Vayechi: The Apprentice | Rabbi Ari Kahn | January 1st 2026

Okay. So this week it's parad and parad is one of our favorite paradot. Correct. >> Well so [laughter and clears throat] >> well is my bar mitzvah para and and and and is my oldest son's bar mitzvah para the the birthday is incident. No we don't celebrate my birthday. It's it's on a servet. Um it's like I would have made you a cake but yeah present >> I would have I would have but this year is sponsored by Rabbi Michael and Jerry Lax meter for the foolish lame of the grand sur also Dr. Joel and Elana Catz have sponsored as well this week all the way from cold Cleveland or outskirts of Cleveland. They have They're not here. >> They're not here. They're here in spirit. They'll be here later today by the by the by the next year. So a number of times when I reflect on the book of Schmote, sorry, on the book of Batia generally and you talk about what the major theme is. So I I've said this lots and lots of times that the book of Beret is a book about brothers that don't get along. That is the that is that's what the book is about. There are various subtexts to it. So again it's this dysfunctional families that you can start from the very beginning from cayenne and he and you can move on further and that's what it is and then there's all kinds of separations and decisions and who's inside and who's outside and we can then you know get rid of Yeshal and get rid of Asov and so on and some people decide to get rid of Yoseph. So what you have are these series of dysfunction of dysfunctional families, dysfunctionality, and then inevitably you have the younger brother who's going to be the one who's going to emerge. So that I'm going to say it again that that seems to be what the book is about. And and then a number of times I've said, you know, brothers don't get along. And then I would get one of two different comments. One would be, well, what about Yarn's villain? And my response would be, well, what about we're told midrashically that they get along and that they have an arrangement between them. But there's no evidence in the Torah itself of that arrangement. And then sometimes people say, "Yeah, but a Fry and Manasha got along." So again, my question would be, "And how do you know that they got along?" Now the thing about I'll say it again it's in the medish you'll find it you go look in you'll find it there are those who discuss how exactly a quote unquote vulan relationship works and can it work and can you sell your mitzvot and can you sell which means there are some who claim that only if somebody facilitates learning that could not have taken place otherwise so it's like somebody who helped the performance of any kind of mitzvah but can I just say Okay, you know, I uh I learned around whatever amount of hours yesterday. I'll sell you a couple of those hours. Can you do can you do such a thing? Again, you want to get more extreme. You you know, you'll have stories like this as well. I'll sell you my share in olhaba. Can does God have to agree with this? I mean, can can you do such things? Again, I don't want to harm any kind of institutional giving and donations by claiming that maybe such a thing is completely false in terms of an ability. What's it's not right? It's not good. >> [laughter] >> But but there there's certainly room to question the halic validity of it and how or even technically how exactly this works but when it comes to fryasha again people would say this to me so I said okay let me let me go look and I just assumed that enough people say it so there must also be something in kazal so I can say this I'm not going to say with great confidence I'll say with a with a little bit of confidence that I did not find any kind of mention in Kazal about how a frame got along just didn't find it. I did find 20th century sources who speak about it and there's lots of the 20th century sources who kind of take it as a given. Now why would they stress this? Because just by the way if you want to go and see okay what brothers get along okay I could say because we don't find any evidence of them not getting along. So if you don't find any evidence not getting along they must have gotten along. So then I can say okay what about the benet cura? Okay. Any reason to believe they didn't get along? What about And that can keep on going. There's there's other brothers. There are other There others hold there are other brothers as well. Shimon Ley's getting along is actually a problem. And Yakov responds to the that they get along and says maybe it's better that you didn't get along as as well. But again, we're going to talk today about a fraasha that they're the ones who who interest us. And so I'll say it again. I I went looking and I could not find Kazal addressing that point. That doesn't mean just because I didn't find it that it's not there. It just means there's a really good chance it's not there. But uh I will tell you what I did find in Kazal about Aphraim and about Manasha even though it's really about Aphim and about Manasha, not about Aphraim and Manasha. And we're going to use some of that to try to uh build a uh a description. But let's begin already. Yeah. Doesn't the fact that we have a braha? >> Well, that well that's we're getting to right now. But the fact of the braha is another point. It doesn't mean that that's really that's really good. But it doesn't mean that they got along necessarily. In fact, we'll read exactly what it says. So if you want to put uh you know a picture to all of this to understand the development we have Yakov and the Yseph relationship the magic number is 17. Yseph is 17 years old when he's kidnapped. Yseph spends 22 years away from the family. So you'll do the math. Ysef is 39 when there is this reunion. Y say Yakov comes down and then there's another 17 years. That's the other 17. Then there's 17 years that Yakov and Yoseph live together in Egypt. And so if he if he is 39, so 39 + 17 I again I don't want to make any of you work so hard right now. New what's the answer? 39 and 17 >> 56 >> 56 and Yseph dies at 110 which means there's a lot more years afterwards where Yseph does in fact take care of the brothers and so on and so forth. So during those 17 years, we've had the Yakov Yoseph relationship presumably healed. Not that there was a problem in that relationship, but it gets it comes back to life as it were odai. So when it's time for Yakov to die and I'm sorry if you're phrasing like that you know the two paris they're talking about the life of somebody or the partial those people die right which is ironic. [snorts] So, so what we find there's a number of times over here that Yakov summons in Yoseph and he has a request and we know what the request is. The request is that he wants to be buried back in the land of Israel. As much as we all me living in Egypt right now that Israel is our land by the end of the para Yoseph is going to make the same request that he wants to be buried back in the land of Israel. But he's told now I'm not 100% sure in terms of biblical language but I will tell you in terms of rabbitic language the word means not sick. It means on their deathbed right? So it says which means your father is dying and he takes. Now again I I want to do a little bit of the math because we're going to see things which are going to then stretch it all a little bit. Yoseph is 30 years old when he stands in front of parro. Then there are seven good years and then there are two bad years which at point the brothers come looking for food. And but when he's 30, when he stands in power, we're told that he's given a wife, right? [snorts] Osatifer, which means that Minasha, the oldest he can be when the brothers come, is 8 years old. >> I got a woe out of that. >> He's a translator and everything. He's an advisor. He's a He puts the >> That We're going to get to We're going to get to all of that. Isn't that interesting? I'm just saying the oldest that he could be is 8 years old. Child privacy. >> Well, so was Yoseph and and that that may be very important. So let's Did you see how I did that? There was there was no magic involved in that. That was just simply uh following the story. You follow the story. So he's given a wife. Again, the ch you know this, right? The child's not born immediately. First they had their wedding and then they had the shab broth, then they had the honeymoon probably in Hawaii. Don't ask me why Hawaii. It just looks nice. Never been there. If anybody ever hears from Hawaii wants to invite me, I'll go. You've been to Hawaii. You spoke in Hawaii. >> Speak in Hawaii. >> Is it nice? Is it nice? >> So, tell them to invite me. >> Okay. >> You can exaggerate. Say I'm much better than I am. >> I remember first I went to San Diego, I told you it's it's the nicest place in the country. It has the perfect weather. It never rains. I was there a couple times and it rained. But very nice place. So manasha or even better manasha and ephryim come in. So again if you want to do the math now so how old is manash and how old is a fryim at this point. So it's uh if he was around eight then it's plus 17. So that should give you the more or less the age and aphim would be he was born also before the bad years. So you have a sense exactly you know how old they again more or less. So it's interesting he's there together with but what's the message that he get? Yseph is here. Yseph is the focus. But of course Yseph is the focus. Why? Because Yseph is always the focus. He straightens up. Now that's an interesting phrase which is used in terms of blessing. It is always a blessing for fertility. Just in case you don't know, Shakai is always a blessing used for fertility. I received this particular blessing in the land of which by the way is the focus because that's where the that's where he wants to be buried. And he blessed me. Now, this should come as no surprise because I already told you what are those two words, right? You're going to become multiplied. That's the blessing. So, I'm going to I'm going to say it again. If you follow the names of God, you can understand lots of things and it's one of the first things you need to pay attention to. Kel Shakai is always connected to fertility. And if you think it's not in a particular case, then read it again and figure out why it is anyway because it always is. And not only that, the name itself is used more regarding Yoseph than with anybody else. And if you continue with Yoseph, Yoseph's blessing is always one of fertility and and so on. That's that that's absolute blessings of fertility. That that that's what Yseph receives. So fertility and the land of Israel. Now, by the way, just think about it. What was Yakov told when he's under the stars under if you if you prefer under the latter under the sulam the blessing he received one of the land of Israel and lots of children thi this is exactly what yo what YaKob receives and now he's handing his bra not not to all of his children he's handing his bra that he received he's handing it over to Yoseph dual braha land of Israel and to become numerous Now, of course, he has other children and they're going to get all kinds of blessings in this week's para, even though with some of them, you're going to have a hard time figuring out how it was in fact a blessing. But still, just follow the line over here. It's about Yoseph. A told Yakov, Yoseph, the story is about Yoseph, and he's the one who receives Yakov's blessing, which was the blessing which was given to Abraham. So again, just follow the story. The other thing that I want to point out already now, something which is easy to overlook within everything else which is taking place because there's going to be lots of moving parts over here and we're going to get ourselves perhaps a little bit confused. There is a profound connection between Yoseph and the land of Israel and that's again easier to lose but all that you need to do is to pay attention to the various children grandchildren progeny of Yseph including Benot but it's including others as well that there is this connection to the land of Israel and maybe the strongest expression of this in Khazal is something which is in the Medishum and any of you who know me will know that I am extremely fond of this midrash. It's all the way down in source 21. I'll just warn you this about the I try to give the sources in sequence but I changed the whole sequence sometime between when I sent this last night afternoon enough time if you were still at work to print it. Okay. Between then and between this morning I I changed the whole sequence in my mind. And here's part of our collateral damage having to go all the way down to source 21. And this is a med which says sorry we like we like why do we like why do we like because it's the name of my new grandson who's coming for Shabas. Right. >> Right. [clears throat] that anything that has happened all the difficulty which happened with Zion, Zion you could decide as you or Israel happened to on and you can keep on going because it's this whole midash line after line after line comparing. By the way, in case you missed it, and I suspect that you did. What the major didn't tell you is what it should have told you because it thinks that you're smarter than you are. No offense. If you got this, then you'll tell me. No, I got that. That was obvious. Is that Yoseph and Can also the same Kamatria? It's 156. Yoseph and S are the same Kumatria. 156. The examples that it was giving was not just working on the level of look, they're similar verses. It was actually, oh, Gil, you're going to use this, aren't you? >> Just with my kids. >> When you go to Hawaii, say, I got this. [laughter] So, it it goes down and and it really strives to show the the interconnection between Yoseph and Cion. But part of the deeper point, and don't miss it, is that Yoseph and Zion are interconnected. Those of us who are familiar with the caller which is this book which for some reason is controversial in terms of the academics but it is the Rivlin family including the president the Rivlin family's tradition which they received from their cousin the Vil Nagon before they came to Israel about the mystical secrets of redemption and part of the if you want to know the want me to ruin the whole book for you the the big secret behind It is the role of Mashiach and Yoseph and the fact that Yoseph is connected to Tion and the goal over here is to rebuild Jerusalem. Rebuilding Jerusalem is what the Rivlin family took upon themselves. They're the ones who started to build outside of the walls as it as it's called. And all of this is connected to this midrash right over here and many many more cababalistic sources which is collected in this book called the Cole Hattor. Whether the book itself was literally something said by the vil nagon I can't tell you but I can tell you that those essentially those who attack it are not necessarily familiar with the villagon's cabalistic teachings because it absolutely falls in line with his teachings just in terms of content. So let let's then continue. Remember Yoseph is about the land of Israel. And therefore for what some people can think is the surprising end of safer beratia at the very very end the last thing that happens is where Yoseph says take me out. I want to go home. That's really important because Yseph is connected to the land of Israel. And maybe his brothers were cynical and and maybe you've heard me talk about this. Maybe his brothers thought that Yoseph is just essentially identify as an Egyptian dignitary. And maybe Yoseph himself all that he wants is to be buried in a pyramid. You know, Egyptians spent a lot of time thinking about death and the importance of death and where you going to be buried. And it was their own understanding of whatever afterlife it is. And Yoseph says, "I don't want that. That's not who I am." Yoseph says, "I am part of Abraham's dream. Forget about my dreams. I'm part of the Britain. And we're going to be slaves there for a bit, but we're going to go home. And when you go home, I want to go home with you." And that's how the book ends. And why? Because Yoseph is connected to the land of Israel. Yoseph is the land of Israel. Yoseph is there's something very deep. And therefore, this whole midrash, the whole biography of Yoseph is the biography of the land of Israel. And it's saying just read through this whole thing and don't miss it because if you do then you don't understand Yoseph again on this deeper, I can say midrashic level, but it's certainly on a on a cabalistic level as well. But it really is Yoseph. So as much as I mean there's another point, who's Yoseph? He's he's always looking for his brothers, right? When the guy meets him in the field, what do you want? I'm looking for my brothers. And when his brothers come looking, but they don't come looking for him. They come looking for food. He keeps asking them, "What are you looking for?" They say, "No, we want food." Like, and he wants them to give a different answer. What answer does he want? He wants them to say, "I'm looking for brothers." Cuz that's who Yoseph is. He wants there to be some kind of uh relationship which both sides are seeking the other. And there's something sad about the relationship. There is there is something sad. And I'm I'm going to say it again. I gave a whole class on this yesterday and that is if anybody wants I can send you perhaps a synopsis of it. But essentially was does Bray should have a happy ending? And the happy ending is yes. That last puzle when uh we're not sure there's always this because next to the last thing is the brothers are saying you know please make us slaves. You only say make us slaves when you're afraid someone's going to kill you. They don't trust Yoseph to the very end. And Yoseph at the very end says, "I want to go home with you." So I'm just saying that changes the whole book. The second thing about Yoseph in terms of uh again slash midrashik is where it begins and that continues in in many cabalistic sources and if you don't know this, you don't know this. If you know this, you know this. And that is that Yoseph is connected to Shabbat. And if you'll say, why is Yoseph connected to Shabbat? So then I can start showing you all the sources and why this is. Um the the most basic reason for it is that when you look at the days that all the nim were bringing their corbonote the seventh one seven Shabbat the seventh one is a frame from Yoseph. And from there you see that there is a connection starts off midrashically as I said it's built up in other sources as well. Maybe it has to do with Yoseph's ability to practice self-control. A number of times Yoseph controls himself and there's self-control. And maybe that's part of what Shabbat is about as well. I'm saying it on a functional hikic level. But again, the I don't know how many of these you want to see in source 24 for example. Hood and they're just going to point how Yseph is take a look in one of the and it says Yseph Shabbat. Yseph kept Shabbat. You say what do you mean Yoseph kept Shabbat? Yseph kept Shabbat. The the Zohar Shabbat verse 27 that that it's that there is a covenant. Now, this is part of it. Yoseph cabalistically is known as yod means foundation. I I I'm not going to do too much of this right now, but in your minds, do you have any kind of semblance of that cabalistic chart with and then you so if you if your imagination is good, so then you have the head, you have the two arms, you have the two legs and is where the Brit is Yoseph is Yoseph is the person who's known as the share habit. Yoseph is the one who does not give into sexual temptation. Yoseph is the one who knows how to guard the Brit as it were. Also for those who may be perhaps cabalistically involved, there's something which is known as the chauvin right bashak which is also all connected to this tikun habrit and so on. So if you now know that Yoseph is Yod and Yod is connected to the Brit over here and and Yoseph is the one who really keeps the covenant. So it says Shabbat Shabbat is also a covenant between God and the Jewish people. The Shabbat is the foundation Shabbat the Yseph. Joseph is old known as Cole the Shabbat begin. And again if you I'm I'm not explaining the whole thing but the pish of the sulum over here if you look in 28 will explain to you how Yseph is Shabbat. Yseph connect to Shabbat. Shabbat is Brit. Ysef guards the brit. Yseph is Yod. Yod is the foundation. What is the foundation which guards the Jewish people? So again you can choose which one. Is it on the one hand Shabbat and the famous statement more than Jews keep Shabbat? Shabbat has kept the Jews. that's over here already based upon the Zohar even though it's a much later formation or formulation on the other hand what has kept the Jews oh shirat that stops in assimilation and so on so Yoseph represents keeping the Jewish people together as a people which is also maybe surprising but he's the one who did this because Yoseph Yoseph had the ability of saying goodbye you don't want me Yoseph had the ability of saying when they come looking for food what food you know are you kidding and again as I pointed out the irony before not today that while the when the brothers right before the sale they're sitting and eating food and now they look come to Yose for food can you imagine that irony yos saying food you know this kind of reminds me of something like you people I'm going to give food the last time I saw you guys eating you were contemplating my sale and so on but Yseph doesn't do that and and that's part of what you need to understand Yoseph doesn't do that. What does Yoseph do? Yseph keeps them together. And it you could argue he keeps them together on his terms. Yeah, that's part of being Yoseph. He decides the terms, but he does keep them together. And Yoseph becomes this yo, this foundation which keeps everything together. And some of this we spoke about with our concentric circles and so on a couple of weeks ago. So again, the two things that I'm saying which are midrashik that then spill over to cababalistic is that Yseph is connected to the land of Israel and Yseph is connected to Shabbat. Yseph is connected to Brit and maybe these things all are connected together, right? You also perhaps know that there's a Zor that says Brit is why the Jews have the land of Israel. It also speaks about the rights of the Yeshim to the land of Israel because they keep Brit but they keep it imperfectly. So their rights to Israel is an imperfect right. If you're familiar with any of this, it's a Zoro and Para. And um and I'll say it again, maybe all this is connected. So let's just stop for a moment now. What did Yoseph receive from Yakov? Right now, beginning of the para, what did he receive? He received a dual blessing. What was the dual blessing? The blessing that Yakov received. What is it for progeny? But I'm going to say progeny of kaduca. It's again a only receives, how should we say this? A becomes a when he gets a britam. Before that, he's not aim. He's a that is when he starts having children. It's the Britam then he can have. That's when the that's when the britarium yet again another covenant gets started. That's the starting point for it when it's only when aim then becomes aim covenant and so on. Aram the land of Israel many children like the stars like and so on and all that's passed over all that's passed over to Jacob and now it's passed over to Yoseph. So I know that we went into this thinking that and again it's all defensible midraically that essentially Yakov has a couple of things in his bag like imagine now uh like the wizard of Oz he's got a couple things to give out I'm not going to say a brain and a heart and so on but he's a couple things to give out and he uh and according to Medish all of it was Ruven's by right and that was kingship that's our double our double portion and the kahuna and the kuna we know will eventually make its way to Ley. We know that the kingship will make its way in this week's para to Yehuda. But Yoseph is the one who gets the double portion. But it's much more than getting the double portion. It's that Yoseph seems to be getting the bra that was given to Aram. And again, that's the focus that we start with. And the fact that it's connected again everything about Yoseph is about more children. When Yseph was named Yoseph, what was it that was said? Yoseph, God should add another child. The name Ephim is connected to Peruv right there are so many references over here to fertility including Ephrat by the way and that's and that is part of the issue that's where Rael dies and is buried but that itself is perhaps a Kenyan in the land of Israel. And now these children that were born to you in Egypt before I got here. They are my children as it were. Now notice he just now switched the sequence. They are going to be like Ruven and Shiml. Now right there you have to ask yourself so what exactly is the comparison? Is to be like Ruven and Shimon a good thing? I mean you go to the brahood of Moshe. Shimon doesn't even get a braha. Ruven is is this displaced firstborn. I mean, couldn't he have said like Yehuda and you know just you can pick which other one you want. Maybe he seems like a nice fellow and and maybe even like and would have been nice. Kuven, I'm just saying there's something interesting over there unless there's something really dark which is we're about to get to and that is that Ruvane is a displaced firstborn. Are we about to find ourselves with another displaced firstborn? And by the way, that's the issue. When we say that a fry man should get along, it's not just because they get along. Again, there's no evidence. It's because there would have been reason for them not to get along. That's the issue. And but I'll say it again. I didn't find Kazal speaking about this, but that's where I think the sensitivity. And maybe it's a modern thought, maybe has to do with modern ideas of psychology. Maybe it's this displaced older son who doesn't seem as successful as the younger son. And that's where jealousy is going to come from. But it's the favoritism which is going to be shown to Ephraim which is going to happen right now. And then you have to ask yourself, okay, now how exactly does Manasha deal with that favoritism. And when you don't see any acting up, you don't see any kind of resistance. You see instead acceptance. And then you say, oh, you see here are brothers that get along. Not that they get along, but they get along despite having reason not to get along. And now you have a dvar Torah that you can say. But I'm going to point out again, it's a very modern dartra. It's very modern Torah based upon certain assumptions that we have. But I'm going I mean, you know, that we uh enjoy slaughtering sacred cows. Doesn't have to be red heers, but it's sacred cows. And that uh we're going to get to some I hope some more interesting things about this. But let's continue. the the they're going to be mine like Reuben and Shem which essentially if you need to know how this works out is that we're going to find lots of times in the future where the 12 tribes are mentioned but in order for the 12 tribes in order for a fra to be in the 12 tribes who gets who gets taken away so Yseph gets taken away but someone else gets taken away otherwise you have 13 and the one who gets taken away is Ley so that itself is interesting because Ley is the beneficiary of that other blessing and he becomes the cohen. So therefore, again, just think about the encampment as well. Well, you can have three and three and three and three on all sides. So where's Le? So you have a fry manasha. Where's Ley? Oh, Ley's in the center. So therefore, it's Ley getting kicked up, which is interesting because that's not in Ley's promotion. But maybe it is in Vay. We just didn't notice it. But I'm going to say it again. If YaKob [snorts] is saying to Yoseph that you're going to receive an effect to be the firstborn and you're going to get a double portion. So if you get a double portion so now how many portions are there? Did I mean something has to give? So it's interesting that you could have just said there 13 tribes and two of them are from Yoseph or you say no there's still 12 tribes and two are from Yoseph but now Ley is not really a tribe. So that's interesting because Ley doesn't get displaced. lady gets kicked upstairs in terms of a different type of a of a role. Good. Good. It continues and it says and we're pointing out again so Jacob is saying to Yoseph about where his mother was buried but there's kind of a of explaining the narrative because he's about to ask that I want you to take me and bury me in the what seems to be a better place than Maka. Although we know madrashically that where she's buried is where all of the children are going to go by and plead and so on and becomes a place which becomes a place of salvation for AmIrael which itself is really interesting because that's also a kind of a role which is a Yoseph role. Now you see Yoseph may have inherited that role again based upon the mahu based on the midrash from his mother. Now that's a strange question being that again sits and learns Torah with him every single day and apparently has done this for the last 17 years. So what is the question here? me a I mean I would have been tempted to say that they look like Egyptian royalty and they're dressed up in their foreign clothing and therefore he's looking say you know who are these people and therefore the emphasis on they're born here right they're they're dressed as Egyptians come bring them to I will bless I hope that you again note that we've gone to the national identity. I didn't even pray to see your face again. And now I've seen not just he's probably seen a number of generations already is also something connected to fertility and it's connected to and and again the whole theme in Yako's life is always one of and that's always the dual issue. Israel. So it's here where he crosses his arms and he puts his right hand on the head of the younger son while Yoseph has deliberately aligned it so that the older son Manasha would get the blessing from the right hand. Okay. So now emphasis is the don't miss that who's getting the blessing now. You would have thought that a fashion getting the braha. That's not what it says. Ysef is getting the braha. By the way, how do I give you a braha? How do I give you a braha? And bless your son. Why is that a braha for you? you're not convinced why why is that a braha for you? Because that's what a parent very much wants their their kids to be blessed. But over here it is it's eminently clear even though you realize it's very easy to skip but it says he said so what is the blessing of Yseph which I'm going to say it again we're eventually going to get to the dual portion but it's also not just a dual aortion, it's also the younger son taking the the place of the older son. And I want you to think about that especially in political terms. But let me keep on talking as you're thinking which again is going to be a statement of fertility. They're going to grow. They're going to grow in number. And here Yseph protests. So I just want to pause a second. If Yoseph were to think completely in political terms and here we have a situation where Yakov gives a blessing and again he gives preferential treatment to a younger son over an older son. Is that just politics now? Is that in Yoseph's does that benefit Yoseph or does that work against Yoseph? Certainly works in his favor. Why? Because Yseph is a younger son who is going to be given preferential treatment. So if Yoseph were to think completely in political terms, so Yoseph should be saying, "Okay, this confirms what my father does. My father gives blessings based upon people who deserve it and therefore okay I accept completely that Ephraim is more deserving and therefore we have some collateral damage and what's that collateral damage?" Minasha becomes the collateral damage and therefore but it's politically expedient for Yoseph to agreed. So again, realize that as much as we'd like to think about Ysef as somebody who's extremely politically astute, he does not accept this and he protests against this. And now you can start again with your pop psychology. Well, it's one thing when it's his kids, it's another thing when it's him. But I'm going to say it again. There's some really interesting dynamic which is taking place over here. And and I'll say it again. He protests when this takes place. And And he tries to strongarm his father and to switch the hands back. No, he is the Bor. By the way, it's now already the second time we're told he's the he is the Bur. So part of what I'm going to be intrigued with. So is Manasha the Bore, but he gets replaced. And let's again pay attention. No, he's he's he's great is great. Nonetheless, he's going to be more numerous. By the way, this goes back to this point of number of children. That's what it sounds like. He's going to be more numerous. And he blesses them. Now, going back to your point, this is how you're going to bless children. You're going to say, "May your children be like a and there's only one thing that we're lacking. We have no idea what the bra means and he placed the frame before which again is consistent to everything that Jacob does over here." And then Yakov moves over again. He's going to get back to this point. He's going to die in the burial and so on and so forth. The Targum Yonatan over here talks >> say that couldn't see. >> Why does it say it? >> Before it said that he couldn't see. So you figure maybe put the hands on the wrong kid because he couldn't tell who was who. Now he's telling us that he knows who and that's what he wants. >> Yeah. So all of this should remind us about the Yitzk story. I just saying that that's what it should remind you of. and Yitsk then there is some confusion on the wrong kid and maybe even YaKob is thinking a little bit about his Bible stories and hold it maybe there's confusion over here and the right kid needs to get the bra and Yakob is saying no don't worry that that that the right >> it's that then it's all spiritual >> okay >> again what what what one is lacking therefore in terms of sight physical sight is that he sees that I think that's exactly the issue is that he sees things and Rashi will tell you all kinds of subtexts here about what he's seeing throughout the throughout the para continue over here in the Targamonatan which is in source number two just a couple of things. One gets to the fish he stresses how the fish multiply like fish and therefore that is part of this blessing of fertility. When he gets to the bra this is how you bless the kids. Look at a cuff in the So essentially he's telling you that you're going to notice many times this is all a safer issue that you're going to see a number of times where the where the tribes will be listed and inevitably you'll find Ephraim before also when our 12 tribes are divided into four camps the leader of one of the camps is going to be Ephraim. Ephraim is a leader. Aphraim comes before Manasha. By the way, not every time. If you want to follow the census, you'll find something interesting that during the early census where there's more people in Ephraim than Manasha, then Ephraim is going to come first. In the second census where there's more people in Manasha than Ephraim, then Manasha is going to come first. Which then leads you to understand that he is taugh Yakov here is talking about number of children. And that seems to be what is the the motivation behind it because again some of this comes becomes really difficult. I think I've told you before at some point that trying to figure out every single case and say for Bidbar the sequence of all the tribes is almost an impossible task. But we just now got some in information from the Tarumonatan in terms of how sometimes this is going to take place and it has to do with the number of children or the number of the tribe and the number of people. Of course, the other question that then comes up, well, what exactly happened to those missing people from Ephraim? And there is again this other interesting subtext going back strengthening our idea of Yoseph being connected to the land of Israel. And that is there's a couple of different expressions of people from Ephraim who went to the land of Israel earlier. One of them is that they left Egypt early and the other one is right after the the the spies are told that you not going to Israel. They said no let us go up the mapim and if you do the census say okay where are the people missing and those people seem to be missing from the tribe of Ephraims but again the census is different. So some of the things that I was you know looking at this week talked about they went up And being that it was some 20th century commentaries, I uh I discerned within it an anti-seist sentiment over there of going up too soon and going up before its time and going up without God and so on and so forth, which again could be put upon the mulim could be put upon Ephraim and so on. But then again, on the other hand, who who is more God consciousness than Yoseph? And again, just imagine growing up in a house where again, what is Yosef telling his kids? He must be telling them all along, we are not really Egyptian. This is just a job. By the way, stay with this is just a job. It's a gig. This is just a gig. This is all that it is. And uh what? >> The pay is good. >> Pay is good. It's a gig. And uh and when the day comes, we're going we're making aliyah. This is this this is not what it's about. And Yseph tells his kids this and his kids grow up as as Zionists and therefore they want to come and and this is deep inside the children of Yoseph. They're going to say it again. You need to understand this Yoseph connected to Israel aspect and it seems to be it's internalized now how it plays itself out. So we find some unfortunate issues over here. But again, we're trying to work through the braas over here. And what we're again most intrigued with still Oh no. What we're most intrigued with still is so what in the world now happens in this dynamic between Aphim and Manasha because we still have to try to work that out. Yeah. >> Manasha is one of the tribes. >> So hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Good, good, good. And that that is going to come to our surprise ending. But but hold on because it's not what you think. I know what you're going to say. I can read minds. I know what you're going to say. So now the question is where where we go with with all of this. So mo most of the commentaries that I'm skipping right now are going to be telling us that the blessing over here is the blessing for Yoseph. Again I want to we saw it. It was black and white. What is the blessing of Yoseph that he gets two tribes? He becomes the Bor. He becomes the Bor. So you're going to have someone displaced. Who is displaced? Le is going to be displaced. We don't know that yet. How does how does God work this out? He works it out in a really elegant way by saying to Ley, listen, I got a job for you, right? I'm going to hook you up. I got a great job for you. Don't worry about anything else. You lose your inheritance, the land of Israel. Yseph gets a double portion, but I got something else worked out for you. It's not landbased, but it's holiness based. So, again, it's it's interesting that that, you know, don't worry. Sometimes things don't look God has solutions. God has all kinds of elegant solutions that that's part of what you have to take away from all of this. On the other hand, there was this other collateral damage along the way. I'm calling it that. But that is Ephran being elevated which Yseph could have embraced because then it strengthens his position. But Yseph is not thinking politically and Yseph seems to be saying hold it. What about Manasha? Now let's go back to Manasha and what the Midrashim do say about Manasha. So there is a whole bunch of things to say. I I want to start with source number 12 which is the he is going to tell us that when it came to Torah Ephraim had superiority and again he's going back to certain understanding that Ephraim learns with Yakov Jacob is he then spends all those 17 years with Yakov on a day-to-day basis learning Torah with Yakov but what does Manasha do and that's going to take us in this other place what you started to say before. What does Manasha do? Manasha is when it really comes down to it, the only person that Yseph can really trust. Now, it's not that Yoseph has tr It's not that Yoseph You need to be louder. >> It's not that Yoseph has trust issues. >> It's that Yoseph knows who he is. Yoseph is essentially a foreigner. Yoseph is a former slave. Yoseph is a Hebrew. And yes, Pyro found it incredibly selfserving to tie into Yoseph's interpretation to give him a job, to give him his gig, and you know, for all this to work out. Except Yoseph knows that day will come. Who's Yoseph? And that's next week. Who's Yoseph? Never heard of him, right? What have you done for me lately? So, Yoseph, now I'm focusing over here the midrash. According to the midrash, throughout the Yoseph narrative, especially the Yoseph and the brothers narrative, there's always one person there that Yoseph trusts. If you read the text, the guy in charge of his house, there's the interpreter there. There's some other nameless people along the way. Every single one of those people when you go along and you look in the midash, it's Manasha. Manasha is that guy. He is the one that Yoseph trusts. Which now if I continue in this mcdav of the nitiv the nitiv says that when it comes to Torah by the way it's going to come closer to our now when it comes to Torah Ephraim has the superiority which is then it's really interesting then to think of the tribe of Ephraim going up devoid of Torah I mean could be the other way around they're going up because of their understanding of Torah they are not secular Zionists they're religious Zionist I mean that's But when but but when God says it's not time yet then then you can't do it yet. But nonetheless, what about manasha? So the way the nitiv explains it is that manasha is the one who's experienced in diplomacy. Why is he experienced in diplomacy? It's because he's a diplomat. Why is he a diplomat? Because he is the one who's raised with Yoseph. And now I want to sharpen what I'm everything about to say. Yes, he's Yseph's interpreter. Why? Because Yseph taught him Hebrew and he's raised in Egypt and he knows Egyptian and he's the one who's there who explains things. Yes, he is the one that he tr I mean, he's the one who gets sent again, it's midrash after midash over here. He is the one who's sent to uh to read all the requests where each person writes down their name and their father's name asking for food. He is the one who actually tracks down the brothers and sees where which gates they're coming in from. He's the one who chases them down afterwards and uh and and puts the he's the one who puts the cup in and he's the one because why? Because Yoseph not again who can Yoseph trust? What's the answer? Manasha but but I I I want to go with this a little bit further. If Yoseph can trust Minasha, so what does it tell you about Manasha? It tells you that Minasha is somebody who is part of Yoseph's inner world. Which means that as he's doing each thing and and we're going to get to at least one of them which are going to read maybe even in two different ways says he's the one according to the midash that smacks the brothers and pushes them into the prison. Gives them the the zets. I don't know how to say zets in English. He's the one who gives them the zetss and pushes them in. By the way, part of what I love is if it's the zets, how old did we say he was? Eight of an eight-year-old. So then it doesn't hurt so much. By the way, it's more humiliating. It's more emotionally damaging and you can't hit him back. Why? Well, not just cuz he's a child. You can't hit him back. But it's just so interesting that Yoseph would bring Minasha to do to be the one. But again, just think about this. If Yoseph, and we we've done this so many times. If Ysef wants to p if he wants to kill his brothers, it's very easy to arrange. If he wants them dead, he can he he can arrange this. He's got a friend, right? Who's his friend? Potifar, chief executioner. You can kill him in so many delicious ways because this is an executioner. He knows how to kill people. He can make he could do it fast. He can do it slow. He can do it slow, then he can do it fast. He can he can just do it however he wants to do it. And it's not something which Yseph asks for. What does Yoseph do? Again, think of the terrible thing. He throws them into prison for three days. Okay? And he has an eight-year-old push them into the prison. Embarrassing maybe. But now, just imagine the conversations that then take place that night. What does Yoseph say to Madasha? What's the conversation? So, Yoseph has to explain his thinking. Yoseph has to explain what's going on. And Yoseph is going to say to him, "Those are my brothers." He goes, "That's how you treat a brother." He goes, "Listen, they did really bad things, and we're going to do things to them which are not so bad. We're going to make them feel it's bad, but we're we we want them to be forgiven. We want them to start questioning themselves. We we we want them not to feel so self-righteous about everything that they've done. They need to question everything about their lives because they've made mistakes. And we're here to help them do that. And once you understand this that Yoseph is training Manasha, he's training him one in terms of taking care of your brothers, even sometimes tough love, but taking care of your brothers and he's actually training him in terms of emotional intelligence because everything that he again you have the most impressive strategist in the entire Torah, maybe in all of Tanakh, and that's Yoseph this incredibly impressive strateg who's so many steps ahead of everybody that he's dealing with. Having somebody who is the guy that he explains things to the guy who facilitates for him and I don't believe that Yoseph the Yseph Manasha relationship and maybe you hear it now. No, this is Manasha. He's the Bor. He's the one who I trust. He's the one who does everything for me. He's like, "What are you talking about to to to Yak?" This is not just Yoseph responding and saying that, "Oh, he's the older one. This is not just no he is the bur who what is the definition of the bkur of salvage said a bkur is the one who's the helper of the father he's the one who helps the father and takes the most responsibilities and that's what minasha is so again what did I just now do I took all of the midrashim that place midra minasha in each and every one of these episodes and I'm saying pay attention to what it's telling us and especially when you do the math and you realize his age then you're saying is that that he becomes part of the yoseph He's part of Yoseph's kingship or whatever the ruling is. He is the one who helps Yoseph do what he does. And he now has to be the one that Yseph confides in. He's the one who has the conversations. He's the one who Yseph tells what to do. And all that I added was one step. You heard what the step I added. If he tells him what to do, then presumably also tells them why to do it. He tells them, "Yeah, you you're going to push them down." Why? Because they need that. And Yseph saying they need this. They they they need to feel what they did to their brother and this is the only way to do it. And I'm not going to have some Egyptian executioner do it. I'm going to have a little kid do it. Yeah, it's embarrassing. Yeah, it's humiliating but it's so important. Now, there's one midrash that says that because of this he tore the clothing off of him. It says also which pay back for them. Because of this, it says that his possession land of Israel got torn in half. Now I want to stop and think about something else. A number of the commentaries point something out. If if in fact Yseph gets a double portion, he then gets the portion of and the portion of Basha. Rael also has another one and that's Binyamin. And now percentagewise the land of Israel going to children of Rael just now increased dramatically. But it's more than that. And once I realize this, it just change what I'm about to tell you. It changes everything. And there's two commentaries who are going to tell us what I'm about to tell you. And that is one of the mysteries, again, we're going back to Bidbar. Just realize a lot of this is a Bidbar introduction. One of the mysteries in Bameidbar is when, and this is what Reena wanted to say, is that you have Ruven and God, both of them saying that we want to stay in the other side. Now, Rub and God have a common denominator. They're both firstborn children, right? They're both firstborn. There are four firstborn in this family because there are four wives. Ruven God said, "We want to stay." But there's a common denominator. Firstborn supposed to get a double portion. It's as if they're saying, "I'm not going to get double. I don't want to play your game at all. I'm I'm I'm going to stay over here." And then you have another quote unquote displaced firstborn. And that is Manasha who's placed over there. Now, how Manasha got involved in that, we don't know. It doesn't say. It just says that Ruven and God, God and Ruin, it switches the order at some point. They make this request and then when it comes time to do it, Moshe then sends Banasha also. And then there's all kinds of mystery. Maybe Minasha went to war. Maybe they captured it. And you have all kinds of mystery. And then the solution suddenly appeared. What's the solution? Minasha got a double portion. Why? Because he's the Bakar. Very good point. Manasha got a double portion. And if you now consider Manasha's double portion include again the whole Golan and you think about how large it is between the two places of Manasha, between Ephraim, between Binyamin. Now you look back and say, "So how much did Rael get?" And just in terms of percentage wise, it just now grew dramatically. So again, if you want me now to point out who was it who had actually articulated some of this, and this is why I told you before that I had to rethink the whole sequence of how we're going to do this. Let's take a look at source number 10. Remember that part. And if you look at source n by the way and then becomes the again clear. Now source number 10. So again he's he's playing let's make it clearer now look at the again back on that same that's the we just now saw the know so now start thinking hold it but he is the so what happens to this and by the way everybody is dancing around this Same verse source seven. And now I'm going to ask you again to think about this. Why did Manasha get that second? But but again, Ruain forfeited his share in the land of Israel. God forfeited his share in the land of Israel. Minasha got a second part. So now you start thinking why did Binasha get a second part? And I go back to what Yakov does. Yakov gives the to Yseph. Yseph gets two portions. Yakov nonetheless says that Aphim more plentiful. And what is the content of his? There's two parts to it. One part was the mount of children. The other part was the land of Israel and apparently they get separated those two. As long as Ephraim has more children, he becomes the leader. And that's what Yakov sees. Yakov sees this blessing of children going to him. What are the lands of Israel? The lands of Israel he doesn't seem to address and we don't know what to do with. Suddenly, I say suddenly, we get to the end of Bidbar. Mosher Rabbenu is approached by Ruven and God and then he turns to Minash and says no no no you take that land as well functionally what he just now did and remember Moshu Rabenu is the one at the end of the Torah at the end of Bes when Yseph says take me out carry me out Moshe is the one who keeps the promise of Yoseph Moshe seems to be very attuned Moshe is going to repeat all of very close to what Yakov did again interesting to study the differences But Moshe is the one who's then going to say the way that we need to fulfill the blessing of Yakov. You know, we took away he's the head of he's the head of one of the camps. Aphra's the head of the camps. It has nothing to do with the other half of the blessing. And that's the land of Israel. And that's the double portion. And the double portion just got doubled. Right? Again, percentage- wise, you can correct me in my math. The double portion just now just got doubled because Manasha is still the Bur and Yseph keeps insisting he is the Bor. He is the Bhar. He goes, "I know he's the Bur." So what happens? Of course he's the Bur. He gets the double portion. So now I want to go back to uh Aphra and Manasha getting along with one another. I believe that Aphim Yakov says Aphraim his very name has to do with having children. Pru Ruv Aphraim. And Yakov looks at him not with eyesight. He looks at him prophetically and says there's going to be a lot a lot of children. Now something going on goes something goes wrong in the desert and by the time we get to that second census something has gone wrong with Aphraim and maybe that's part of the background as well of Mosha now focusing on Manasha but nonetheless Yakov sees that and when it call talks at the br of children Aphraim is going to become more numerous they're the ones who will be the leading camp in the desert but when it comes to the land of Israel that gets separated and that becomes a separate part of the braha and that's what goes to manasha so now let's go back again one more time manasha gets trained by Yoseph. He's his apprentice. He's his confidant. He's the one that he explains all of his thinking. He's the one that he utilizes and uses in order how to treat the brothers. And Minasha is not going to do anything to his brother without absolute instructions from his father about what you do because that's how he's been trained. He's been trained with emotional intelligence. He's been trained to care for your brother. Sometimes you care one way, sometimes you express it another way, but that is what he's doing every single step of the way. So Manasha is somebody who is not going to and again who am I It's funny now. I I know it's funny you say who do you give credit to for Manasha getting together which doesn't talk the medish never talks about it and who you going to give the credit to? You give the credit to Yoseph because Yoseph is the one who raised his son and taught him every single thing and all the sensitivity in order to how you treat a brother and that's what he witnesses but that's what he does and that's what he facilitates and that's who he is and now he got displaced. That's his reward. He gets displaced. What is his reward? The other one's the bakar not a word out of manasha. But it's interesting God has a way of working things out. As I said, these stories of happy endings. God has a way of working things out. But he's still the Bahar. So what happens down the line? Mosher Rabenu says, "Okay, we're already giving out more. I got a great place for you. The Golan, it's beautiful. You're going to love it." Right? But I want to be in the land of Israel. No, you got you got the land of Israel, so you don't lose anything. You got a double portion. Why do I get a double portion? answer because you're and once you understand this we can go back to our point about how safe actually is not just a happy ending it's that everything's going to work out even if things don't look like they're going to work out even if we're all going to be in slavery right now I'm going to give you a hint we're going to get out I'm going to give you a hint it's all going to work out okay the V non told his cousins he told the Rivly it's all going to work out okay and by the way part of the reason all works out okay is because there's somebody there in the background working it all out and That's Yseph and Yoseph's children and so on and so forth because they know exactly how to strategize. Long-term long-term planning. That's what Yseph is. Long-term planning. Can you imagine Yseph saying to Manasha, "Don't worry. I got a feeling longterm this is going to work out. It's okay. Love your brother. Take care of your brother. That's the responsibility of a brother. It's all going to work out." And what do we find out in the end? It does.