Parashat Vayechi: The Blessing of Efraim and Menashe

Yousef has two sons and hash are about to get a blessing from Yakov. And Yakov says to Ysef that a kadoshb who spoke to me, he appeared to me in lose. LS is a special place where the Gar says that the people of LSE didn't die as long as they didn't leave the city. People would live there for hundreds of years without dying. The says there was one time somebody that lived there and all of a sudden he sees that his sons are dying. The neighbors came and started investigating him. What' you do? Where'd you go? And they found out that it was because he lied. What do you lie? About something meaningless or at least seemed like it. One of his wife's friends came to visit and his wife was taking care of her body, taking care of her hygiene, and he wasn't uh comfortable telling this details to his uh to her friend that came to visit. So, he told her that uh she's not home. She's not home. Well, apparently this was enough of a lie for him to lose this special protection, divine protection of the people of the city of LS. The says there was also two special servants that were very beloved by Schlomik. And one time he found out that the Satan the Malik had the permission to kill them. So that had endless wisdom tried to bring these two servants to the city of LS where the Malikav is not allowed to enter without a special code. But then sees that the Malik was happy. And he said to him, "Why are you so happy today?" He says, "Because I was sad yesterday because I needed to kill two people that worked for you, but I wasn't allowed to kill them here. I was only allowed to kill them at the entrance of the city of LS and now I'm happy because you sent them there. So I killed him." Today we see also here that there's no way that a person can fool the Satan with just his wisdom even if he has the wisdom of anyway the para continues where we see that YaKob is about to bless the sons of Ysef. F. But before that, Yakov again brings a something familiar that seems unusual. He tells him after he tells him that spoke to him in the city of Luz and gave him a blessing that'll be fruitful and numerous. I also want to tell you that your mother Rael, she died on me in the land of Kanan. What does this have to do with anything? Why why do you have to mention this now? I mean, obviously knows this. Why bring up Rael now? You're about to lose me. And by the way, you also lost your mother and I lost your mother. Why bring this? It's because it has nothing to do with touching his emotions, but rather bringing clarity to the forefront and continuing the point he started making where he says to Ysef, you know, you succeeded both spiritually and materially here. It wasn't just happen stance. You have to know that you are from you're religious because I was I the one that was married to your mother. We have a mit, a tradition, a promise from that so long as we follow his Torah, he will bless us and our descendants. And because I was from, I followed Hashem, that gave you the blessing not only to live, not only to exist, but it gave you the ability to also follow in my footsteps. and succeed spiritually as well. And your children, your children are also from they're also religious because you are. But you should know that if you want your kids to stay from your kids to stay connected to, you can never slow down in your in your servitude of Hashem. You have to be willing to sacrifice everything just like your mother did for the sake of serving Hashem. Many parents have kids. Unfortunately, some don't. And these parents, sometimes they start off the relationship, start off the marriage as two religious couple. And sometimes they uh start off as not religious and then they do chuva. But quickly people realize that once you get married, if you want your kids to follow in your footsteps of being connected to Hashem and following his Torah, not only do you have to be religious enough to send them to yeshiva, religious enough to give them a Torah education, but you have to make sure that you yourself are continuing to grow religiously, continuously doing more, more Torah learning, working on your modesty, working on your uh, you know, your Torah learning. You have to continue growing. You can't stay the same. Why? Because your kids are growing. But if they see that you are just laxidasical and you're just you, then to them it seems like you were born that way and you're not trying so hard. So why should they? Why should they try so hard to pray to Hashem if you are not even praying so hard? Why should they try so hard to learn to if you are only learning Torah when you have a chance? Why should they sacrifice so much for the sake of serving Hashem? If you don't seem like you're sacrificing anything, you're more interested in who's having a party this weekend than you are in what's the next opportunity that I could take advantage today to do more mitzvot. And what sometimes happens is that a couple does chuva, they watch the shim, they get strong, they have a good rabbi, but then as they have kids, they're focused on just maintaining life, making sure everyone has to eat, everyone has clothes, everyone has the things they need. So the excitement of serving Hashem that they had before the kids came slows down and then their kids grow up in a house that's more on neutral and sometimes even reverse spiritually than the house that that was there before they got married. And the kids They don't see their parents listening to Rabbi Ruven or any Rabbi Ephraim or any rabbi that speaks strong anymore. They see them listening and watching different shows that perhaps are entertaining, helping them manage the house, helping them learn how to do business better. Maybe a shield here and there by some soft speaker that is good with telling stories. They don't see the fire. So they don't have any fire being showed to them, taught to them. And their best bet is to learn from the local school, the local rabbi. And sometimes the rabbi in the school are treating kids in a very soft manner because they're kids and they tell them nice stories. They tell them different parts of the Torah. The problem with that is is that if your if you the parents needed the fire in order to get yourself to serve a kadosh, I could assure you the kids you brought to this world have the same spiritual genes as you and they also need the fire. And if you don't give it to them, you'll be sadly disappointed. at what ends up happening. And sometimes parents are surprised. I don't understand. I had the best rabbi. He helped me, but my kids are barely wanting to keep Shabbat. Of course, because you were raised and brought into the world of Torah by the fire of Kadusha and zealousness. and emit your kids. They got their from uh you know teddy bears that have a keepa on. They got, you know, they saw a few cartoons, read some books whenever they got a chance if it was part of the homework assignment. They never did any extra Torah learning outside of school because the fire that you had died the same day that your kids were born. Not because of your kids, but rather because of you. So Yakovu wants to make sure that Ysef doesn't make this mistake. He says to him, "Your sons are so special and are like and Shimon. They're part of the tribes. Your other sons are not going to be part of the tribes." Why? Because your sons and they thrived even in a country full of idol worship. Even in a community without real Judaism, surrounded by Christmas lights, surrounded by idolatry, your sons still thrived, and they thrived because you continued the fire that you learned from me, that you learned from my home. If you continue that, they will continue and their children will continue. But if you think for a moment that it's time for you to take a seat back, go on neutral, I already did enough. Or if your sons will think that since they came from such a religious household, their father is a sadik, their grandfather's Jacobu, they don't need to work so hard at their religiosity, at their servitude of Hashem. Don't be surprised if their kids are idol worshippers because if it's not the fire of Torah it's becomes the fire of tumah impurity. [screaming] Autumn time.