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Parshat Vayigash ב ס ״ ד Torah Do You Know Your Soul? worst type of abuse. It stands to many congregations Friday The story of Joseph revealing reason, therefore, that they evening.) The soul, in other himself to his brothers after would be utterly in shock when words, is that dimension of our Weekly they finally faced him. Could any psyche that needs not self- decades of bitter separation is one of the most dramatic in of us have ever have caused a aggrandizement, dominance or December 29, 2019- the Torah. Twenty-two years similar affront to G-d, as to excessive materialism. It January 4, 2020 earlier, when Joseph was experience such dread in the face despises politics, manipulation 1-7 Tevet, 5780 of G-d's rebuke? (This first and dishonesty. It is repulsed by Torah: Vayigash: Genesis seventeen years old, his brothers question is raised in Shem unethical behavior and by false 44:18 - 47:27 kidnapped him, threw him into a Haftorah: Ezekiel 37:15-28 pit, then sold him as a slave to Mishmuel, Vayigash p. 271. The facades. What are its aspirations? VAYIGASH Egyptian merchants. In Egypt, second question in Or Hatorah, The soul harbors a single Joseph spent twelve years in Vayigash vol. 6 p. 1974.) Our yearning: to melt away in the all- We have Jewish prison, from where he rose to Inner Dreamer To understand pervading truth of G-d. The Calendars. If you become viceroy of the country. this, we must recall the idea Abused Soul Yet, how many of would like one, Now, the moment was finally stated a number of times that all us are even aware of the please send us a ripe for reconciliation. "Joseph of the figures depicted in the existence of such a dimension in letter and we will could not hold in his emotions," Torah are not just physical our personality? How many of us send you one, or the Torah relates in this people who lived at a certain pay heed to the needs of our soul? week's parshah. He dismissed period of time. They also In response to the soul's never- Calendars ask the embody particular psychological ending dreams and yearnings that Rabbi/Chaplain to from his chamber all of his Egyptian assistants, "and he and spiritual forces, existing confuse our ego-based schedules contact us. continuously within the human and disturb our cravings for began to weep with such loud heart. Joseph is described in the instant gratification, we so often Do you have family sobs that the Egyptians outside could hear him. And Joseph said Torah as a beautiful and graceful take the "Joseph" within us and on the outside to his brothers: 'I am Joseph! Is lad, "handsome of form and plunge it into a pit. We attempt to struggling? my father still alive?' His handsome of appearance," and as relegate its dreams and passions Please contact or brothers were so astounded, they a "master of dreams." (Genesis to the subconscious cellars of our have them contact could not respond." (Genesis 37:2, 37:19 and 39:4-6.) psyche. When that does not our office to learn 45:1-3.) A Sage Weeps According to the Kabbalah, work, because we can still hear more about our The Talmud relates that Joseph symbolizes the pure and its silent pleas, we sell our family programs. whenever the great sage Rabbi sacred soul of man. Thus, to "Joseph" as a slave to foreigners, You and they are Elazar came to this verse — "his understand the story of Joseph, allowing our souls to become brothers were so astounded they we must understand the nature of subjugated to forces and drives Family Programs not alone, we are could not respond" — he would our own soul. (See Torah Or, that are alien to its very identity. here to help. Vayigash p. 44 and references Can you imagine how horrified weep. Rabbi Elazar would say, "If the rebuke of a man of flesh noted there.) A Portrait of the you would be if you were to We offer free Grape and blood (Joseph) is so Soul What does a soul look like? observe somebody taking the Juice and Matzoh powerful that it causes so much What elements of our personality little adorable hand of an infant can we attribute to our soul? In for you to be able to consternation, the rebuke and placing it on a burning stove? the Tanya, Rabbi Schneur The Chassidic masters describe make the blessings of G-d (when it comes) will all the more so cause much shame." Zalman of Liadi defines the soul each time we utter a lie, each time every Shabbos. as a flame that seeks to depart we humiliate another human Please have your (Talmud, Chagigah 4b.; cf. Midrash Rabah, Bereishit from its wick and kiss the being, each time we sin, as chaplain / Rabbi 93:11.) Yet, two points in Rabbi heavens. "The soul," he writes, precisely that: taking the precious contact us to enroll Elazar's statement seem to be "constitutes the quest in man to innocent spirituality of our soul (available to all amiss. Firstly, the verse does not transcend the parameters of his and putting it through abuse and Grape Juice & Matzah prisons). say that the brothers were (or her) ego and become torture. (See Tanya chapters 24 absorbed in the source of all and 31.) Moment of Truth Yet, astounded because Joseph Hyman & Martha Rogal Center rebuked them. Perhaps the existence." (Tanya, Chapter 19, in each of our lives the moment 5804 Beacon Street brothers were astounded by the based on Proverbs 20:27.) The arrives when our inner "Joseph," Pittsburgh, PA 15217 realization that the man standing sixteenth-century Kabbalist, which was forced to conceal its 412-421-0111 before them was none other than Rabbi Elazar Azkari, wrote a truth for so many years, breaks Fax: 412-521-5948 their long lost brother Joseph? prayer which describes the soul down and reveals to us its www.alephne.org Secondly, the comparison in these words: "My soul is sick identity. At that moment, we [email protected] between Joseph's rebuke of his with love for you; O G-d, I beg come to discover the sheer brothers and G-d's rebuke of you, please heal it by showing it beauty and depth of our soul, and mankind seems to be the sweetness of your splendor; our hearts are filled with shame. exaggerated. The brothers then it will be invigorated and The humiliation the brothers personally sold Joseph into healed, experiencing everlasting experienced when Joseph joy." (Yedid Nefesh, sung by slavery, subjecting him to the IN JEWISH HISTORY December 29, 2019---1 Tevet, 5780 revealed himself to them did not stem from the fact that he rebuked them for their selling Esther made Queen (362 BCE) him into slavery. Joseph's mere appearance to them constituted the most powerful "And Esther was taken to King Achashverosh, to rebuke: For the first time they realized who it was that they subjected to such horrific his palace, in the tenth month, which is the month abuse and their hearts melted away in shame. Similarly, Rabbi Elazar was saying, when the day will come and we will realize the G-dly and spiritual sacredness of our own of Tevet, in the seventh year of his reign. And personalities, we will be utterly astounded. We will ask ourselves again and again, how the king loved Esther more than all the women, did we allow ourselves to cast such a beautiful and innocent soul into a dark and gloomy and she won his favor and kindness more than all pit? (This essay is based on a note written by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch the virgins; he placed the royal crown on her (the "Tzemach Tzedek," 1789-1866), published in Ohr Hatorah ibid., and on a 1961 head and made her queen in Vashti's stead" discourse by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Sefer Hamammarim Melukat vol. 5 p. 261. Cf. (Book of Esther 2:16-17). This set the stage for Sefas Emes and Shem Mishmuel Parshas Vayigash.) By Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson the miracle of Purim six years later, on the 13th and 14th of Adar of the year 3405 from creation No Time To Weep The wisest of men said there is a time to weep, which implies (356 BCE). that there will be occasions when weeping is inappropriate. Though King Solomon's December 30, 2019---2 Tevet, 5780 exact words were there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, (Ecclesiastes 3:4) obviously there are times when other responses are called for. Clearly, life is not simply 8th Day of Chanukah Miracle (139 BCE) about crying or laughing. This week's parshah relates the story of Joseph's dramatic On the 25th of Kislev in the year 3622 from reunion with his brothers. Though he embraces them all, he reserves his deepest creation, the Maccabees liberated the Holy emotions for his only full brother, Benjamin. Joseph was separated from his brothers Temple in Jerusalem, after defeating the vastly when Benjamin was a mere child, and Benjamin was the only one who was not involved more numerous and powerful armies of the in the plot against Joseph. Theirs was, therefore, an exceptional embrace: And he Syrian-Greek king Antiochus IV, who had tried (Joseph) fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and cried, and Benjamin cried on his to forcefully uproot the beliefs and practices of neck (Genesis 45:14).
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