Today’s class is Le’ilui Nishmat Mazal bat Esther, Mrs. Molly Djmal, a’h, who passed away this week. She was in her nineties, and I think she was one of my oldest students.
This week’s Parasha, Vayigash, is when Yosef and Yehuda unite. It symbolizes the reuniting of the Jewish people. Throughout history, Yehuda and Yosef were separate. There were kings from Yehuda and kings from Yosef. There is a Mashiach Ben David, and a Mashiach Ben Yosef. But in this Parasha they join together.
Interestingly, in the haftara of Vayigash, Hashem tells Yehezkel to take a piece of wood and write the word Yehuda on it, and then write the rest of the tribes. Hashem then tells him to take another piece of wood, write the word Yosef on it, and the rest of the Jewish people. Then Hashem told him to put them together, and they’d become one in his hands. This was a miracle. G-d would fuse together two separate pieces of wood, with the names of Yehuda and Yosef on them. When people would ask what it was, Hashem told Yehezkel to say that Hashem would take the staff of Yosef and the staff of Yehuda to become one. That would be a symbol of of how G-d would gather us together and we would be Goy Echad B’Aretz-One nation, with one King. We won’t be two nations and we won’t be separated again. So this is the Parasha of unity of klal Yisrael coming together again, of fixing the sin of Sinat Hinam/baseless hatred. And that is why we always read these Parshiot, as we’ve mentioned, at the same time as Asarah B’Tevet.
Although we are not in the three weeks or nine days now, this is a time that we should be thinking about Teshuva and these topics.
The original source of breakdown was Yosef and the brothers. We now come to fix that.
There is an interesting lesson in the Parasha, on the topic of fixing the Churban/destruction of the Bet HaMikdash. It says that when Yosef and Benjamin hugged, Yosef fell on “the צווארי necks” (written in plural ) of Binyamin. This is strange. A person only has one neck. Simply speaking, it means two sides of the neck, so, Yosef fell on both sides of Binyamin’s neck. But then it says that Binyamin cried on his “neck” (in singular).
Why is that?
Rashi points out that when Yosef fell “on the 2 necks” it was referring to the 2 Betei HaMikdash that were in Binyamin’s portion, that would be destroyed. And when Binyamin cried on “his neck,” it referred to the Mishkan of Shilo that was in Yosef’s portion. Our rabbis tell us that this symbolizes Ahdut/ unity. Each of them cried for the other one’s loss.
This was the source of the rebuilding. When a person is worried about his friend’s problem, and each one worries about the other, that is the source of the rebuilding. That’s why we talk about it in these parshiot. How does one get to tikkun/fixing? Yosef gives us the secret. When Yosef talked to the brothers, he is, so to say, pacifying them and calming them down. He says,
אַל־תֵּעָ֣צְב֗וּ וְאַל־יִ֙חַר֙ בְּעֵ֣ינֵיכֶ֔ם כִּֽי־מְכַרְתֶּ֥ם אֹתִ֖י הֵ֑נָּה כִּ֣י לְמִֽחְיָ֔ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֱלקים לִפְנֵיכֶֽם
Don’t be saddened, that you sold me here. Because G-d has sent me as a messenger for food, that’s why I’m here.
You might think that these are just empty words, because he was trying to pacify them and calm them down.
But Rav Yerucham says No- this was the way Yosef looked at it. Yosef looked at it that his brothers didn’t do this to him. It was all the Yad/ hand of Hashem. When you have that attitude, that’s the secret to fixing all wrong doings and all misconceptions. That was Yosef’s strong emunah and bitachon, and that is what brought about the Tikkun/correction.
There are many little indicators in this Parasha, of the concern of one brother for another; Binyamin to Yosef, Yosef to Yehuda.
This should be our take away from this Parasha- That we have the ability to reunite, and when that happens, then the Shechina will dwell with us. Because we need to have, as we say in our prayers on Shabbat,
אתה אחד
ושמך אחד
God is One and His name is One.
מי כעמך ישראל
Who is like the Jewish people
גוי אחד בארץ
One nation
The Midrash says that G-d is only Hashem Echad- One G-d, when He can dwell in one nation. In order for the Shechina to come down and rest upon us, in order to rebuild the Bet HaMikdash, we have to be reunited again.
And the only way to be reunited is with the Yosef attitude- the understanding and appreciation that
לְמִֽחְיָ֔ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי
G-d sent me
No one did anything to you, and therefore, forgive and forget.
Have a Shabbat Shalom.