Vayigash - Finding Moshiach Peace Now

You're listening to the weekly partial podcast with Ari Goldwag recorded with Hashem's never running assistance in Ramad Israel 5786 2025. This week's part is part we have the culmination of the story of Yseph and his brothers. 22 years in the making. Yoseph accuses Binyammen of having stolen his secret goblet, his powerful magical goblet. And Yehuda steps up. Yehuda steps up. I love Yehuda. Yehuda steps up in protection of Binyaman and says, "Take me instead. I guaranteed my father that Binyammen would return." And and as we know, Yoseph reveals himself to his brothers and they return. They inform Yakov. Yoseph is in Mitraim. The Jewish people are now going to make their descent into Gulus into exile. They're going to leave Israel. The first the first time the Jewish people leave Israel. The first time there is a Jewish people. And they go down to Egypt. But before they go down to Egypt, Pik says this. of Yehuda was sent forward Elf to Joseph and the the Medish says the measures points out that there were two different things two possibilities as to what he was sent down to do. Yud was sent down to find a place for them to live to establish the dra the place where they would live. Alternatively, he was sent ahead to establish establish a base medish. Jewish people need two things when they come somewhere. We need a place to live. Obviously, we need a parasa livelihood. And we need a place to study. We need a place where we will maintain our connection. We need a base mush. We need a place of and Yehuda was sent forward. And as the Mapor explained in this medush, he was sent forward because there was there was no fear. Yakovina was not afraid of sending Yehuda who had been the one who had said let's sell Yoseph. He was not afraid to send Yehuda to meet up with Yoseph and discuss and figure out the future of Kali Israel. Had they would be maintained, where they would live, how they would have a base medish, how they would have a livelihood. There was no fear. the the Jewish people had come back together. The brothers had through Yoseph's incredible forgiveness through his ability to forgive and let bygones be bygones and his recognition of the fact that Hashem was in charge of his life and had led him through all of that to become the person that he was. They had come back together. Now, I want to read you a medish. The medish is talking about the future. It's talking about Messiah. And it's also going to talk about the story of Yoseph. And there's a parallel between what happens in the future time when Messiah arrives when the me messianic age commences. So there's there's peace. There's peace. And the description of the Nvi is about animals grazing together and about animals that used to be carnivorous becoming herbivores. I'll read to you the P. It says it's a P in Isaiah chapter 65 verse 25. The P says the wolf and the sheep they will graze together. The wolf used to be the animal that if it would see a sheep it would rip the sheep apart and eat it up for dinner. Right? But the the wolf will no longer need to have another animal that it takes for its sustenance. It will become herbivore. It will become an herbivore. The wolf and the sheep will graze together. And the lion like the cattle will eat straw. So I'm I'm just going to give you a preview for the second part of the majish which we'll read a second. We're going to read the majish in order. Second part of the majish points out that the zv is binyam. Byam is referred to as a wolf. a wolf. The tal the sheep is a reference to the to the tribes is referred to theim the tribes are referred to as a sizura a sheep that was spread out the lion that's now eating straw is a reference to Yehuda Yehuda gur and bulkar which means cattle is a reference to Yoseph Yoseph is a shore. So you have all these different factors coming together. You have all of the aspects, all of the children of Yakov, the leadership aspects of Yosephuda, the tribes, Binyammen, Binyam has his own aspect which we're not not really going to get into today, but they all come together in a state of completion as the story of of Yoseph and his brothers completes. But that parallels something that's going to happen in the future. There's going to be a wolf and a sheep. Literally, I believe it's literal. The wolf and the sheep will no longer, no creature will attack another creature. No human being will believe that in order for me to to lift myself up, I need to knock you down. There will be a new way of being. There will be a new spirit within reality that everyone can be who they are and and they don't have to take away from anybody else to be who they are. And that will be manifest in the very nature of animals. Everything will change. So we're it's it's kind of beautiful because not kind of beautiful, it's beautiful. There's a parallel between the coming together of the brothers and what's going to happen in the future in the messianic age. there's going to be a coming together of all of creation. A balance, a new balance is going to be formed. Okay, so that's the hint to the second part of the maj which we'll read together as well in detail. But the first part of the maj talks about Msiah and I think it's just as we get to a story like this, we have to also think about our own personal places that we've come to when we've been through whatever drama, whatever challenges in our life and then we we get to a space of rest. We get to a space of completion on the journey. We hit these takot these stations on the journey where we where we look back and we see oh that was a certain ride that I had to go through a certain challenge I had to live through and now I look back and I see that I reached a new level a new plateau because of it. So it's important to see that in their story. It's important to know that that's what Msiah is. And we're going to talk about mashia, what it looks like, and think about how it relates to us in our own personal journeys. Me says something very interesting that when Msiah comes, when the Messiah arrives and I would say when we hit our own personal salvation, sometimes we have those times. So there's something that we see in the messianic age which is interesting and we can think about and that is that anything that Hashem gave a blemish to gave a wound to something that's broken in the world when Mashiach comes that thing is fixed. It's healed the gives us a few examples. Those who are blind they will be healed. they'll be able to see lost the place says also in Shia chapter 35:5 it says then the eyes of the blind will be opened those who are lame they will be cured as well a person who is missing a leg the leg will grow back a person who is lame. He has legs but they don't work. Puzz says also in chapter 35 of Isaiah the next puzz the the person who's lame will skip and run like a like a ram or like a deer in the tongue that couldn't speak the mute will sing glad song. So there's going to be a a transformation of reality. All the things that are broken, all the sickness will be gone. Everyone will be healed. All of the things that are broken will be fixed. Interestingly, the says that the way that a person went out of the world, let's say a person died, so there's going to be the in the state of rectification when all the things are fixed. So, one of the things that's broken is that we die. Human beings pass on from this world because we're meant to be here forever. We're meant to live forever. Perhaps it means spiritually. I don't know exactly what it means. There is some kind of physical existence. It might be a spiritual version of our physical existence. But when we come back to life, when the dead are revived, says the majish, they're going to be revived the way that they were when they died. Let's say when a person died, he was blind. When he's brought back to life, he will also be blind. Let's say when he died, he was deaf. When he gets brought back to life, he'll still be deaf. When he when he died, he was mute. He's going to come back to life mute. If when a person died, he was buried with clothes, he's going to come back with clothes. Interesting description. I think it's apt this description because our clothes, the fact that we wear clothes at all. What's the reason why? It's because of a great it's because we're embarrassed of our physical body because we don't use it correctly. Right? He was embarrassed because he had sinned so he covered himself. Right? So our clothes represent the that which is broken about us. If we were completely spiritual, if we were light beings, we wouldn't need to cover up the part of ourselves that represents the physical because the physical would also be full of light. Which is what it says about they were they were full of light. Their ore, which usually means with an in or means skin was or with an olive, it was light. So when we come back to life or when the dead come back to life, so they'll be clothed. They'll still be in an imperfect state. We learn this from that when came up he had passed away and then King Saul, excuse me, King Saul brought him back from the dead. And the woman, the necromancer who was able to bring him back up from the dead saw what he looked like. Really? Sh says, cuz he doesn't see him, he just hears him. SH says, "What does he look like?" Cuz she saw a vision of of coming up from from the He's an old man. He's wearing a wearing a coat. He wore a coat. That was his attire. That was his attire. It was a miel. He wore it for money. He was a child and he wore it when he when he passed away. It was something that he had worn. So when the dead come back, when you see them, they appear with the clothing. Why is that so? Why, you know, Hashem is going to fix everything, right? Hashem is going to bring us into a perfected state. Person comes back to life. He's blind. And then Hashem is going to be him. He's going to cure the blindness. He's going to be able to see. So why does he need to even come back in that state? As long as he was alive, Hashem didn't cure him. But then when he died, Hashem cured him. We don't want you to think that because it will look like it will look like it's not the same person. We want the same person to come back to life just as they originally were with all of that which was wrong with them. And then Hashem will after they're alive, it's the same person, but now they're cured. They're cured. And I think I'm trying to understand this and think about this. What it seems to me to be saying is that there's a certain experience. There's a certain experience that I had when I was going through that challenge. So even though I got through the challenge, even though I've been cured of that challenge, I don't want to throw that away. I don't want to throw away that mis that experience and I don't want to throw away the mistake. I made a mistake. I did an ava. I regret it. I wish I didn't do it. But the experience that I had making that mistake has made me a better person. I saw what happens when you make that mistake. I see where it brings me, the destruction that it causes, the effect that it has on those around me. I need to have that experience. I can't I can't come back to life without the mistakes, without the problems, without the brokenness. The brokenness is going to be removed, but I need to not forget about it. I need to It's part of me. That experience is still there. So, Hashem says, "This is why I am going to bring them back to to life the way they were when I originally when they passed away, which was with their with their defect, and I'm going to bring them to life in that way, and then I'm going to fix the defect." Right? This is what it means. I'm going to read to you from sorry either I'm sorry I'm reading this poorly they should recognize my power. There is no other power besides for me. There's no other power besides for Hashem. And I have the power to take away life and give life. I have the power to make things imperfect and to perfect them. I think this is a really powerful thing to to consider. We we want to perfect ourselves. We want to be greater. This is talking about something that's going to happen in the future. It's talking about Msiah. But it's something that happens every day for us. Every single day we make a mistake. We dab. We don't do as well as we'd like to. We learn, we don't learn as well as we'd like to. We interact with our families. We don't perhaps interact as well as we'd like to. And and I wonder like how can I change or how can I be better? This message is telling me don't think that you can do it. At least not without Hashem's help. I judge people. I admit it. I judge people. We all do. But I ask Hashem, help me not judge. Hashem, help me not judge. I I can't get out of it. Hashem, help me love. Hashem, help me be unconditionally loving. Right? It's Hashem who can help me. Just like it's going to be in the future when Mashiah arrives and there's going to be these miraculous changes. But Hashem wants us to know that it's only him. He's the only one who can do it. Rau says this is not just going to be true of the of the human beings that were going to be cured. All the animals will also be cured as the says our which we quoted earlier the wolf and the sheep they will graze together. Okay, that's that's the basic maj. And I think that it's important to understand again and I'm repeating myself a lot, but it's really important that the story of of Yseph and his brothers, as we're going to see one more time in the continuation of the measure, the story of Yseph and his brothers is a story of of a family split of a of a painful break in a family. Man has two wives. The two wives have trouble. The children have trouble and they come back together in the end. There's a there's a healing and even the healing is not perfect. It's not mashiach but it represents that that journey that journey through challenge and through resolution and it's mankind's story and it's the world's story. It's something that applies to animals as well. The animals are affected by us. The animals measure says that Marishan when he ate from the the tree of knowledge of good and evil which brought which brought all the separation into the world that judgment that that judgment of good and evil that split he he took from that tree and he gave each of the animals a piece of that fruit. So they were also an it means that literally or just the fact that he ate it had that impact on the entire world. But when we are rectified when Hashem brings the world to its state of rectification everything is rectified everything around us there's a huge ripple effect on everything. Now I'd like to read to you the rest of the which is talking about our story. Who is the wolf? Like we said, it's Benjamin says that he is who is the sheep? The sheep is the tribes, the other 10 sons of Jacob. Pik says that the the sheep of Israel, the the Israelites who are like sheep who have been spread out amongst the nation, they will come back. They will be rejoined. They will come back to all graze as one. So we have we have a coming together of the wolf and the lamb. The wolf is and the lamb is a reference to the the 10 brothers and there's a coming together of them as well. We don't know really what the doesn't describe what the relationship was between and his brothers until then. But clearly they didn't go down with with the brothers. Maybe Yako was overprotective of him. Maybe Yaku didn't trust the brothers to deal with Binyammen. The relationship it would seem was not it wasn't the type of brotherly love that hey let's all go down to Egypt together and get food bin come along with us. That's not what it was. But when when Binyam is sent down ultimately because Yoseph demands that he come what happens they are together the the wolf which is and the which is the which is the tribes they go together said I don't want my son I don't want who is my my son the one who is all All that's left that I have from I don't want him to go down with you. There was no choice. He did go down. What happened? There was a in their descent to Egypt before they even got back together with Yoseph. There was a a sense of camaraderie, a sense of protection that they were protecting. They were surrounding Binyammen. Voram say that as they traveled they formed a circle around him so that if maruders would come if enemies would come he would be protected in the center was in the center to the point says it says that Yseph he was like craning his neck he lifted up his eyes to see Benjamin he he he had to he had to look between the brothers to see binyam in the middle they were surrounded founding him. They were protecting him in my song about Yoseph. So I have a line there. They stood as a wall around their father's last son. They'd accomplished the goal. Now they'd all join as one. So they stood like a wall. They were surrounding him, surrounding Minyam, the last son, the youngest son of of Yakov. So they came together. There was a coming together already of the children of Yose of the children of Rael in Yam and the brothers arud refers to the lion and the cattle which are eating straw. So the area who's a lion gurud it's a reference to Yehuda is called a lion cubak like the cattle it's a reference to he's referred to as the firstborn ox. He was an ox. Now, sure, whatever the analogy is, whatever it represents, but he's like cattle tells us at the end of last week's para, they were eating together. They were eating together, right? He doesn't mention this in the maj but when Yoseph when Yoseph was thrown in the pit the Pik tells us that they sat the brothers sat down to eat they ate separately at this point in the story even before they joined together but they ate together and when people eat together even if they don't they might not even realize that they're connected but when they eat together eating is the the what the PK refers to as the wolf and the lamb grazing together. They're eating together. That means that they are embibing their sustenance. They're they're existing in a parallel way to together. There's no competition in it. They're eating together. There's no separation between them. The brothers aren't looking at Yoseph and saying he shouldn't be who he thinks he is. Y is not looking at the brothers and saying they're they need to be something other than they are. We're on equal footing. We're on equal footing. You give them gifts. That's what the means when it says that the the lion and the cattle, they'll both eat straw. It's a reference to Yehuda and Yoseph that and we think about Yseph and Yehuda as being the leaders of Kal Israel. There's a Mashiach bin Yoseph. There's a messianic figure who comes from the seed of Joseph and Yseph. He's a warrior. He's the first phase of getting into the messianic age. And then there's the second phase which is Mashiah David. He's the one who brings peace, who brings the soul in. doesn't just allow us to have Israel, but he brings the B mikdash. He builds the Bikdash, the temple where the is going to reside, where we're going to go to get that peace that we seek, that connection. This is why the finishes off and says since Yoseph and Yehuda had come into a state of completion, Rashi says, Since they were complete, they were peaceful with each other. That's why that's why he sent him. And on one hand, it's talking about the actual story of Yseph and his brothers that they came to completion like we said, but it's also talking about the future time of Msiah when Mashia and Yseph and Mashia have bin Benavid, they're equal. They're different leaders, different jobs, but they're going to come together and they're going to each do their job and they're going to support each other. There's not going to be a competition. It's going to be each one doing their thing. Maybe like Yoseph, the Mashiah Yoseph will be someone who's in charge of the economy of the Jewish people. He's in charge of the food of the Jewish people, in charge of taking care of the physical aspects. And the the mashed bund will be like Yehuda involved with the setting up of the yeshivas bringing the Jewish people to a greater level of of service of Hashem a deeper understanding of what it means to have a relationship with Hashem but there'll be a peace there'll be a wholeness and I think that each and every one of us inside of ourselves as we go through the challenges so there's like there's a lack of wholeness inside of ourselves there's a break within in ourselves between the physical part of ourselves which says, "Hey, I need this. Hey, I need that and the spiritual part of ourselves which says, "Hey, I need something deeper. I need something greater." And that split results in all of the challenges, all the problems that we have. Our gets us and that's our physical side pulling us in a certain way. And our says this way and it fights and it says, "Hey, that's that's not right." And it guilts us. But as we come through to the other side and we have a clarity, we have a clarity. So the result is a peace. That's what it's supposed to be. We're supposed to get to a place of peace where we recognize that all along all of our experiences are valuable. All of our experiences, even the mistakes are something that they don't disappear. They don't disappear. They're there for us to have learned from and maybe share with somebody else who's going through a similar challenge. But we get to a place of peace ultimately. We get to a place where we've come out of that challenge and we reach that place and we have the Yehuda of ourselves and the Yoseph of ourselves. There's a and now we can move on and now we can get to the next challenge. get to the next plateau that we're supposed to reach. Hashem should bless us. I ask you to bless me. Hashem should bless us. I'm going to bless you as well. That we should have that clarity. We should be able to learn from the story of Yoseph. Learn from the future the way it's going to be. That the one that fixes us, the one that brings us to this peace, it's Hashem. Like we saw with the people who come back and they're still broken, but they're fixed. It's Hashem who fixes us. It's Hashem who puts us through the challenge. And it's Hashem who helps us if we reach out to him to be able to get to a higher level. And ultimately should help us to have peace, to have with those around us, with our spouses, with our family, with our kids, with our parents, with our friends. And Hashem should help us to have that peace within ourselves. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful Shabamas. This podcast was made [music] possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you. 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