Parshat Vayigash by Rabbi Baruch Taub

okay and uh I have two pieces here today to uh to go through with you um the first is um number one on the sheet is the basaly basaly um was Rosa salv okay the great grandfather of reever salvic of Our Generation he was the father of Rim he was the beginning of the salvic dynasty if you will and he wrote a purish Onish and uh when I was a young when I was a teenage boy was the first time that I I saw the basy and and I saw this basy um and it just it's an amazing piece of Torah probably the most uh well-known of py in fact I'm speaking to Rabbi Khan now he says what are you saying today say I went through the py too and um um it's it's he's speaking about the most probably the most dramatic moment in all of Tanakh when Yosef reveals himself to his brothers right I'm always surprised they made so many Biblical movies they never made a movie about Yosef about ysep and his technical or what whatever was called but this I don't think is in the movie um so dramatic the events leading up to the fact that they didn't recognize him right I think we might have mentioned this last week it's it's so um counterintuitive that they didn't recognize him they didn't know who he was after coming back and forth and he sits them down at the table and he sits them okay ruven shim and Ley sat them down according to their their order of birth and of course kazal say because they didn't recognize him because he was 177 when he left and they saw him now he had a beard they didn't recognize him but that's that's really you know stretching it because if you haven't seen some of but they have a beard it takes a while you know but you'll recognize the person he looks like yo right you look like also very good also he look like Yakov also so it's also it's Min Shay it's Min Shay but also uh because they you know it's it's really the idea that you can't see the the forest for the trees because they were hellbent on on doing something else and for whatever reason but we're not going to go there but let's see the Bas of Ley and um he focuses on the dialogue between Yehuda and yose after pleading and begging and finally they had shiman was in jail there of course he released him as soon as they left he took him out of jail yose as rashy tells us but uh now they brought baman down right and which is they didn't want to do it's going to kill their father and so on and so forth and here is the final the final plea from Yehuda and yose's response and and it's it's it's fascinating okay so let's let's try to pull it out here so finally he he get he's very emotional he sends everybody out the palace and he says to them I am Yosef is my father still alive okay now what the Bas is going to develop is that this statement cannot be the way we just read it just cannot be I'm Yosef is my father okay is my father alive and let's let's build up to that and they couldn't answer him they couldn't because they were Nal means um you're a ghast Nal is a verb that's used if someone gives you muser um if if a parent gives a child muser the response is you know speechless you know you caught me you caught me right you C that's that's Neal right right so that's question number one which he's going to deal with right a lot of things we have to understand in this POS a lot of things that are are strange and that's one of them that I've just given away IM y all of the the speech that that Yehuda made is plea to to Yosef until now now right the whole theme of what he said to yose you go through the psim when you you know you over shabas you'll see he was his his concern was the pain of his living father you know how could you how could we do this to our father k he said to him how can I go to my father without his son without B right he not gonna be with him while he was speaking at that time y said by the way you know now you know it's your father still alive when they as soon as they came the second time to he asked them what what did he say to themom how's your old father that you spoke about right is obsessed with his love for his father see every time he saw them he asked him by the way how's your how's your father right how is he still alive they told him he's alive right he knew there he was Li right they were still in this was again he asked them while they were still in MIT now he asks them again while they're still in again so you see where he's going here this cannot be simply is my father so we have to figure out what what he's really saying more if that was the question why didn't they answer right your father yes your our father is alive right what did they answer right they were nonl they didn't answer anything they were shocked how can you be shocked you answered it three four times before answer it again right now okay so what is going on here right and again what's this Neal so now he brings a medish okay which seems to be a little bit off top topic but it's not it will it will explain eventually what's going on on this there's a medish on this here's what the medish comments right Amar ABA Coen bah this Rabbi ABA Coen Barda said woe to us for the day of judgment Jud after 120 years everybody's going to have a day of judgment woe to us for the day of rebuke right we come to the retion again for the first right away we have to understand what what is this doing this is the explanation of this P well we'll see what he means y y was the youngest of the they couldn't answer him this is the medish because they were as we explained comes when comes and gives us muser after 120 years for everything we did individually as it says in the I'm going to do it everybody gets their own personal judgment right so we're all going to get it many people spoke Med what is the medish saying what is he saying here what does this have to do with is my father still alive and they were right where is the in this POS so they maybe they were they were nonflu they were taken a they were Gass right suddenly shal you want to say maybe because they didn't know he was yose okay maybe that's the shot here okay that I can I can buy that but but but why be speechless what's this two- part of Med the medis is saying that there was a there was muser given here Yosef was giving them muser right and there's two parts there's two dimensions of muser okay there's two dimensions of rebuke right woe to us we have to be we have to be very have a little lot of trepidation about the day of judgment and you also have to be a little nervous about the day rebuke well aren't they the same what what's the difference right continues when comes and gives each and every one of us mus according to our own Deeds right we got to understand this what what is um what's going on here so where does this come from the puzle right okay these two Dimensions right whatever it means and why why where does this come from in the P right but the way I'm going to say it in my words I'm going to tell you I'm going to give away the main point here because it's important because the words get a little the language gets a little confusing ysep was not asking him a question ysep couldn't take it anymore he said to you how can we go he said you how can we go back to our father we're not with with and you want him to bring bmen binyam is his youngest son he's going to die he won't be able to live without his son yoseph sends everybody out of the palace and he says you know what he says to him how dare you an ysep I'm yoseph you sold me down the river I was the youngest child I was the love of his life isn't he still alive why didn't you do what what you what's your answer to that right it was a rhetorical question but he he exposed them that was m and there nothing to say that's how that PK is translated it's extraordinary translation of the PK that's what he's going to say this is the Bas right this is this is what he's saying here right so let's now see it inside okay what the is really saying of the he wasn't saying don't worry I'm I'm he was appeasing them appeasement by the way there are many words in loen kodes many words in English that come from loan kodes right PE is one of them there there are many more fell fact somebody there was a fellow that wrote a book years ago um all the words in English that come from Hebrew now you'll look in the dictionary it'll say oh Latin or French or whatever but many words like this PE right appeasement right pardon me what's that Moses Moses and oh we have a librarian here didn't we have that book in the library in the sh we did I couldn't find it somebody all right but that's okay thank you thank you okay pardon appease to appease PE to appease so um it wasn't just trying to appease them you relax you know um you should know the the second person after they were shocked right that by the way answers why they their their their reaction was n because they just received mus right he says a second then he says a second time now he can say to I'm Ys your brother right he's now I'm your brother right now he showed them love right just you know he he immediately did show them love afterward right he showed him that I love you and you're my brothers after all is said and done you're still my brothers so so relax that's what he said at the end that's not what he said at the right so the first he only said he didn't say I'm your brother he said nothing about love right in Brotherhood CL when he told him he was y he spilled the beans they had no rest from this they had no right you know they were petrified that we did all these terrible things to this is y we did look at listen what he's saying to us and now we have fallen into his hands who knows what he's going to do to us right no he can do whatever he wants us now there's no question Yehuda is thinking the brothers are thinking this is this is payback time this is payback time from from y right even later on when they saw that he was good to him good to them right mik you know Rashi brings this out it's a when yov died they were afraid of him again maybe he was only being nice to them because yakob was alive so they still there was still this lingering doubt of whether yoseph was was really a pure sadic or not right I mean how how much can a person take right maybe he really hates us and he answered them immediately don't worry my father's dead doesn't mean doesn't change anything right you're my brothers and I understand why this happened and you have to understand this is all and even though now they were petrified and they were they were they were they were speechless they couldn't answer him so he hasn't answered it yet right I've given it away to you right but when he says my father still alive now the med is explaining to it wasn't a question what I said before there was no room for this question he was told three times at least that their father was alive is explaining be they were shocked it was a rhetorical question surprise I am isn't father still alive even after what you've done right and you have the you're saying all of these things to me right you have no you have no excuse you really have no excuse right everything you're saying is very good we how can we go back to our father right we care about him we're concerned for him makes sense it makes sense but but you did this you did this to him so you've just thrown out your whole argument in court right you made a good case and now you you but but the fact is from your life you're you're you're wrong right I don't understand how father's still alive today right you you shouldn't you should be shocked that he's still alive you did this right me sorrow from the tremendous pain for all these years he didn't know what happened to me remember ysep was was the love of his life he loved there was all kinds of discussion in the gamor he gave him the code of Many Colors you're not supposed to uh you know uh love one child more than others we all know this is in parenting this is the worst thing you can do what was this all about right we know that he sat and learned with him um so there were that really created the sense amongst the who by the way were very holy people and they they they formed a ba they made a b and they decided that Yosef made a decision which is wrong that he is going to be the only person to carry on the M once the Torah is given and not not include us so they felt that yoseph had made a terrible mistake because of what yakob was doing that's a little bit of what was going on here so they were not evil people right they had a they again this is part of the part of the whole problem with theat right and through all of this this dialogue this statement uh is hidden a tremendous question it was a contradiction to everything that they were saying their whole defense their whole defense was a good defense how can we go back to him you know what we suffered enough right and this is this is the steerer this is the I've checkmated you right that's what he's saying right this was the checkmating of Y in his whole claim in yehuda's whole speech the whole discussion of Yuda was the pain the pain of of their father right at B that he's going to be what's going to happen to him if if if we let you take B so so big question on them why didn't you feel this way when you sold me down the river right further if father could live without you know he could live without what do you what are you what are you making a statement for he could he survive without me he'll survive without B right yakob is a man of Faith right he he this is after right after all of the of their father right this is's thing took so now after he finished his whole speech Yehuda then Yehuda that was it ysep broke down this is it you know he's got to put everything on the table now so and they were not they couldn't speak because immediately they accepted it I mean let's understand that they immediately accepted it right it was a complete contradiction and a question on everything they said M from themselves to themselves in other words their own actions disproved their teller right okay now that answers what ABA Cohen Barda is doing with this explaining this business of to when we come to the Ron the two dimensions of to that's what this is doing because that's what you see here in the in the dialogue between yosf and yeh right that's why the medish concludes talking about this moment in history right will come and he'll give mus to every single person according to who he is right I'm not going to compare you to someone else I'm going to give you mus who According To You Right very specific what is saying that mus is gonna be I'm not going to say why couldn't you be like your brother why couldn't you be like why this is the musim right why couldn't you be like you right and they're going to get caught they're going to get caught in the web of their own actions how they contradict each other and for every sin you know human psychology is such person we have excuses I did something okay you know really I should have been better but you know there things it wasn't it was too hard for me right everybody sees themselves doing the right thing right we see ourselves as sikim to a certain extent right um I'm not a bad person right for example M guy doesn't give he says you know listen I have an answer you know kosa I I work very hard for a living I I don't make such a such a big living like the other guy you know and all the the daily responsibilities I have for my house my mortgage my children my tuition my wife expenses for the house right everything right I don't have anything at the end of the day to give to anybody else speak this is not enough of a good answer right you know um by the way way for example just a a timely example um kanah candles even an ani um a poor person who's who's supported by welfare has to sell his shirt off his back to buy a Kaneka candle to buy kanuka candle right that's how important uh lighting the kanuka candles are I'm just throwing that in here little kanuka okay so the an CLA not really a good answer because the gor says after all the rabbis tell us if a person sees that he doesn't have too much he still has to give ster right even if he support him by welfare stalker even someone who's supported by welfare he has to give stalker like what he gets from welfare is income so from the welfare he has to give if some if someone gets a gift right from somebody from a parent from whatever they they have to give stalker from that right it's a it's a very normal question that people always ask a rabbi about inil stalker but it's income everything is income right Yas stalker so a poor person has to give Meer from his welfare right that being [Music] said but maybe you can say look the punishment for a wealthy person y who is stingy it's a little bit different for this poor guy who's not giving ster right so this answer so maybe this answer that he saying I don't have any money I have nothing left for all my expenses right so maybe they'll help okay so I hear you I hear your case oh but didn't you go with your whole family to Florida for a month during ation and stay in the Diplomat Hotel right and rent a car you know uh I'm not so a person is showed from the movie is being is playing right they show the person from you got a good case but you know that's exactly what's happening right I you you you spent a great deal of money on something not so important whatever all these are all different reasons have to translate everything but you spent money on not on good things right like this like a vacation right not that you're not deserving of a vacation but maybe a little different if you know give a little stalker and take less of a vacation right become how much money did you spend on on teaching your children uh encouraging your children to do things that are are NE are negate uh the spirituality of Torah whatever whatever right kosa why when you when you did an AA when you he's calling it an AA maybe you know certain you spent the money on Aus right whatever it was you didn't think you didn't give it a second thought right vist B so now you're you have double double whammy it's a double punishment that's the two dimensions of rebuke and that's what the med says everyone gets according to who he is according to who he is right that's what he means you get because the din I the Judgment judging first on the din of sta okay let's get your Ledger how much sta did you give that's one thing oh you didn't give so much I hear the reasons okay but now the is right so it's it's a domino effect of ofan and that's why the med says he concludes here two parts to our court case right the is on the whatever I my misstep whether it's stuck or whatever else it was and the mus is the the counterargument of the prosecuting Turney he shows you from your your your your tax receipts or your rather your receipts from your hotel and your airfare and everything Al and and the punishment is going to be much greater doesn't have an answer commotion so and that's why they had no answer they were speechless that's that's the Nal man so this is absolutely I mean I think you'll agree this is an incredible interpretation of a simple p and it answers all of the questions that everybody should have asked including me and all of us which we don't ask but this is this is the Bas okay we'll talk afterwards I have we're on we're on a video if we can just ask afterwards okay thank you thank you very much so uh let's go to the next piece um this is um we've seen we've seen this before this is from the safer those of you who are joining us now for the first time this is RA alter who is the Russa of G gidus I don't know if you're up on the uh the recent politics in in G in the last several years the last decade but there was a split in gidus and ra alter who was a cousin of the GBA who was the Russia Shiva split from G was a split not going into what it's about how it's about but he he he started his own institutions and um and uh so G split into two okay so you've got G casus and you've got the g g of R alter this R alter in the last 10 years has become a rock star uh aside from the fact that in his Torah he's an incredible person he's an incredibly normal person incredibly uh open person and embracing person he has gone already to to give sh he has visited families in the South um who were homeless um he has tra travels to America he is he has a following Way Beyond theic world he has a tremendous following and uh he's just he's something very special so this is a piece from him okay and from one of his forum and this actually it's titled because this is actually something vori said after a brism right which really is not no G but he he brings in a little bit about brisma afterwards but he's he's making it a totally different point a kind of muser point but I think it's a a beautiful idea so first of all he brings a very interesting comment from the to on the Kish you know gamor toas is on the page of the gamorra and but they also the BOS wrote a purish [Music] the and they say the following now you know there's a lot in this para there's another dialogue that takes place right once Yakov comes to uh Egypt he go he takes him to go see uh parro right uh and they have a very brief conversation right that's what he's goingon to talk about by the way by the way question based on everything we said before for 17 years the Yakov yoseph settled Yakov in Goan and every day Ephraim was sent his son Ephraim went to learn with his grandfather why didn't yose ysep did not visit his father after that whole thing they they you see in the par they wept on each other's shoulders they doed for the U for the B mikdash mikdash and Shilo and um and it says there that you know yosef's U mourning at that moment was was modified because he he um he didn't cry and the maral says because at that moment when he saw his father he was so overcome with love with love and and and he trans he wanted to thank the ronish for bringing his father back to him that the two of them were together and he said kashma he said kishma at that moment right but the love that he had for his father and were together whatever then he sets them up and goes for 17 years doesn't go to see him why not so I think again it's the dasem bosis I'm not sure says because he was afraid he's going to sit down with his father over a cup of tea and a gamorra and his father's going to lean over the table says Yos tell me what really happened then what would happened between you and your brothers right he didn't want to have that conversation Amazing Story right about how much he loved his father to the point that he pained himself after finally seeing him he didn't go back to him okay but let's see what he says here this is another conversation Yak is brought into parro parro says him so the med says so he answers him he says how old are you Yaro says how old are you right are you he says you know my years are were not not many and they were pretty tough pretty tough right so the med says says to him I saved you from Asa from and I gave you back your daughter DIN and I gave you back you're fetching to how your life it was just kind of very hard that's what you say to right by your life he says that's that's it Med say sh this is the punishment that he's going to get for this the number of words from the beginning from paro's asking to the end of of yakov's answering the question from that dialogue right the number of the words right there are 33 words there in that conversation 33 years were taken from his life how do we know that sh his father lived 180 years vov Zion he did not he lived 147 years so he didn't live as long as this was just gentleman pointed out before tremendous uh symbiosis between Yakov and ysf they looked alike he was destined to live the same number of years as Yakov but he didn't from this conversation right all he tells us amazing bosis right but there's a question here that he's going to ask here question others asked but he asked the question yes we have to understand I understand I understand you want to take away the years of his answer yeah that count the words of the yakov's answer to parro right in that total of 33 words or also the words of what asked him right why was he punished for the words that of of parro in asking the question right what does the question have to do with his answer right so he's going to answer now has everything to do everything do with it there's two ways to answer that question right the answer is even if you want to say that he meant like you know that he's asking him about the quite literally the quality of your life right he's asking about the quality of his life M if you want to say that but it depends who's asking the question and who's answering right right you know well let me say I'll give you my example later I'm gonna tell you he says I want to tell you a [Music] story they told him about the tremendous wealth and uh spending on on Pleasure sh a very very wealthy gazillionaire and how he how he wasted his money sh for example right they said about this guy that in the summer he wanted he wanted to skape he wanted to to bargain he wanted to slay have a sleigh ride on the snow in a mountain they brought salt you can imagine how much she they made a mountain she they created a whole mountain of hard salt right and and he was able to sled down the mountain of this uh kosher salt koshering salt right it had to be hard salt right the said this is how you enjoy your life this is a definition how did how was your life right so you know at the end of his life what's he gonna say you know right har listen what he says here he never DED the prayer that's that's to say Nish with kavana that beautiful F of nishat that we say on sh you know nishat's become nishat is a very important F people go to the cootel 12 o'l at midnight at night to say nishmas special groups of women who go to say nishmas nishas are very holy and the ne this guy built his his Sligh ride in the summer but he never did said Nish now that's right he didn't really have any joyment he's not going to take that with him right he ain't GNA take that with him you know I was very moved by the way a couple years ago when was it Sheldon arenson Aliva Shalom the very wealthy Jew who gave millions millions away to err to other institutions I saw I saw a clip of his funeral and you saw the kadish of and you saw that he was buried not on a he was buried in a Talis he was buried rap like everybody else in yion to me that was like because whatever he did here that's what he's taking with right all of the the wealth that he spent he had a right to spend whatever he spent on right but that wasn't his his uh his mendi that wasn't his his his uh what he was all about right but this guy what's he gonna do he's going to take his sled with him right so but nishma we take with us right when par says you know um you know how's it going how were was it good or bad asking according to him you know it's like you know you go to a cocktail party you go to a Sim you go to a baritz a wedding and they serve drinks and you meet somebody and says Hi how are you what's your name sh so what do you do what do you do right so uh you know I don't know I drive a taxi I'm a doctor right you know but is that is that really the answer is that question for us what do you do right what do I do what do I do you know I don't really you know you can't spill the beans to such a person but what is what is it what do I really want to say to him you know I I learn Torah I do mitz I do I'm engaged in my community right right but parro you have to answer according to parro right he's asking according to himself you know right is not asking about his spiritual life what M are you learning he not asking so what you know see you go to sit down at a table at a wedding sometimes you're sitting with so let me hear from today right what did you learn today right not he's what is learning right he wants to know how how is it how much money do you have right let me hear how many houses do you have right what did you do over there in Canan shal he should not have answered that qu that question that way my you know for told him what what he had to go through with with Y which he which he survived and he survived you know positively with tremendous that's not what he was asking him someone outside of the the the spectrum of of Torah and and someone in in Torah for ideally all of them Israel it's a different question what do you do right how's it going how's your life the answer has to be very different and Yakov did not answer very differently he answered parro for whatever reason we're not gonna you know we're not here to criticize Yakov he had his kavas for whatever he did but that's why he was punished because the question also it was the question also right right we the children of yov have to learn from this right we are called the Jewish PE another name for the Jewish people according to kazal Yakov is is another name for Yakov is what Isel Sabah the Z Yakov our grandfather we have to know good and well what is good by a Jew what's bad by a Jew and if a person asks you is it good where you where you are you know what do you answer him depends on the guy that's asking and the guy that's answering right so one guy say well you know we have three kosher pizza places where we live right that's one guy the answer for one guy the other is you know I've got a choice of 60 shivas to send my kids to and and uh you know there are 10 shoes because not because there was a mlus but everybody a different right if he's talking about material istic Pleasures right you have to think very carefully what you're going to answer but on the real goodness of Life measured I'm going to end here the next the last paragraph is he's tying it into the bris okay thank you all for