Parsha Perspectives (5782, Mikeitz-Chanuka) - Is Beauty Vain or Valuable?

good morning and afraid of hanukkah it's wonderful to see everybody welcome back great to be in person great to continue to be in person i want to thank our generous partner sherry's serious sponsors for the year becky and navi cats and family in memory of becky's father david grossman should have an aliyah also uh sponsored by rifki schreiber in memory of her father aaron benitsek a very special person nashoma should have and aliyah as well through our learning and this year sponsored this morning by miriam fox in honor of faye eisenberg's 90th birthday where's fay happy birthday i have good news for you faye they say the first 90 years are the hardest so it's going to be smooth sailing please god from here should be healthy happy together with mari the two of you big big mazel to have a very very happy birthday 90. unbelievable amazing okay let's get started today is hanukkah as you know the second day of hanukkah a very important and auspicious day of its own right second day of chanukah and it is also parshas meekhates parshas meekatz where's hamilton he told me the shabbos will be the 80th anniversary of his bar mitzvah such milestones can i hurricane yearboo for more and more people so let's uh let's get started why do we repurchase in even before we dive into the parish itself let's begin with some chanukah connections the best of the ishbits of ishbits says we always read me because both of them have a similar story line they have the same illusion commercial at the end of last week's passion when we last left off our suspenseful story it seemed like all hope was lost yaakov and yosef rather had been abandoned by his brothers sold into slavery left to die ignored and dismissed that yosef had been utterly rejected his story was over yaakov and it seemed like it was all over the brothers went to go tell their father they thought this was the end of the story they thought they had found closure they thought they had finally gotten rid of this great agitator named yo safe their brother but yaakov was inconsolable and yet it didn't seem like it was closed fast forward spoiler alert if you're not up to next week's pasha i don't want to ruin the story for you but yehudah next week's pasha stands up for his brother and in so doing repairs the damage done when they had abandoned yosef benjamin the only other brother to share a mother and a father now they do not leave binyama to die and therefore yosef realizes they've learned their ways and the story has a wonderful and a happy ending similarly when it came to the holiday of hanukkah it seemed like all hope was lost all the oil was defied defiled all of the people were outnumbered we had no chance that we know that oil oil is a symbol can you put it in the iron in the back just leave it in the arm on the back okay so come on in everybody stand up so it seemed like all hope was lost that the shaman okay so let's put annoying come on it seemed like all hope was lost that the shaman was defiled was tommy there was nowhere else uh no other tame no other shaman to use shemen oil is a symbol of is a symbol of clause from the jewish people hashemin is the same letters of the shama of soul and we know that just like oil just like olive rather when you crush it what comes out is more precious than the olive the island itself does not have a great value the olive creates shikha the olive creates forgetfulness the olive creates forgetfulness whereas the oil creates remembering because what comes out of the olive on its crust is more precious than the olive itself the same is true with the jewish people when we are crushed when they try to squeeze us what comes out what we learn about ourselves is even more precious is easy more valuable so we thought all the oil had been defiled we thought all hope was lost we thought militarily that we didn't have a shot that the jewish people were going to be eliminated so says the ishbits the besance it's the same storyline partials meekats and the story of hanukkah a jew is never broken the jew never gives up a jew never feels all hope is lost yes the moment that you give up hope the moment that you give up your optimism your positive attitude and faith then shalom does it means you've lost your mind when a jews of right mind then they believe beyond all hope they believe beyond all reason because the jew never gives up okay that is all number one the israelites are the connection between precious medicates and hanukkah the same storyline when it seems like all hope is lost there is a rising to greatness yo save all hope has lost soul dismissed left to die turns out he's the viceroy of egypt saves his entire family's lives reconciliation and reunion similarly olive was lost there's no more oil all of it was lost we lost dominion we lost the sovereignty of our land and the next thing you know we are back in charge all hope is not left as has been pointed out by many people you got to love the anti-zionist anti-semitic elected leaders wishing jews a happy hanukkah who are totally uh ignorant of the fact that hanukkah reflects the jewish presence in israel for thousands of years and our being liberated from the occupiers of our land from thousands of years ago so it's a beautiful thing when illinois tulap and the others wish jews a happy hanukkah acknowledging our presence in the land for thousands of years and that they were foreign occupiers to us and we were liberated and i guess we should say yes thank you for that those good wishes we agree totally another connection between chanukah and will delve into the parsha itself and then we'll delve into the partial itself and it's based on apostolic not in precious medicates it's based on apostate in all places in precious years pastor compassion we know that a very difficult a very hard life you have suffered maybe more than any other person and he did so with faith and the posix says i was not at ease neither was i quiet i did not rest and yet vayavaroga's trouble came trouble came this is a pussican an eeyove that describes a fate and a state of being relentless suffering a state of relentless suffering says you have all i wanted was peace of mind all i wanted was peace and quiet all i wanted was just one day no drama no drama however i was not able to achieve no drama all i had was drama the metro shop at the beginning of our partial describes that each statement references a lack of rest and tranquility that is describing not only eov but it goes all the way back to yakov avinu we know in last week's pasha vaishaviakov of leicester we mentioned last week that yaakov who had been through so much drama so many ups and downs in his life so much pain and suffering so much conflict and tension all yakkawa was peace and quiet can i have one day no question no complaining no conflict no doctor's appointments no doctors visits no waiting rooms can i just have one day one day of peace and quiet and yaakov couldn't have it hashem said you want you want shava that's not what this world is for this is the factory floor there are no recliners there are no rocking chairs on the factory floor this is the place we come to work we come to grow we come to advance we come to make progress so mrama says that sentiment that sense that yaakov also bk the yakov wanted peace and quiet that is another interpretation of the possibilities is describing the life the ambition but the failed wishes of yaakov yaakov didn't recover from the trauma with asav he endured the lying in the seat of his uncle lavan then he suffered with his daughter deena getting kidnapped finally when she was returned he has to deal with the disappearance of yosef bk shack of leicester bashava but he didn't get checked he didn't get shava he didn't get manuka he didn't get it all but there's another another madrish not here in save abrasions nor on iov there's another medicine shmoos that references the same pulsak as describing this lack of rest but not about yaakov and not about eof just like yaakov could not fight quiet in tranquility so to his children so too we the jewish people have spent our history plagued by exiles and by enemies who oppress and who pursue and who persecute and who torture and who try to exterminate this could be a description not only of eu of the individual or not only of yaakov the individual is this not a description of the state of the jewish people is this not capturing all of jewish history lo salafi la shakata volo nachti wherever we went whenever we went we started a great new tuesday night series began last week rebecca sola gave a out of the park talk on the rambam and the amahads you can listen online to it it's also streamed live mascots is picking it up next tuesday and then i am the tuesday after that and it's called the rabbis on the run it's all about rabbinic scholarship while fleeing for their lives some of our greatest rapper you know we have peace and quiet and we have peace of mind and we have high speed wi-fi we have outsourch and we can't produce anything and some of these great rabbis on the run persecuted all they had was a quill and a piece of parchment all they had was a pen and ink no library no laptop no backup copy and they produced the rambam it's mishna torah the rush runs from france to spain so we have an entire series on tuesday nights called rabbis on the run all the way through the mir in shanghai and all the way until modern times about total learning torah scholarship that was studied that was produced while fleeing for their lives maybe the name of the series should be los alamos that all anyone wanted was peace and quiet give me a basement just give me a library give me a study give me a room that i could just sit and learn and write but nobody gets it so this is really a description of all the jewish people and that's what the magistrates ready under babylonia we had no tranquility when we were oppressed by persia lo shakati we had no quiet we were subjugated by greece we had no peace we had no rest and as we continue to experience this gullis the fourth and final gulas that we are still in today we find trouble by elbow rogez the exile of yavan of greece is what we redeem from with the miracle of chanukah it's a very interesting fact about hanukkah it's called a gullus we also have a message at the beginning of pasha's braces bharatai sasov darkness is the darkness of of yavan of the syrian greeks the hellenists who oppressed us in the land of israel isn't it interesting that it's called golos even though where did the story happen in israel you could be in a state of godless even when geographically we are blessed with the modern miracle of the state of israel it's a modern miracle we have to value it to say thank you for it we have to praise hashem for say halal for it but we can be in gullah even when geographically we've already begin we've begun to fill the asghar to the we have the beginning of the redemption and that we're back in the land but it's still called galas and hadina is still called galas because look at yavan look at the story of hanukkah hanukkah is gullah even though it took place in the land of israel meanwhile so the one that we're celebrating today hanukkah yavan is characterized as what yavan is characterized as the lo nakhti the maccabees defeated the syrian greeks and the evannam and reinstated jewish sovereignty jewish land over the land of israel yavan's goal was not to annihilate us they assaulted us spiritually that's why there's no mitzvah of suda and hanukkah unlike purim where there's a mishta and suda you have a big festive meal and you give gifts of food and drink to one's neighbor and the thing centers around a physical celebration chanukah country distinction is not a physical celebration it is a spiritual it's halal of the hoda there's no obligation of a meal and chanukah why because pura mahashvarish wanted to physically annihilate exterminate eliminate the jewish people hanukkah they wanted to do something different in some ways worse they welcomed us to assimilate and to integrate and to shed all of our values and all of our ideals and to become one of them they assaulted us spiritually they tried to get us to assimilate ancient greece what was it they wanted us to assimilate to ancient greece worshiped beauty and form they introduced the world to the idea of the olympics a competition of perfecting the human body they worshipped external superficial beauty the aesthetic their culture was the ultimate in vanity they emphasized the external the appearance the superficial the surface jewish people began to assimilate we were invited to assimilate that was the gullus we were being influenced and we likewise began to place disproportionate focus on beauty and attractiveness so therefore the measure says because you know what happens you know what happens when you're constantly pursuing vanity and beauty and you're trying to keep up we are in the capital of the united states of america palm beach county of being in denial of our age denial of our age i've had people say to me rabbi you should get hair plugs you could still have a full head of hair color your hair you look uh fully gray i'm not that old i'm not as old as i look but i say what's the point what's the point vanity this is the what the rebona swarm did so yes there are opportunities and gifts today cosmetic surgery and botox and cosmetics and all kinds of treatments people go through and i'm not criticizing i'm not analyzing halal it is a halachic discussion volunteering or elective surgery and there are opportunities their gift to coach barclays give us instruments and tools beautiful wonderful take advantage feel good about yourself however you know what happens when you live a life of vanity when a person lives a life that they're consumed by how they appear in the mirror and they appear to others and their happiness and their satisfaction and their peace of mind only comes when they think that they meet the expectations and the beauty of others that they're trying to freeze time and look the way they did 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 years ago then you know what happens you can never find rest you'll never be at peace you're always trying to look younger and younger more and more beautiful to reverse aging and reverse time and when you're consumed and when you're stuck in that mentality and that attitude velonaki you can't turn back time you can't turn back time velonakti if you want a peace of mind and rest then be beautiful put oneself together be attractive without being attracting but at the end of the day be grateful that you're alive and grateful to look that age and grateful for all that comes with the wisdom and the family and all that a person has achieved because otherwise otherwise a person simply has no peace of mind they have no peace of mind you know there were studies that showed that last year i wrote about it there was an enormous spike in cosmetic surgery and botox treatments you know why because people spent an entire year looking into zoom so when you have the luxury you look in the mirror for a minute in the morning and then you don't see yourself the rest of the day you don't feel bad about how you look but when we were quarantined and locked down then distance when the other only way to study was to be on zoom that's why everyone turned their cameras off they were sick and tired of how they looked what about us what luxury do we have we rabbis who have to look right in the camera and still see ourselves it's a miracle we haven't broken any cameras yet so velonachti so because people spent the only way you weren't with people you were on facetime and face time there's another screen you see yourself so people couldn't see themselves they couldn't be happy if a person can't be happy what could you do what could you do not everybody could be like faye at 90 look like 30. you know can i nah kenai nahara but if you look like that you don't look like if you look like 90 not 30 like so you look like 90 whoever knew a 90 year old when you were growing up you look like 90 walk around with a badge of honor and pride i'm 90. should look 90. can i know about hashem you look 90. otherwise you're robbed when you care too much about how you look and when you are so consumed and trying to chase something that's fleeting and running away from you because age is not something that you can stop then you're robbed of manuka san nefesh there's no serenity there's no peace of mind there's no happiness when we are consumed by yavana then the majority tells us happiness is the result of contentment serenity flows from a sense of satisfaction and when you're never satisfied you're never content you're trying to chase something that's fleeting an elusive you can't have any peace of mind we recovered our sense of manuka our capacity for contentment when we defeated yavan when we defeated the worship of beauty but that's not the end of the story we celebrate the defeat of these values and yet our rabbis embrace those same values so i don't understand which is it is beauty vain we sing on friday night beauty is vain is beauty vain or is beauty valuable which is it the magician the mission in megillah the end of the first power quotes from shimon gamlio he said the greek is the only other language other than hebrew that you're allowed to write a sacred torah in you could use the oceans of hebrew you could write in in hebrew script or you could use greek and why are you allowed to use greek to write a safer term it's a kosher sacred written in greek why say hazaao because of its beauty so beautiful since it's so beautiful we embrace it we can use it moreover yavan the greek empire is the result of noah's barakah to his son no had a son you have to look him the ephesus may ephesus boundaries be extended so yavin the descendants of jeffers extend their boundary and their empire and their namesake is characterized by yoffi yaft ello kim leefest yeah yofi is beauty so is beauty vain or is beauty valuable i'll throw in a third question this very holiday we're in right now hanukkah in which we celebrate the defeat of the culture that was consumed by the pursuit of beauty is the holiday that is most associated with the concept of hidden mitzvah nobody in this room lights one candle every night nobody you fulfill the mitzvah light one candle each night good nook shine you're done i don't know what you alive the most assimilated secular unaffiliated jew who keeps hanukkah still knows that they light a candle consistent with what knight and nobody lights one candle every night when we light more than one candle every night what are we fulfilling the mitzvah of hidden mitzvah what is hidder to beautify the mitzvah what the very holiday that we defeated those who are consumed by the pursuit of beauty we more than any other holiday have a concept of hidden mitzvah have a concept of beautifying the mitzvah not only do we have mahadrin we have a third level of mahadra mina mahadran don't just beautify your menorah has botox your menorah has cosmetic surgery your menorah has liposuction your menorah has the menorah as every mahadra mahadra mina mahadran our menorah gets every treatment possible is using every cream every everything possible so which is it is beauty vein is beauty valuable what's the answer so the answer because i want to get into the parsha the answer is that we both value beauty and form but for completely different reasons than the greeks the greeks worshiped beauty as it ends unto itself for the greeks yofi beauty the aesthetic the superficial the surface was and ends on its own right they saw it as totally independent value onto its own self we also embrace value and form we see it as important but only as a means only as a vehicle to transform the mundane to connect with our creator to represent ourselves with dignity and with class to be royalty the children of the almighty we appreciate beauty as one of the creations of hashem and just like we have all kinds of disciplines in order to connect with hashem we connect with him through math and science we connect with him through the natural world we connect with him of course through the sacred torah his diary and we connect with him through beauty it's one of the disciplines of the world so we don't worship it on its own right it's a means towards connecting with hashem and that is the fundamental difference between us and the greeks not a coincidence the greeks said you're not allowed to do brasmila or get into hashem among the three things the greeks outlawed was bris mila circumcision because for them the beauty should never be violated the body should never be violated the body is beautiful the body's a sculpture the body is an ends unto itself the olympics we compete to have the most perfect body what are you doing cutting off a piece of the body but for us the body is not in an ends the body is a means to elevate the soul the body is a cli it's a vessel that houses the neshama for them beauty is the goal for us beauty is the bridge that joins the sacred and the profane it is the channel between holiness and mundane sacrifice the great shemi shmuel explains that to truly appreciate noah's blessing to a sanyefus you can't just quote hafta pasak yaft elokim liefus to expand the boundaries of beauty how does the past again says to when is beauty important when it dwells in the tent of shame shame is spirituality yeshiva shame yeshiva we are the progeny of shame we are the spiritual legacy inheritance ambassadors of shame there's a place for beauty you have to look in the ephesus but the yephs the beauty of the yofi has to be ishmael shame this be part of a greater ambition of shame the greater goal of connecting to hashem and so this holiday of chanukah seems contradictory it seems paradoxical but it's not we reject beauty on the on the one hand when beauty is the ends when the when the pursuit of beauty in the pursuit of the superficial and the surface when the pursuit of vanity paralyzes us and it robs us of our happiness and our serenity when we use beauty they have a more beautiful kiddush cup a more beautiful shabbos table more beautiful yantaf table more beautiful menorah more beautiful little vanessa more beautiful filling when we embrace beauty not as an ends but as the means to help uplift and enrich and elevate our spirituality then that's something that we that we accept torah tells us that yosef acted as a na'r an adolescent he was immature he was immature and unsophisticated what was it about him that made him immature and unsophisticated what did he do he played video games all day what made him so immature he couldn't get out of bed he was late to school and dominion sarah she says you know what made yosef immature he was a naar because he was consumed by looking in the mirror and fixing his hair he was consumed by beautifying his appearance and drawing attention to his attractiveness that's the act of an unsophisticated immature person a child is consumed by how they look an adult does the best with what they have and then they get on with their day an adult does the best with what they've been given and then they say i want my spirituality to shine i want my soul to shine i want personality to shine i want the difference i make in this world to shine that's the that's the most important that's the most important so that is this holiday when we constantly have to keep up with the latest styles and fashions and feds when we whittle away our savings and go into debt in the pursuit of vanity then lonati zugales one of the lessons one of the messages of hanukkah that we celebrate is to defeat the voice of yavan within ourselves the voice of yavan again embrace the tools the instruments embrace the treatments embrace what's available i'm not sitting in judgment and i'm not telling you that it's wrong but i'm telling us that it has to have a context do not let it rob you of your serenity your peace of mind and your happiness you know you're allowed to light the chanukah candles from shikiya we light from sunset and how long if you don't light at sunset how long do you have to light the candles umar says until people are no longer walking around in the marketplace there have to be people who see the lit candles in order to achieve the goal of persimenisa in order to achieve the goal of publicizing the miracle if no one sees it you haven't publicized the miracle people have to be walking around so we shared as fast as in the in my article last week this facade says we'll come back to it this morning as well but i want to tell you about mushroom sauce of her the hilaga sausage says what's the shook the shook is the market the shook is the place that you're buying more beauty products you're buying more fashion clothing regular shook you know how long you have to light the menorah light the menorah regal don't go to town center mall for hanukkah don't go to neiman marcus or nordstrom's for hanukkah disconnect from amazon prime for hanukkah for eight days for eight days i don't need more things i don't need the latest clothing i don't need the latest treatment i don't need the latest for eight days have some manuka do not suffer the goddess of yavan of vilonati regel min let's avoid the shook for the eight days of chanaka and find the manuka sadness that we crave and not be a na'r like yosef was a na'ar who was so consumed only and exclusively by his appearance okay let's start the parasha class page in the earthquake the privilege of reading parshas meekhates was the end of two years to the day para was dreaming and in his dream he was standing over the river para was dreaming and the first dream places him standing over the banks of a river two years what was it two years from so the major spacious rabbit tells us hashem created an end to the darkness of yosef's life he said you're going to be in prison you're going to be incarcerated for two years when the two years to the day came up then hashem said it's time for power to dream because you're out of there like vladimir it's time for you to be able to be liberated from prison from incarceration why did he spend two years in prison by the way why didn't he get out earlier so we know because at the end of last week's pasha when he reminds us please remind paro about me he should not have relied so heavily on a human being and because he used two words because at the end of last pasha he used two words to remind him that uh to request of him that he would remember because the double language that he used he spent two extra years two years in prison had he not done so how many years in prison would he have spent so most people assume the answer is none zero but that's not correct yeah point out why he had to say it once so in other words sorry if he had asked once please remember when you get out would have spent one year in prison or zero he would have spent zero why wouldn't he be accountable for saying it once because you have to do your establish we spoke about that the ramban's introduction to the partial couple weeks ago was the balance between amuna and establish faith and effort we have to put in our effort so yosef had to do his advocacy he had to do his effort but there's such a thing as excessive effort when you put in too much effort then you lack faith in hashem you've got excessive faith and too little effort excessive effort and too little faith like the three bears you've got to find just the right amount so the measure says this was to the day this was to the day two years that hashem said you're going to spend two years incarcerated in prison we'll let you out after two years some parabola to have his dream now the matrix is somewhat confusing why do we associate yosef being liberated with prison two years to the day when he was incarcerated it's not true it was two years to the day that paraguay's dream the power's dream was not the day that he was let out why does the major characterize that once paro had his dream hashem had ended the darkness hashem had ended the servitude when power dreamt where was yosef he was in prison so what do you mean paro's dream represents the end of yosef's imprisonment in the middle of power's dream while he schluft in his he definitely had cotton sheets he had egyptian cotton no for sure he had egyptian cotton i don't know how many what do they call that how many threads pyro had however many threads he had that's how many threads he had i don't know what kind of pillow he had we'll leave that out whether he bought his pillow late at night on television ads i don't know what kind of pillow but he definitely egyptian cotton so power was fast to sleep in his bed having multiple dreams and where's yosef there's no egyptian cotton in prison so what do you mean kate sam while he was still in prison vulcan and he says something very fascinating he says something very i find inspiring very uplifting kimoshimatsu adam shanahan when a rabbinical court has sentenced a person's death when a person violated a capital crime and they're due to suffer capital punishment they have a status of a gavra katila a gavra katila means they're walking dead they're already dead so much so that's an interesting halal question if you murder somebody who's on death row have you actually murdered if you walk up to a corpse this is a deeply disturbing thing to do you're deeply disturbed person but if you take out a gun and shoot a corpse take out a knife and stab a corpse are you liable for murder no you kill someone or something who's dead you haven't committed an act of murder so what if you murder somebody who has been sentenced for capital punishment is an act of murder halal so the gemara has a language gavra katila that once a person has been nixar once a person has been established that they're going to be put to death they're adam harug they're the walking dead they're a corpse they happen to have a heartbeat but they're already a corpse they're really corpse so what do you see you see that once something is destined to be happened to happen it already has the status as if it already happened even earlier but the moment something is concluded it's going to happen is when it really began to happen we saw this last week was it in parish or a municipal i don't remember but we said that who was born in padan aram said he wasn't born in padan around he was born after no but that's where rahul davon for him since that's where she davened that's where it's as if he was the idea of him was born there so the beginning of his being born already was there benjamin was already there similarly here when a person is sentenced to death they're already dead even though they haven't yet gotten the chair they're already dead even though they haven't been put to death so says and the same thing here is true who says paul's dream is the catalyst that's going to begin the process of yosef's liberation from prison so even though he's still in prison while para was sleeping dreaming and his catnip egyptian sheets still that's already the beginning of his freedom that's the beginning of his freedom what we see from here is the same is true with us when we set our mind and when we become determined and when we conclude that we're going to be or do something it's as if it's already done it's as if we still have to do it doesn't mean you're off the hook of doing it but when we really set our mind to something when we've concluded something we become determined to do something it's already done jose was already out of prison when power was dreaming what do you mean he's out of prison power stream he's sitting in prison check the surveillance camera he's sitting in prison the answer is since para's dream was the catalyst of his getting out kilo he was already out even when he was still there so you see how rewarding it can be how enriching it is how motivating it is that just being determined to do something carries us a very very long way the word for will in hebrew is ratson ratson is our will it's what we want rats on the root of the word rats rats is to run just like i get from point a to point b faster when i run the stronger my will the more determined i am then the more likely i am to conclude what i pledge what i promise to get from point a to point b okay moving right along so paralyze these dreams we're not going to focus on them we have in previous years and as always i encourage you you can listen to the previous years partial shirum online to uh review what we did not cover today so he asked these two he has these two dreams peric my mouth possible so what happens para brings in they're unsuccessful nobody's able to accurately interpret the dream to power satisfaction we talked about last year or two years ago or three years ago what was power dissatisfied with and what did you say do in his interpretation that none of them had done and what right did joseph have to do it we talked about that previously sao paulo is dissatisfied with their interpretation yosef they go retrieve them from the pit shave in a haircut change your clothing they bring them to paro para says i had a dream and nobody could interpret it you know what i heard about you i heard a rumor about you tishmachalom tishma toroto that you're able to hear a dream and then come back with a legitimate accurate authentic interpretation is that true so they pulled this guy out of prison they put him in front of paro para says para is the the egyptian empire at the time is the strongest empire in the world power is the most powerful man on the globe on earth this individual yosef who had been rejected dejected despised by his family left in a pit sold into slavery falsely accused languishing in prison has a big moment now to shine this is it and what's his moment paro says to him i heard about you i heard about you i heard about you that you can interpret dreams well and what is jose van servaian yosef so if you're yosef what do you answer right now yeah thank god i i listen i'm not showing off not flexing but it's true i'm a pretty good dream interpreter i have a lot of other faults but when it comes to interpreting dreams i can compete with the best of them how can i help you i'm here to serve master i'm here to serve paro i'm here to serve your honor i'm here to serve mr president mr prime minister mr ruler of the world i'm here yeah it's true pretty good i have that gift what can i do what is your safe answer instead excuse me about lyan yosef is paralympia billah died he says what you heard you heard that i interred with dreams nah villa die it's not me hello kim all of a sudden he's running a discovery seminar all of a sudden yosef is playing the chabad playbook all of a sudden he's opening a new khabar house all of a sudden the karma's house loving prayer he's been languishing in prison he's been languishing in prison hopeless helpless despondent no future no opening nothing finally gets his chance para says i heard about you i may need you the ruler of the world most powerful man on earth nah bill i die it's not me i don't know what you're talking about i'm not good at this says the author of kelm his paolo satsuma possible bill adai torah is teaching us everything about our character everything about who we're meant to be everything about how we're meant to behave yosef is kicked out of his family home is 17 years old who mush labor is thrown into the pit with snakes and scorpions he's sold to the arab merchants they sell him to potiphar he rises there for 10 years in his home now he thinks 10 years he's the cfo of potiphar he's the cfo of a fortune 500 company he's the number two in the company he's got options he's a bill who nymphs are based of chipotle and what happens after 10 years the rhizoc he gets falsely accused he's thrown into prison loses it all has to declare bankruptcy every headline he's smeared his image is ruined he's sitting two years languishing in prison the petta mages look at malcolm sitting there one day i don't know what he's doing in prison he's he's benching he's lifting weights he's playing basketball in the field he's reading in the library i don't know what jose is doing in prison and all of a sudden someone comes in and says you young man come shave haircut here's a change of clothing we're going to the oval office going to the oval office he comes into the palace you see the impact of yosef's education you see if you were to stop and think if you were to be calculating in that moment he never could have answered this way he would have done what was best for him but he was so ingrained that so instinctively so intuitively so naturally did you save answer yosef was so committed to truth yosef was so educated and conditioned to be humble and modest really if you were calculating he would have said my entire best chance of being saved is by saying it's me but he doesn't he says bill a die i don't know what you're talking about it's not me it's god any clue i'm just an instrument i'm just a vehicle for god i've had good luck i've been able to interpret dreams but you know again just to give you a metaphor for this could you imagine that somebody's sold from their family in a pit rises to greatness then falsely accused languishing in prison is brought to the king and the king says i need surgery and i heard you're the best surgeon there is i understand that you have 100 success rate with your surgery my understanding is that you're the best surgeon there is ah i'm not such a good surgeon i don't know what you're talking about i don't know what you've heard the truth is i have a hand that god directs my hand and so far he's directed it well are you out of your mind are you crazy risking it all this is your shot this is your chance that one word bill adai that one word bella die but sometimes in that moment of truth we have the opportunity to define our entire lives will he be humble will he be modest and will he be true he tells the story ryokan beloved tells the story about a baker a new young man who enters the yeshiva and one day in shiri asks abom kasha he asked gevaldega a great question on the rebbe rebbe gives sheer and he raises his hand and he has abandoned over there but is over there and the whole students everybody else all of his colleagues wow this new young man this question he's an eloy awesome wow what a super genius and then he says i i saw the question for biki baker mcveigher asked the question everyone says ah everything we thought about him it just turns out it's her it's just a ricky heger so that boy is tempted to say was my question it's my kasha but it's a moment of truth for humility for honesty for authenticity it's a moment of truth and that's what yosef ingrained with us in this one word wow what a powerful message that one word in the unknown translation of it in that one word it says so much my mouth so para repeats the dreams yosef interprets them he interprets them to power satisfaction and para says vayomar para joseph on page 228 reyna santiago arts mitzrayim i'm placing you on all of eric smith's time perique my mouth sorry possible keep going i'm putting you in charge of all of egypt yosef he takes his ring off and he puts it on yosef's hand he dresses him in royalty he calls him a new name he calls him he says avreh which really is bracha you're the source of bracha you are a source of blessing to me and to this country when a son saw a quality when he places him over all of you and now he says to him and without you no one can raise their hand over all of egypt amparo and over without you nobody could raise their hand over all of egypt ani para yosef goes from 17 years old he's a shepherd by the way last week remember when i talked about shepard nobody's kid comes home and says i gave up medical school law school i'm not taking the accounting exam i'm going to be a shepherd i got an email a couple hours after the parshas year from somebody whose child was poised to go i think to medical school but decided first they wanted to know the experience so they went to israel they spent a month shepherding they attached two pictures of their son with a house cat with a flock of sheep behind him shepherding the flock so you never know what you say and you never know what you're going to find out and what you're going to learn i want to take a month off i could use a month with some sheep just sheep sheep don't talk back until sheep learn how to write an email or a text message a critical uh i could use a few days with some sheep anyway so yosef is the shepherd yosef's hanging out in the field with some sheep next thing you know 17 he's in a pit he figures out how to run pouty far's home next thing you know he's prison next thing you know he is the secretary of the treasury the next thing he's in charge of the entire economy not just of egypt but it's the strongest economy of the world and many commentators want to know now again this is a question that was asked previously after we've lived through what we've lived through and seen in our time you don't have to have a competency expertise experience you don't have to have risen through the ranks to be appointed the top in the land but leave that editorial commentary aside previously before anyone knew that or saw that to be a fact they wondered how is it that yosef who has no experience he's no experience and now he's running the entire country how could it be police says he didn't go to college he didn't have an undergrad he didn't go to graduate school how did he do it how did he do it till 17 he's learning in his father's basement then he's a shepherd in the field then he's running potiphar's modest house and then he's been in prison what in his resume made him qualified to run the entire egypt mormon unqualified but moreover what gave him the confidence to run the entire egypt says the answer is yosef led his entire life with integrity yosef was careful and cautious his entire life to be honest to have integrity to never cheat to never cut corners to never rationalize to never justify malos issues and more important than any other qualification you could have a million initials after your name and before your name you could have gone to countless graduate schools you could have worked and served in countless positions countless companies but if you're not honest and you don't have integrity if you don't have the core character then you're not going to be good and you can have the core character traits you could have honesty and integrity fidelity to truth and then even without the other training you'll be able to rise to the occasion so essentially says review the question was jose wasn't trained for this what on yosef resume made him eligible or qualified or confident to do it and the answer is only all of yosef's life everything about yosef's life his attitude to punctuality into time his attitude to charity and to giving how he kept his financial books and his own his own money his attitude towards la shanhara's integrity his honesty his relationship with others how he led his entire life made him in fact qualified and appropriate back my mouth possible we're flying through the partial like we've never done before next page page 230. what happens joseph has two kids yosef has two children born him by his wife osnas his wife asanas and it was osnoff's parents by the way we mention this every year potiphara familiar name who's his mother-in-law who's a swigger uncomfortable pesach sider uncomfortable thanksgiving dinner i think so okay i don't see a lot of people address that but it's a fascinating development in the story anyway so he has two children yosef names his eldest child menasha is why god has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's household the name of the second is the frame that has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering how could yousef say that he forgot everything about his childhood he names his first son menasha kinase grateful to hashem he's caused me to forget all of my hardship and kobesavi here i am far removed haven't seen my brothers my father thank god i'm over them thank god i don't remember them thank god they're not part of my consciousness or my active memory and i named my son menasha that thank god i've been able to forget them. you know what he forgot this is an unbelievable insight of a visceral salat he says we human beings are given a gift it's called selective memory selective memory is an unbelievable gift we don't have to remember and hold on to all the hurt and the pain and the injury we can choose to employ selective memory we can choose to focus only on the positive and to have nostalgia for the good and to let go of that which hurt or that which harmed that's nashani it seems to me that if you name your son thank you for letting me forget then you probably haven't forgotten every time to use his name nanasha he said i forgot everything about my childhood and my upbringing come for dinner i forgot everything about my brothers and my father did you do your homework yet every time he called them menasha he was invoking menasha kinasani so it says if you saw solanto he didn't forget who would want to forget who could ever forget i as a rabbi do a lot of funerals and the hardest funerals are for people who held out to reunite with a mother or a father or a sibling who passed away and that person passed away without their having reconciled because no matter how much a person says that they had given up that they had moved on that they had had closure that they had become comfortable with the fact that they were not in touch we're not designed to ever be okay not having contact with a mother or a father or a sibling maybe on the surface maybe years of therapy and thousands of dollars of therapy and lots of botox treatments maybe we convince ourselves that we're okay with the fact that we're no longer in touch with the mother the father the sibling however inside somewhere deep inside we're still holding out we're still longing and it's terribly terribly traumatically painful when that person dies and now the individual realizes it can't ever happen it can't ever happen so when yosef says menasha kinashani elokim i named my son that i forgot you don't name your son i forgot if you forgot you don't even think about it to name your son that you forgot if you forgot you're not thinking about it and so you don't name your son imagine that prince speech go safe as you're chomping down on the bagels and locks in egypt you'll say tell us why you named him menasha grabs the microphone at the bris well let me tell you about my childhood and why i named him menasha i named him i named him thank you hashem for letting me forget you'll notice here in egypt you'll notice that i i don't have any family here for the bris you might have noticed i've never had family visit me yet well let me tell you ah i forgot about them and i named my son i forgot about them that's not at all what's going on to the restaurant yosef is modeling for us selective memory selective memory we have the capacity to focus not on the hurt the harm the pain that's not to say that we shouldn't try to reckon reconcile and work it out we shouldn't bury it or suppress it and pretend it's not there we should try to work it out but do we want to hold ourselves back do we want to become paralyzed and debilitated by the thoughts and the feelings of the hurt or can hashem you hashem thank you for selective memory thank you for the gift of selective memory you know who else practiced selective memory hashem in the navi when he says oh i remember our journey through the mid bar you remember how amazing it was you never complained and you never clutched and you were so grateful to me and we were so in love on our trek and our trail through the desert you remember how beautiful it was and you'll read the nothing you say what did i read the same say for about midbar as hashem you remember how amazing it was what are you talking about the answer is hashem practice selective memory and he has a perfect impeccable memory yet he chooses to use selective memory we often have the opposite we have the inverse problem psychologists actually talk about this we don't remember the good we only remember the penny we practice selective memory in the wrong direction so at a ratio of five to one someone's been good to us been there for us been kind to us been loyal to us showed up for us but one time they heard us and all we remember is the one time and we've utterly purged we've utterly forgotten we've otherwise utterly deleted all the good they've done at a ratio of a hundred to one but all we remember is the one hurt the one remark the one the one failure to get back to an email that's what we hold on to that's what we hold we have the inverse selective memory but yosef he names him and he teaches us how we can use selective memory in the positive sees his brothers fast forward paragraph zion sorry there's a famine in the land the only way the brothers will survive they go down to egypt and they have to go find the they have to go to the secretary of the economy and wait in line excuse me in order to qualify for their food or save the brothers of yours let's keep reading a little bit more they come and they bow down by our yosef yosef sees his brothers and wow can you imagine the adrenaline rush what went through his mind he's been away for all these years thinks he's abandoned forgotten will never be reunited or reconciled he has these dreams in the back of his mind but there's nothing about his life that indicates that they're going to come true and all of a sudden he's online giving out coupons giving out food giving out welfare giving out whatever he's given out and all of a sudden online vayaki reim now he sees people familiar all of a sudden he sees his brothers i don't care how old you are i don't care if you've read this 90 times which would be impressive because it would mean you read it when you were a few months old but it's still the most exciting narrative in the top no it doesn't matter how many times and how much you know how it ends it's still devaldic to read every year vaisnakara by da beritam kashos so what happens he recognizes them but he acted like a stranger vaisnak he acted like a stranger towards them and he spoke very harshly with them and he says where are you from he recognizes them which we just saw a minute ago why are we repeating it and despite his talking to them they don't recognize somebody from i forget where maybe israel the beauty of technology and i count myself so lucky to live in this time in this place not only to get to study with you every week or in person but so privileged that people around the world were able to listen together and they whatsapp an email text great questions that make you think so someone asked me last week yosef looks in the mirror sees the image the most know of aviv of his father and that's what gave him the fortitude and the courage the conviction not to in fact give in to the seduction racist positive he looked so much like his father that when he saw himself in the mirror he saw the image of his father if he looked so much like his father this individual asked me why didn't his brothers recognize why didn't his brothers recognize him so i answered i don't know i didn't look it up i didn't see whether anyone talks about it but the simple answer to me would be because when he was in potiphar's home he still had not risen to the position of viceroy maybe in the position of viceroy maybe there's some garb that you wear maybe there's something about your appearance which is different maybe he hadn't like me gotten the hair plugs or colored his beard and so he looked different they didn't recognize hey mohikiruhu it could also be i didn't see anyone talk about this it could be and this would make sense that the brothers were so consumed by their hunger pangs that they didn't even notice anything else right in front of them was their brother who maybe yosef was recognizable but that doesn't mean that they had ahead of the the headspace to recognize him remember said last week recorded some stuff for last week if yosef saw the image of his father and that kept him from sinning why didn't the brothers see the image of their father and keep them from sinning and remember what we answered when a person is filled with anger or rage their judgment is clouded their vision is blurry they can't even see what's right in front of them so similarly here when a person is is is hungry struggling with a famine when a person is in a pandemic and they've turned inward they're suffering a plague and they're only thinking about themselves they can't even see what's right in front of them and blumenthal shared with me i forgot who was injured last week remember they throw them in the pit and they go eat and gaza critical of them he's suffering and struggling in the pit with snakes and scorpions and you're sitting down to all you can eat buffet the chinese what is going on over here sarah blumenthal shared with me a mukkar we're already out of time where i'd read it to you inside it's gevaldic he says don't be critical of the of the of the brothers there's such a thing called you ever get hangry angry is when you're really hungry so you have no patience with someone you snap at them you're quick to them you're not yourself because you're angry hungry angry you're angry the brothers thought let's maybe we're just hangry let's have lunch and revisit this what we do with him they ate lunch and they still decided he's got to go but they knew it wasn't coming from a position of being hangry so maybe here they're hungry again maybe here they come down to mitraim they're there because of famine they're suffering they're struggling they had the long journey the long trip and maybe they maybe yosef taka was recognizable but they were so consumed with themselves that they didn't bother to recognize him so the ikiru and then this is so sad i had so many more things to tell you but we're going to have to end off here says what is the torah telling us when it says he made himself into a stranger to them how do you understand or interpret why yosef would make himself look like a stranger why would he conceal himself wouldn't he want to reveal himself we want to say hey it's mediocre so the easy answer is they tried to kill him once maybe they'll try to kill him again but that's not a good answer why he's much more powerful than they he's got an army you think joseph's giving out food without marines standing on both sides of him with that secret service devoted to him jose is much more powerful he's not afraid of his life that can't be the reason why doesn't he reveal himself you have to imagine he's been longing and desperate according to cilantro he's practiced selective memory he barely even remembers what they did to him he only longs to be reunited with them this is the one who last week all he wants is to be with his brothers why why is not cara leia why in the world would he make himself into a stranger okay we'll end here just joking i'll tell you the answer tell the answer of the conditional slaves there are many answers but this is what obliviously says he says this is evidence of the righteousness and the greatness of yosef yosef yosev yosef remembered his dreams that's the next possible very next puzzle is vaisgor he remembers his dreams and in his dreams what happens the brothers bow down to him and his brothers had a bit he had this dream and his brother said that will never come true yosef said this is my dream it's from hashem i guarantee it's going to come true they said you want to bet and i don't know if they did a pinky promise or i don't know exactly how they did this bet or what they bet for but they had this enormous bet they had this enormous competitiveness and yosef realizes in this moment that he won the bet the brothers are here and they're bowing down because they need food they're hungry and what happens when you told someone that they've lost the debt when they're willing to bet their life savings they're willing to bet their mother's life their fathers they willing to bet everything that's how sure they are when a person realizes they lost a vet that they were certain they would win it's devastating it's devastating and yosef wanted to spare his brothers that pain that devastation is if they realize the one who they were bowing down to was in fact yosef it would have been very difficult very painful for them so again i would say this is also a continuation of the altar of kalam's insight you think jose stopped and said who who has the who has the mindset to stop and say hmm it's my brothers all these years should i reveal myself if you had to stop and think about it he could never hold back from revealing himself it's only because his instinct he had been conditioned he had been taught he had been raised by parents who taught him to try to spare the pain of others so in that moment instinctively intuitively in super speed he realizes my dream is coming true and if i tell them right now while they're starving while they're famished if i tell them right now as they're bowing down that in fact i won i was right that's going to be unbearably painful i could never cause pain not only to anyone else but certainly not to my brothers and that's also why he went so far so concerned with he was sparing the pain of his brothers that he did not not only did he not reveal himself even though that meant that cost him telling because you know what happened let's play this out yosef says to the brothers hey guys i won nana nakishkish i won in the bat here i am i rose to greatness you're bowing down to me you rely on me for food and guess what go tell dad who won you know what is going to do he's going to say i also won i was right to give him the colored coat i was right to favor him i was right to buy into his dreams when no one else did and all it's going to do is create further division for the divisiveness further tension further conflict he understood that his father made a mistake to spoil him to begin with and he understood that he had contributed to that divisiveness to begin with and remember all he wants is all he wants is to be at peace and reunited and fit in and belong so at great great enormous personal pain because it means he's still not reunited with his father but at great personal pain he's patient and he says i need to wait for the right time in the right way in the right place and i'll reveal myself and will reconcile and reunite them but if i do it now if i do it in this way in this time and this place it'll only divide it'll cause pain to them it'll cause my father to react the wrong way and therefore vais not care and therefore he has the presence of mind to not reveal himself to make himself a stranger to them all an expression of his greatness and his righteousness to spare them unnecessary pain i'm in pain because there was a lot more to talk about but we did say some nice ideas about hanukkah wishing everybody a free look at a very happy birthday 30 more times to read pastures me cats i hope you're ready to go all right stay happy stay healthy stay holy everybody