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A refreshing and clear review of each Parsha in the Torah presented by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe
00:01 - Intro (Announcement)
You are listening to Rabbe Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is the Parsha Review Podcast.
00:10 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the weekly Parsha Review. This week's Parsha is Parshas Vayigash, and Vayigash talks a lot. Talks about the revelation of Joseph to his brothers and it's probably, for me at least, the most emotional story in the Torah. Every time I think about the revelation that Joseph had to his brothers, it sends a shudder through your spine. It's like wow, that revelation of like, oh, my goodness, this is the moment of truth. So I want to open our eyes to what this story really is representing. You see, the brothers sold Joseph down to Egypt and after many, many years now, the brothers are coming to Egypt and Joseph is the viceroy, he's the one in charge of all the food, and because there's a famine in the land, the brothers end up coming down to Egypt for food. And who do they meet? And the brothers? They're not knowing it's their brother. And then eventually, after several different obstacles that Joseph puts in front of them, the Pasek says the following the verse says Chapter 45, verse 1 in Genesis Ve lo yachol Joseph lihis apek lechohan yitzavim alof.
01:42
Now, unable was Joseph to restrain himself in the presence of all who stood before him and the people of Egypt, ve yichor ho tsiukol yishmi alaih. So he called out clear out every man from before me. Ve lo amad yish itohi bihi sfada yosef elechov. And nobody else was there except for his brothers when he spoke to them. Ve yitene skolo bivchi. And he gave out his voice in weeping Ve yishmu'u mitzraim, ve yishmabayis paro. And they heard in Egypt, and so did the house of Pharaoh here, about this crying. Ve yomeyosef aloch echov. And Joseph says to his brothers Ani yosef, I am Joseph Ha'oda vichai.
02:30
The first question is is my father still alive? Ve lo yachol echov lanos oso kinev halu mi panof. And the brothers couldn't answer. They were stunned, they couldn't respond. They couldn't respond because they were terrified. They were terrified of him. So what's happening here? What's really happening here? So, my dear friends, open your hearts. This our sages tell us.
02:59
The commentaries explain that this is the moment we stand in front of the heavenly tribunal, when we stand in front of the heavenly court after we pass on from this world and we suddenly see oh, now I get it. Now I understand why I was born to these parents, why I had this success or this challenge, why I was raised in a certain way, why I had these friends, these influences, why God put me to marry this person or to marry that person and to have these children, and this challenge and this talent and this success and this, whatever it is, the picture of our life sometimes isn't so clear to us and it's not so obvious to us and we don't really see the full picture. But then comes the moment of truth where we see the full picture. We see the piece of the puzzle that was missing to us. The piece of the puzzle. Think of the brothers. What were they missing? They were missing an understanding of who Yosef was. They were missing that piece of the puzzle. When they got that piece of the puzzle, suddenly they're like, oh my goodness, it's the OMG moment. What in the world did we not see? It was right there in front of our eyes. We should have been able to identify this all along.
04:39
If you look at the words of the verse, you'll see even greater that. What Yoseph is telling the brothers is Really what we should be saying to ourselves. I knew Yoseph, yes, this is who you are, this is, this is you, this is the, the world that God wants you to be in God is giving you exactly the tools you need. But there's another thing that Yoseph says how do I be high? My father Is he still alive? So you can read it like that or you can say it's a statement, not as a question my father is alive, meaning I didn't understand the picture. But my father in heaven, he orchestrated all of this. My father in heaven is the one who put every single stumbling block in front of me that I thought I couldn't overcome. And behold, I could overcome. My father placed in front of me certain challenges to To help me grown, become greater than I thought I can ever become. You see, the world we're living in is one big picture, or we can call it a big maze or A big puzzle. It's a puzzle. We don't. It's a riddle. We don't understand why this and that and all these pieces put together.
06:00
Many times Hashem gives us insight into why he does certain things, but many times it remains distant to us, it remains unclear. And we don't have that epiphany. But the epiphany that the brothers hand, our sages tell us, that is each and every one of us. It's the oh my goodness moment. How can I not have seen that? And the truth is that if you look at the Torah and you look at the Jewish calendar and you look at the mitzvahs and you look, there should be a reminder that wakes us up. We have Rosh Hashanah every year, we have Yom Kippur every year. We have all of the incredible holidays that are meant to be a wake-up call for us. So what do the brothers do? They can't talk. They can't talk, they're like, they're stunned. But that should be our response, because during our lifetimes, we all have wake-up calls. We all have times where we're stunned by the reality that's right in front of our eyes. How can I not have seen that till now? And the question is, what do we do then, when we have those wake-up moments? What do we do then? Do we just say, oh well, I guess it's a wake-up call? And Now let me continue with my regular life.
07:33
You know, right now, since October 7th, it's been a wake-up call for the Jewish people. You see, for years I've been sitting at this chair saying that anti-Semitism is alive and kicking and Everyone's like, yeah, rabbi, it's maybe a little extreme. You know, the Holocaust was 80 years ago. And look, the Jewish people live in relative peace in the world, until there's one little hiccup. It's not a little hiccup, a big hiccup and we see suddenly the blatant anti-Semitism, the outright Discussed that people have for the Jewish people. People you thought were your nice neighbors Suddenly are calling for your death From the river to the sea. We thought the campuses were safe for Jews, funded mostly by Jews Wasting their money away, and it isn't a safe space for our children. We were sleeping.
08:38
Suddenly we have an awakening and what's gonna change? For many people it's just like what it is, what it is. No, we can't allow it to just be what it is. We have to take an action to make change so that we use this awakening, we use this epiphany to change the course of our lives. I can guarantee you that if the Jewish people today took this as an opportunity to be proud of their Judaism, to feel passionate about their Judaism and passionate doesn't just mean to say yeah, I'm a proud Jew and continue my life Meaning I'll wear it as a banner where I'm not gonna be afraid to keep Shabbos, I'm not gonna be afraid to wear a Yamaha, I'm not gonna be afraid to dress like a Jew, I'm not gonna be afraid to serve Hashem like a Jew. I'm going to undertake the yoke of what it means to be Jewish. Take the mitzvahs upon myself as a symbol of my pride, my identity, and not hide, not want to assimilate and just be like everyone else. If we use this as a wake-up call to change, and if every Jew did that, I can guarantee you there wouldn't be anti-Semitism. It's when we try to blend in that the nations hate us. When we stand for what's right, when we stand for what we're supposed to be, they look up to that, they respect that.
10:31
I know you can bring me stories from history. Well, rabbi, in history we can see that there were times with Jewish people. That's true, we've had many things in our history, but I think the most important lesson is recognizing that not everything is always clear to us. But when we have that moment of truth, when we have that awakening, don't waste it away. Utilize it as an opportunity to crystallize your commitment. Use it as an opportunity to be like Yosef and his brothers, to now become closer. Use it as an opportunity to put that picture together and say you know what? I'm not going to have blurry vision anymore, because I remember, when I was in Yeshiva, one of the discourses my rabbi said he said the biggest challenge that people have when they get inspired is that they waste the inspiration.
11:34
You get inspired Like and the immediate thing is like, right after the inspiration, like rabbi, that was a great class and that was it. That's it the inspiration is done. He said that what you should do is just silence. Take it all in, internalize it, make it real in your life. And if you look at the words of the Torah, of what the brothers did, what did the brothers do? They were silent. They took it all in. They didn't just like, oh, what an exciting thing, this is our brother, this is Joseph. Come let's give him a hug. No, no, no, it says. The brothers couldn't answer him. They were terrified. They took it all in. They realized there's no place for us to talk now. Just take the message here, make it yours.
12:33
This is, I think, the most important lesson we can learn from this Torah portion. Yosef is a parable to what it means when we're in the heavenly tribunal. We're standing in front of the Almighty and we suddenly see the full picture. And then it all comes together like oh, if I only would have known, if I only would have understood. We have glimpses into this revelation constantly throughout our lives. The more we connect to Hashem, the more open those revelations are, and if we take them and utilize them to enhance our connection with Hashem, there's nothing greater than that. That's what Hashem wants. Hashem wants our closeness. Hashem wants our connection with Him, our divakus, our closeness with Hashem, and if we merit and we focus and we pray for it, hashem will hopefully grant it to us, each and every one of us in our own unique ways, to find that special, unique clarity of Aniyosif. Wow, that's the full picture, that's the piece of the puzzle that puts it all together and hopefully we're able to chart a course through our lives dedicated to that mission, with clarity and with happiness and with a closeness and connection to Hashem.
14:03
Have an amazing Shabbos, my dear friends. Go learn the parshah. Read the Torah portion for yourself. It's own lightening. It's so refreshing. It's your Torah. Have a good Shabbos.