Everybody who hears this shmuess, should express their hoda’ah to Hashem Yisbarach, that they’re able to go to the bathroom and vacuate without surgery or any other intervention.[i] Perhaps you don’t understand what it says in asher yatzar, and you don’t think about it, that if Hashem blocks one of a person’s openings אי אפשר להתקים, they can’t exist. A person should dance and sing after they go to the washroom.
In the gemara (Bava Kamma 92) there is a gantze sugya about the source for certain sayings that the world says. Mei heicha teisi you have to find a mekor in Torah for sayings that people say? הפך בה והפך בה דכולה בה – turn it over and over, for all is therein (Avos 5:22). So in the medical field, we find a concept of American Heart Awareness Month or American Heart Day.
We have to learn from our avos, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, that we need to develop in every area of our lives. The avos built the future of Klal Yisrael. Their whole outlook and their whole avodah was with an eye on the future. It’s not the pshat that the avos were great Jews, super Yidden, and therefore they got a present, and were blessed with good children. That’s how we may see it. When we see a guy has good kids, what do we say? “Oh, he got a brachah. He went to a rebbe. He went to a tzaddik. He went to some kever. Maybe he did a good deed.” You have to realize the avos were called avos. Do you know what avos means?
We’d like to stay on the topic of ‘Getting out of Your Mitzrayim’ and today’s shmooze is on a Chazal we find in Parshas Vayechi on the passuk of ‘לישועתך קויתי ה – for Your salvation I long, Hashem (Bereishis 49:18). We mentioned before that Yaakov Avinu said this passuk in regards to Shimshon Hagibor, when he was at a moment of darkness. It was after Shimshon’s hair was cut, his gevurah was gone and he reached out to Hashem one more time. He asked the child holding his hand if he could take him over to the pillars. He wanted to lean on the pillars.
Yaakov Avinu was close to the end of his life. He called for his children and told them to gather around: האספו, gather together, “and I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen with you in the end of days” (Bereishis 49:1). I’m trying to imagine that. Yaakov Avinu, was the bechir ha’avos. Yaakov’s passing marked the end of the Avos era – the culmination and perfection of the foundation of Klal Yisrael.
In this week’s parshah, there are a lot of powerful lessons to be learned. Yosef comes face to face with his brothers, and he reveals himself to them. Now, the passuk (Bereishis 45:4) says, אני יוסף אחיכם, I am Yosef your brother, אשר מכרתם אותי מצרימה, whom you sold to Mitzrayim. My Rebbi (HaRav Meir Halevi Soloveichik, zt”l) asked the following question: what was Yosef coming to add when he said אני יוסף אחיכם?
We speak about the greatness of the Chashmonaim. But any time you talk about the greatness of someone, you always have to know, how do you translate that to your life? We talk about the Chafetz Chaim or the Vilna Gaon, and I can tell you how superb and how great they were and how committed they were. But then the question is, “How do I plug into that?”
Parshas Vayeshev is a unique parshah. It’s a parshah where you encounter strife. You encounter tzaros tzeruros in the life of Yaakov Avinu. You encounter tzaros tzeruros in the life of Yosef Hatzaddik. Each of them, Yaakov and Yosef, endured their own difficulties, and were not able to share it with each other as they were separated by distance and weren’t aware of each other’s experiences. This parshah, which deals with yesurim, teaches us something tremendous, because yesurim are part and parcel of our lives. It is something that is totally unavoidable.
The parshah begins with the episode of Yaakov preparing himself for his ultimate meeting with Eisav, and the Torah tells us about Yaakov Avinu’s emotional state. It is rare for the Torah to reveal the emotional states of our avos and our imahos. But on rare occasions, Hashem pulls back the curtain. You have to realize that if the Torah does that, it means it’s important for us to know about it. We could face the same situation and we can learn from the Torah how to deal with.
In the past, we mentioned a medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 68:2) that describes how Yakov Avinu was going to look for a shidduch, but was faced with a dilemma: he was penniless.[i] He had nothing at all because he had been robbed. He was accosted and lost everything. But he accepted it as a nisayon from Hashem. My Rebbi (Rav Meir Soloveitchik, zt”l) pointed out that Yakov Avinu faced very evil adversaries many times in his life, and situations where people usually stand up in their own defense.
