Parshat Vayichi - Schrödinger's Theological Cat: By Rabbi Ari Kahn

this morning's full program of classes dedicated by sari and schomo dren schomo dren went to yiva with me and I think we went to camp together as kids long before that so say hello say hello to for me um in love Mar of sar's Father Mr Joe palansky there you go okay got it husband of Rosanne pansy on the occasion of his yard side so he should have an and uh if I would have known I would have made the year better made Ah that's true okay so let's uh let's try to let's try to learn um I'm going to do something which is completely irresponsible right now and that is I know there were some rabbis who love somebody somebody must have told them in rabinal school that whenever you start teaching or Tor Oria should always start with a joke now most of them don't know what a joke is which is why this doesn't always work out that well but not only am I G to say a joke I'm GNA say a scientific joke which which so limits it and the other problem with all of this is that I'm going to have people who are going to call me and write me and contact me and tell me how I didn't understand the science at all but it's okay it's okay because I'm going to add in one word to the title which is and then limit their ability to to comment but but I get way ahead of myself um yeah so it goes something like this and you and you can use this make various uh adjustments to it but it goes something like this a man walks into a library you you listening this is going to be the most this is the most important part of this year a man a man walks into a library and says do you have a book on have Love's dog and Schrodinger's cat and the librarian says it rings a bell but I'm not sure if I do or I don't okay now the truth is that is hilarious if you don't realize why it's funny so nope what can I what can I do but it has very much to do with what I'm going to talk about today so I think even the title is going to end up being I already told you the title so it's scary now because I'm limited the title is going to be Schrodinger's theological cat that's what we're calling it so that's what I said once I threw the word theological in and somebody says you don't understand science I'm going to counter and say well you don't understand theology so garu you know what I could even do it better yeah exactly maybe we could do it even better and call it his metaphysical cat but we we don't we don't we don't want to do that theological is good enough so with that let's begin [Music] yob is on his deathbed he gathers together his children at least his sons and he says gather and I'm going to tell you that which will occur to you at the end of days now I could have made all of this really simple easy straightforward not complex no Intrigue by interpreting so what exactly does this mean and real simple just read the next number of verses whatever Yakov says that's what Yakov meant now that's what I just now did was I I I demystified and I took away any question I want a definition of what means simple means means whatever it is yob says afterwards and that is by definition and therefore everything is fine nonetheless there is this persistent approach that what Yakov did over here is what we would call today if we move over from religion to science to business we would call this a bait and switch you advertise one thing and then you give something else so therefore he says I'm by the way great PL another thing for rabbis make the title good right forget out the joke make the title good so over here in this class we're going to reval what's going to happen at the end of days so again there are certain people who are going to be quite interested Ed in uh in what's going to happen at the end of days we all want to be able to uh reveal Mysteries and so on and so forth but over here is Yakov guilty of a of a bait and switch or whatever it is that Yakov said he was going to do is what he does he then like doubles down hikab gathered together again there would be room to analyze what's hu what is hiab right you realize the word kib right gather also from the word the word s so they're most likely different so there are commentaries that then will deal what the difference is come listen listen toob listen to is we always have this suspicion Yakov is the more personal name Israel is the more National name and therefore if he's telling us National Secrets what's going to be and then he moves into and so on and so forth so I'm gonna say it again I could just use my definition of in whatever it is yov says yov is honest especially on his deathbed he tells exactly what he means exactly what he thinks and everything is good or I could uh start looking at the midashim and start looking at the commentators who then will take this in a completely different direction Source number two that he by the way according to this he actually succeeds he does tell them he does show them he shows them about the end of days what the war between go and MOG at least it says go over here if you want a nice English word for that you can call it armagedom from goo and he shows him again all the drama that takes place at the end of days and we'll skip a little bit which is a little bit more positive does he show him the destruction or show him the the building the beta and it says why because it says because there's a verse in that actually relates the term together with the building of the mikash our theory of conservation of and now we see that it's clearly talking about the building of the mikash he wanted to tell them about the Kates now the word Kates is I I want to be a little careful about right now because even when I use the word Kates the question is what does that mean vam menu and it was hidden from him so the the word Kates would mean the end the question is what exactly does it mean maybe we'll come later on today back to a we I think again off the top of my head there were two usages in the Kish prior to this one is with K and he and the other which which is the word Mikes which the par Mikes and both of them we have the we have at the end of a period of time and what does that mean it probably means at the end of period of time so over here hes but generally when we talk about it again especially in theological circles we'll talk about Kates Kates will me the end of days again by the way K means he's going to tell them aside from telling them about according to one opinion armagedom and according to another opinion the building the bet mikash but rather reveal the time frame for it so our Kates would be to deal with the time frame good if we look at Rashi in Source three he wanted to tell them about again the time frame of and at that point according to Rashi he his Clairvoyance suddenly disappears and he finds himself unable to articulate and unable to say or to show or to communicate anything and then according to this there is a bait and switch which again it's deliberate but instead he just starts talking which according to rash the speech that yob gives or what we call quote unquote the blessings that yakob g is not what he intended to say it's not what he intended to communicate what he intended to communicate suddenly he was lost in the cloud and he and he just could not say what he wanted to say what Rashi doesn't tell us at least in this short little phrase is when he says K it's the end of days which end of days is he referring to and I will explain in a moment the mrai theim who is generally one of the many commentators on Rashi but among all the commentaries one of the most important commentaries on Rashi if you don't know this there's a whole sub industry of Rashi commentators and again first foremost is theim and he says and he says sources as we just now saw he said I don't know why in the world they felt it necessary to go down in this go down this path again why even say that Yakov didn't say what he intended to say there's no indication over here from the text itself that he told them by the way essentially R is saying why don't you say the text is completely authentic in terms of yakov's motivation of what he had wanted to communicate for whom so he's saying I don't understand this and at the end he writes which is like his only way because really he's scratching his proverbial head and say I don't know why they're doing this and then he says maybe there's a tradition because if you have a tradition that that's what happened so then what can you say you have a tradition so essentially what he's saying is if you have a tradition that that's what it means that I'm willing to accept it otherwise I don't know why you're making this whole thing more complicated than it needs to be the gurar number five and who's the gurar another commentary on Rashi who often quotes the he actually is far more famous than most of the commentaries on Rashi the G is the Mah Mah from Prague and he says he says I'm gonna tell you what's happen at the end of days so what he's doing over here is he saying is hold it a second what Yakov refers to in the actual speech a lot of the tribes he talks about the land that they're going to settle in the things they're going to do in that land and he says 200 years down the line where do we ever find that that means that that is and so on so he's saying I I don't understand how you could claim that is yakov's authentic speech because that phrase is what pushes me to those interpretations that we saw again for example in the madash about the building the B MD gooo far off in the future if you were to look carefully at sour six and seven or six and seven it is the tarum yonatan or the sudo yonatan and uh he he lumps together all kinds of things meaning it's not just that yakob was going to reveal is going to reveal everything so prepare yourself like go to mik I'm going to tell you all the secrets and all the exact timeline which is hidden I'll reveal to you why the why the good suffer and why the bad rewarded all the mysteries in the world Y which means once we're going to reveal Mysteries let's just go all the way and reveal every single mystery the and what the reward is going to be in the garden of and so on and so forth which means essentially and he wanted to tell him also about M and so on and then suddenly uh he lost the station he he wasn't able to uh to focus in the communication stops and yakob is unwilling so again we love this we love the tarum yonatan again not really yonatan but we love this tarum we love again once we're going down the path that we're going to reveal things let's reveal everything which is essentially uh what what he does in Source number eight the radak he understands that that end of days means the end of the exile the current Exile which means let's just think for a second we're looking back at this thousands of years later after a first betam mikdash and a first Exile and a second bet mdash and a second Exile and then through all the trious and tribulations the vicissitudes of Jewish history going through again all of the suffering and all the problems and the few celebrations and the incredible scholarship and but n but nonetheless going through the Crusade and the progams and theki Massacre and the Holocaust and the building of the state of Israel and yob sees all of these things or are all of these things dependent upon all kinds of other factors which had taken place subsequently and what Yakov is really talking about is the current challenge that the Jewish people find themselves in and that is that they've made their way to Egypt but they're going to get out of Egypt and that's the end of days which means that's that's that's the whole thing and now you read the and so on he's talking about the immediate things goes in the same direction he says what's it talking about the end of days is when they leave Egypt and go and enter into the land of Israel that's the end of days which means why argue any further so I'm just going to point out now that we we've till this point I've seen a number of different approaches and now you also realize by Rashi only saying he wanted to reveal the cases there is definitely room regarding Rashi at least in that phrase which case are you talking about the end of the Egyptian Exile or are you talking about the arrival of Messiah which means there's lots and lots of States along the way that that it's not that clear what it is that Rashi had intended I'm going to say it again at least regarding that particular phrase in Rashi the ran in Source 10 okay anybody know where that sound is coming from or okay the and he says if you read jakob's words carefully you realize that there are some hints to the Messianic era and he adds rotu again now but see this is interesting for the ran raan doesn't always say well said it that's the end of the discussion he does not do that something say said this and this is what I think but over here he wants to he he wants to end the argument and say but look in the and he says absolutely according to everybody whenever it says it means the Messianic age by the way you've already noticed not everybody necessarily agrees with that in Source 11 and it's called it it's in the 1500 he's not the only one to go down this path he goes back after the raim who says I have no idea why they're arguing reg just say that Yakov was authentic well he's pointing out well it is the midash we now know it's also the gar and he then adds in why don't you just look at the ran and their aim is after so the first thing he says is you're having a hard time go because it says that's what it means that's how we take it that's what the term uses although the ran I believe may have overstated his argument because it's always hard to say according to everybody this is what any particular term means I can say most I can say many I can say usually I can say that's what I would expect but to say everybody is a little harder although you can say everybody never doesn't say is wrong a little bit because he says the are other uses that's what he shows here there are are other uses usages of which does not mean the Messianic age so he says maybe the one said this he meant over here and we'll skip a little bit and he goes into a bit if you're interested the difference perhaps between heu versus hikab and as I said you'll at least know where to look the rabeno bay and he's very influenced by the ra by the ramban generally the Renu Bay knows both traditions and he tells us that most likely it's talking about both and then he makes a great argument and he tells us that after all the Final Redemption is actually to a certain extent I don't want to say completely but it's to a certain extent based upon the first Redemption so certain principles of what takes place in terms of leaving Egypt and so on and so forth is the footprint which the future Redemption is going to follow so therefore looking back at the earlier sources rather than be being pigeonholed into saying an either or to borrow a Kirk a term from Kirk Guard we're alreadying science we could do philosophy today rather than doing an either or by saying either it's talking about leaving Egypt in the end of those days or it's talking about the Messianic days he's saying but these things are interrelated and therefore I can end up saying that no it's really dealing with both because of this interconnection between the the two of them good good source 13 you can easily be fooled because it sounds like a mid the SE because it is a mid but it's a late mid it's a mid which was you'll see was written BYO 11:39 so again realize it's after Rashi what he does is he collects midashim but he also weaves through certain things but we'll just say so that's really interesting because he says there's a difference between the end of days and the end of the days right so the end of days that it's the end of days but the end of the days could very well be the end of this the this particular Quagmire which they find themselves in whereby they are stuck in a land which isn't theirs and they find themselves soon to be enslaved and abused and so on and so forth which exactly leads me to Source 14 which is one of the now this is obvious I'll translate and I'll explain but this is more complicated than thei right now is letting on first of all you now realize that at this point in time same time as and the the they're all they all notice this thing about versus but they just brought another element into it and this is the main point that we need to focus on and then we'll see how it how it impacts everything but this is the main point and that is that there was an appointed time and that appointed time is communicated in the Brit Bim in the Brit fim is again the most important Prophecy in the book of bid because it sets then the timeline and it sets what needs the checklist what needs to be done taking us through the end of bid through at least the first part of the book of schmoe but the reality is it takes us to through the end of Schmo and through midbar until we enter into land of Israel in the beginning of Yeshua which means the britan upim is not just it's not just the timeline it's it's the goal of what is supposed to take place it's it's the plan and but but there's something more complicated here and that is if we were to go back and take a quick look at the bitban upim which we won't at this moment but we do know that there the timeline is complicated because there it says indeed 400 years but it also says the fourth generation which means that we'll borrow another term now there's something about the time regarding the ount of servitude slavery being in a land which isn't theirs and so on and so forth which is fungible which means there are things which we can go and interpret the times in different ways and yes we're aware that there is this really interesting rinic teaching that and and you can read this is shot in the Torah that it's from the time that that your your your descendants will be strangers and allers and theirs and it starts with the birth of Y and that takes you exactly to 400 years exactly more or less to 400 years till they leave Egypt so I'm saying that that that becomes the Y is a stranger in land which isn't his again as I pointed out months ago was the biggest proof is that when uh when uh Sarah dies there's no place to bury her when you live in your own land you have your own Cemetery when it comes to finding a wife for y there's no girls appropriate in this country which why because this is the land which isn't yours I'm just saying it's really clear right there with the life of yock that he lives in a land which isn't his and The Taking of the 400 years to as I said is compelling nonetheless there's all kinds of other interesting things and maybe even as I was talking it it triggered into your mind something 400 years the word Kates Kates k and Sadi is 190 you take away 190 from 400 you 210 and therefore we've all been taught that the slavery was only 210 years they were in Egypt because as I said it's fungible and God can be creative and God gets the final right to interpret these things in any way that he that he sees fit but at least now we realize that there is this whole approach which is coming and saying like essentially really like re like what are you talking about yeah it has to do the britan of again and that should be really straightforward and understood if you look now at the that 30 years is when they left that added that the 30 years and there claims is that 430 since God said it to abam but it was 400 since the birth of right again difference between and if you want to say the end of days you say not I've heard those whove argued the end of 5,999 years and I've heard those who claim that we're talking about the end of days and again some CL so so again they're comfortable with pointing out that essentially you can one is the approach I think is more authentic and the other are those who've argued and then he says something which is I'm sorry if I call this cute but it's interesting as well so it says that he lost his ability to prophesy and he wondered so instead of taking responsibility himself and saying oh why is God no longer talking to me he says why is my audience not deserving of receiving this information and he says but they are sinless by the way that gets us to a real problem because these people you're already shaking your head these people are not necessarily as sinless and that takes us of course to this other topic that we don't want to talk about and that is does yob know about M does he not know M whose interest would have been to told him or not the brothers are going to claim later on that of course Yakov knew about it and said not to take any revenge and so on and so forth but Yakov looks and he says but they have no right hell you look at all the names of all of the which will be a problem there's no there's no but listen to the answer there's no Kates either so therefore it is such an interesting though some people don't like this it is such an interesting back and forth over here is that they don't they don't have but they also don't have Kates which which I just have to stop right here so what does it mean they don't have Kates and therefore you have no right to reveal this or they don't have Kates and there's no Kates I I know I'm not being clear so I want to try to be clear has God already decided how the 400 years will be interpreted which means I've already showed you that there's different ways of doing this and God has the prerogative of taking Divine word and prophecy and applying it in ways that God thinks is right and I'll add one more phrase at that particular moment so what we hear that they're undeserving of the CATE so they undeserving of it being revealed or the undeserving of getting time off for good behavior maybe uh maybe this idea of getting some time off and God creatively interpreting it in a more lenient way maybe that doesn't exist yet so I hope what I just now said is a little bit more interesting if you look at source 16 and again this will more be for homework for you but just realize that the recti in sour 16 is one of the com as I said we have commentaries on Rashi he's one of the commentaries on the ramban and especially when the ramban entr into mystical Theory the ronti loves explaining the mystical Theory but over here he does something which again I'm not sure if it's in the ran but it's really interesting and let me just talk in general terms for a moment the brothers as of this point were guilty of something profound and that was good all of us are aware of something and what we're aware of by the way is really interesting that know it and how we know it essentially it is theology being communicated by liturgy that itself is just an interesting topic I'm sure someone can spend an entire year teaching how there are theological questions and the way the words in our doing decide an argument which existed either in the gamarra OR MIM or even among rishonim that they go different ways and it decides in a certain way and by the way sometimes these things are decided away that not everybody's comfortable with probably the best example in some of the and even some of the prayers before chofar it speaks about uh roles of angels that not everybody agrees with and not everybody will say and they'll they'll take out those those phrases and take out those those words because they say theologically we don't accept that as a as a Bonafide teaching but I'll say it again there are certain things that we know theologically because of liturgy and it doesn't mean it doesn't exist in other places but it means that it decided to absolutely go in this direction so what I'm referring to is the connection between the 10 Martyrs who by the way the 10 Martyrs is not a historical event that happened one afternoon it took place over over right a great deal of time but there is this understanding that 10 Martyrs are in fact connected to M as I said that that's again all that makes it into the things that we say and as I said that's interesting that's where the reti is going down with this and he reads the entire section of the quote unquote showing where the are actually embedded in the text over here so as I said it's a little bit further than I wanted to get to today but I just want you to know about here one of those outer limits of how you take all of this he understands is after the destruction of the second mikdash when this crime of still exists but there there's something which is really important about that and that is that when we're talking over here again especially just bringing this right after the datan and making this observation that Yakov looks up and says but there's no over here so like really there's no K over here really there's not there's nothing hovering above and it it's that point which I think is going to be so important for us to come back and to try to understand so we now realize that the direction that all of this has taken us to that the direction this is taking us to ultimately is we Circle back to where we always expect to be and that is back to Yosef because all roads lead to yosf that's the that we already know so if we look at the very end of B of s 17 this is it this the very end and God is going to the phrase the double phrase of Pak and yod is so interesting because just as a starting point what in the world does the word actually mean what's the what is the atmology what what is it communicating so we we will read this as God will remember you right God remembered SAR God remembers people right we we we use the word pakad God God pakad but it's not necessarily what the word means yeah we use it that way but it's not necessarily the meaning of it but he says God is going to remember you there's a there's a word which is called a padon what's a padon it's collateral it's collateral it means that I'm going to get I I am going to take something from you but I'm going to take some right I'm going to give it back to you and so on what an interesting idea of the Jews being in Egypt as seen essentially as a padon this is not your natural place this is not really where you live this is not where you're supposed to to be but the padon at some point is going to be returned home at some point the padon is going to go back so I'm just saying the padon concept is really really interesting but the there's some other moving Parts over here which are so important that we need to understand yoseph does something dramatic right here that we need to pay attention to it's Source 17 those are not my sources which is which is why you're lost okay if you want you give me those and I can try to teach that but that's but that that's not what I had intended so let me explain to you first why this is dramatic and the first part of what I'm going to say which means there's two sides of the coin over here one side I've taught before one side I haven't so first the part which I have and by the way I just figure that everybody here has listened to what is it how many shum do we have online there's a lot so I just figured everyone's listened to all of them so I can just you know it's like sometimes people come over and say oh I have your book what all your books I said 14 of them oh I didn't realize I said okay good so they listen to all your classes also it's the same kind of thing so let's let let's let's get back to our uh point because there's something which is incredibly dramatic from the moment we met Yosef well when he's born already there there is drama right there we're born he's off yakob is living in lovan's house Yosef is born time to go home there's a power same POS Yosef is born time to go home so now there's something about Yosef about going back home keep that in mind um Yosef then we really get to know him more in in pers and Y immediately has his dreams and it seems as if for the next I don't know what do you want to say for the next 10 chapters or so 37 to 47 that the dominant issue in the background are yosef's dreams and we keep on wondering is that all that Yosef is really concerned about is that the point is yoseph just trying to make his dreams come true is that is that what it is and yes there's a ran which seems to go in that direction and we talked about this a little bit correct correct and then that famous other point of the ramban again connected where the ran argues again we did all this where the ran argues that uh that Yosef sees the dreams as prophecy and he says otherwise you'd have to ask why yoseph never contacted his parents which all the BOS would ask and I don't think I don't his father I don't think it's a good question I think that yak I think that yo that yo sorry I think Yosef had to be very careful when right here in this week's par when yov dies ysep has to go seek permission just to go to his father's funeral that I think that Yosef is like every other Jewish leader who lived in a country other than his and that is that being accused of du loyalty and yoseph had to be especially careful of this and yoseph starts sending secret messages to his father it could have cost him his life I I I don't think again I think the more that you think about it I I I know it's not a question of sending an email sending a postcard sending a fact sending a text Yosef sending some means he has to trust somebody completely and not get intercepted and he doesn't and the other person doesn't get arrested and doesn't get tortured and doesn't give information and ysep sending a message to his father I think could end his life again I I don't think I'm overstating this but uh I I think that there's a that there's a challenge over here there's challenge of somebody being a leader who's Jewish in other country I'll just mention that uh this last week a great Jewish leader passed away American Jewish leader his name was Dr Seymour lman he was a personal friend and the thing is that he uh he was the first of what other people did and and he did it first and he may have done it best and you can look up exactly who it is he's on Wikipedia he was the president of the Board of Education in New York City back when John Lindsay was president was mayor and John Lindsay he would answer sorry he would answer his phone in chois so John Lindsay would drive to Brooklyn Drive to Benson Hurst to knock on his door and then sit down in his living room if he had to talk to him about something because he wouldn't answer his phone on chice and then he became a four turn a four-term state senator in uh New York and I'm saying Not Just sh masab is I mean far more than that in terms of his commitment to Judaism and Jewish values and Jewish Education and Jewish causes and again that claim in the back of always that fear of due loyalty is something which is very difficult to do and you know I wish that every Jewish politician in America right now knew how to to stand on the right side you know especially after October 7th and so on and enough but I'm saying just to say oh yeah Yosef could have done anything he wanted he's the most powerful guy really unless he missteps or or Pro or or and there are people out to get him or less a perceived misstep and the next thing you know that uh not not uh doesn't necessarily uh work out very well for him so we're going to try again now Yosef as far as we can tell all the way through this whole thing his maor Mo major motivation was his dreams are they going to bow down to him and so on and so forth and it seems so obsessive almost that we we really don't know what to do with it so that's why I want to stop the end of bid is a full stop and ysep speaks and he says something I'm going to say it again completely dramatic and what is it that he says doesn't say word about his dreams he says the word he says something said about a different dream a dream that aam rinu had a dream that a Marino had all the way back in per tedb and that was the Brit and the Brit is that you're going to be enslaved and you're going to be abused and a land which isn't yours and then God is going to take you out you're going to leave with great wealth and then you're go to the land which God has promised and and that's what ysep is talking about over here you're G to go back to the land so just just pause for a second how does yosef's life end his brothers who probably see him as a narcissist probably think that he's completely Egyptian probably imagine and remember how much Egypt is involved in life after death or death after death or things about death yoseph should be building himself a pyramid in order to uh commemorate yosef's life he should have his own pyramid and take his place in the pantheon of Egyptian leaders the impact that he had upon the country and instead of all of that what does yose say again this is how we end saf braet and that's why again I'm going to say it's pratic that God is going to Remember You by way now think back about this term even collateral is just so interesting and take my remains out y ysep says again something really moving and really important and really Zionist there's this great midash that says that ysf in gatria is that ysf is and that yoseph says I want to go home right enough of all this that's it that's how the story ends I want to I want to go home and when you leave and you're going to leave and how do I know you're going to leave because God promised you're going to you're going to leave this is the Brit this is this is the Covenant that God made with a aino and suddenly you realize that yose's own personal dreams whatever all that is lost on the side and by the way it's actually going to be a reason for us to start to perhaps reinterpret everything but yoseph says you know I want to go home I want want to leave when you and again you want to make a stronger moral argument I was kidnapped from my home take me back you have a moral obligation of taking me back home and then that's what Yosef is doing over here at the end so yoseph as much as perhaps he's been separated from his brothers first geographically and then perhaps emotionally so much so that right the the verses right before this is where they are frightened of him and they said you know please make us slaves essentially really means don't kill us so there is this real emotional separation between them and the next thing that we find is yose say oh yeah guys when you leave I'm going with you I'm with you so maybe they never saw that I I I can't believe they saw that and they would have said please make us slaves I can't I can't believe that so let's now go a little bit further when when we move over to saymo just notice something now in in in Source 18 peric gimmel God says this is by the burning by the way remember we just had that term gather together gather together go and what should you say to them that God says I remember I remember and that the time has come now in order to get up to the next chapter when mosha complains that he can't speak one of the things he says is H so there are those who even right that he has some kind of a speech impediment there are those who argue that what he is saying because it's it's not the same he doesn't say the same thing each time he says something here in the later on he uses a different phrase so kav kav P those who argue that he can't say the letter pay and if he can't say the letter pay then what can't he say p p right there are other people who can't say p also right which which which which is very interesting the he can't say pad I can't say the p i so if he can't say the P then what can't he do he can't do what God just asked him to do to say p p can't say the people right right I'm saying right right right he can't he can't say that he can't say [Music] par now there those who point out that the word poed actively to remember is in gatria 190 so there for and it's the same thing and therefore this already is the hint when y says no no you're going to cut out and the time is going to it's not going to be the 400 years rather P again within those words and that's the secret there's also more dramatic midash about this in Source 21 it's it's again it's based on it's based on 20 gather them all together look at L now so what is it is it what he what wins them over is it what he says or all the Miracles I again the the focus over here are on those same words that y said and source 21 it goes through the same thing again um so maybe they're not going to believe it until they see the signs low the main focus is they heard it's the pad the pakad is the point and then it says it's it's they heard the message not what they saw what do they believe according to this m this was passed on and then to and quing this is know that that source that when that when they came which means this whole thing that I've been trying to work out here is there is this major focus and not just that yoseph says that oh God is going to save you it's not just the Brit ban upim is there in the backg it's there I mean you can't miss that that's that is the content of what yosf is saying is but there are those who see notes yosef's words are now is the time and by the way this is exactly the challenge how do you count 400 years at what point is it time to go at what point is God really going to remember us at what point is God going to say that no there is a padone over here it's in the wrong place it's time to uh it's time to go home and now I'm going to point out what I said in passing in ver 22 the word Mikes was there and with ysep as well we can begin to wonder because this is the very difficult thing this where Rashi tells us that Yosef he he had entr trusted his hope with the SAR maskim and therefore God counts another two years and again when is the end of yosef's days of being in slavery in Egypt and now I I I deliberately say that because there there is something over here that we finally have to recognize and once we recognize this then everything changes in Source number 23 [Music] so I want I want to stop right there the story of yoseph going down to Egypt in very broad Strokes is the story of the Jews who are going to now fulfill this idea of being strangers and a landage isn't theirs or more specifically of being enslaved and being abused but let's stop and think for a second maybe the way that we normally process this is that we need some kind of a path whereby the brothers and for that matter the children grandchildren great-grandchildren of Yakov are going to end up in Egypt so this is how this this is how God chooses to send them there which means the main thing is is that at some point the slavery will begin again if you do all the math you look at the commentaries I think they end up being in Egypt a total of 210 years and they ends up being enslaved a total of 86 years and that's part of uh you know again all of the the Divine math that takes place but now I want to suggest that there's another way of reading this and this is the part which is more frightening and this is the part that we haven't thought about and this is the where we come back to schinger Schrodinger's cat or at least as I said his theological cat and short short again I don't want to talk about subatomic and I don't want to talk about uh about all of the issues within physics and quantum physics and so on because you know I say these words I don't even even know what any of them means I mean I don't know the difference between heisinger and certainly principal and sher's cat so and I'm sure someone's gonna come and uh what exactly so so let's now think all over again this midash actually said something Source 24 says it it's just a lot more complicated to break through Source 24 and Source 25 tries to unpack Source 24 and essentially what it say again let's read the I'm quick he's a com one of the commentaries on he writes so it's playing a game term is it a or a sin or is it a sin or is it a that's not an accident what it's telling you is that when ysep goes down that's the beginning of this of of of the that prophecy taking place in Source 27 and 29 which are both both the the is going to double down on this but but again I have to finally explain what it is they're doubling down on what it is they're saying because we're kind of missing the message over here Yosef went down to Egypt Yosef was enslaved ysep was abused in fact I'm going to argue that ysep was Enslaved the entire time that he was there but his conditions changed multiple times he was enslaved by far he was enslaved in the prison and then he's enslaved by parro again don't don't think just as I said his conditions his conditions changed so now when the brothers come down how do they look at yoseph so I'm going to finally ask the more difficult question do they recognize that Yosef already under experienced slavery torture abuse or do they not see this at all should I ask the question in a stronger sense and and this is the part which I think is really difficult do they look at yosef's slavery as their slavery or or do they look at this as we got rid of this annoying person we got rid of this dangerous person which means the m y is essentially a complete rejection of Y can we go into yosef's mind right now we had every reason to believe and we looked at the midrashim that said this if you wen't we could double down on some of them that Yos that Yakov believed that his time with Lan was the time ofto and but but it was four generations that's theum four generations so fourth generation now it's Yosef is born and now it's time to come back that yakob himself already went through and that's what the midash means when it says the B the he thought we've done everything now now now we came back to the land of Israel with all the money that he made from from Love and instead what happens is what is say and essentially the Divine message is are you kidding we haven't even started yet that was just you know a trial run we have we haven't started and there is a lot a lot to compare between Yakov leaving lovan and the Jews subsequently leaving Egypt the vill Theon says every single element is the same I don't know how many I counted so far I think at least 20 different elements that that that are similar the same but again that that's quite important but nonetheless maybe even yoseph and ysep goes down and ysep is enslaved and Yosef starts experiencing this and yoseph then says to himself I will fulfill the slavery I will fulfill fill this Divine what do you want to call this this Covenant our side of the Covenant and I'm not writing any letters I'm not contacting anybody's I am willing to go through this and I'm willing to absorb this and I am going to take all of this upon myself and then at some point the brothers come down and again God's decision is yose say Good Start that's not it yet but now the question and this is why it's fungible and this is why it's complicated and this is why Yakov perhaps doesn't know when the Kates is he doesn't know when they're getting out because there's something which is still a moving part are you with me on this this is the only important part of the whole share because yakob doesn't know because there's something which hasn't happened yet and what's that they have not accepted as of this point yosa suffering and yoseph slavery which means that the suffering and slavery only begin at a subsequent point in time time and the way that we count is from that subsequent point in time which means they're going to have to stay a lot longer it's only at the point that they're able to accept that what Yosef went through that his pain is their pain and his slavery was their slavery which means that the Covenant that God made with Abram had already begun with Yosef being the slave if that's the case we can start counting much earlier and then we can leave much earlier and therefore it's not until yosef's last breath bre when he tells them I want to go out with you I'm not staying here when they when that's the beginning of this reconsideration of who Yosef is and everything about him when mosenu carries Yosef out that's just a completely different relationship maybe personally mosha felt he he owed Yosef a lot he's the only one who ever lived in a palace in uh right he lived in a palace as an Egyptian leader as Moser later does but I don't think it's just personal I think it's that mosha understands what Yosef actually did and the ability that God can say that now the time has come to leave is only because at this point amist now has accepted Yosef and because now go back to the beginning to the very beginning what does Yakov say gather together unify sit right Stand Together around my bed later on the med is going to say when they March out of Egypt they're going to March out in the same formation that they were around his bed let let me just throw out a couple of last sources and then we'll uh we'll end with this in verse 31 when uh when Yakov sends ysep to looking for the brothers it says already there Rashi points out what's is on a hill the Brit B begins today as soon as yob sends Yosef on his mission this really is the beginning of this so I'm saying Rashi already had pointed this out if you look at B here no more arguments no more fighting come together and join as one and I'm going to go back and say it again why is it so important to join as one because if ysf is independent if yosef's experiences if ysf suffering if all the things yose went through are is not their problem is not their experience then all of this is absolutely not going to work I mean more than that we can point out again something which I think is interesting if you look at continuing that mid it goes to what we should recognize from the T and it says that's theud it's one tree the two right the two leaders work together don't work separately don't be fighting with one in Source 35 it uses a great term it uses when right go to war no person should be left behind again kind of like as a collateral look at the Bal term he used uses that right over here that you again this idea of God remembering is that you are collateral and no one's going to be left behind all of this is together and if you look at the haor that we read when shabat right after destruction after the problem after the how does that ha end is right nobody can be left behind so now we think about how bra ends maybe the brothers would have had such an easy time to leave Yosef behind they try to get rid of him once he's not part of their story he's not part of their family he's not part of that narrative there is something we talked about a year or two ago we talked about narrative therapy narrative therapy when you go back and then you reinterpret the events in your life and sometimes it can be very healing when you were able to reassign certain emotions with things that it took place that in the context it was terrible in context M was a terrible sin and as we again were reminded today the the implications of that sin is one that follows us and haunts us and there's price to be paid the rambam says that when it says that you bring a Ser by every single holiday it's because every single holiday family gathers together and we keep in mind about that member of the family that we threw away and that's M when they when they took his clothing and dipped it into a goat so there's always going to be a goat as a sin offering but over here no gather together no one's left behind so who's the no one who can't be left behind it's the first padone that was sent down to Egypt don't interpret that as no he's not part of the family interpret it the other way around he is part of the family not only is he part of the family his suffering was your suffering and only once you feel that then the whole Divine math changes and at that point we can leave Israel we can leave the Egypt ear and begin our trip back to Israel and that exactly is one of the secrets again of Jewish Theology of what we saw in the and why the wickeds do we feel other people's pain well no that's somebody else's pain that's someone else's problem when we feel someone else's pain and that becomes our pain and there's also a theory of conservation of pain there's only so much pain that God wants us to go through but sometimes we don't feel other people's pain and there's a profound problem with this once they process this and they go through their narrative therapy and how interesting that pesak we have to go through a narrative and tell over the story but once we understand the story properly then we realize the role that Yosef played in all of this it wasn't just as the rich Uncle who sent some food for us it's no there was long before he became the rich Uncle he suffered greatly and we don't even realize that when he was the rich Uncle he was still suffering greatly and the last moment of life he says by the way I'm with you this is just a job I want to go home [Music]