Rabbi Minkowicz Weekly Torah Lesson Parsha Vayeishev 5777

it's time for rabbi mankiewicz weekly Torah lesson a place where life's most difficult questions are answered here with his spiritual perspective and insight rabbi megawatts welcome to this week's Torah lesson this week's Torah portion is postures by Asia the question of the week is how can you guarantee to stay away from problems so in this week's Torah portion practice variation we learn about the story of Joseph and his brothers as we know Yaakov Jacob the father of Joseph and the brothers loved Joseph and the brothers were jealous of it besides the fact that Joseph were tell him about these dreams and in the dreams it would insinuate that he's greater and better than them and they would one day bow down to him and it was tremendous jealousy and animosity and I think other other stories that were going between them how they got very upset at him and they got angry at him we all know anger gets the better of you and the brothers decided they wanted to kill Joseph and next time they were out on their own without Joseph and Joseph came to check up on them they see him coming and they said let's go ahead and kill Joseph I mean pretty tragic removing the oldest realized oh my gosh if something happens to Joseph true everyone was part of it but he's the oldest brother so he decided was he went and told them let's not kill him they might kill him too so he went ahead and he softened it up releases listen was like what do we gain by killing him let's go ahead and sell him sure enough when the when Joseph came they took him they took off his special garment that he had that his father gave him and so temporarily until they able to sell them they threw him into a pit the Torah tells us that the the pit was empty and then the Torah says there was no water in the pit so Rashi ask simple question if the Torah tells us the pit was empty obviously was empty so what does it mean that the Torah tells there was no water if it's empty the short there's no water serashi explains that the reason why the Torah said there was no water because the Torah tells them was empty means it was empty the reason why tourists stressing there was no water that when there's no water you know really there was it was actually snakes and scorpions so there are we asked a simple question so it says the war pit was empty then it says there was there was no water there great there's no water but how do you insinuate when there's no water the snakes and scorpions in there so the rebbe explains because in life there's no such thing as middle of the road it's either to the right or it's to the left that means either this water in there and there's no water it's not just the void of water all of a sudden in that empty space you can have something a natural thing to have a nap it is snakes and scorpions so when I there's no middle of the road water or snakes and scorpions what does that mean practical we know that everything at all we learn a lesson in our life and there we change what is the idea of water in our life spiritually because it's lesson as all lessons on tour apply to each and every one of us water we represents the idea of Torah just like water goes from a high place it goes down to a low place tour okay now from heaven down to this one so we should be able to connect to God so in other words Torah is what gives us our life force and Torres what gives us the opportunity for us finite human beings to connect to the infinite God how do we stay connected to God through studying Torah but how do we remain connected to God that we're constant aura so there's a key ingredient in order to be able to study Torah and be connected to God through studying Torah a person has to be humble when a person is humble then you'll naturally study Torah if you're Lantry solitary you'll be connected to God how do we see that humility is a key ingredient in studying Torah because one of the requirements are studying Torah it says you have to say your mouth and the mouth spiritually is the idea beetle which is humility because the math doesn't have any real value in its own it shears thoughts from the mine from the heart etc so the mouth is the vehicle of humility and the way you study Torah is actually by saying it because if you look at a Hamish or an omission on Tom and you don't say the words you're not studying Torah you're looking at something studying means you're actually saying the words so when a person is humble and how do you practice humility and studying Torah by saying the words then you're connected to what to studying Torah what happens if God forbid a person's not humbly the opposite of humility you're arrogant and we know it says in the Talmud that when someone's arrogant God says I in you cannot be in the same place so in other words if you want to be connected to God always how do you do that by studying Torah how do you sure that you make sure you study Torah always is by being humble and that's interesting as we actually celebrating Hanukkah this upcoming up shabbat shabbat saturday night and the next whole week and one of the main ideas of Hanukkah was that they wanted to lahaska calm they want us to forget Torah seka not Torah but God's Torah they didn't mind we studying Torah Torah is interesting a lot of stories a lot of depth a lot of ideas but what the issue is bothered them was that the enemy would bond the enemy is that we studying God's Torah know the fact that we were humble and we were willing to pay respect and whose toe is it it's God's toner and that is really the power that usually will do people know that you want to really study Torah be connected to God through studying Torah and not god forbid be disconnecting you have to work practice humility so to answer the question how can you be guaranteed to stay out of all problems very simple be humble and will be humble you'll study tovar because God's but if you're not going to be humble you're not going to study touring you won't have the connection to God this week's Torah lesson is a memory of baroque and are you leave and ben Yosef may their souls be elevated to the Toro that we're studying in their memory thanks so much for joining us for our weekly Torah lesson for more information on Habad please see our website you