Welcome to the Simha Emotional Wellness Minute. The SIMHA organization (Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness) hosts a rabbinical training course where we train groups of rabbis from the Syrian community in the area of mental health. We’re now on our second round of rabbis. Both times, we began by having Rav Eliyahu Brudny, one of the Roshei Yeshiva of the Mirrer Yeshiva, address the group, being that he is one of the Rabbanim on the forefront of mental health.
He used two events from the Torah to illustrate the importance and need for leaders to notice what's going on around them. He started off quoting from the story of Yosef HaSadik. Yosef was imprisoned for many years. Then the two prisoners had dreams, and the next morning Yosef HaSadik noticed that Hinam Zoafim- which Rashi translates as: They looked a little sad (The Ibn Ezra says it the means they were in a tumult or a state of confusion because they didn't know what was going on in their dream), so Yosef asked them, “Why do your faces look bad today?”
Rabbenu Bachye says that this shows Yosef’s mussar. They were all together in one jail and Yosef was showing that one should be concerned with what’s going on with the people around you. This is Mussar.
And he continues that these were wicked people, working for a wicked king. That's Derech Mussar: When you're working in a business, notice what's going on with the people around you.
In the end, they shared their dreams, Yosef told them, “Remember me,” and eventually Paroah had his dream and Yosef was remembered.
We have to look at the far-reaching impact of having just a little concern for someone else. If Yosef had said, “Hey, I got my own issue. I’ve got my own problems.
It's none of my business to look into his problems,” the whole story never would've happened. The Torah is teaching us that somebody of greatness notices what's going on with the people around him.
That's a job of every rabbi in his community, it’s a job of every father in his family, and it’s a job of anybody with people in his surroundings- we’re supposed to notice them.
Rav Brudny’s second story, quoted from the famous Midrash Raba in Shemot, 2,2 talks about how Hashem tested Moshe Rabbenu with sheep.
Moshe was out guiding the sheep when one sheep ran away. He chased it until the sheep got to some water, and Moshe Rabbenu then apologized to the sheep, “I didn't know you were running because you were thirsty. You're tired.” Moshe Rabbenu then picked up the sheep, put it on his shoulder, and brought it back.
Rav Brudny said there are two important points here. The first is that when Moshe Rabbenu first looked at this sheep running away, he thought the sheep was a rebel,
because he was running away. But then he said, “Oh, I didn't realize you weren’t running away. You're in pain. You're thirsty.”
Point number two is that Moshe said, “Shame on me, I should have realized that you weren't a rebel. I should have realized you're thirsty. I'm sorry.” He apologized to the sheep. The Midrash continues and says That's the way to deal with the Jewish people.
Rabbi Brudny says, “How often do we see someone, a teen, or a congregant at risk, and think they're rebels, that they're running away?”
But no. They're thirsty, they're hungry. They're emotionally thirsty. They're emotionally hungry. They're trauma victims. They're suffering. We need to apologize to them. “I'm sorry, I thought you were rebel. I didn't understand you.”
Rav Brudny was talking to rabbis, but this is also the job of a father, of a fellow congregant, of a teacher- to realize that not all of the sheep that look like they’re running away, are actually running away.
A lot of them are really just thirsty and hurting. And it's our job to sense that and pick that up- like Yosef HaSadik and Moshe Rabbenu. That's the way of great leaders, and that's the way of great people.
May we merit to be like them.
Have a wonderful day.