Tirtza "Depression" - Parshat Vayishlach - A Shabbat.com Message

according to the World Health Organization depression is the leading cause of years of healthy life lost due to disability depression often leads to end-of-life thoughts and suicide which is the third cause of death amongst teenagers you're probably thinking that I started off with a heavy talk right but in partial advisive we see the story of Joseph he was a young lad and I remember learning in seminary about his spoiled personality and about yakovino's favoritism towards him his brothers got jealous of his Big Dreams threw him on a pit thought about killing him and ended up selling him as a slave it was a very difficult trajectory for someone who was a teenager when he faced all of this eventually Joseph becomes a leader in Egypt and because of him his family was saved from famine so his life went from despair betrayer to Hope we all go through losses difficult times in our lives we may become isolated from others we may lose interest in daily activities we may feel out of energy and low and at some point we also face despair in our lives it's part of our Human Experience on this Earth but surviving this pair is a character transforming experience you also had all the reasons to be angry and not to forgive his brothers but he actually saved them when you overcome the negative emotions the bruising experiences you'll become stronger than you ever believed possible yosef's Journey from betrayal to self if facing forgiveness is to me one of the greatest narratives in the Torah because the mark of Joseph's greatness is the combination of strength and gentleness that is among the most healing forces in human life a teenager who faced such traumatic experience it turned his life from despair to hope when his dreams were Ground to dust he became a partner with Hashem and the work of redemption so whenever you're feeling down depressed desperate remember that you've got within you the healing strength to overcome from despair to Hope I wish you a beautiful Shabbat [Music] foreign [Music]