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Trilogy of Parashios Vayeshev,
Miketz and Vayigash - 5778 -
Exile and Redemption
The Torah spreads its account of
the dramatic beginning of the
first Exile of the Jewish
People, in Egypt, over the three
Parashios named above. The
Master Producer staged the play
beginning in Parashas Vayeshev,
with the intense sibling rivalry
between the brothers of Yoseph
and Yaakov’s “child of his old
age.” (Bereshis 37:3)
Yoseph was sold into slavery by
his brothers, a sin for which
the Jewish People have been
paying throughout their history.
He was acquired by Potiphar, who
trusted Yoseph with everything
he had, except for his wife.
Because Yoseph was so very
handsome, Potiphar’s wife could
not be trusted and she tried
very hard to seduce him. Once,
it was only Yaakov’s image that
saved him from her clutches.
Unfortunately, he left one of
his garments in her possession.
She falsely accused Yoseph of
having physically assaulted her,
for which he was sentenced to
prison in Egypt’s dungeons.
Fortunately, Yoseph’s track
record of success continued,
albeit on a lower level, and he
soon earned the trust of the
warden. There “happened to be”
two other prisoners with him:
Pharaoh’s chief wine-steward and
his chief baker. One morning
Yoseph found the two of them
sunk in depression. They said
that they had dreamt dreams,
knew that they were significant,
but were unable to interpret
them. Yoseph interpreted their
dreams correctly; the
wine-steward was returned to his
position and the bakery manager
was hanged. Before the
wine-steward left the dungeon,
Yoseph asked him to mention him
to Pharaoh, but as he exited,
Yoseph was promptly forgotten.
Now it was Pharaoh’s turn to
dream and he dreamt twice, first
of sickly cows swallowing
healthy cows, then of scrawny
sheaves of corn swallowing
robust sheaves. Pharaoh was
dissatisfied with the
interpretations offered by the
palace wise men, and then the
wine-steward spoke up, informing
Pharaoh of Yoseph’s great
abilities. Pharaoh summoned
Yoseph from the dungeon, told
Yoseph his dreams, received the
interpretation involving the
years of plenty and the years of
famine, realized Yoseph’s G-dly
wisdom, and made him viceroy.
Yoseph conceived a plan to
determine whether the brothers
had done “Teshuvah” for their
sin against him, by putting them
in a similar position vis-à-vis
Binyamin. It involved forcing
the brothers to bring Binyamin
to Egypt, planting evidence
incriminating him in the robbery
of Yoseph’s divining cup and
threatening to keep Binyamin as
his slave.
Yehudah confronts Yoseph, “For
your servant took responsibility
for the youth from my father,
saying ‘If I do not bring him
back to you, then I will be
sinning to my father for all
time. Now therefore,, please let
your servant remain instead of
the youth as a servant to my
lord, and let the youth go up
with his brothers.’ ” (Bereshis
44: 32-33) “And Yoseph said to
his brothers, ‘I am Yoseph. Is
my father still alive?’ ”
(Bereshis 45:3) Yoseph’s plan
had succeeded beyond his
expectation. The stage was now
set for the beginning of the
first Exile of the Jewish
People.
Last week, my wife and I went to
Montreal for a wedding of the
daughter, Rosa, of our good
friends, the Bussu family,
Syrian Sephardim, and the son,
Aharon, a “Talmid Chochom” with
exceptionally fine “midos,” of
their “mechutanim” the Cohen
family, of Moroccan Sephardic
ancestry. The father of the
Choson informed us that the
Sephardic community in Canada;
in Montreal, Toronto and other
cities, is in the midst of an
astonishing religious revival,
such that even as short period
of time as five years ago, it
would not have been possible to
have a “simchah” with the
liveliness and spirit that their
wedding had.
In the Haftarah of Parashas
Vayigash, we find the following:
“The word of HaShem came to me,
saying: ‘Now you, son of man,
take yourself one wooden tablet,
and write upon it, ‘For Yehudah
and the Children of Israel, his
comrades,’ and take another
wooden tablet and write upon it,
‘For Yoseph, the wooden tablet
of Ephraim, and all the Children
of Israel, his comrades.’ And
bring close to yourself, one to
the other, like a single wooden
tablet, and they shall become
one in your hand.” (Yechezkel
37:15-17)
“Then speak to them, ‘Thus says
my L-rd HaShem/Elokim: ‘Behold!
– I take the Children of Israel
from among the nations to which
they went, and I shall gather
them from around and I shall
bring them to their soil. I
shall make them into a single
nation in the land upon Israel’s
hills, and a single king shall
be for them all as a king; and
they shall no longer be two
nations, no longer divided into
two kingdoms again.” (Yechezkel
37:21-22)
“I shall seal a covenant of
peace with them, an eternal
covenant shall it be with them;
and I shall emplace them and I
shall increase them, and I shall
place My Sanctuary among them
forever. My dwelling place shall
be upon them, and I shall be for
a G-d unto them, and they shall
be unto Me for a people. Then
the nations shall know that I am
HaShem, Who sanctifies Israel,
when My Sanctuary is among them
forever.” (Yechezkel 37:26-28)
L’Illuy Nishmas beni Aharon
Baruch Mordechai ben Pinchas
Menachem
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