Parsha Perspectives for Today (Vayigash)

good morning booker tove and welcome back to the partial perspectives for today i want to thank our generous sponsors as always dear friends becky navi katz and family loving memory of becky's father david grossman david grossman thank you for your generosity this week we have the privilege of studying pasha's vayigash our story our gripping story continues to unfold this narrative and even though at the end of last week's pasha meekats the curtain closed with yehuda already poised and braced to confront and stand up to his brother yosef nevertheless our parasha begins you approached joseph and he said if you please my lord may your servant speak a word in your lord's ears and let not your anger flare up at your servant for you are like para michamocha ke pharaoh mika moha doesn't mean who mika mukha means you are like para khamaleibo it uses this word in this context to explain apostolic later in safer vayikra we have a myth of via have to learn we have an obligation to love our neighbor as ourselves and famously it's asked love your neighbor as yourself how is that possible how could one love a neighbor as we love ourselves and so she explained look at the words here kika ke pharaoh means you are like paro para the afterlife means love what is like you in your neighbor everyone can find and see something redeemable in the neighbor don't focus on what sets the other person apart don't focus on your differences or it will divide instead focus on the afterlook find the kamoka kika ke para in the other person and in that way you will connect yehuda displays a tremendous amount of courage he steps up and he confronts yosef we mention every year the ramaara moshe is in some we all have to take three steps forward to begin our meet or esray and he quotes it based on the request says why do we take three steps forward just close your feet hold them together and start dominating where you are picture and imagine yourself standing before the almighty why do you have to take three steps forward said okay because in tanakh we have three times the word vayigash is used to describe stepping up stepping forward stepping out confronting on behalf advocating standing up for justice avraham on behalf of stone vayigashi steps up to god yehudah he steps up to yosef and later navi with hara carmel when he steps up to the navier baal the false prophets he steps up in order to stand for god in avram's case he stands up for an enemy in yehuda's case he stands up for a brother and in a leo's case he stands up even for god himself the three steps we take forward to start our amidah correspond with these three va'egashes and we too begin our meeting not only focused on ourselves what do i need what do i want what can i get to enrich my life but to stand up and to advocate for other people we have in mind that the most authentic form of davening is not only to fulfill our need but to fulfill the needs of the people around us everybody knows that's one of my favorite diva torah i quote that raman the name of the roque each end every year so what is it that he says when judah steps up and confronts yosef what does he say you ask do we have a father and do we have a brother which by the way should have been some indication why in the world was this yosef this viceroy so obsessed with whether the accused spies and thieves have a father but no more allah we told you islam was that can't be that we have a father and we have a young brother so we've already lost a brother he was beloved he was singular to his mother and he's gone and rashi notes already is he who the lying that brother's not dead they knew well and good they had sold yosef so why did he depict it in this way he was adding to the drama the suspense and to how much it would have affected and how much it would have destroyed their father and we told you when you said that we had to bring benjamin down that we would not be able to return unless we came back with yamaha we said are you crazy if we take benjamin from our father he will surely die if he leaves our father vamas he will surely die the great southern bistrol of muches said is a musser it's a very strong and powerful lesson for each and one every one of us do you know how we achieve life life in this world and immortality in the next when we attach ourselves to avinu when we're connected to our father we seek to bring to hashem when we listen to his expectations of us when we embrace his feel his love and we reciprocate it to him but what happens he writes reviews for all of matches if we abandon our father if we walk away from yetis from judaism if we stop to embrace its timeless messages for us vames we will surely die we have to mukhanu lim soros he was willing to give his life rather than detach from his father rather than the tatra hashem but even without being asked to give up our lives we have to realize that if we walk away if we abandon a connection and a loyalty to hashem of amaze then we will surely die we cannot sustain because real life is not just about the heartbeat in our chest real life is not just about whether anatomically we're alive real life is about does our life have meaning does it have purpose are we fulfilling the very purpose with which we are here the reason for creation then we're alive but but we have abandoned god if we abandon that special relationship then vomits then surely we will die torah goes on and continues to tell the story yehuda makes this impassioned this articulate this compelling this heartfelt plea you cannot send this back you can't send me back without my brother because the famous words say that if i go upstairs without my brother that if i go upstairs without the gnar then how could i return to my father without the without the gnar mandala how am i going to come now am i going to come to my father your servant my father. and i'm not going to come back with bin yaman i'm not going to bring back the young man but i've showed sure enough but his soul is bound up with his life now he calls him he calls them your servant avi my father in the quran tells us that yosef is criticized yosev loses years on his life because yehuda had to say that in order to be compelling he had to fight for his life to get benjamin but yosef should have objected you call my father your servant or my servant how could you do such a thing that is that is such a you're being poe game in the covenant of our father yosef should have objected and he failed to do so and for that he was accountable let's look at our first ishtamid of the day of the israel mayor druk it's wonderful say foreign that we've been using a lot this year for the parasha class and he says the following he says why did you specifically plant this goblet in the backpack of his brother bin yemen why did he want to make his own brother the one he shared a father and a mother with why do you want to make him seem like the guilty party and why do you want to hold him back and treat him like an evid that he's not going to ascend with the rest of his brothers if anyone was innocent if anyone deserved to be exonerated it's been yomen but yahweh wasn't even alive when yosef was sold into slavery so how could yousef falsely accuse the very brother who above all is absolutely innocent um obviously wasn't a partner wasn't an accomplice names all ten of his children after yosef as a reflection of his long of his longing of his missing his brother um so here you have binyamin the one innocent brother the one who was not an accomplice the one who didn't know or participate in his own sale here you have benjamin the one who misses yosef so genuinely he names all the children after yosef each name reflects a different love a different longing and that's the brother that yosef sets up that's the brother that you say falsely accuses why why was it binyamin avimor is that salsa cesar of drug quoting his father the josh mordecai teres krishna sushi yoshi and the same authentic love that benjamin had said yosef is what i had yosef does all of this to orchestrate the very same circumstance from earlier on to know had his brothers changed had his brothers repented did they do chuva gemura did his brothers learn the lesson and they were ready to behave differently here you take the one brother who shares a father and a mother he's the closest to him writes what's shiva shubha is when we distance ourselves from the circumstances and the people and the temptation we live with regret and remorse and a pledge and a promise not to repeat that's shiva but the rama says what's shiva gemura what is complete or absolute shuva when we're back in the exact same circumstances and yet we behave entirely differently same circumstances same temptation we have the same level of energy and drive and yet this time we say no that's true of a gemura that's complete shuva so yosef orchestrates and choreographs things to be exactly the same his brother is the same father and the same mother such similarity he's absolutely innocent and he's falsely accused will they stand up will they intervene will they be there for a brother in a way that they weren't for him that will reflect the chuba gemura that will make yosef realize that they've changed that they're worthy of his forgiveness that they're worthy of reconciliation and of moving on allah and they said if you indeed stole with a humiliation embarrassment to your father to your mother and where has been yemen why didn't pinyin turn to his brothers and say hey guys this is a setup i'm falsely accused i've been set up i absolutely did not steal i don't know why this viceroy is doing this while the brothers are themselves castigating while they're criticizing binyamin why didn't benjamin defend himself and why didn't he say this whole thing is a ruse it's a false accusation he quotes his father the josh murakai and he explains that what in mahaya benyamin because they said you know your mother remember he was the only other one yosef was gone the only other one that descended from and the brother said you're a thief you're stole just like your mother you're no different than your mother because your mother stole the trophy from her father so just like your mother rachel stole the trophy from her father you've stolen this givea and you've compromised us all had ben yamada said i'm innocent what are you talking about that's absolutely not me in contrast it would have sounded like he was saying i'm innocent but i concede i admit my mother in fact was a thief and he didn't want to do that and therefore he remained absolutely silent in order to protect the reputation of his mother the reputation of his mother okay um here's a lot more on this but let's keep going let's keep going so yosef is listening to the heartfelt pleas of of yehudah he sees the brothers are different yehuda is no longer silent yehuda is stepping up he's standing out he's taking risks he's showing courage that's same circumstance a brother shares the same father and mother same circumstance an instant falsely accused and yet this time they're stepping up and they are standing out so now there's a change of the scene of course you that concludes this with the pasta i was looking for before how could i go to the father and the lad will not be with me and this is the mentality we have to have with hashemi it's according the name of many of many rebels how can we go upstairs to hashem and we didn't do all we could for to my father and i don't have the young man i didn't have a continuity i didn't pass it or pay it forward so what happens yosef's listening and he's watching it all unfold and he's seeing the circumstances that he had choreographed are accomplishing their goal yehuda standing up yosef can't take it he can't hold back he can't restrain himself anymore all those who are standing there by the quran he says everybody out clear the room and nobody remained with him when yosef revealed his identity to his brothers again we continue with rudruk says the following rashes says yosef couldn't restrain himself in front of all those who are standing there lisboa the spool means that yosef couldn't tolerate yosef couldn't bear yosef was unable to see that the egyptians were going to be in the room when he revealed himself and that the egyptians would be present while the brothers were humiliated while the brothers were ashamed while the brothers had to confront their own guilt and guilty conscience yosef was unable yahoo is bull he could not tolerate he couldn't bear that shame that embarrassment of his brothers says it's really astounding when you think about it a lesser person a lesser person would have said embarrass the brothers good let them be humiliated let them be filled with shame do you know what they did to me 22 years i've languished 22 years i've been alone 22 years i've been isolated 22 years i've been exiled let them be embarrassed let them feel shame the more the merrier post it online let everybody know what they did let everybody see their face when they have to confront the reality but not yosef yosef says even these people who did this to me he was unable yahoo he couldn't tolerate he couldn't bear the idea that others would be present when they were confronting their own shame umaji al-attar in the meadow says yosef did something which was terribly irresponsible yosef should have known what levy and shimon had done to shechem this was a violent group they had the capacity to be violent what if when jose was alone with them and when he revealed himself to them maybe they would have attacked maybe they would have killed him maybe they would have turned violent with him to finish the job they had started 22 years earlier the magistrate's critical of yosef he wasn't entitled to take such a risk or risk to his life to be alone with them yosef siken assassinated he risked everything by being alone and by telling everyone to go outside and yet he did it and why did he do it so as not to embarrass his brothers you see such a powerful lesson such a powerful lesson like tamar who didn't embarrass yehuda yosef doesn't want to embarrass the brothers many of us we live in a time that people will put their desire for revenge their pursuit of honor their ego ahead of ahead of the value of not embarrassing someone else let them be embarrassed let everyone see their shame but even yosef who was the victim yosef was the aggrieved yosef it was the innocent party he's so committed to not embarrass a brother a fellow jew that he's even willing to take a risk in his life to be alone to be alone with them is he wanted to reveal his identity earlier he had to show some self restraining at the whole back him he waited patiently why the torah have those words they seem totally gratuitous extraneous and yosef couldn't restrain himself anymore okay just tell us that he revealed himself it was the big reveal why does it have to be set up that he was unable to restrain himself because it's telling us it was all to not embarrass his brothers that's what it means he couldn't restrain me even when it comes to the brothers who sold them down the river who sold them into slavery who exiled and dismissed him he still was overprotective of an enemy judaism says even somebody who's harmed us or injured us we're not entitled to take revenge and nor should we have what's the great german word scheidenfreund i forgot the word you're not supposed to take pleasure in their sadness you don't take pleasure in their suffering yosef unless a person would have taken pleasure in their shame get everyone bring the news cameras press conference live stream we're going to broadcast to the world when i reveal myself let everyone see their guilt their shame their shock yosef's the opposite even though he couldn't hold himself back anymore he held himself back for one more moment how long until he cleared the room in order to protect and preserve his brother's honor and their dignity we see messiest nafta yosef we see the mysterious nephesh to not embarrass to not embarrass another person a very very powerful very powerful image and now yours is ready for the big reveal famously he turns to them and he says those words he says i am yosef is my father still alive i am yosef is our father still is my father still alive and the brothers couldn't answer they were shocked they were startled they couldn't answer. he said come closer don't worry i'm not going to bite your brother it's me jose don't you recognize me i know i have the beard and i've aged i'm wearing some egyptian clothing but it's me yosef your brother i'm the one you sold don't you remember don't you remember so what does it mean wonders of druk what does it mean one deserved drug why does yosef repeat himself twice first he says and i say from here woe on to us the day of rebuke when we come upstairs and we meet our maker after 120 years and god is going to say a neo-save what's the aniosa moment the brothers the 22 years all came into focus they had practiced some cognitive dissonance they hadn't thought about what they had done they had divorced themselves from those actions because their conscience could tolerate it so that they would be able to manage a coping mechanism but now 22 years later was undeniable yosef held up this big mirror for them to look at ani yosef here i am the one you're groveling to the one that you need my dreams have come true you're bowing down to me and those two were mortal words iconic words ani yosef it was the ultimate of rebuke and we're told this is what it will be like for us yosef when we get upstairs hashem will make us watch a video of our lives and we'll see everything the way it comes together and it's undeniable wonders is our father alive why does he say is my father alive but moreover what a bizarre question in yehuda's plea what is the basis of yehuda's entire argument to yosef his whole argument is you're going to kill our father our father who's still alive he's already lost one son and he begged us not to bring down his other son binyamin how could i go back to my father without the na'ar say it was unequivocally clear yehuda said over and over again the assumption in his argument was my father my father my father my father yoshi reveals himself and he says fellas yosef is my father still is my father still alive he just finished telling you all about his father so i think perhaps what yoshi was saying was is our father still alive that was clear they had already indicated that their father was very much alive but he wouldn't live long unless they brought back the brother but that wasn't jose's question it wasn't that uravinu is our father it's my father the one who loved me longed for me favored me gifted me that colored coat the one who i learned with my mentor my teacher my everything does he miss me has he been consoled has he been comforted has he grieved and moved on has he forgotten or has he remained inconsolable is my father still alive but is bothered he begins his revelation by saying yosef and then what does he say when they are shocked why does he have to repeat himself i'm your safe i'm yosef o'tama and moreover first time he says i'm yosef and the second time he says yosef yosef your brother what did he add by throwing in your brother o tamua and moreover why does he have to remind them as if he asked to identify himself to them i'm yosef and you save your brother i'm yosef your brother you know the one you sold into slavery why didn't he just the very first time say yosef included the first time why does he incrementally do it in stages first i'm yosef then i yosef your brother then i'm yosef your brother the one you sold good so cesaro he really wanted to first rebuke them for the fact that they sold a brother into slavery how could brothers do that to a brother um so that muster you know sometimes the harshest thing in the world is the reality you face you don't need an elaborate elaborate speech you don't need an entire dissertation all you need is to face the reality of what you have and that is the biggest muscle that there is that's the biggest muscle follow um is so when he says they're so embarrassed they're so humiliated by confronting what they had done that humiliation that shame that embarrassment is the kapara they're forgiven so now he repeats on yo your brother now that you've been forgiven now can we now we can restore a sense of brotherhood a sense of camaraderie i am yosef not just i am yosef and now you face the reality of what you had done and before whom you stand i am yosef your brother now we can have brotherhood and camaraderie now we can have a sense of unity and now with yosef the very end of the torah when hashem is recounting and recalling that moshe broke the luchos on our sinai it says the lucha shibarta the tablets that you broke and we are encouraged hazal say read it hashem gave moshe a big yashiko that you broke similarly here yosef is comforting his brothers and he's saying that you sold me you thought you were doing something harmful you thought you were going to take revenge against me you thought you were punishing me you thought you were finally getting rid of me but it turns out you get a big yashica because what you set in motion was my rising to the viceroy of egypt by saving the economy and saving my family we set in motion was the jewish people coming down to egypt and ultimately coming out a nation so therefore he's giving them a big yashikawa so when he says it the first time on the yosef it's musser and they're so ashamed and humiliated and guilt-ridden that they achieve mahila just through that sense of shame and now that they're forgiven he says now that you're forgiven now that you've experienced the shame that is a kaphara that's atoning now i can reveal as your brother now we can have a sense of brotherhood now we can connect and i want you to know not only do i not only am i willing to reconcile not only am i willing to have abhav i can even look back at my life and says thank you in fact it wasn't a harm it was a favor the fact that you sold me set in motion an amazing string of events that i really needed and for that i am so grateful and that's when he continues with a similar theme that i want to bring to your attention parkman may pass okay he continues joseph and he says don't be sad and don't be angry in your eyes that he sold me here kilimanjaro because god sent me here in order to get provisions he sent me ahead of the way so that i'd be in the right place at the right time in order to do this for you rashid says i'm here to save you i'm here to sustain you so if druck is bothered doing a lot of drunk i told you all in our nerve joke today we've got plenty of as well but bothered what was yosef thinking when he says don't be sad and don't be upset and don't have regret yeshikawa thank you for selling me because that's set in motion my rise look how great things are hello you'd be sure yosemite yeah the last 10 years were wonderful the last 10 years he's the vice president of the country the last 10 years he's the second most powerful man in the world the last 10 years he's the hero of egypt but what about the 12 years prior to 12 years before those he sat unjustly languishing in prison he suffered all kinds of indignities false accusations he suffered the relentless pursuit of this woman so i understand that you could thank them yes do you know you thought you were getting even with me guess what for 10 years i've lived in a palace i've been the vice president for 10 years i've been the second most powerful man i've had all the wealth and riches i got married i had children everything has been schmack but what about the 12 years prior how could he say yeshiko for selling me when the first 12 years he sat languishing suffering in prison eloy and nasa mission of the malcolm should had he been sold and the moment he arrived in egypt he ascended to that level of leadership i would understand why he expressed that level of gratitude how could you be so grateful for being sold when before you could experience the rise he first had this enormous fall of twelve years of suffering and he explains rav joke hanira lavar because listen carefully i love this shot it's so important because in particular it says it says that yosev rose to take care of the underprivileged and the destitute those who were hurting and those who are hungry yosef saw his brothers how did he see his brothers he wasn't hiding in the palace he didn't have layers of gatekeepers protecting him he was on the line in the soup kitchen he was spooning it out he was shoveling it out yosef was himself giving out the food that's how he knew and recognized his brothers when they came and they were in line so if you think about it why was he in work in the soup kitchen line cesar of jerk listen to this insight yosef looks back at his life and he says you know what put me in a position to have empathy and sympathy you know put me in a position to care for and to take care of the underprivileged and the hungry and the indigent of egypt by saving their food and giving them those provisions because i knew what it meant i languished 12 years and those 12 years were tough and i suffered but you know what i was better for because now i could relate and now i could connect now i knew what it meant to be hungry now i knew what it meant to long for a better future now i knew what it meant to wait for somebody to help liberate you and take care of you and relieve your suffering and because i went through what i went through says yosef even that negative experience taught me and positioned me and enabled me to go through this positive experience of being there for other people and so when usa reflects back on the 22 years he doesn't divide between 12 miserable years and 10 good years he sees that as one unit as one package deal 22 years yeshiko thank you for selling me and first for 12 years i got an education and empathy i knew what it meant to suffer so that the next 10 years i was a better giver i was a better doer that's what it meant so yosef was grateful even for the first 12 years because it made him better and that's what he tells them yosef don't be sad s the 10 years when he was in charge was for the purpose of of helping allah after you'd be hashem even the 12 years of languishing in prison he learned from it and made him a better person someone just sent me today i saw an amazing story about a businessman in florida who pays overdue utility bills for dozens of floridians this is not the first time mike esmond walked into the city hall in gulf breeze florida did it for the first time november 2019 and they cut a check for 4300 to pay for 36 local residents whose gas and water bills were overdue and at risk of being disconnected and just now this month in december mr edmond the same guy is 74 years old he owns a construction company he wrote another check seventy six hundred dollars he walked and he said i want to pay off the balance for residents whose gas and his water is about to be shut off and this time that money covered 114 residents that he was able to take it up why did he do it where did it come from so he explained it's amazing he told the story that after hurricane sandy struck a local company offered him that help he had hit hard times and he had three good young girls at home at the time temperature was low he talked about um i'm sorry going back to the winter of 1983 when he was broke and his own gas and water service was shut off for the holidays he said he had three young girls at home at the time and the temperature got down to six degrees ice and frost on the inside of the house i lived that where i didn't have a dollar in my pocket to care for my family i know what it's like to be really broke and in need and i wanted to see if i could help people that might be experiencing the same thing where they couldn't pay their bills and their utilities were going to be shut off and therefore he stepped up and he stepped in to do it he did it last year he did it this year and he said please god if he should live he will continue to do it i saw that story today and it struck me because that's yosef yosef says you know what when the water and gas were shut off for me when i was frozen inside my home it was miserable but it taught me i learned from it i grew from it and i was able to feel empathy for others because of it and therefore i look back at that not with regret but i look back at that as a learning opportunity yosef says it's not just the last 10 years that have been great the first 12 years were also great because they positioned me and because i learned from them oh finally don't be sad and don't have regret and don't be filled with fear because god sent me here ahead of you so that there'd be a plan and i'd be able to sustain you with food says he's comforting his brothers that even though it's because they sold him it began this exile in egypt but nevertheless don't be sad don't make yourself his sat save hit pile don't make yourself sad why is don't have regret you know why because had you not sold me into slavery in egypt the jewish people would never have pesach we never have slachani a halogen tish we'd never have a seder we'd never tell that story we'd never have that family narrative we'd never know the experience of the transition from galas to goula from abdus taheirus we'd never know it so therefore don't be sad because this was the necessary prerequisite these were the necessary circumstances that ultimately would lead to a yetis the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea and kilimanjaro by descending down to egypt kisha tatsumi when they left the nourishment and the sustenance for our soul is the helicos is the holiday of pesach and there would be no pesach but we never ended up in egypt and we never would have ended up in egypt if not for their selling yosef what an ability to spin yosef is able to look back on his life not with anger not with resentment not of what if yosev looks back at his life and he says barak hashem thank you for all yashikawa don't feel bad don't worry it was all part of a master plan it's all what brought me down here and that's a good thing that shouldn't leave you filled with any sense of regret hold on we're not leaving them yet he tells them don't worry send for everybody else bring their nieces and nephews go get tati go get abba go get yaakov you're going to live in goshen and you and your children your families your cattle all of it is going to live in goshen it says the vision of tsureba i lost the place yes goshen the word eretz earth the ground the soil eretz is a reference to humility and geshen goshen is gematria sincha the shaft of the airship what the vision says hashem is saying if you live via shaft if you see yourself as low to the ground if you're humble and you're modest and you have humility then you want joy don't pursue honor don't be have an inflated ego live with humility and live with modesty and then that is the mechanism and that is the means to draw close to hashem continuing right along so go back go tell dad all the honor i get here in egypt i'm an influencer i'm a person of prestige it's kosher eastern everything you saw um and hurry and bring my father down here go and quickly get him so what does he say the go tell our father of all the covered says the vishnuts you could read the word fodi as go tell our father my father all the honor i've earned i'm the viceroy i'm the vice president on the second command that's the simple meaning coke vody all the honor i have and where the visionary says don't meet lush and claudia's honor but milos and fade us as heavy and weighty you know how difficult it was for me being here in egypt being a foreigner in this land it was difficult it was hard it's not who i it's not who i am and it's not what i'm about continuing he sends them back he sent them back and he says don't delay on the way by aluminum it's trying to go from egypt and they come to canaan to their father and what is this they say yosef's still alive he's in charge and yaakov almost has a heart attack he doesn't believe it he doesn't believe it so says the um says the following what do you mean he didn't believe it let's talk about this for a moment posix says that the brothers come up and they say abba dad crazy story you're not going to believe it yosef's still alive he's the one we've been telling you about he orchestrated it at all and he's yosef he's alive come and yaakov says i don't believe it he almost faints he almost passes out he almost has a heart attack rashford has to play the harp and break it to him slowly and gently and he says i don't believe it so what are the vaidabra is called the very safe i should be really so they repeat everything that yosev said and only when he sees now the wagons of shashank yosef when yaakov sees the wagons that yosef had sent to get him now yaakov comes alive he's no longer faint he's no longer having a heart attack he comes he comes alive why did he doubt them why didn't he believe them and why does he have to be able to come alive so schwab says at the beginning when they say odious he's still alive he wonders what do you mean you brought me the coat it was covered in blood you testified that he died what do you mean in kane odlo neckar shall hakir nahak sonas they had not yet told them that it was a ruse that they had lied to say that he was attacked by an animal uh sheman this is the punishment of abaddai that even when he's saying the truth they don't they don't listen to him hold on one moment so they hadn't yet told them that they were responsible and in fact he hadn't killed anybody but they had sold him so the second time when they tell him if they try to cover up their lie and what they had done they won't succeed in they had to reveal the truth they had to tell them that they had in fact sold him and asked for forgiveness is called devre yosef so they told over everything about yosef in other words for yaakov it didn't add up what do you mean yours is still alive you brought me the coat it was covered in blood you said he was killed what do you mean it doesn't add up and that's when they said no they repeated everything that yosef said and what was one of the things yosef said he said yosef yosef i'm the yosef that you sold they came clean now this is a very big question the text itself never tells us the narrative the torah never tells us did the brothers tell yaakov did yosef tell yakov we know that yosef never was alone with yaakov because they didn't want yaakov to ask him what happened he was continuing to protect the dignity honor of his brothers but according to schwab they did come clean and they came clean that's why at first yaakov didn't believe them and only after they came clean and completed the picture only then did they understand and only then did yaakov believe the ishtar it also has an approach to what is going on over here but druk also deals with this question and he says what what happened at first why didn't yaakov not believe the brothers does he think his children are liars these are the shifts this is the the tribes the holy jewish tribes hello and is this a way to play he thought his sons were lying and did he think they were lying to the point that they come and they they fake and they say you're yosef who you miss so you've been inconsolable over that yoshi's still alive haha just kidding just joking so what was yakov thinking would he accuse them of lying did he think they were joking what's going on over here le shayma bonovos and loken why would they do that why would they do that he goes on with his questions but he answers the following why do these agalose the wagons that he sees what happens they say joseph's alive he says i'm having a heart attack i don't believe you only then he sees the wagons coming to get him and he says oh the wagons are coming and they repeat everything about yosef and he says i'm alive i believe it now let's go what is it about the wagons so we all know we all know the story that the wagons were um a reference to the very last thing they were learning together they were learning the surgi of eglarufa the story of when a corpse is found between cities and we don't know where the murderer comes from and the elders of the city have to come and measure and have to take an atonement they snapped the neck and a valley all stored the eglar ruffa that was the sugya that they were learning when yaakov saw the wagons it was an embedded message it was a signal that yosef was saying i am still alive and yaakov knew that and that's why he believed them and that's why he went but cesar of druk it goes much deeper than that and it's really much more than that what's really going on over here when yaakov doesn't believe them it's not that he doesn't believe that yosef is alive physically he believes yosef is alive physically what doesn't he believe he doesn't believe that yosef is still alive spiritually he says yosef's the viceroy yosef is the vice president yosef is saved and he's in charge of the entire economy can't be he can't still be a religious person he can't still be a show of shabbos he can't still be a link in the chain of my legacy can't be and when he sees the algolum and he says yosef understands no you see if i assimilated if i intermarried if i had moved on then i would never remember or reference the last suggest we had been learning the fact that 22 years later i remember we were learning means i am still that person that you left 22 years ago and that was the signal that was the hint that's what gave yaakov the confidence that indeed yosef was still alive he wasn't worried about yosef being alive um he wasn't worried about yosef being alive physically he was worried about yosef being alive spiritually and the agolos were that message that he indeed was rebecca also addresses the question of the of the wagons and what was the message embedded in the wagons listen to what rabbi salavechik says why did yaakov overcome his initial skepticism only after he had seen the wagons rashford suggests that his evidence that it was indeed yoshi who sent the message yosef instructed the brothers to tell yaakov that at the time he left they were studying the los vaglarufa the phrase should be interpreted as and he saw the calves that yosef had sent since in reality the wagon themselves were sent by paro not by yosef the law of igbo involves the jewish concept of a leader's responsibility in the event of an unsolved murder the elder the city that is close to the corpse obligated to bring a heifer into a rough valley or brook there they break the neck of the heifer and they say our hands have not shed his blood the mission raises the question the mission in sota is it conceivable these venerable elders would actually shed blood instead what the torah means is that the elders of the community did not send this wayfarer away without food nor do they allow them to leave the community unaccompanied it is almost frightening to consider listen carefully it's almost frightening to consider how much the torah demands of the leader obviously the leader is responsible for his actions his judgment must be proper he must not accept bribes he must act in accordance with the principles of justice and charity in addition however the leader is also charged with responsibility for people and events which seem far removed from his concerns and this this is the message of the ego roofa yaakov knew that yosef was destined for power and that's why he was studying the morality of leadership and the power with yosef says the rather iglarufa was not a random sugya it wasn't a random topic they happen to be learning and now 22 years later yosef is referencing it as the signal that he's still from that he's still that he's still uh no is a topic of leadership the morality of leadership the value and the virtue the responsibility of leadership and yaakov was preparing yosef for that life of leadership because he knew the life yosef was destined to live and yaakov was now trying to determine if both his son and his disciple were still alive a ruler of egypt he thought must certainly be assimilated into the general pagan society yaakov could not believe that yosef had preserved his spiritual identity and remained loyal to the teachings he had observed in yaakov's household now when the brothers related the last lesson yaakov and yosef a chair together he realized that yosef remained his disciple as well as his son great insight of rabbi soloveichik that the roof is not a random topic a glarufa a topic of leadership and yosef is showing the fulfillment the realization of their learning together dad i'm a leader and i'm not just a secular leader i'm a leader dad who is living with moral leadership with jewish leadership with the leadership that you taught me to live with that's who i that's who i am and that's what i am about all right continuing couple more quick ideas let's do this one we'll do two more that i love paragraph yosef comes to pyro and he tells them that uh i'm bringing i'm bringing uh my father and my brothers and they're coming here to be shepherds coming here to be shepherds skip down by ten yosef settled his father and his brothers and he gave them property in the land of egypt and the best of the land the land of ramsay's as paro had mandated has another great insight here and he says torah knowledge originated on her senate and it was passed down from one generation to the next the quintessence of jewish history is based on the connection between teacher and student the continuity of the torah the mesorah this messora requires both the rav and the talmud by their efforts the torah survives eternally there is another messor of great significance the mesorah of jewish balabatan the messor of the jewish lay people this messor is not one of concepts but rather of methods and images it is a continuity of a type of personality the first balabas was yosef in egypt he provided support for his father and his brothers our survival and goal is due not only to the struggle of jewish scholar but also to the efforts of the jewish balabas it's not just the russia shiva it's not just the rav it's not just the clay kodesh or those who work in the area of kodesh but it is the balabatim who support who underwrite who bring their wisdom and their partnership there are three characteristics that balabathan possess which make them unique rights to love first the bellabius feels a clear awareness of his responsibility not only for himself but for the entire jewish community second the battle bias is a pragmatic mind he has an aptitude for decision making and decision executing and finally the bellabis is a visionary he's a dreamer he looks for the stars from whom where these traits inherited from the very first balabias namely yosef i had the torah portray yo safe his first dream involved bundles of wheat he was an individual with a prosaic practical vision there was another dream however of stars in the heavens both dreams were found in yossi's personality he was pragmatic but he also looked to the stars he was a visionary imagining the limitless goals that he could achieve in aiding his nation and so yosef has both components both aspects and this is the lesson of the balabas claustro needs clay kodesh and leikodesh we need those people who dedicate their lives in their career to the service of the community in hashem and you need the businessmen and women who are leaders the lay leaders who bring their wisdom and their resources who also are both dreamers and pragmatic yosef is the first successful boss he's the vice president of egypt he's balabas but he remains learned and he's supporting and he's supporting his father and his brothers and their institutions of of torah last topic quickly when he meets the brothers he says no what's your paranoise so what do you do and they say ro it's on abduct shepherds so para says they say to para we've come to live in the land of earth because it's a huge famine where we come from yeshua and now we've come to live here malama yara yaakov we say in the haggadah from this passage it teaches the yaakov did not come down in order to dwell there but he was passing through so the question is asked sort of druk the following that they remained in egypt always as foreigners as outsiders it wasn't their place it wasn't their place so which is it and the pasta seems to be a contradiction on the one hand they came lagoor to live but to live lagur is like a garret an outsider a stranger but then it says yeshuna they came as a toshav as yishuv as a citizen as a resident so which is it so he says they came pass through temporarily and not to live permanently but goshen where they set up a jewish community goshen where they set up a yeshiva and bhattay madrish where they came to learn torah that they came to dwell that they didn't have to fear that they were in exile and if joke develops a very fascinating idea he says basically what does it mean the gemara bracha says that they came to rabbi and they said there's a kingdom are there old people in buffalo babylonia said yes he said but the possibility said the mind you'll be making that the only way to achieve longevity is allah in the land of israel but you can't so i don't understand so the government says no these individuals because they wake up early to come to the shul and they stay late in the shul that's why they merited narichus yaman and the marshall wonders you didn't ask the question the passage says that remind you what you make with that you only merit longevity on the land in israel who cares that they wake up and spend a lot of time in shul how does that help sort of drook based on this marshall develops an idea i'm going to put it in a little paraphrase terms but you know there's a notion of an embassy we have the concept of an embassy that the american embassy in israel has the status of america the legal the legal uh status of america the israeli embassy in america has the status of israel it's legally as if it's israel as an embassy in america when you're in the embassy it's like you're on the plot of land of israel when you're in the american embassy in israel it's like you're standing on america well the same is true when it comes to schulze and batte madrish you could be in gullis but do you know how you're in the embassy of the jewish people the embassy of israel you could be in a foreign land and yet be in a familiar place when you're in a basement and you're in a shul that's how we achieve it that's how we achieve it that's where we spend our time that's what forges our identity and that's how we can experience a redemptive identity and status even when we're in a foreign place have a great day everybody stay