TORAH Weeklyparshat Beshalach 13 - 19 January, 2019 the Torah Finds It Necessary to Too Would Make Their Own 7 - 13 Shevat, 5779 the BONES of Mention Explicitly
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בס״ד TORAH WEEKLYParshat Beshalach 13 - 19 January, 2019 the Torah finds it necessary to too would make their own 7 - 13 Shevat, 5779 THE BONES OF mention explicitly. Why? transition successfully. JOSEPH The answer is that Ever since leaving Torah : They say adapt or die. Joseph was unique. While Egypt, we’ve been wandering. Exodus 13:17 - 17:16 But must we jettison the old his brothers were simple And every move has brou- to embrace the new? Is the shepherds tending to their ght with it its own challen- Haftorah: choice limited to modern or flocks, Joseph was running ges. Whether from Poland the affairs of state of the mi- to America or Lithuania to Judges 4:4 - 5:31 antiquated, or can one be a contemporary traditionalist? ghtiest superpower of the day. South Africa, every transition Do the past and present ever To be a practicing Jew while has come with culture shocks CALENDARS co-exist? blissfully strolling through to our spiritual psyche. How We have Jewish At the beginning the meadows is not that com- do you make a living and still plicated. Alone in the fields, keep the Shabbat you kept in Calendars, if you would of this week’s Parshah we communing with nature, and the shtetl when the factory like one, please send us read that Moses himself was occupied with a special away from the hustle and bu- boss says “Cohen, if you don’t a letter and we will send mission as the Jews were stle of city life, one can more come in on Saturday, don’t you one, or ask the Rab- leaving Egypt. Moses took easily be a man of faith. But bother coming in on Monday bi / Chaplain to contact the bones of Joseph with him to run a massive government either!” It was a test of faith us. (Exodus 13:19.). Over a hundred infrastructure as the most that wasn’t at all easy. Many years before the great Exodus, high-profile statesman in the succumbed. But many others FAMILY Joseph made the Children of land and still remain faithful stood fast and survived, even PROGRAMS Israel swear that they would to one’s traditions — this flourished. It was the test Do you have take him along when they is not only a novelty, this is of transition — and those family on the outside would eventually leave Egypt. absolute inspiration. who modeled themselves on who are struggling, As viceroy of Egypt, Joseph Thrust as he was Joseph were able to make the please contact or have could not hope to be buried from the simple life of a transition while remaining them contact our office in Israel when he died, as his young shepherd boy into the committed to tradition. hub of the nation’s capital to Democracy and a to learn more about our father Jacob was. The Egyp- juggle the roles of viceroy and human-rights culture have family programs. You tians would never tolerate their political leader being Jew, Joseph represented tradi- made that part of Jewish life and they are not alone, buried in a foreign land. But tion amidst transition. It was somewhat easier, but chal- we are here to help. he did make his brethren give possible, he taught the world, lenges still abound. In all our GRAPE JUICE & him their solemn undertaking to be a contemporary traditio- own transitions today, may MATZAH that when the time would nalist. One could successfully we continue to learn from Aleph offers free come and all the Israelites straddle both worlds. Joseph. Now that they were By Rabbi Yossy Goldman Grape Juice and Matzoh would depart they would take about to leave Egypt, the for you to be able to his remains along with them. And so it was that Jews were facing a new world THE BONES OF make the blessings every while everyone else was busy order. Gone were slavery and Shabbos. Please have JOSEPH packing up, loading their oppression, and in their place When the Jewish your chaplain / Rabbi donkeys, and getting ready were freedom and liberty. people left Egyptian slavery contact us to enroll, it is for the Great Trek into the During this time of transition, forever, the Torah tells us that available to all prisons. Wilderness, Moses himself only Joseph could be their “Vayikach Moshe et atzmot was busy with this mission, role model. They would need Yosef imo” — “Moshe took ALEPH INSTITUTE fulfilling the sacred promise his example to show them the the bones of Yosef with him” Hyman & Martha Rogal made to Joseph generations way forward into uncharted (13:19). Our Rabbis (Sotah Center ago. territory, the new frontier. 13a) comment that all Israel 5804 Beacon Street Now Joseph was not That is why the Torah was busy with the new-found Pittsburgh, PA 15217 the only one to be re-interred mentions only Joseph as the wealth from the drowned 412-421-0111 in the holy land. His brothers, one whose remains went Egyptians and Moshe busied Fax: 412-521-5948 too, were accorded the very along with the people. They himself with Yosef’s remains. needed to take Joseph with www.alephne.org same honor and last respects. What connection is there Yet, it is only Joseph whom them so that, like him, they [email protected] between Israel’s riches and Yosef’s mortal remains? Moreover, we are told that the bo- dies of all Yosef’s brothers were taken out of Egypt. Why, In Jewish History then, is only Yosef’s name singled out? Yosef’s career was strikingly different from that Wednesday, 10 Shevat, 5779 - January 16, of his brothers. Generally, they were always together — in 2019 warfare, in work, in traveling to Egypt, in Goshen — whi- Passing of the Rashash (1777) le Yosef spent many years alone. The brothers lived fairly Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, known by his name’s ac- stable lives, with few ups and downs in their fortunes. ronym, the RaShaSH, was born in Yemen, and as a young Yosef, in contrast, was the favored son of his father, then a man immigrated to Israel. He was quickly recognized for slave and a convict, and finally a supreme ruler of a mighty his piety and scholarship, especially in the area of Jewish kingdom. Despite the vicissitudes of his life, Yosef himself mysticism, and was appointed to be dean of the famed never changed. In his father’s house or in Potiphar’s, in pri- Kabbalistic learning center in the Old City of Jerusalem, son or palace, Yosef staunchly maintained his identity and the Yeshivat ha-Mekubbalim. his ways of Torah observance. He authored many works, mostly based on the Moshe saw his people leaving the land of oppres- teachings of the great kabbalist, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the sion, the land of the Goshen-ghetto, the land of the bread Ari. Rabbi Sharabi’s most famous work is a commentary of poverty and affliction. In all their troubles they never on the prayerbook, replete with kabbalistic meditations. forgot who they were. Their names were Jewish names, His mystical works are studied by kabbalists their clothing was distinctive, their language — the Sa- to this very day. He is also considered to be a foremost cred Tongue. Now they were en-route to a new land —one authority on Yemenite Jewish traditions and customs. where they would dwell in peace and tranquility. They were Passing of Rebbetzin Rivkah (1914) loaded heavily with gold and silver. Here was a new temp- Rebbetzin Rivkah Schneerson was born in tation, one Moshe feared they could not withstand properly. Lubavitch in 1833; her maternal grandfather was Rabbi He could hear the arguments: Judaism survived DovBer, the 2nd Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch. In 1849 as a result of anti-Semitism; exclusion forced the Jews to she married her first cousin, Rabbi Shmuel, who later seek within themselves and among themselves; poverty and became the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe. For many years ignorance of the world kept the Jews pious and forced them Rebbetzin Rivkah, who survived her husband by 33 to concentrate on their own culture. He feared the errone- years, was the esteemed matriarch of Lubavitch, and ous argument that “Torah Judaism was viable in the closed Chassidim frequented her home to listen to her accounts society of Eastern Europe, but cannot survive in the free of the early years of Lubavitch. She is the source of many world of democracy, opportunity, and culture.” of the stories recorded in the talks, letters and memoirs of Moshe had to demonstrate — not with words but her grandson, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (the sixth Lubavitch- with an example based on experience — that Torah and er Rebbe). The Beth Rivkah network of girls’ schools, Yiddishkeit are not meant only for the small shtetl Jew of founded by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak in the 1940’s, is named Europe, not only for poverty, not only under oppression and after her. isolation, but equally for those blessed with material wealth, Yahrtzeit of R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1950) with recognition and honor. Yosef, he showed his people, The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef was the same loyal devout Jew whether unjustly imprisoned Yitzchak Schneersohn, passed away on Shabbat morning, or at the summit of power. Whether under the shadow of a the 10th of Shevat, of the year 5710 from creation (1950) saintly father or in a licentious Egyptian household, Yosef Lubavitcher Rebbe assumes leadership (1951) never compromised his standards and ideals. At a gathering of Chassidim marking the first an- Homiletically, the words “atzmot Yosef” which niversary of the passing of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, literally mean “the bones of Yosef,” can also be explained the late Rebbe’s son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel as the atzmiyot — the essence — of Yosef.