The Reconciliation of Brothers & the 10th of Tevet by Rabbi Jeffrey Bienenfeld

well good afternoon early evening everyone um I'd like to discuss um two things um one uh we'll deal with one of the many interesting topics in in in in the paraa we know this is a very climactic para when ysf reveals himself to his brothers and uh and the very emotional Rondevu that yoseph has with bamin his younger brother and uh then later on when yakob comes down and uh you know Yakov and Yosef you know come together it's you know it's really a very when you read it no matter how many times you read the para this becomes a really an emotional experience you can how many times have we read this paraa but at least for me every time I read it you know you could almost feel how the various um you know the various individuals who participated in this coming together of the brothers and Reconciliation and Yosef meeting with his father this you know it really is is really is quite something I I want to focus on on one PK uh you remember when the after the reveals himself and yoseph says please go back and bring our father bring yakob and the entire his entire household down to MIM and I will take care of them because there's going to be this was the second year of the famine there's going to be five more years turns out Rashi quot the medish that when yob came down there was a what shall we say a miracle of sorts and the famine ceased which is one of the reasons that parro was so impressed with Yakov but at least at this point we don't know that the famine is going to cease so Yakov encourages and asks uh the brothers to bring the father down and of course Yakov agrees but before he agrees we have the very famous P when they when they tell yob that Y is alive say you know uh he so originally when they tell him that is alive and he is the ruler over all of Egypt his heart started to beat but he he didn't believe them and then it says and he saw the wagons that and yov and yakov's Spirits became revived Rashi says all of a sudden R KES that had escaped him all those years returned and he was ready and he was ready to go what's this about he saw the wagons in other words it certainly seems from the P that when he saw the wagon that clenched it before then he didn't know whether believe he didn't know whether to believe the brothers how could it Beed uh and then he sees the wagons and he realizes that this is true what the brother said is true yph is alive so I'm sure we're familiar with Rashi quotes the medish that what that the last the last um you might say conversation that um that jakov had with his son ysph remember after ysep has the dreams the brothers are out in the field Shepherds and yakob says to ysep I want you to go and check out shalom shalom I want you to seek out the Peace of your brothers and basically y was telling ysep look you know uh there's a real issue here between you and your brothers you need to make Shalom so he told to go you know go and make shom and then he said I want you to get back let me know what happened of course we know what happens y goes and of course he is you know thrown into a pit and then he's eventually sold to MRA Yosef never gets back to yakob so far now what happens is that uh the last conversation that Yosef had with his father before he left to find his brothers was this para of egla arua now I'm sure we're familiar with egla arufa which is that when a you know you know when a person is uh is found murdered between two cities so uh they measure and they see which city is closest and then the elders come out and they have to decapitate a CF and they say you know we weren't you know they beg AEM they beg AEM to forgive them because how could it be that a Jew should leave one city and that he should be killed and that they didn't do what they were supposed to do so the MAF the G talks about this they should have escorted him out and they should have given him food and so on so apparently if they didn't do that then this individual was prey to robbers and murderers and so on and so they had to ask Hashem for forgiveness and and they and the sacrifice is this egla arua where they decapitate uh you know a um a calf so this was the last conversation that Yakov had with yoseph so when yoseph sends the agolos the word agos is wagons but it could also mean AEL it can also mean a CF so ysf was sending his father a message a subtle message Father it's me because the last conversation we had dealt with eg arua and no one else knows about it because it was a conversation between you and me and now I'm sending you these wagons and and Yakov apparently got the hint and uh and he believed them and his Spirit was revived then he goes down to M that's probably the standard interpretation that uh that we generally understand uh as to why Yakov ultimately believes that ysf is alive there is another interpretation less known which is Advanced by the sperno one of the great Italian commentaries on Kish and the sperno says something as follows he says the the aalos the wagons that Yos sent to bring his father down had nothing to do with the roof it's something else and what he does is he refers us to uh in the book of B midb when the mishkan you the Tabernacle was erected and the Jewish people had to travel different places they had to uh they had to dissemble the uh the mishun all the various parts and how did they uh you know how did they transport the various parts of the mishun so it was that was done on wagons except for the Aro it was done on wagons so how many so and so the Torah in pases noo says how many wagons and they say well there were six wagons there were six wagons and each wagon had two oxen to pull the wagon so this Ferno says six wagons you know six wagons one out 12 you know for all the tribes one out 12 so fno comments that each that that each tribe joined partnered with another tribe so that we only needed six wagons let's say you s you know partnered with zabul and so on and so forth only six waget so the sperno says and why you know what was the reason for that because the sperno comments and says it demonstrates the the brotherly love that existed between the you know in the wake of the building of the Mishka that they shared one wagon this is what this F says remember remember what did yob what did yob tell ysep yob said Ys go and seek out Shalom the Peace of your brothers th says and and let me know come I want to know if you were successful well it takes uh some 22 years before Yosef gets back to yakob how does he get back to yakob he sends him the wagons and what's the message according to the sperno what's the message of the wagons there has been a Reconciliation between the brothers which is exactly the mission that yov sent yev out it's a very very creative interpretation of the sperno and you know and it sort of makes sense wagons wagons two two tribes joining with one wagon indicating a certain Fellowship among the tribes and Yosef was telling his father you wanted me to seek out the Peace of my brothers it took a long long time a very long time 20 22 years but we've succeeded now there is brotherly love this fraternity between us and when yakob hears that his spirit is revived and he's ready to come down to MIT because one of the comments that ra salvin makes you know this was going to be um you know the uh there was a prophecy that Hashem told AB Way Way Back inm tells from in the middle of the night in this very almost you might say a terrifying dream that your descendants will be will be slaves in a land that they do not know be there for a long time but Hashem didn't tell AB what land where were they going to go but this prophecy that Hashem told ab ab passed that down to passed that down to yob yob passed it down to his should so they knew that at some point there was going to be a fulfillment of that prophecy that the family of Yakov would have to dwell in a land that they didn't know which it turns out is going to be MIM and they will be there for a long time that Egyptian experience says will grant them will transform them it's called a kurza like a FR will transform them into a great and Noble Nation baras alichi points out what guarantees did the Jewish people have that they would survive that first Exile in the they were there for a long time there were many things about Egyptian culture Egyptian society which were very tempting and contradicted the morality and ethics that abam toward his children and grandchildren great-grandchildren besides aara there was sexual immorality all sorts of things Torah says in kosim Kim and don't follow the ways of the Egyptians so how would they survive so salic says one of the key prerequisites to survive would be that there would have to be Shalom there would have to be peace among the tribes if they would Splinter if they would uh you know polarize to all different groups then they would not survive the gos so when y so when yob saw when yoseph sends back that the brothers reconciled then Yakov understood that this is it this is the Fulfillment the Fulfillment of that dream of that prophecy but he knew that as long as the brothers were together and the families would stay together then they would survive that Gus which they did and took them out of course that's the PES story any so that's one idea that I I wanted to share with you which of course has you know has great significance today when uh in this terrible situation that we're in uh some uh I came across an essay by a you know by a Christian who was apparently a journalist who comments and says that Hamas did what Nano couldn't do and the point that he was making ifas did it brought the Jewish people together the tan before this we were split because of judicial reform and uh of course we paid a heavy price we're still paying a price but now we we've come together there's an Aus there's people understand how important this is and how without that we're not going to be able to survive we will be victorious with hashem's help but that there should be brotherly love you know peace Harmony among the brothers among the Jews even though we have our differences that becomes critical okay that's that's Point number one there's another uh somewhat different that I want to share with you and that is that this coming Friday as you know is uh assar asares commemorates the beginning of the threeyear siege around y by which of course ended in the destruction of the first temp there is there is significance about this because it falls out on Friday and normally no fast could fall out on Friday because the gimar in shabas says that we're not allowed to enter shabas one is not allowed to enter shabas on an empty stomach you know you're irritable you know how we feel towards the end of the fast we have to enter chabas in a good and optimistic mood so that's why no fast can fall out on Friday it's impossible this is the only fast that can fall out on Friday and the g learns out because the when he talks about this day he uses the expression on this very day and there's only one other holiday where that expression is used and that is y and we know y falls out on chabas WE fast because on this very day y yipper can't be pushed off either before or after so because the also uses that phrase regarding the tent of that whenever the tth of Tav comes out you have to fast and the one of the early Ron who discusses this he says and if he says this cannot happen in the count but if fell out on chabus we would fast not just for your own keeping so we do we fast on this uh Friday and the fast is over when you come when people come off sh you make Kish and basic but it's a full it's a full day fast I think it begins here in y about like a quarter to five something like that and uh when you make kidish the fast is own so it's very interesting the uh there's a lot about AAR just to share a few insights number one there is a medish that says the sale of ysf took place on the tent of Tes the sale of Yos took place on the tenth of Tavis that is sort of significant and then and then uh theam you know theam s comes up with something really really amazing he bases it made probably on cabala but I saw it quoted Kasam s says that on the tenth of Tes Hashem makes decision whether Tish above which will fall out months later will be a fast day or will be a holiday we know that when mashia comes all the fast days will transform into holidays it's on a this coming Friday that hasem examines the Deeds of the Jewish people this is what the says examines the Deeds of the Jewish people and decides whether the upand cominging tiub will be a fast or a holiday which is quite something it lends a certain lends a certain significance to this day um there's another you know there's something else about that a number of people appointed out notably the one the Essa that I read about this was by the great rste son-in-law and uh the rash in in in Al and he made a comment and he said it's interesting all the fast days except commemorates something that happened something that happened you know Tish the Bas on me this was destroyed you know things like that uh a s ofes commemorate something that will happen was three years later that's when the base H should be destroyed right now we're commemorating a fast that reminds us that in three years that's the Bas was destroyed so it says he says like this he says is a Siege places a Siege around Yus you think you think the Babylonians are surrounding Yus You' think that at some point and they when n there that the Jewish people would get it and they'd realize you know this b i is going to be destroyed we better do Chua we better and and there were you know the other who told the people that and yet for three years they ignored the warning they ignored the warning and what happened was tragically the Bas me was destroyed soar lonstein makes an interesting point he says he says you know he says in pus it says that the Jewish people are Ro hanol we are supposed to anticipate the future says we have to realize that what we do now will affect what could happen in years ahead very often we don't think about that we live for the day and we don't take into consideration what might happen What might happen down the road so he says is an opportunity to do a little chu but the chu in the sense to realize that our future depends upon what we do now and you know everyone in their own way has to ask ourselves the question you know the Raam says all fast days were time for chuva but what raan lensin is saying that the fast of specifically of yud Taves is telling us to consider long term that what we do now the the effect you know the you know the um you know the you know what what might happen as a result of our Behavior now and then of course each of us in our own way we can change certain things who knows it could make a big difference look we pray every day that mhia should come and why not you know maybe this coming tissue BG will be a holiday but it all depends on whether we take this fast on Friday seriously and there's a lot to think about so anyway uh should have an easy fast and I hope some of these insides can be helpful to take the fair seriously and uh so wish you a good shabas God willing we see each other next week thank you very much for listening