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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 - RAW (Host)
Welcome back everybody to the weekly Parsha Review. My name is Rabbe Aryeh Wolbe and this week's Parsha is Parshas Vayigash. Vayigash is the 11th portion in the book of Genesis, the second to last portion in the book of Genesis and an incredible story.
00:27
This week's Parsha will see soon that there's something unique about this Parsha that you won't find anywhere else in the Torah. But there are 106 verses, there are 1480 words and 5680 letters and, as we've always mentioned, the reason why it's important for us to know this and to remember it every single week is because there's not an extra letter in the Torah. There's not an extra word or an extra verse in the Torah. If it's there, god put it there for a reason. Just like there's not an extra human being and L'Havdil not to compare between holy and unholy, just like there's no extra wire or piece on your iPhone or under the hood of your car. There's no extra thing in God's world. Everything that's here is here for a purpose. Every word, letter, verse in the Torah is there for a reason. There's no mitzvahs, no commandments of performative or prohibitions in this week's Parsha and we start with a big reveal.
01:27
Yehuda approaches Yosef and strongly petitions Yosef to free Benjamin. As we remember in last week's Torah portion, benjamin was held captive because they found a goblet in his bag. And now the brothers are terrified. They have to go back to their father and the brother is not with them. The brother, the baby brother, benjamin offering himself. Instead, yehuda offers himself. He says I'll stay in prison, but let Benjamin go. You've got to let him go.
01:56
As a result of this act of total selflessness, yosef finally has irrefutable proof that his brothers are different people from the ones who cast them into the pit, and so he now reveals to them who he is. Yosef removes the Egyptians from the room and declares I am Yosef. Is my father still alive? The brothers are shocked and shrink in shame. Yosef consoles them, saying it was Hashem's plan. The Egyptians were pleased to find out that Yosef came from royalty. Now they see these brothers and they're like wow, this is royalty. Yosef wasn't just some guy in a prison, he's actually from royalty himself.
02:42
Yosef sends his brothers to pick up Yaakov, his father, and invites him to live in peace in the city of Goshen. Pharaoh sends along carriages to help Jacob move. At first Yaakov is shocked and doesn't accept the news. The hidden signs in the cryptic message from Yosef helped Yaakov positively identify the sender as his son Yosef, and Yaakov ends his 22 year of mourning for Yosef and his spirit is revived.
03:14
And then comes the second part of the parasha, which deals with the descent of the Jewish people to Egypt. And this is the final descent where the Jewish people become slaves from this and become an emerge from Egypt as a free nation 210 years later, with Moses, with the splitting of the sea, with the receiving of the revelation at Mount Sinai. So this is a very special and powerful time. Yaakov and his family travel to Egypt with all of their possessions. 69 people travel down, including one which was Yehud, the mother of Moshe, who was born at the gates. At the entrance to Egypt, hashem reveals to Yaakov not to fear going down to Egypt, because it is there that Hashem will establish the children of Israel as a great nation and that he will take them out of Egypt. Just as a side note, why is it so important for the Jewish people to go down to Egypt to be slaves for 210 years, to then be the chosen people and receive the revelation of Mount Sinai and accept the Torah and get over Mitzvahs and get the land of Israel.
04:30
Say, just tell us, if you look at all of the leaders, they were always dealing with the most vulnerable. They were always think of King David, think of Abraham. They were shepherds Yaakov, isaac, joseph, shepherds why you have to learn how to have sensitivity for others in order to be a good leader. A good leader always cares for their constituents and for their every need. When someone's without a job, it pains them. When someone is poor, it pains them, because that's my job. My job is to care for others.
05:12
When the Jewish people experience what it means to be slaves in Egypt, now you can be the leaders of the world Because you know what it means to be at the bottom of the pit. You know what it means to be at the bottom of the barrel. Now, when you're leaders, you'll always remember you were one slave. You won't tolerate people being abused. You won't tolerate people being harmed. You won't tolerate people being taken advantage of or you won't tolerate people being in a tragic situation.
05:50
The example I give is that, even the Israeli people. When Iran has an earthquake, who's the first nation to offer aid? Israel, and you wonder what's wrong with these Israelis? Don't they get it? Don't they realize that the Iranians hate us and they want our demise? They want our disappearance from the face of the earth? But we can't help ourselves. We know what it means to be downtrodden, we know what it means to be hurt, and therefore we have no alternative but to offer assistance. That we learn from being slaves in Egypt. That's why it's so critically important that to be a good example for the world, you have to have experience the lowest level too, and that's why it's only through Egypt that we become a great nation. We learn how to treat people properly, we learn how to take care of them.
06:50
I'll just share with you a quick story. It's Hanukkah time, it's holiday season, and we had a guy last year, two years ago, we had a UPS guy come make a delivery here and I say to him you know, it was really cold. It was like it's going to be today, like really freezing cold here in Houston. And I tell him you know, would you like something to drink? He says, actually, I would love something to drink. So would you like hot cold? Would you like some water? Would you like a coffee? He says I would love a hot coffee. So I prepare my hot coffee, would you like it? With milk, without milk, the sugar, the whole thing. And I give him his coffee and he says to me what is with the Jewish people? He says you people are so nice.
07:32
He says I come back home holiday season with a truck full of gifts from all the Jewish people I deliver packages to. I deliver their Amazon packages, I deliver their packages and then they say, here, this one is for you. So I come back home, my wife is like what's going on here? You're supposed to deliver packages, not bring packages home. And he's like, yeah, these are my Jewish people, my Jewish people who I bring packages to every day, appreciate me. He says now I come here and make a delivery on a freezing cold day and here you are, a Jewish institution offering me a cup of coffee, offering me take something to eat.
08:14
We need to continue to shine like that. We need to be an example. The world is looking at us and saying where are you? As an example? Joseph comes out to greet his father, jacob, after 22 years. They embrace and weep and joy. They have so much joy that they finally get reunited. This is like the greatest Hollywood movie ever. You know, it's like that drama that Jacob is mourning his son Joseph for 22 years, inconsolable, no one can comfort him Finally meets his son Joseph after 22 years, and what does he do? He recites the Shema. Like we think, like how are you, joseph? You're alive, it's great to see you. Shema Yisrael, hashem al-Akenu Hashem.
09:15
1. Because there's no love like the love of God. The love that a parent has to a child is like a microcosm of the love Hashem has for us. Who's a bigger giver, a parent to a child or God to us? God is endlessly giving and giving and giving, because he loves us so much. Yaakov didn't want to be taken away from that experience of Hashem's love. So even when he's embracing his son that he hasn't seen for 22 years, he can't let go of his love for Hashem either.
09:58
An enormous tale of greatness. It's an appreciation for Hashem, for everything that Hashem has done. It's being present. It's being present in the moment Yosef secures the settlement for his family in Goshen. Yosef takes his father, yaakov, and five of his least threatening brothers to be presented to Pharaoh, and Yaakov blesses Pharaoh. We have to understand that Yaakov is a very powerful personality. He's the perfection of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is an extremist in kindness, isaac is an extremist with justice. And here you have a perfect blend in Yaakov. He blesses Pharaoh. Yosef instructs them in return for grain, all the people of Egypt must give everything to Pharaoh, including themselves as his slaves. Yosef then redistributes the population, except for the Egyptian priests, who are directly supported by his stipend from Pharaoh. So the priests those who keep people spiritually uplifted were covered. They were covered by the government, why it's important for people's spirit to be uplifted. But this also opened up a channel for the Jewish spiritual leaders to also have a special pass where in the future they won't need to be slaves to Pharaoh. The children of Israel become settled and their numbers multiply greatly.
11:38
Let's look at a few of the important lessons in this week's parasha. Yehuda demonstrates true leadership. He takes ownership. He says take me as a prisoner instead of my brother, benjamin, because I made a promise. He's not saying okay, you know what you're taking, benjamin. I guess this is just nothing I can do. I tried everything. There's nothing I can do, no.
12:01
And he says that he spoke very harshly to Yosef until Menasha, one of Yosef's children, showed his strength. And he often, as St Ossetians tell us, that Yaakov and his family were extremely, extremely powerful people Powerful physically and spiritually. Menasha stamped his foot on the ground and the whole palace shook, and when Yehuda saw that, he realized this is someone who also has great power. Not knowing that they're from the same exact source, they're both children of Yaakov. Menasha was soon to be a tribe of the double portion of Yosef. He also had the strength of a Yehuda. He also had the strength of the other tribes. We all have that strength. By the way, we have to know that, as the children of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, we have unbelievable power, unbelievable power to do good, and if we put all of our efforts forward in the right direction, we'll do incredible things. They're ready to do anything. You see, the brothers are ready to do anything not to cause pain to Yaakov. They made that mistake once before and they see that 22 years he's been mourning and he's been crying every single day for Yosef.
13:31
Now Yosef demonstrates greatness in his reveal. He removes the Egyptians from the room to spear his brother's shame. Now let me ask you a question. Wouldn't you want that moment to be recorded? Get all the cameras out, guys, it's okay. 10, 9, 8. Guys, get ready, okay, because it's coming. Okay, guess what? They don't know it's going to be the big surprise, the big reveal. Now you're going to embarrass his brothers. The shame that they experienced.
13:59
We sold our brother out, not realizing his greatness. We put him in the pit, not realizing it's like there's no profit in their own city. In the other city, everyone looks at them as a profit the great lecturers, the great speakers. They teach in our school. It's not a big deal, it's like a regular. But everybody else is like whoa, oh, my goodness, you have this great, wise person, ain't no VB Eero? They didn't realize the greatness of their brother. Now they realize the greatness of their brother. They were with such shame, with such guilt, with such humiliation. Yosef didn't want that to happen.
14:43
In front of the Egyptians, he cleared out the room and then revealed the message to his brothers, and always he saw the divine hand of Hashem. And the moment he tells them I am Yosef, is my father alive, don't worry, this was all Hashem's plan. Guys, don't get upset, don't start beating yourselves up. Why did we do this? Why did we sell? This was the hand of Hashem. Imagine if we took that attitude where, when something goes wrong. Instead of blaming people, instead of yelling at people, we stop. You say you know what. That was the hand of Hashem.
15:26
I know that you would never do such a thing to harm me. Hashem made it happen so that I be in this situation right now. Someone says something and you lose your job because of it. They tell your boss something. You're like you just ruined my career, you just ruined my life. How can you do such a thing to me? Guess what? Take the Yosef approach. Thank you, hashem. Hashem did this to me, not you. I know you didn't mean to. I know you didn't. It's not you. It's not blaming you. Guess who. It is. It's Hashem who made this happen so that I can be in a better job, so I can have a better career, so I can have a better circumstance that will be more fruitful for me.
16:11
Yosef saw the big picture. Sometimes we get caught up in the small little perspective, in the minutia. Here Yosef teaches us what it means to be big, to be someone who's great Look at the big picture. Hashem is in control of everything. The parasha continues.
16:31
We see that Yaakov, at 130 years old, would be harmed with shocking news that Yosef is alive. Yosef is alive. So Serah, the daughter of Asher, played the harp and she started playing some music for Yaakov and she starts singing oh, yosef is alive. Yosef is alive and Yaakov is like, okay, he's like, she just doesn't get it. Yosef is dead. I've been mourning him for 22 years, but she softens it. Don't shock people, and I think it's just a very important lesson that people need to gradually be moved into a certain realization. Don't shock them. It's very important to learn this lesson. A gentle message, soft. We see that the Torah is always gentle in how it conveys information. Very soft, not abrupt and not brutal.
17:31
Yaakov on his way down to Egypt, he stops in Be'er Sheva to ask Hashem for permission to leave the land of Israel. He only receives prophecy after ending his mourning for Yosef. Very important thing here Presence of Hashem, the Shchina, the presence of Hashem does not reside in a place of sorrow, a place of sadness. When you're not happy, god cannot communicate with you, which just tells us the importance of being always happy and not being sad and not being depressed and not being downtrodden. God can only communicate with us when we're happy. Yaakov was sad, yaakov was mourning, he did not have prophecy for 22 years. And here he finally gets his prophecy. It's so telling of how Hashem wants us to conduct our lives, a life of happiness. So that way, hashem's presence can be there with us.
18:37
Now Yaakov sends Yehuda ahead of the gang. He sends Yehuda to Egypt in advance. Why? To prepare a study hall, to prepare a base medrash, so when Yaakov arrives he can have a place to study. Our sages tell us that one must always have a place to learn Torah. The four Amos of Halachah, our sages teach us in the Talmud. A person should always be within four Amos, which is eight feet of Halachah, meaning always be surrounded with an environment that is conducive to learning Torah. Don't try to learn Torah in a bar. That's not a place where you're going to be elevated. It's not a place where you're going to be uplifted. That's a place where people are rowdy and people are excited, and people are drunk usually and people are slurring their words. That's not a place that's conducive for Torah study. Be in the confines of a place that is able to elevate. Yaakov wanted to always be in a place of holiness. So he sends Yehuda. He says when we arrive, we need to have a study hall to learn Torah. Set it up for us so that when we get there, everything is prepared for us. Yaakov and Yosef reunite. In Yosef, like we mentioned previously. He says Shema Yisrael, because the love for Hashem comes first.
20:07
Yaakov lists his life challenges to Pharaoh. He says look at me. I've had challenge after challenge after challenge. I had Asaph, my brother wanted to kill me. I had Lavan, who was constantly cheating me. I had Dina who was raped. I had Yosef who was separated from me for 22 years.
20:25
Yaakov is telling Pharaoh. Yaakov is saying we all have challenges. Yaakov and each and every one of us are no different in the sense that we have challenges and we need to learn to rise above them. Challenges means you're living, and next week we'll see in the portion of Ayikhi that Yaakov asks to become ill, to be sick prior to death. We think sickness, illness, that's not a blessing. We'll see next week what that means.
21:04
But the idea here that Yaakov is teaching us it's all about the struggle. We mentioned this two weeks ago that when Yaakov struggles with the angel of Asaph, it says that the struggle Vayyayovik ish imo. The word Vayyayovik, the struggle, is also the word Avak, which means the dust. The dust was kicked up from their feet and it says that that dust went all the way to the heavenly realms and stood before God's throne. That dust, what do you mean? The dust Shouldn't the victory? No, god doesn't want victory, god wants you in the struggle. The struggle is what counts. It's an important reminder Yaakov is teaching us here.
21:48
He lists all of his challenges to Pharaoh. He says, yeah, that's life. Life is about the struggles. It's not about just living on the countryside, living at the beach front and taking it easy. It's about the struggle. And so I tell people to never, ever, ever retire. Keep working. Yaakov Davins to end the famine and behold, the Nile overflows and the grain grows and the famine is shortened. It ended up only being two years.
22:23
We mentioned previously that Yaakov prayed when Yaakov was the power of prayer. Prayer works, prayer really works. I can even share with you. Like small things you think, oh, come on, this is like really not. And I did this with my daughter.
22:41
I used to teach in the girl's school here in Houston and class started at 830 sharp. Now I was trying to get the kids out the carpool, running here and there and it's 829. I have one minute to be in school and it's about three, four minutes away from the house, and if every light was green, I'd be there on time and I'd say to my daughter let's daven that, all the lights should be green. And all the lights were green. I said you see, shem listens even to the small things. You're like, come on, it's like, give me a break, even the small things. Shem listens to our prayers. Shem wants us to communicate with him. How's it going to work out In the best way possible?
23:31
Okay, now, pharaoh owns all of Egypt. People purchased grain with money, possessions and land. Pharaoh owned everything. The entire Egypt belonged to Pharaoh. It's an unbelievable business plan. Like you make a famine, everyone has to buy food because the only one who has the food is Joseph in those savings accounts, and everyone has to buy the food from Joseph and they're giving away their money, they're giving away their possessions, they're giving away their property, everything.
24:08
Yoseph demonstrates his honesty and doesn't keep a thing for himself. Everything that Yoseph got belonged to the kingdom of Pharaoh and he didn't keep a thing for himself. I think this is also an example of how we should live our lives, that everything we do is for the kingdom of Hashem and not to keep it for ourselves. Do what you do for Hashem, have Hashem. It shouldn't be for your own glory, it shouldn't be for your own fame, it should be for the sake of Hashem. And the last is that we said that this is a parasha like no other parasha in that there's no separation between the portions of Vayigash and Vayichih.
24:55
Next week's Torah portion continues by a one-letter distance from this week's parasha, vayigash to Vayichih. There's no separation. Usually there's a few letters separation beginning a new portion, but there's no separation. I say, just tell us. Because those separations were there? Because Moshe, after each portion that was written, had to contemplate what's going on here, what happened, how they're going to get out of this dilemma. He had to process it. So that was the separation of the portions. But when the Jewish people go into exile, there's nothing to think about. There's only Emuna, there's only knowledge that Hashem is in charge. He will take us out. There's nothing to second guess, there's nothing to think about. And it continues right into the next week's Torah portion of Vayichih that we will see next week. So, my dear friends, thank you so much for joining us for this wonderful parasha review of I hope it's wonderful of parashahs, vayigash, and next week I look forward to seeing everyone for parashas Vayechi, the last portion in the book of Genesis.