Parshat Vayechi: Survival in Exile - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] we begin with verse via Yakov Elliot with time Sheva s rashanna Yakov lived in Egypt for 17 years now ironically Egypt was the worst place in the world and he alcove was because of circumstances you know the famine forced to go and settle in Egypt one would think that this is the worst place in the last place he wants to be however the czar says on the the words of IKEA off the elephant Zion that these 17 years in Egypt were the best years of his life literally this was the good life for Yaakov and this needs to be understood how could ya over the holiest person in the world fine be comfortable find his home in mitzrayim which is that called airavata Allah the nakedness of the land the place where where they were steeped in avodah Zarah idol worship premise acuity lying cheating it was the worst place in the world to be yet here we're told that Yaakov has the good life and we have to understand this seeming you know contradiction so the way we could appreciate it as this Yaakov knows that he's eventually going to leave the world and leave his descendants in in Egypt and he should be afraid that god forbid Egypt will affect them in a bad way so what is it about Yaakov that he could be so happy and live out his years of retirement so to speak in this bliss when he should be screaming inside afraid of the doom that awaits his sentence so there are two things that we could say that helped him calm down first of all we know that yo safe came in front of him settled in Egypt and became the ruler of Egypt now seeing Yosef survive this encounter with Egypt and remain righteous and remain holy was certainly a positive thing for Yaakov to see more than that Yosef raised his children in Egypt and they came out also righteous it is for that reason that we bless the children when we bless our children we bless them and said that they should be like a crime in Menasha the children of you're safe because Ephraim and Menashe were the first two children to grow up in Gullit so to speak in which Ryan and they were able to come out wholly of that strength to come out holy in Egypt is the blessing we give because right now in exile we need that type of extra power the second thing that that we we can say is why Yaakov can relax and enjoy the the last years of his life in Egypt is because before he himself went to Egypt to settle with him in the entire Jewish family at the time all of his sons and extended grandchildren was first and foremost he sent you who died in front of him Lahore worked to instruct everybody the rabbi's tell us that this instruction was to set up a base Madras where there would be Torah learning and where rabbinic instruction when guidance and direction would come out from the base Madras so if a nation is committed to following its Torah scholars its its Jewish leaders then they are going to follow in a good direction and so Yaakov prepared this ahead of time knowing that that was a necessary component for the survival and then continuation of the Jewish people but perhaps the most important element of what was the key to the success of the Jewish people in Egypt and why akov was content that they would survive was the fact that you're safe in his genius understood that the only way for the Jewish people to survive in Egypt was if we would seclude them separate them from the masses there is for example the idea in in modern terminology we talk about living in a suburb you know people could work in in New York City but living in New York City is terrible imagine a Jewish family trying to thrive in the heart of New York City with everything there we won't get into the details so there's the idea of a suburb and that's exactly what we see here in the parsha of the of the Jewish people in Egypt when the brothers of the old safe come to town so of course power was excited he took over the world with one Yosef now he's told he's got yo six brothers and they're bigger and stronger than yo safe all I could imagine in Pyro's eyes all he could see are the dollar signs so to speak how he's gonna take over the world with Yosef and his brothers but y'all safe understanding that brings the weakest of the brothers and and he explains to them what to say to power and he tells them to explain that we're shepherds and that's what we do for generations and that's our expertise now let me try to give you a little bit of an analogy a little bit of a joke as well how I unter interpret this whole dialogue between the brothers and power imagine in America you know you bring you bringing you bring to the the biggest corporate leader Donald Trump whoever you bring him you're your brother's cuz you're of course a million dollar man you're making millions and you bring in your brothers which are supposed to also make you Millions and as soon as they start talking he asks the brother so what are you what do you do let me figure out how I can use you to become even more rich and more powerful and the brothers answer well we're garbageman we've garbage man my dad is a garbage man my granddaddy was a garbage man we've been garbage men in all our life with garbage men we are garbage experts so what do you think what's gonna happen obviously the the face on this businessman is going to you know smiles gonna turn to a frown because he was imagining how we can make dollars off of these people and in the end they're talking about garbage that's the some degree well how we could appreciate the dialogue between between the brothers of Yosef and power what what exactly happened then was power was expecting to see all of these great talents and how we can use them to control the world and but and they tell him that they're shepherds now in that time in place in this modern civilized the Egyptian society being a shepherd was like being a garbage person that was what being a shepherd was like and so when they told him that we're Shepherds our Father was shepherds on our grandfather was shepherds and that's what's in our blood being a shepherd they were essentially telling them that you have no use for us and by being told that you have no use for us so of course when Joseph comes with this solution let's send them off into a far off place Goshen like the suburb let's put them there let's get them out of the way and they won't be an embarrassment to pyro so powers like great you're safe you're a genius you saved me let's get them as far away from the Egyptian society as we can because they're just going to be an embarrassment for us and in doing so you're safe understood of course the what was happening and he saved the Jewish people because in order for the Jewish people to survive which is we have to maintain a level of purity and sanctity and wholesomeness and if we're in the heart of Manhattan you know 48th and Broadway I think that's pretty action-packed over there if that's what you're trying to raise your daughter to be a modest woman and that's what you're trying to raise your son to be devoted to serving as gem that's not the place and so by sending the Jews off to Goshen which was a place with where they would be isolated and they will be able to maintain purity sanctity wholesomeness so the added benefits which it was really what saves the day is that the divine presence could come and stay with them there had they been in Egypt proper so in all that impurity who says that they would have been able to connect with Hashem in the same way and as a matter of fact we find later on that Moshe availing himself had to leave Egypt in order to pray to a sham because Egypt was full of all of these bad things so with this and everything was saying that we could appreciate that how does Yaakov live out his golden year so to speak in eg without being so worried it's because everything was set in place for success he had the best Madras he had Jewish leadership and we had isolation from the influences and the unfortunate negative things that that our children would be exposed to with all that we can appreciate how as I'll tell us that throughout the generations the Jews kept kept their traditions they kept their Jewish names they kept their same clothing and they kept their names and you know these are just you know simple things were being told but the depth of keeping their names and keeping their their look unique and keeping their language unique meant that they were staying true to the ways of their ancestors and in that sense they survive as a people through that exile now of course history is important but if history is not being used to teachers the future then it's just history lesson and that's that they do in you know secular schools here when we have a history lesson understanding how the Jew survives in Egypt it's really a lesson for us here and now because how do we survive in this time of exile with all of the the exposure we have today in our living room you can have anything you want you turn on the computer click a few buttons and the whole world is there the greatest test we've ever faced we perhaps faced today how do we survive well we survived with these same messages a devotion to traditional values you know the base measures has to be the main thing Torah and the guidance of our rabbis we have to stay out of the limelight and the fancy idea of trying to conquer the world because you know when you conquer the world in other that you get conquered with it you think that you could be involved and mingle and not get get the affected and get tarnished know you get affected as much as you're affecting and so we have to know how to maintain a little bit of a secluded type of lifestyle in that that we can maintain our purity and sanctity and hope for children and grandchildren to continue in a way of torrid meets Walt the modern approaches unfortunately we see the the results and it doesn't have the continuation that we see in the traditional approach so we're not trying to compare who's better who's not but when we're talking about this saving our children and seeing our children continue so we want to not take any chances and again anytime you you remove these barriers you you just you know make it more risky and more dangerous for our children to survive so that's the the same way that we survived in Egypt is the same way we're gonna survive now and tomorrow [Music] you