Parshas Vayigash: Yehuda Establishes a Yeshiva and the Future of the Jewish People

this Torah class is brought to you by Torah anytime.com as we prepare for the PK says as y was coming down to M that he sends Yehuda down on a mission yehud and Yehuda he sent before him to teach before him to and they came to the land of says rash what does it mean to teach before him like says he had to go clear out a place find an empty location clear it out y had a big family they needed a lot of real estate he had to figure out how they'll be able to settle the land where they could settle where they're going to build houses before him before he gets it you can't just go to a new location you have to know what you're getting into but says rash that's a simple you was like scouting out the area but says to establish a yes that that Yeshiva would emanate and who was charged with this Mission Yehuda and the question is Yehuda why Yehuda because there is a famous rule that could only come from two either from or for or for ah Yehuda no Yehuda is just a leader but he he won't get the right in fact the says number we do not find young Torah Scholars either they have to come [Applause] from they understand wisdom for the time ask what do you mean what about yehud is my lawgiver I'm not talking about somebody who could say what the law is I'm talking about somebody who could probe the Su and analyze and plummet the depth of learning and come with the right either from or it's hard to understand why we would say that from 12 that are there only going to be two maybe three that are going to gener only 25% for time in Memorial that are going to generate yeah makes no sense look the gar says that of a thousand people that go into Yesa 100 mate who could learn a 10 and only one who could it's it's not an easy thing and they're only relegated to come from 25% of the yeah not possible not possible the not possible what shite are you from not from I'm from and come from right well look look you know I maybe has something from my mother's side I don't know um but any event why would Yakov dka tell why would y send Yehuda he Yehuda is not someone who H could come from why wouldn't he send Ley why would he send and by the way if you look in the r and we're going to come back to this R the r the r says that Abraham ainu was a not only a great leader but was established the Yesa y maintained the Yeshiva yov maintained the Yeshiva and then if you look on the last narrow line in the sons and he separated he appointed him the head and he put him he situated him in the Yesa to teach the way of God so we know that the rash of jakob's Yesa was Ley so if Le is the rash then why would he send Yehuda to establish the yes is not going to be functioning until we all get there there's nobody else there so he just he was the building fund was the fundraiser he was the he built it why does it mean that he went to be the ran sha he went to establish why would you send someone else to establish the Yesa that someone else would leave he has to build a building yeah you go do the dirty work and then I'm going to be the Riva all right okay all right so now that everyone got off their chest all the things that are okay let's see what the answer is okay there's a saer and in this brings down the qu this question the way we asked it and that is if the says that come either from Le or from then why was Yuda chosen to to establish the Yesa so look in the paragraph the second paragraph says the temple was built in the share of and one little strip of the was in the there was a strip that came out from the and went into the okay so we know the M was straddled the Border went out from the shear of Yehuda and it entered the of bamin okay more than rest of the building that the SED rested in the right we know we the the the where thean convened was in the sh of and right we see from here that even though Yehuda were not was not the Pake he was the place ofak you hear that where didak happen in who share in Yehuda share because the Sanhedrin convened in the share of not that was the but the occurred situated y's portion and therefore suggest to say for you know yob sent Yehuda he didn't send him to pasin he sent him to make the place why him because in terms of place of saak we find historically the place of was always in the okay that's very interesting possibility okay history didn't exist yet because he was creating this history yeah but I'm saying I'm saying all the people on the son H were only from LA that uh that's what the gar says he was a great gu and I don't know him personally what still around yeah okay and by the way if you look in the sa what would you like to know Mor he he was on the San hedin he was from also he wasn't from uh from or lady the Jews could not have existed peacefully if all of the sun had doesn't mean to be on the do you need to be no but my question was yeah that only the members of the son H were only from those two who SW him and you indicated that yes the says that's what it says what a young Torah scholar young Torah scholar who could only from sh and shave it I we find members of sanedrin who not either they had mixed into them from or they already older but to be younger that you need the of either Ley or possibly okay now if you look in the they asked him the same question well if Ley was rashash why was Yehuda making theiva why not Ley so kki suggests that look yakob didn't tell HUD is going to be the Russa he just has to make the arrangements to make arrangements Yuda would be more suitable so they asked kki but I heard now who asked him the the was written byel he he's someone he's like's uh he escorts him and he asks he Peppers him with questions and he writes down what answers so he says that he heard in the name of the pich the famous answer the pich that the rashash is from Ley but to build the Yeshiva you need gura what do you think about that said I also heard something like that okay he says that's [Music] what this is some similar to what I'm saying yeah similar to what I'm saying similar but not the same okay now also wants to know we know abrau had a Yeshiva and Y had a Yeshiva and yov had Yeshua why is he giving it over to Yehuda not to Le after all Le are the rash Yesa so he says two reasons number one that since Yuda took the responsibility to bring back Benyamin and he took AAS and he took took it on the chin he was the responsible party so he was reward so therefore yako felt he is the most responsible person for this job to set up the Yeshiva and number two saysin it's to teach a very important lesson and that is there's a big big misconception that when it comes to Yeshiva operation or synagogue operation you have rinic leadership and you have lay leadership and the two should not mix let the rabbi take care of his department and let the lay leadership take care of their department and therefore yobu is saying that is fundamentally incorrect that the running of all operations should be in the hands one hand one hand saysin yov who gave over mea and societal operation to Yehuda was saying to Yehuda you cannot separate religion from societal requirements the king who runs operations has to be the one who's in charge of religious dissemination it it should rest in the hands of one party happens to be in theiva where I grew up in this is their fundamental principle they do not give over they will decide when the garbage is taken out cuz they believe that once another party is making decisions even about trivial things it everything affects the religion everything affects the learning I remember Miller used to say takes away time from learning and even if it takes away time but ultimately the strength of the Shiva and the strength of the of the rash Shiva and the rabim is only as strong as a decision making of things that affect the regular people once you strip them of that once they're not the ones signing the checks once they're not the ones deciding on the things that affect people's day-to-day lives then you're stripping them of their influence I hear that you're saying the rash in yeah the rash Miller held the rashash should be the one shoveling the snow why because once you're putting once someone else is going to shovel the snow so tell he'll make a decision you know what there's too much snow no yiva today but if the Riva is the one shoveling the snow and he knows how important it is that there is yiva today he'll make sure it gets done how can you say that I'm not I'm just saying what R Miller said yeah one of the big fundraisers came yeah to UHA looking for the Russ Shiva there was a man in the hallway mopping the FL and that was not was [Music] Russi oh yeah was the one she was so impressed mm look it doesn't always work it's not always practical doesn't work in today's day and age but fundamentally when you have DEC compartmentalized responsibilities de de compartmentalized you have to have good management you don't have good management okay you could delegate we're not saying you can't delegate you know you sound you sound like but in terms of who you should distribute to in other words if the power of of societal issues rests in different department than the religious leaders you're getting yourself into trouble so what so come again the king no no we just do it one time we move on the king decides everything the king should decide the king should be not only the in charge of decision- making for society but he should in his hands should rest religious Authority as well the board of directors of an organiz that that that's what he's saying yeah the president the versus the rabbi okay let's move on very quickly umin continues by the way he you see that in his commentary he uh has a very um modern view of what the is teaching Us in other words in his perception of the T the Torah is addressing very real contemporary issues okay so he says fun of we're not by the way we're not finished with this kind of stuff he says Yu is wandering his whole life and we don't find anywhere that you know in his various wandering we don't find that on his way to laan Yakov called one of his T you know do me a favor before we get to Lan's house set up a Yesa over there or before we get he wondered his whole life why was now he's going down to was it so important for him to establish the Yesa years as a family you'll say he has a tremendous family and he's going out of er Israel well he had a family completely different headed to ER Israel when he in the times of after he left Lavan he didn't establish okay but even when he left LA and he went to he didn't establish says he says Hashem told I'm going to go down with you to so was worried not for his own sake where is hasem going to be live in he's not going to be comfortable there we know is going to be coming with me after to figure out a place where could be comfortable okay another thing ready for this one oh boy okay I don't know thetic says that of yud sent to to who else what yob sent Yehuda to Muhammad you know that Muhammed were setting up obviously to Y who else is this message going to go to saysin this was directed at y y might think that look y told them tell Papa tell Aba tell him tell him that I'm in charge of I'm in charge of giving meals to everybody operations I'm a but but more I'm doing MIT all the all the important to feed people so tells you go tell with all your good and all your there's a more important thing that you need to do establish the Yesa but what do you mean I'm involved in something better says go tell there's something more important than and that is establishing yes he was learning Torah with him he was teaching buta he was the the message was directed to don't make the mistake of the masses you know what the sake of the masses is could someone tell me why when there's an appeal for hat it raises more money than when there's an appeal for Yesa it shouldn't be that way it's not the way it works there's a priority of a now we're not undermining any of the any of the like it says in um in you have to support all of them but the point is you have to know priority and that's what yob is sing to Y despite the fact you're involved in don't lose track of the main tet of and that is okay let's let's move on still let's move on and let's discuss this inion of what Rashi says B that we know that throughout the generations suppos to B she didn't know about yes let's see you had let's see RAB say that's what we call it's a where in where in does it say why is it what they why is it that we find a lot of talk about the acts of yov and we find very little about the yes in fact we do know that all of the other Abraham andov they all learned in without exception how do we know this well in number eight y says when maled who is maled says what does it mean the last words of that shame revealed to and if you look in the when it says where is what isame he came from shame so also learned there and by the way says why is you called your shame not shame we always refer to sh you got a different Institution shame was the the big gun over there his name was the first one on the top of this probably The Collector more money yeah the after the AA we know goes missing right so we learned different over the years says you know he didn't go to G took him to so we know learned in yes and how about yob 14 years yov learned by his father 15 years and by shame 58 years talk about sitting and learning 58 years he learn to M obviously say 14 years 14 14 years when he was running away from from ASA but that was not his first stint in the according to the he spent 58 years serving shame he wealthy father-in-law yeah he left he left when he was 60 yeah so we learned there from the AG of two and he wasn't home he wasn't there to get the BR he went home he got theas but he was in 14 years so so how think how many more years he need 44 years 44 years that's what it say he served shame 58 years when which years I don't know when did he make the lentils well Abu passed away when 7575 no no no not how old was he what what when when day of the year maybe he was learning between the time yose was taken away until went to go could that time I don't know but the question is and this is raised in the safer of that if Abraham no this of the more Moder the more recent one that um he brings down the from of and you could ask why does the focus so much on the and and what the focuses on and what he harps on is the distinction between the character and the nature of and the of and that is the is that sh was a base mad what's a base mad you come you learn and when you finished you go home it's a place that you learn but the rambam that we started off the year with in number four uses a different terminology to characterize the of and that is look at number four that after gathered together many look at number three thousands of people joined the B abah it was the house of Abraham now look carefully it doesn't say Abraham taught anyone he planted in their hearts this ior and then the it doesn't say was he sat and and then he separated and again the r says after being in in other words there is a difference a fundamental difference between the operation of yes and the operation of the and that is had a big room and if you want to learn you come and learn and if you want to and when you're done you go home but the concept of indidual learning not the the concept of Yeshiva is more than just a place where somebody learns the ISA implants in the heart of the talid a complete world view and a complete approach to life where it's not just conveying the information but it's a certain there something is not just being taught it's being planted in their hearts it's a bias what's the difference between a Bas menish and a bias a bias is somebody where so is a place someone grows up someone develops it's a different development process in a Yeshiva as opposed to in the of Shame so that is why says the reference to what Abraham of know can set up was something called a bias the base Abraham base Abraham is where the tah is sh it's planted into the hearts of his family and his and that is the difference between the success of the students of yes and the students of ab and the families of ab that they were the ones who invented the modern day Yeshiva the concept of Yeshiva is more than b Med yeah I got in other words some sometimes people and it could be the same you could have Yesa and to some people it's just a Bish and to some people it's a Yesa B somebody goes he learns but it's not a transformation place not a place of transformation the concept of theiva is it's a place where the Torah is it's planted in the hearts of the and this is really what maintained CL throughout the generations that the concept of Yeshiva is not a modern day invention but it's the it was created by and this is what if you look in rashi rashi says that's what yehuda's job was to establish a house a house is a place where the Torah is the air but very interestingly if you look at number 13 and we'll end with this direction also yeah look I I happen not to have anything against people who listen to sh on the internet but one one but it's not a replacement from learning from a a re you don't have the environment you're sitting in the comfort of your home and it's wonderful and people learn at home on the road while they're walking it's a very important service but it doesn't supplant it cannot take the place of the give or take the bias the the the a of of the uh of the traditional Yeshiva yeah now if you look in the we'll end with this that're very interesting the same way we have a that CL will always exist the says we have a special Covenant that the oral law will never be forgotten which is a un unable thing when you think about the fact that we're still coming here opening up a 3,300 years later when almost everything from ancient history is long forgotten nobody remembers anything what happened what what went on and we're still learning the same T it's amazing it's amazing thing survives but wasn't for the Torah look how many cultures in Nations disappeared so the matter says that we have a special that the will never be forgotten like the says and what did God do to ensure that this promise is fulfilled he gave the Jewish people something called yes God gave us two yes that these isas they learn tah day and night and that people would gather all of clo would Gather in the ISA two months a year and there would be until they would be able to clarify everything says the those two yes were never destroyed there was no they were never spoiled Yan couldn't destroy them Edam couldn't destroy them I so how do they survive that's why exiled them 12 years before the 12 years before the and exiled look what the says and the and the so the medish asks why are they called what kind of is there a people who are exiled says a it refers not to Warriors to who are the who's the and the the if any of them opened their mouths everyone became silent that's their power in Torah the masar if they closed an issue in it was closed nobody could reopen it and hasem exiled them 12 years before theban says the med [Applause] that did with that he Advanced before the he Advanced before he had right he was exiled to is the next one coming up so we're going to have to be doing that for the next couple months and they sat in B look what it says from that day until today and Ed never destroyed them and that Y and in fact theas and B existed there until uh throughout the times of the and for many many hundreds of years and says the the concept of Yesa is that which ensures that the T will never be forgotten in K and this is what Yu sent UD to establish a B I wish you you've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by Torah anytime.com