Thought for the Week Parshas Vayeishev & Chanukah Raising Resilience, Rabbi Yaakov Winner 5784

I hope everyone is I hope everyone is healthy strong and happy physically and spiritually as usual in the past couple of weeks our hearts and minds are with our brothers and sisters in is and the war is Raging as we speak and therefore I forgot to bring a coin but I'm going to have in mind right now that I'm giving a coin for ster and I willit right after the she give a coin for now we're going to say a prayer as usually I connect it to toyra and this is a video of the thought for the week so today we said Hal in honor of kanah and one of theim that we said during ding brought to mind immediately the situation right now in Ed and that person is so this means he returns the barren one to her home he transforms her into a mother of children and she is joyful praise hem so number one literally are some mothers that feel themselves Barren because they separate from the children who are being held hostage so asking the to bring them home huah they should be brought home the children should be brought home and then the mother won't feel Barren and empty and then she'll be able to be joy every single second that she separated from her child she's in a state of acute anxiety pressure sadness and we beg from the please end it right now it also refers to talks about the mother is the intellect the children is the emotions and also you could say in general the mother represents effort investment and the children represents the fruits of your labor so this is also a request this is one of my things that I always tell my students and I must confess also concerning myself sometimes I don't feel that the return is commensurate with the investment so I tell my students usually when it comes to gash is you should have minimum investment and maximum return because hopefully you can invest and involve yourself majority of your time in things of Higher Calling on M so if when it comes to the physical you should have minimum investment and maximum return in a small type am amount of time you should be able to accomplish what you want when it comes to spiritual things I say you should have maximum investment and maximum return so that's also what you could have in mind in this prayer that you shouldn't feel that some of your work some of your investment is left Barren it doesn't see fruits and the same thing is true concerning intellect that your emot your your your emotions the children should be led according to the the guide the guidance of the intellect that's what it means okay now this week's Pas obviously what is the connection between and and what is the relevance in general to our times and specifically to the situation now in so there's a couple General points that we have to speak about before we speak about V and every single one of these themes is something that could warrant a standalone Shear by itself so one point that starts in vev is a new paradigm we have a we mentioned this before slightly a is told to go away from his parents they were a negative influence and he have to get away from them like have a his house was a corrupt house his upbringing was corrupt and he had to sever ties with that sort of upbringing that's A's story yet a story is a new paradigm which is that he has to stay in house he doesn't have to one doesn't have to be the one that has to break ground and be a Pioneer he has to represent consolidation solidifying and in-house and was never meant to leave okay then we have yob as we mentioned that's another Paradigm he has to run away from his parents home even though his parents' home is the ultimate Haven and Sanctuary he has gal of parents but he has to run away and this is the Paradigm of somebody being in an alien environment and nevertheless triumphing over it and being able to raise y raises his 11 all the house of L now we come to a new paradigm and that is not only does someone have to sometimes find themselves in a situation which is alien but still amongst relatives loing his yak's father-in-law and his uncle what about someone who's going to be a prisoner and we're going to see the idea how a yid could go from becoming a prisoner to a prince to royalty he becomes the vicory of Egypt next week's Pas but how does he deal with being in Exile in the worst worst conditions of Exile worse than yob ever had to face being in being a a prisoner and before that a slave so first he's a slave by P he's sold as a slave and then he becomes a prisoner and he's the person who's completely innocent completely innocent and none of this should be happening to himself and still we have to derive strength and learn from this how to overcome adversity in a new paradigm and that's what we're going to learn okay that's only one idea now there's going to be another idea which is a beautiful theme of Pas and that's what we're going to discuss primarily today and that's the idea of there is one way to look at it that yak favored ysf and that was the source of all the problems and from here parents learn how not to favor one child over the other fine that's one level that's one interpretation according to nigla but there's a much deeper and More Beautiful idea and that is today we call it the theory of attachment or it's called the attachment Theory and that is y's bond with Y the lesson of which is another connection to and that is that it's have him being inculcated and educated on a deeper more intimate level than the rest of his brothers actually so therefore he was protected he was weaponized he was armed spiritually to be able to handle everything that was going to come his way and emerge Victorious and therefore it goes hand in hand why yakob actually favored YF in a certain sense because Yak was aware of y's Destiny and now GF needed the extra special fluid oil energy call it whatever you want and therefore he gave it to him and that's what gave him the power to overcome and we see that point in a couple of areas as we'll speak about today and last but not least there's another amazing idea in vev and the ran elaborates on it and this is what I say many times the two stories in tanak we see the concept of in my humble opinion more than anywhere else one is the story of p as we see how every single detail has to follow one from the other and that's constitutes the miracle here he kills vashi because of H then he kills H because of Esther Mur heard the plot to kill Himes Etc Etc as we see every single detail when we learn the Milla now here too the ran brings out every single aspect of the story over here of ysf leaving his father's house his father sending him on a mission Etc as we'll soon see one of the points over here he meets Gabriel an angel tells him go right there straight into the Trap so to speak then he gets sold to the midianites then to the Isam and then he lands in in ptif house and P wants to seduce him and then he goes to a prison which is a prison made for Royal prisoners and they have a problem he interprets it and Par as a dream and so on and so forth thatan points it out that if we take away one detail in this chronological order the whole story falls apart and then when you think about that this is the beginning of the story of M to it starts when YF walks out the door that morning it's gonna land him into Egypt finally which is going to cause his entire family the nation of am to go to Egypt and then starts the slavery of Egypt the M Etc it all starts from that very morning that y walks out that door so which is also a very important thing always to think about and so too now the fact what happened the events happened on Sim which is supposed to be the most joyous day there has to be a lesson in that and so on and so forth and in general the person who lives with his whole life becomes uplifted that he doesn't worry so much we already spoke so long just giving the introductory major themes of this week's paraa which is very important okay so let's now speak about something straight away the connection between the para and KH this I spoke about already once before 3 years ago in 5781 in Pas I mentioned this point but I love it love it and I think it's so profound and since the point of these shs to talk about how changes the look of everything so we'll start with that that's the connection between kanah and VV and that is that when the para says that hea's wife tried to seduce him and then she blames him and then he's thrown into prison and he's a total innocent person what does the PK say the PK says when it talks about the prison it says he threw him says they threw him into the prison so is the prison now what does the word b mean why is it mean a prison so all the talk about it and many of them point out that the word is really an Egyptian word and that's why the P has to say to tell you what the word means that talks about it but says so some people say that the word is connected to which is the word from moon in Egyptian so one why is the prison called the moon because the shape of the roof had like the crescent shape of the moon so therefore it's called soer but the ran says something else and you could say what the ran says is the most profound lesson and that is that the word Moon he also connects to moon is connected to which means window which means light and Z he actually says which means Radiance and brightness and that's because there was a slight opening in the dungeon of where they threw the prisoners it was a skylight which allowed light to come in from the outside so listen to this idea something which the rebba revolutionized Jewish thought the rebba said we don't call a hospital a we call it a a house of healing not a house for sick people when it came to the Pim the wounded there was a name that they gave the Israeli Soldiers the Reb said they have to be called the special soldiers and the same thing's over here this is a source for this idea we could have called it a word which means a prison a jail a cell no what is the name that the T calls the prison a b a house of light why because it depends on how you want to experience it if you want to see how the abish is there with you so you see that small sliver of light and that is the thing which is going to give you the power and the energy and the empowerment to rise over the darkness see the light in the Darkness and maybe you could say that this also means why the says once it says that they put him in the why the he was there because is telling you where was mind at what was he focused on the light the good and that kept him that enabled him to have the strength to overcome the darkness because he saw the light which illuminates the darkness tremendous lesson and this idea of Kana the Festival of Lights Asus emphasizes everything it says about Kan when it's dark to the outside and all the other explanation talks about the saying of our sages that talks about the idea of the light Illuminating dark Darkness there was a tremendous story that came out just this week about one of the survivors of the massacre of sim this year that someone's mother-in-law had lost her husband this person who said the story said my father-in-law was murdered and some of the family was still hostage and the homes were burnt my mother-in-law hadn't gone back to her home and I the person was saying son-in-law I wanted to salvage something I I didn't think she would be able to handle coming back to the home that was completely burnt to the ground so I wanted to try to Salish something to bring her back from the home and there's a picture it went viral you see a young man with a yamaka wearing special like gloves and he's in the debris the ashes and he's sifting through the ashes I kid you not and he was sifting through it for hours and he was feeling to himself he writes he said the story Hashem make a miracle I should be able to retrieve something and then he found two kanah Manas they were slightly damaged maybe you can call it charred a bit but the the the form it wasn't melted and you see in the picture I think the way he's picking up one and he brings out the point that this is yish kite From the Ashes we have a manura out of the darkness we bring light and he started crying amazing and this is the point of starting from the story of YF what's the prison what's the dungeon a house of light why because the truth is there is light over there because you're living with Hashem all the time connected to a higher being and to deeper meaning and you see it everywhere and that's the only way you'll be able to survive and that's the connection from to it's always that sliver of light that we hold on to that's able to overcome everything as the saying goes a bit of light dispels much Darkness okay now let's go through the Pas from the beginning talking about the connection why was y able to see that light CU he was the son of yov we mentioned this before see for yourself there's a couple bats in the beginning of the para where the balat emphasizes that y learned from y sorry y learned from y the inner secrets of the T Caba and that's what why he was different than all the other brothers and it was this sort of Caba and and Zohar the thing which illuminates everything illuminated the treachery and the terrible things that were going around could you imagine he wakes up one morning his brothers tell him they want to kill him and that was the only way because he saw that sliver of light in prison whatever his situation was he saw the positive okay so now let's talk about the bond of Y I know some of the things I'm saying now each want to stand alone but these are all things that should give us a sense of support and empowerment in the days that we're in right now I want to connect to was this past Sunday same idea that of of of the idea that we go through a descent and then we come to a higher level and this also connected to the analogy that was given concerning was that the experience of the AL is compared to the when he's crushed then he gives out the greatest oil and it's explained what does it mean we're comparing the being in prison as being crushed and that's the whole point the crushing stage is an intermediate stage it's an intermediary stage because while the olive is being crushed we can't eat him as a as a fruit he's being crushed and on the other we can't use it as an oil because it isn't oil yet but that's precisely the point sometimes we have to go through a process of being crushed but through that we come to the and that's the story of kanah is the story of how we take oil which sometimes has to come through an experience of pain but let's hope the pain is only because you're breaking your head to understand the but there has to be some Growing Pains but through that we come to Greater Revelations greater growth greater advancement and and exponential development okay now let's start with the beginning of the Rashi the first Rashi right away says something very amazing that right at the end of Pas it speaks about the family of asov and the T dedicates one chapter talking about asov so it seems like they're they're they're they're a formidable tribe then the para starts and yob could be thinking to himself um why and in general the person Le could think themselves why do we have to elaborate on the story of Asa right now and all of his tribe what's the relevance who cares so Rashi says a point that we just had to speak about certain facts about asov but that not really was the intention we're trying to add the contrary to bring out a contrast we have to first talk about how little time we spend talking about ASA and his family only one chapter meanwhile the success of pares by m is all going to be and his children so that's the first point Rashi says and he gives an analogy from the Pearl in order to get the Pearl you have to stick your hand into the sand when you pick it up it comes up with some Pebbles some debris whatever is over there so you have to pick up a handful which contains some Pebbles and debris but then you just Shu the rest of it away and you look at the Pearl and you focus on the Pearl that's what's going to happen now in the tah our main point was the Pearl which is yob and his family we just had to mention one chapter about ASA that was before but the second part of Rashi I'm going to say what the p is but what I also believe is a message I'm going to add something to it Rashi says that a second shot and that is that there was a a there was a person a flak Merchant there was a certain flax Merchant whose camels entered a town to un Pon and there was Laden with flax and he came to a blacksmith and the blacksmith wondered where can all the fla be stored there was a clever fellow that answered him one spark can go forth from which will burn it all [Music] up so when you learn theat simply rash is explaining that the contrast is to show that yob was actually worried right over here he saw so many of the of of the of the non-jews of the others he was wondering how are we going to be able to compete in a world where it's 99% against 1% so to speak so he gives this analogy of the flax and the merchant who comes to the blacksmith and all you need is one Spark from the blacksmith and he brings the the house of as is compared to the straw one spark shall go forth from which will annihilate and burn it all up so is telling the is telling right over here don't worry we're not measuring it in in in quantity the Jewish nation was always the minority but we were given special powers one Spark like a bit of light spells much Darkness could you imagine all the darkness in the world cannot extinguish or banish one iota of light all the pounds tons and tons of straw cannot face up to one spark of fire so that's the analogy we learn this week and I think right now we're living through terrible terrible difficult times I don't want to elaborate concerning the UN concerning the institutions of Yale Harvard Penn State concerning the protests and this is unbelievable message for this week's para in the year 2023 T do somebody could be sitting and worrying comes along Rashi right over here and says relax I'll give you an analogy yes we discussed ASO last week's par at the end but don't worry about it all you need is one spark one atom connected to the ultimate superpower and there's nothing to worry about and that's y so when you learn the the what rash is telling us about the continuation of the told had a worry so therefore he's told don't worry you have the and yes will take care of everything but I'm thinking I hope I'm not wrong but I didn't see it anywhere but to me it seems simple by also means over here that settled what caused him to become um what caused him to become when he realized that he has his son YF he saw the future and he invested in y as we see from allim and therefore he knew and he trusted he believed in the powers that he had invested in y and that y was the ultimate successor to Y like it says in law and there's nothing to worry about and now we come to another P which is unbelievable according and I saw it in the re I forgot which page where on the words that where it says that y gave YF preference it said he made him and what was that as it's called a many colored coat and in if you learn a simple level so that was the problem because of that coat came all the troubles cuz it show that he favored him it's page 203 204 and that's how most learn that's what the says and it was a coat of royalty it was a coat of me colors it was a coat like it says by the and Rashi says a phenomenal thing that what does it mean pass him f W he brings a that says the word passim is that represented reflected reflects the four troubles that would happen to Y and that is sh the pay stands for be sold to to Merchants that's the of stands fores and the me stands for so according to the pat what does it mean over here that's because YF did that therefore brought about all the problems all the toras happened to him afterwards it starts from the jealousy and for this happened that happened the other thing the truth is the RAB says it's because he gave him a garment this garment was like a bulletproof vest it was his protection to the Andes it was the that Jakob gave YF that gave him to strength to withstand all of hisus so again we see the point that was the his attachment to Yak that prevented it okay I want to speak more but I see that it's very very late so we'll just end up with another famous famous obvious one and that is was when it came to the point where YF was being so so troubled and um so to speak harassed and hounded by pti's wife she tried to seduce him every single which way possible again and again and he kept on uh turning her down until finally Rashi says in one case he almost succumbed to the charms of paa's wife but what happened Rashi says that a famous Rashi see there but what was the bottom line why did what prevented him when push came to shove he saw the image of his father there everybody who remembers for of that talk about this idea that if you have the re in front of you that will prevent you from everything and that will stare you clear similar to having the in front of you but here we have a source YF remembered all the love all the education all the personal care and interest and investment that yak invested in him and he couldn't betray the Loyalty he couldn't betray the education he couldn't betray the guidance he knew what his mission was so here's the the innocent pure and he's being seduced and put to the test in ways that a lesser man would have succumbed but it's the again of why is appearing to him because the was so powerful and this teaches us again we see the return When a person invest on them when you invest in the of your children of your and you give of yourself you give of yourself when you give of yourself to your children and then they return it and flying colors they pass the test and they grow out to bring Salvation to everyone as we see in the story of there was one more lesson that I wanted to discuss connected to Y we'll have to leave it for another time but it's also very very important what do we see from whatever everything we spoke today number one the lesson we have nothing to fear as we see from the first rash this is my message to you from the meni relax take make it easy it's terrible and there messages coming from we should give more we should true but don't get the SPO from the numbers don't get the SPO from the UN and don't get the SPO from Harvard Yale and Penn State and don't get spelled from the hundreds of thousands that are Marching and protesting against us all we need is that one spark what's that spark the spark of your your your the spark of the fire connecting to its source and it'll take care of the whole thing no problem that's one message and the other messages inhouse we have to have a strong education of Jewish prde connected to the every every to understand how we connected to with pride every understand when he Jewish history he's not in the SPO we've been here before we know what's going to happen we only want it to be without pain we only want it to be without so let it end now relax we're saying the we're going to see Miracles by and like the story of the revelation of after the crushing was much greater Jewish identity is becoming much more powerful we see the arousal of Jews throughout the world throughout the entire Globe is now in a state of heightened awareness that hasn't been for many many decades so that's the message that we take from this week's para and that's the connection to and KH and they should help we should have we should see how it banishes any and all forms of darkness and we should come to the posting from my home your man in [Music] Melbourne