brother he's our brother and let's sell him as well instead because he's our brother so now is Yehuda being Sinn or is you who to being sincere and I don't really have a good answer to that all that I can say is that there is you know I think the last time Brothers behav this badly we had like our Cen and heel scene and by the way there is something to that as well as much as of salivic pointed out but he didn't say kind in he when he pointed it out I'm saying that that the brothers are Shepherds and that's like he Cen on the other know as a farmer and yosef's dreams were about farming the the way Rebel salvat took it is that he saw the future with the day that the land will be Theirs to be a farmer you need to own land if you're just a Shepherd then you could be like the bin you could be nomadic and go from place to place and the brothers are going from place to place they go from sh they go up sorry they go from K they go to sh they go to Doan and they go wherever they can graze on the other hand the farmer plants in one particular place so therefore yoseph is is dreaming about the day the land will be ours while the brothers are living this nomadic existence on the other hand they can look and this is what I'm adding they can look at ysep and say wow look at this his dreams are to be like cayen and he's going to try to murder us and again you can see Ken as being more capitalistic you can see him as being more possessive and therefore a little bit you know different kind of an attitude and you know going back as far as the Cowboys and the what is the Cowboys and whatever they say in Oklahoma can be friends and uh and over here that seems to be a subtext and I'll say it again you have Brotherhood and then the very opposite of Brotherhood taking place yes someone had to correct bran had to correct me Farmers the farmers and the Cowboys can be friends the question is if that's true farmers and the ranchers okay now we're getting to grown him and uh someone's going to have to go and check it out but I'm going to proceed onward and and and again you know what's bothering me what's bothering me is the expressions of Brotherhood and the expressions of Brotherhood which are you know you have yose I'm looking for my brothers and they only see him from afar and then you have the brothers who are saying you know let's kill him and then finally no how can we kill him it's very messy and he's our brother let's only sell him and as I said all of that is really quite disturbing but what is the texture the nature the depth of this kind of Brotherhood and you see that there's something which is incredibly disturbing what is being described over here and I guess that pretty much takes us to the end of that chapter and then we can continue Yehuda goes on and gets married the the whole time frame over here is very interesting because Yuda gets married I mean yose is we ended chapter 37 with yph being taken down to Egypt meanwhile more or less during the same time which could have been before it could have been after and around the same time and again I mean some including Rashi he he gets diminished by his brothers I mean look how upset their father is and and and something has happened but Yehuda moves so Yehuda now gets married now who does he marry he marries well what's her name well it doesn't tell her her name tells her her father's name and tells her her father's national identity he is a Canaanite now if you've been following the the story marrying carites Canaanites has not been recommended till this point it's been something we've been trying to avoid so Yehuda goes and you know this is The Descent of Yehuda V Yehuda you see that V we can V that as well V Yehuda so The Descent of Yehuda includes within it marrying somebody who is really inappropriate as far as everything we've learned ever since y has been the age of dating which of course he did with by surrogate so there we were told Aram said no y can't marry somebody who's local and go with far away to find someone who's appropriate of course you can ask the more practical question you know yakov's got a whole bunch of kids who are they supposed to marry okay there's a problem maybe somebody should have opened up a Bas Yakov over there okay we'll leave we'll leave that and and uh continue so he marries a Canaanite and they they have a son now the the name Onan which actually has a connotation of mourning is a little disturbing and they were in at that time and yud takes a wife for his son now that's actually very interesting as much as Yakov didn't take a wife for Yehuda but Yehuda takes a wife for his but the other thing which is interesting by Yehuda we did not know the name of the wife but we knew the genealogy we knew that she was from a canite family over here we know the name her name is Tamar but we don't we're not told who she is or where she's from again the gut feeling the reaction would be that she must be she must be local cuz otherwise we would no but just again I'm pointing out notice the inverse over here that by Yehuda you know the name of you know that that is it is the daughter of a Canon night man over and but you don't know the name over here you know the name but you don't know who the family isem and he does something which is wrong in the eyes of God which we're not told what it is the mid will speak about it and God kills him tell you now this is absolutely completely perplexing why Yuda would say such a thing or what in the world he's talking about now some of you who are clever will say yeah there's laws ofum later on in the Torah and then our response would be and how do exactly does Yehuda know the laws which are later on in the Torah and you're going to come back and say well what are you talking about his father grandfather and great-grandfather all kept the entire Torah he knew all about this and he knew about khaka and he knew about purm and they actually had a little too much to drink on purm the year before and so on and so forth and and you know that I'm going to say okay if that's what you want well his father actually married two sisters I mean that's also a little problematic in the Torah and and and we can actually make this list of problematic things a little bit longer and I'm going to say it again it's completely perplexing so if and and there's a number of possibili ities one is it's local custom this is what they do two it's Yehuda does know the Future Okay three the future gets created because of what Yehuda says over here and it's yehuda's Instinct himself you could take any one of these approaches that you want but I I and and I can't prove any of them but I'll say the third one is to me the most intriguing that Yehuda has a sense of Brotherhood and he tells his son you need a sense of Brotherhood now you all realize why that itself would be ironic and and it goes back to what I said before the last chapter when Yehuda is talking about Yosef let's not kill him he's our Flesh and Blood let's sell him so it's a very interesting sense of responsibility and maybe those of us who think he's being cynical is because we're cynical we're used to being cynical we grew up being cynical right you grew up watching television to learn how to be more cynical right that's what late night television is it just teaches you to be cynical it teaches you to look at things and and uh to find a twisted type of humor in all kinds of things and over here was you was you to really being ironic or or is he being sincere no we don't kill our brothers when we get into a fight we're going to sell them we're going to get rid of them and uh and why because it's a sense of Brotherhood over here you have a further sense of Brotherhood and I'm going to say moreover you have a sense of Brotherhood being being expressed by Yehuda saying that this is your brother's wife and I want you to continue the family and I want you to take responsibility for her and I want you to take responsibility for your dead brother and that would be so interesting if this was created by Yehuda by the way there is a medish that supports this just in case those of you who think I'm making it up now I just want to pause for a second why would Yehuda expect his own son Sons to live to a level of Brotherhood that seems to have escaped Yehuda himself I'm not going to say right now that yehuda's family all knew about the sale of yoseph although on the other hand when you have a secret which is known by 10 people then very often that becomes more popular and more people know it and more people know it but nonetheless and and incidentally it sounds very much that either Tamar later on knows it or she has rodes but we're not going to get into that today but maybe they see the way that Yehuda gets along with his family maybe they they see the way that Yehuda gets along with his brothers maybe they don't sense that Yehuda ever had a great sense of uh of responsibility for the brothers and what was articulated by Yehuda you know let's get rid of her don't kill him because of Brotherhood but it but it's a very Twisted sense of Brotherhood and therefore over here his expectations that that there will be Brotherhood with his children maybe that's a wrong expectation when you haven't displayed it yourself and it's not going to be his of course it's not or it will but that's not the point the point is how does how does yud phrase it keep your brother alive and he's not interested in doing that he's not interested in that type of fidelity or that type of responsibility or that type of brother Ood he he is it doesn't interest him and it says and he absolutely refuses to be intimate with her at least in a way that she can become pregnant and then God was very upset with what he did now there are those again based on the mid who will say that that God was upset with him right it's the same language he did and he does and here says God killed him as well so those who claim that you can go backwards and say that what was it that a had done he did the same thing and then the narrative which is built by the midash and maybe we'll have time to see it is that she was beautiful and he didn't want to ruin her figure he didn't want to ruin her beauty he didn't want her to get pregnant he uh he thought that women are here for other reasons women are here for for their beauty and therefore both of them did the same thing and therefore they both made sure that she would have become pregnant but and it was coming from different places both selfish by the way and Yuda at this point is frustrated because again his desired for his brothers sorry for his sons the brothers to take responsibility for one another it just doesn't happen and then Tamar takes the actions in her own hands and it says that P gimmel yud by this point has lost his wife as well and he's experiencing some loneliness go he's coming for shearing season but she took off her clothing of mourning and this point Yehuda when he had set up with her saying we wait for my third son to get older even though he had absolutely no intention to uh to have him marry her to take respons possbility and she's just waiting she's waiting and waiting and you know as they would say the biological clock is ticking and he's just telling her to wait so it says that she changes her clothing and she waits along the the way and it says again clearly K and she's just told to wait that's and he thinks that she's a prostitute for her face was was covered and he stops and he propositions her along the way and he says to her can I have relations with you please he didn't say please I just didn't want him no maybe yes hav he says please can can I have relations with you please because he did not know of the relationship that this was his daughter-in-law what are you going to give me and so they're negotiating over here and he says I you know I I don't have any cash on me I'll send you over the goat and so on and so forth and give me the collateral and along the way she they're intimate and she gets pregnant and then they he said you to send someone to start looking to pay his debts CU Yuda likes to pay his prostitute debts and he goes looking for her and he can't find her by the way it is interesting because he thought she was and the guy looking thinks she's a kesa kesa may actually be a more of a temple prostitute and have a different connotation to it and they say there was no Temple prostitute around here I didn't find her there wasn't anyone like that goes okay it's enough we don't have to become humiliated like you say I'm not going to put an ad in the paper saying will The Prostitute who was intimate with Yehuda you know please make herself known and he says forget it I tried I did my best couldn't find her let's move on he then discovers that she is pregnant that he's told that she had committed which is an inappropriate sexual relationship your daughter-in-law and now she's carrying this illegitimate child but and yud says have her taken out to be burnt now this point that Yuda says take her out to be burnt is quite perplexing on on all kinds of levels know if you're going to insist to me and and there are those who are going to try so hard to work walk up this line and they're going to say no yehud was keeping H he was even keeping ium so if yudu was keeping yeum so then why is he saying take this woman out to be burnt just hold on a second because you're gonna find a very elegant answer and as she's being taken out she sends to her father-in-law and the collateral that she's taken and says this is the guy who made be pregnant and then he realizes that it's him and Yehuda was guilty and he says she's more righteous than I am because I refused to give my other son to her and then he never knew her again now let's let's let's go back a little bit this idea of Yehuda approaching Zona if you want we can open up the Rambo in the beginning who essentially says that before the Torah was given then uh sexual relations were subject to negotiations and agreement and money being passing hands and it's absolutely fine so therefore I can then say ah if Yuda keeps the Torah then he's that he has a problem but before Matan Torah there was no such thing as kadan now that's so says the ramban okay on the other hand uh did they have a law of Ben Noah but Noah does have a sense of uh of marriage and we'll we'll leave this cuz again I don't want to get overly halakic right now but but I will note that when shimun and Ley were upset with the city of Shem and again we're back to Shem as being our problematic Place their moral argument they made with their father who says how can you do such a thing do you want to turn her into a Zona so therefore being a Zona is not something which is so nice by the way is if it's your sister again notice the Brotherhood and and the feelings of Brotherhood and taking care of your sister but the fact that Yehuda can treat someone like a Zona so that should be a little disturbing but nonetheless we're going to move on and there's something really specific I want to say in Source number eight which is the take her out to be burnt may may now he's mentioned half a dozen times in rabic literature he's student R mayor says R mayor's name Tamar well that's we were told her [Music] name she was a daughter of Shame she's a bain and the bohen speaks about the the sins of sorry and and it speaks of the sins of a daughter of a Coen and there it does mention so over here I hope you realize the Brilliance of this I mean there's all kinds of difficulties but the Brilliance is trying to justify yehuda's Behavior Yehuda is right yehud is right take her out to be burnt because she's a about cohain who is her father her father is shame now how you know shame is a cohain is itself a problem that her father is shame presents a whole another problem and we'll continue in Source number 10 where it doesn't speak about her coming from shame it talks about Tamar and it says she's like theor it's saying no she's really this wonderful person right Torah brings about forgiveness Source number 10 similar things Source number 11 we're told again the who she won't be as beautiful if she has children the Torah is telling the mid is telling that we're using some metaphors over over here and we don't want to explain exactly what was done but what was supposed to be done wasn't done let's put put it like that and therefore he made sure that she would not become pregnant the tarum yonatan says who is this Tamar it says Barat sham Raba the daughter of Shame so now you see that approach that R mayor taught is there as well the AL as well and he mentions that who's her father the ALS says must be maled because maled is described as a Kain so if she's going to become a bain so maled but by the way that only got you halfway out of it because maled is described as being shame so therefore it's shame it's m you do remember where he shows up it's all way back in chapter 14 in bra perid with the war of the Four Kings and the five Kings at the end maled then chose me shal uh so maled lived a long time ago his daughter may not be all that young but nonetheless going back to this point that she's called Tamar he tells us that the name itself at the very end he says the name itself points towards righteousness as he as he notes from you can maybe if you want to work hard you can maybe talk about you maybe talk about being the being the and he can work hard and work all that out Rashi cites this to explain but and says because she's the daughter of Shame about about cohain the does a little bit of the math for you maybe it's not his daughter maybe granddaughter great granddaughter great great granddaughter sh died when yob was 50 been may have and if you do the math Yakov is now that means he's been dead for 60 years so how old can his daughter be if uh if shame has been dead for 60 years so it says it must it can't really mean what it says the rambam's son of Abraham in Source number 20 well I just want to go back to 19 for a second says that your daughter-in-law is guilty of meaning why does he treat this with such severity take burner because n is very bad now I want to point something out which some of you will understand already that if Tamar is guilty of N and is really bad and nonetheless Yehuda went and visited a Zona so what do you call that other than inconsistency or perhaps worse I know some of you are going to tell me all kinds of te technical reasons in Source number 20 R vam writes says take her out to be burnt now so what it just now did is it call it said Yehuda was known as a judge and his decisions were final and then he kind of slips in something here which none of you noted what he did I'll explain and he says and the law for such a person in those days in that place now he had to qualify I'll explain why in a moment was that if somebody was guilty of this kind of aut then you take them out to be killed now could we be technical on a couple things one if you really want to say that yehud is keeping Hala over here and everything is being done and therefore she's about Coen and so on and so forth which by the way that's not what ra ra said I will then note that if he's being a judge then normally if you're being a judge in a case of someone you're related to you need to recuse yourself because you can't be a judge in such a situation right if you're related to the defendant then you cannot be a judge in such a case nonetheless you're going to find all kinds of people working extremely hard to try to make all of this work out in terms of Hal the take her out to be killed and he quotes this teaching from R mayor saying that she was about Cain and goes there were no Witnesses she wasn't warned how could you tell me that this is uh that oh she's about calling or following the Torah or following Hal you're not following Hala now I said the problems with the judge forget the problem with the judge you have a problem there's no Witnesses there's no none of this works in Jewish law of now this is one of the I looked him up and he's called you see in yellow so he was one of the B of to so he explains the Isel sometimes people are generation could be on a low moral stature so therefore we need to be stricter than normal and therefore that's what y he goes therefore that's what they did over here and then he points out afterwards but the math is really difficult he's technical forget out the math he goes how can he go back to he's dead already by the way it's not he's not bothered by the problem that she may be hundred years old he's bothered by the problem how can he say go back to your father's house he says okay you can still call a Father's House even if the father's not there anymore so as I said we worked hard he he was called here y Isel in the can him he's going to call hims isim and we're going to have a similar kind of discussion in Source number 23 the MOs canum also from the balas he he mentions this tradition and he does not love and he does some of the math and he finds that she forget 100 years old that would be a spring chicken so he says a little hard to say that that's who she was and he again he does all the math and by the way then he goes to the math he goes with Aon on and he goes he was probably according to my math 7 years old so he seven she's 186 you wonder why the relationship didn't work out okay this was incompatible in a way that you can't imagine but as I said we we're we're working too hard over here and and he goes through some of this math and some of this discussion but he also brings a mid okay you see it over here and he says Adam was the one who commanded was the first one to have a br in eight days and Yehuda was the one now it's not clear if Yuda was commanded it or Yehuda was the one who who started you know how can you say take her out be killed and here he points out cuz he actually learned the gor you of aote which I won't accuse any of you of yes I'm picking on all of you where it says that so I need to explain this a little bit what is a is a woman who her husband passed away and they didn't have any children so now she has to have either or so now there is something called zika which connects her to the brothers of the deceased so over here what we're told is that she's not really married and and and what zika is is this great halakic conundrum but this is the important part the woman who is a sh waiting for the to take place one opinion is that it's a MIT say that to have is say and one says that it's a that she's not allow but me no one says that she's guilty of a death penalty for this so how can you if you're going to say that she's sh ium then how in the world can you say she should be taken out to be killed for this this doesn't really seem to work that well and you know one of the approaches over here is that that Yehuda was being look at source 24 he was being it's always good to be M and somebody else so again I want I want to pause for a moment because maybe we just now got very lost along the way and we're going to make like a little bit of a of a Twist and Turn and then I I want to make sure that you see what we did but Yuda if he really does introduce ebom and that's what it sounds like then it sounds like Yehuda has this wonderful sense of Brotherhood on the other hand Yehuda doesn't seem to have a wonderful sense of Brotherhood on the third hand maybe Yehuda was not being cynical and there really was this strange sense of brother don't kill yoseph let's sell him cuz he's our brother but what yehuda's children get out of yehuda's parenting is really what's interesting because they don't seem to have the same sense of yum and again it would be fascinating to to follow that Pika and say Yes Yuda out of a sense of Brotherhood creates the law of yum and then the Torah later on tells us of this law that y yud created I don't have to say it was local law don't take it was local custom yud de sees this as being something which is a moral responsibility of of of brothers and sense of Brotherhood which again is really interesting and really ironic given uh given yehud his track record so I'm going to say it again we don't really know exactly what we should be doing with all of this but nonetheless uh I I want to continue There are those who are so troubled by all of this that they go and they create a whole different difficulty which means maybe Huda never said to take her out and burn her I I know it says it but maybe he never said so you already I hope appreciate the path I'm going down just totally say it doesn't say what it says but give me a second because it really is quite interesting so if you look at the balat turm again this also sense comes out of that toast for school but he tells us of there was one opinion that that that says that it can't be to burn her and what it really must be is that they were going to kill her by skila by stoning and then burn the body so I don't know if that made anyone feel about it but still let's go back now to the the to put a mark on her I'm sure this is known in literature to put a mark on her face in order everyone can see to branch her to Brand her as a prostitute that that that's What suggests he he cites this as well and he says the rush also said it by the way that the rush said it is now more interesting because the rush is the father of the tour right because so he's saying is yeah that uh the the the Muslims that he is aware of we're still doing it in the day of the of the rush actually the rush when he comes to Spain he was in from Germany when comes to Spain he finds that Jews are following this Muslim practice and he's absolutely shocked about it there's a chuva of the rush about this by the way there may be this idea of putting a sign may be connected also to the the oat of uh of Cen right Cen is also something going on where he's afraid whoever finds him is going to kill him and God says I'll put for you A Sign so what does that sign mean so there are are some who want to say the same kind of approach Ian ezar says okay that God gave him strength the ran quotes mid saying that God gave him a dog gave him a dog to take care of him because he was afraid by himself so and we will I think we had enough with that look at Rashi by kind that there was something put on his forehead so now you realize that this idea that some of the and others are saying about oh to burn her they're saying oh no that's really what happened with Cen somebody who has a stain of sin on them and therefore you know we got to kind before somehow surprised we got back to to kind again the Tis of the ezar and 32 is going to talk more about that rush and talk about the this whole approach and I hope we've had enough about this yeah it was the shadal who says in s 34 he quotes someone who claims that they were the burn after stoning and and and let's just pause with this for a moment do you realize what happened over here because something really interesting happened nobody's talking about how Yehuda is really guilty except for one person and who's that Yehuda right s which what's the implication s that you know I haven't behaved all that well over here and everybody over here is showing how no yehud is following Hal he's creating Hal he's doing everything right what are you talking about I mean yehud over here should be completely wrong and nonetheless we have this uh we have we have this wonderful complicated way that we were trying to Def defend him on the other hand maybe on the other hand we find something interesting when it goes to one of yehuda's Brothers who did something I I'll say which we can at least compare okay there's actually two of the brothers that we can compare and we'll go hopefully have time to look at both of them but first I want to look at one of the brothers that does something similar and uh and let's take a look what happens who which brother am I talking about obviously the next Source Ruan is so what did what did ruen do ruen slept with bilha now that's not a nice thing to do she's she is his father's now by the way wife concubine there's what to talk about the next line I didn't I I neglected to put a number in and because of this he lost his right as first born uncus says what he did that the tarum says he slept with heram yonatan cleans it up what does he do and you should know this from Rashi what does he do he moved the beds around he wasn't happy the whole narrative over here ra had died yakov's bed was in Ra's tent ra die so he move so yakob then moves in with billah and he finds hold it that you loved my uh that you loved more than my mother ruin says I can I understand but that that now you're going to B how can you do that to my mother and therefore he he drags the bed into lay his tenth now it doesn't say any of that except if you look in Rashi or if you look in other midashim they they say that and that's what the tar here as well that because he got involved in in his father's sleeping Arrangement it's as if he slept with her now you do realize that's a little bit of a stretch now the mishna in Source number 40 which is talking about cre Torah so one thing you need to know in the olden days when they read the Torah they also read the tarum why because they want people understand it it would at least it would really be like in schules today if they would read it in Hebrew and then read it in English so it's interesting they read the tarkum and you know if any SCH did that then they would accuse them of being reform or Worse M when it comes to the section of Ru NRA you read the words but you don't read the tarum you don't want the the kids understanding what went on over there you want to keep it quiet and what does the tarum say tarum says that he slept with her tum says what the says when it comes to the Tamar episode then you do and the rest of the mission is interesting as well there is going to be all kinds of intrigue what right you read but you don't say over the we're worried that people are going to look down at himashi of course people should look down at him cuz he did that's what he did no because it's an embarrassment for yov so it's not because we want to cover up Ruben's action we don't want to humiliate yov but either way it's not to be read not to be explained and he says says that's that's really interesting interesting because that's not what you would have thought he goes along the way over here and says no but it's interesting what did it say that there it says there you read the the text and you read the tarum so it says when it comes to the no there's no cover up but but it's interesting that that's the case ysf it would have said the action of Yehuda that yehuda's got a whole bunch of things on his uh list if it would have just said the action of Yehuda you would have thought it was selling y so therefore it says the action of the M Tamar which just goes more to this point that you know Yehuda would seem to be problematic and we're defending yud to left and right which then leads me to our third case which is similar and what's that that's of course yosf now Yosef is a sadic and we can read this as many times as you want and Y is is approached by Mrs sleep with me and he [Music] refuses and so on and so forth how can I do something so wrong would sin to God as well which means y doesn't sin Y and then day after day after and he refuses and no one's home so now there's two ways of reading this and you're going to have to tell me which way you prefer one is that ysep comes to the house and thinks no one is there or ysep comes to the house knowing that that she's there now I don't know which way to read this but I do know yoseph based on his track record and and and based on what's going to happen she grabs and runs away which means everything is consistent over here that ysep is completely righteous ysep does nothing wrong and nonetheless Yosef gets treated in the opposite way that Yehuda gets treated which is yudu does something which is objectively wrong and we're going and working hard and trying to show in terms of how how yeh is Justified and then when it comes to Yosef we're going to find all kinds of ways of attacking by the way the tarum that we read by ysf actually says something interesting remember say he came to the house no one was there right to do his work we'll see that there are some who explain that is a euphemism and that yep wanted to be with her so look what the tum does over here and ysep comes Source 43 he goes to check the records he did not go to be with her he went to do his work what was his work he was the accountant meaning what would a Jewish boy be doing in in the house of potifar he's the accountant and again that's what it says I'm not even making this up still what you want him to be the dentist no he's the accountant he's uh he goes in to do his job and then nobody else is there and then she attacks him ysep is a victim I mean do we all get this that ysep is a victim and over here not only blaming the victim we're going to start judging him look at rash right we got to vot got right there's now the time that I'm going to get one says he had work to do in order to fill his needs but what happened he saw the image of his father as thear says in s by the way I uh I saw something interesting about this that over here in the tud B it says that he sees the image of his father which my father this I'm not sure he'll have to qualify if it's the psychologist in him or the rabbi in him would say that this was the super ego it's his father's values that he sees right here and therefore he run he he wants to do it but therefore he runs away which means he went in meaning either way ysf walks out heroically whether it be because he first wanted to sin and or he walks out you know otherwise now be before we continue about all the people that are going to attack him I told you that this is interesting that he sees his father I just want to show you something which you don't have I did not share this with you cuz I found the this after I sent it Source 54 and 55 one is from the talami one is from the B Raba and they both add in one little interesting suggestion and he sees and he sees his father's image and then he you know he's able to control himself he saw his mother's image as well so it's not just his father he sawes he saw his mother which I want to explain for in a second in S 55 it says same thing and that cooled him down that was better than a cold shower at that moment by the way some explain that there's two different some explain that that he sees his father some sees in a dream some khom some think maybe it's a or it could be that that he sees his own image and he thinks that and he sees his father suddenly he realizes how much he looks like his father and his father would never do such a thing but what was it that cooled him down his mother now there's I'm sure that the freudians you know you get if the father was the super ego who knows what they're going to do with this that he sees his mother at that point I just want to say it in a spiritual sense okay if that's okay with you I know all of you have to get your minds out of the gutter and I want to say it in a spiritual sense his mother was the one again at least according to the medish we know that his mother was supposed to marry his father and then somehow his mother's not there unless is there according to the way the med says it is she says I Lov Yakov I wanted to be with Yakov but I controlled my passion and because I CU I knew that I did not want to embarrass my sister and by the way they were going back to the core of the sense of uh I I can't call this fraternity because it's two sisters of uh ciety I don't know how to call it it's the sense of uh of Brotherhood or Sisterhood whereby Leia and Rael care for one another but what is it that Rael did she controlled her sexual passion she wanted to be with this man and she controlled herself how interesting you know this ham or this mid Raba who say that he sees the image of his father and the image of his mother and his mother had this ability of uh of controlling her passion and therefore not doing that she wants to do but but why in the world have I gone there which means all of this is wrong yoseph didn't do anything wrong so you have you know ruing doing something wrong let's cover it up all that he did he was an interior decorator and he thought the bed looked better in the other tent okay and now we're done with uh with y and sorry with Ruan and you realize there's something wrong with that and Yehuda all we're doing is looking Yehuda as a judge over here was she a b Cohen was she not about Cohen she's 186 years old but she's about Cohen and so on and you say what in the world you know how did we get there and then it comes to Yosef who doesn't want to be with her he tells her I want to be with you it would be wrong for me to be with you and then let's start blaming Yosef over here and all of this I'll say it again is just so completely remarkable that uh that I don't know know what to do with it because why are we giving some people the abandon for the doubt and the other people who deserve the abandon for the doubt based upon their track record again yo Yehuda does not deserve the benefit of the doubt Yosef does we give it to Yehuda we don't give it to Yosef and that should be what what bothered us unless of course there's something else which is going on and then again that's what I wanted to get back to that Yehuda when he said don't kill yosa If there really was a sense of Brotherhood again for us that was difficult because we're cynical but maybe that was sincere absolutely sincere we we don't kill yo Yosef is dangerous Yosef can't be here ysep is causing all kinds of problems but what are you talking about killing him he's our brother and there was something sincere about that and therefore Yehuda is equally sincere when he talks to his kids but his kids don't get that message his kids don't understand the subtlety of Yuda and Yehuda really does create this this law of ium because he thinks that there should be Brotherhood he thinks there should be responsibility now why am I now giving him the benefit for the doubt I mean he he done a lot of things which are wrong for a very simple reason cuz I know how the story ends the story ends is that Yehuda ends up standing up and taking responsibility for his brothers Yehuda ends up with this sense of Brotherhood which emerges out of something now the question goes back so where did that emerge from so you want to tell me huda's transformed fine that's not my question my question is where did the sense of Brotherhood come from and even with Yehuda if I want to pick on him and I again I've carefully read through the whole Soliloquy the whole speech that he gives in parash and by the way it's touch and go there and we we can do it if you want to but I'm ready overtime so I have to stop in a minute it's touch and go there because he speaks about his brother and he speaks about but he also speaks about his father at the end of Yehuda speech it's not about his brother but it's about his father that he needs to try to fix that relationship it's the father he can't see his father suffer anymore but the whole sense it is Yehuda becomes the leader Yehuda and his brothers and the brothers do look up for him and and Yuda does take responsibility and how strange it may be that you because again you all would have said and I would have been the first one to say it that the sale of Yosef represents within udah a total moral failing and I'm going to say that no that was on the table at the time was the murder of Yosef and Yehuda has this for us extremely strange sense of Brotherhood where he says no brothers don't kill one another and even if there needs to be some kind of a change over here we're not going to kill him what I'm really then suggesting is that somehow out of this again morally problematic troubling cell of yoseph and we know that on the one hand ysph ends up fulfilling this Divine mission of the Jews having to go down to Egypt and the britan ofarim and the ens slavery and and so on and all this will begin over here so how interesting again normally we would say that the greatness of Yehuda emerges with those words satom many she's more righteous than I am but it could be that there is something beforehand which is really where it emerges from that Yehuda was sincere and therefore Yehuda is trying to raise his kids to be sincere and therefore Yehuda creates this law of yum because Huda is interested in Brothers taking care of one another and Yousef and and Yuda is interested in some type of redemption and therefore there needs to be things need to be fixed incl within these brothers and those are his sons and Yehuda is trying to teach something over here now we can argue about how he does it we can AR all kinds of things is that when it comes down to it Ruan never seems to be you know we can say as much as you want ruing that's truth but there's no Redemption over there there's a failing when it comes to Yehuda there is redemption and now now where did that Redemption come from Redemption may have began much earlier than we suspected right there no don't kill him he's our brother and I'll say it again that's completely completely sincere as far as Yosef goes there are those who actually articulated if you want I can show you inside but I don't I just don't want to who say that that the thing about Yosef was is that he did walk out and then it comes to this old debate what's better not have a yahar at all and walk out of the room or to have a Yahara and to walk out of the room which means that could be in certain people's minds that to say that ysep is struggling with the atar that's what makes him yos sadic it's the walking out of the room either way he walks out he runs out now the question is but what did he want to do did he want to be there or did not want to be there so that debate about what's greater to want to sin and not sin or not want to sin and not sin what is really greater that becomes then the debate about about who ysep is not because they're trying to attack ysep but quite the opposite they're trying to put Yosef on the highest moral level only question is what is the highest moral level is the highest moral level somebody who has absolutely no interest no desire or somebody who walks out because they have absolute interest and absolute desire but nonetheless it's morally wrong yoseph gives that speech this is morally wrong it'll be wrong against my boss it will be wrong against her husband or be wrong against God and he walks out but we're not told about what he feels what does he want so he sees the image of his father and he runs out and now we learn today something else maybe even he sees the image of his mother and he walks out maybe seeing the image of his mother is what gives him the strength to walk at gives him the strength delay gratification no this is not the right time it's not the right place it's not the right person I'll wait say that's really interesting Yosef is going to Emerge being the tadic why because I'm teaching today and you know that whenever I teach yoseph is the sadic that's the way it works that's part of the rules over here but what we did over here is that we gave Yehuda more credit than we I think normally would have and maybe the core that's what's so interesting is that the core of greatness comes at the least expected places the important thing is is that what's around all of the story our brothers don't get along and now you realize why it's so essential for the story to end up with brothers getting along because we have to be unified that we have to get along that we have to get past the the the problems and therefore if Yehuda has a mob and saying let's kill this brother who's not like us and Yehuda say no we don't kill brothers maybe we don't get along maybe we won't live together we're not going to invite him for Thanksgiving but that doesn't mean that does not mean that you kill a brother you know that you don't do and therefore maybe there's something much stronger in Yehuda and it's not being cynical it's it's something which is stronger than we perhaps realized and as I said that that's the shift that took place between the sixth of October and the 7th of October where there was a great deal of dysfunctionality within the the Jewish community in Israel and now there's this great deal of unity and we hope and pray that God sees the unity accepts the unity and that that he he's will protect all of us and he will allow us to be completely Victorious with no more injuries and no more you know soldiers falling God forbid and that God accepts this Unity itself as something which is extremely holy because ultimately we've come to this realization that when that we are one people and we do not we do not kill our brothers and we do not push them aside and maybe even now we know we move to to whenever the day after the war is over maybe we will have learned something exactly that we took out of those uh those tanks that we were in together or or fighting side by side or uh or or were we died that side by side and uh all of those situations that perhaps now we'll realize also take that next step and have learned something and have grown something that even those times that we couldn't get along now we realize that there were Rules of Engagement there's rules of disagreeing there are ways that we could disagree with one another with respect but always with that profound knowledge and understanding that when it comes down to it we're brothers