בס"ד

MIKETZ | DEC 18 - DEC 25, 2020 | 3 - 10 TEVET | CANDLE LIGHTING 4:12 PM | HAVDALAH 5:16 PM

SHABBAT THIS days). Please email Steve Plotnick to commit to any/all days of the week and FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18 Commencing this Shabbat afternoon, you'll receive email confirmation the Ma’ariv minyan at shul will be held at night before. For -Maariv, we are 6:15AM Shkia (directly following Mincha). This attempting to solidify the minyan by will replace the Ma’ariv minyan held at going back to the daily email sign-up CANDLE LIGHTING 4:12PM the conclusion of shabbat. Those sheet. Please contact Rabbi Shestack if davening Ma’ariv at shkia must still keep you are a male and around during the shabbat until the Havdalah time listed MINCHA / MAARIV 4:15PM 4-5pm hour and ever able to attend and (this week, 5:16), at which time they you'll be added to the daily email sign- should recite Havdalah as usual. Those up list in the morning. Upon receiving SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19 not attending Ma’ariv minyan at shul the emails, you just click the “Minyan” should daven Ma’ariv at home at the link and sign up. SHACHARIT 9:00AM normal time (end of shabbat). Approxi- mately 5 minutes after Havdalah, the LAST KRIAT SHMA 9:35AM THIS WEEK Sefer Daniel shiur will resume on Zoom. עשרה בטבת Friday, December 25th is MINCHA 4:10PM Minyan Registration Policy: Registration The fast will start at 6:08AM, there will for indoor minyan only; outdoor minyan be leining at Mincha, and the fast will HAVDALAH 5:16PM does not require registration. Contact end after Maariv. We wait until 40 the Rabbi to be added to the outdoor minutes after shkia to make kiddush. All DANIEL SHIUR 5:25PM shabbat minyan WhatsApp group. Every normal Shabbat preparations are permit- minyan participant still agrees by virtue is not recited at Mussaf ted. The tenth of Tevet - on which the אב הרחמים is not recited at Mincha of attendance to inform the rabbi/ siege of Yerushalayim began, was the צדקתך צדק president about any exposure to COVID. beginning of the whole chain of calami- 'In the event of rain, persons normally ties that finally ended with the destruc- Have news to share in the bulletin? attending the outdoor minyan may join tion of the Beit Hamikdash. “And it was Send an email to the indoor minyan without separate pre- in the ninth year of his reign, in the [email protected] with the registration (assuming sufficient space is tenth month, in the tenth (day) of the information. available). To register, use this Google month, that Nebuchadnetzar, King of Form or visit our website. Babylon came, he and all his hosts, up- on Yerushalayim, and he encamped up- IN OUR SHUL on it and built forts around it. And the city came under siege till the eleventh To ensure we have consistent Sha- year of King Tzidkiyahu. On the ninth of charit minyan attendance over the the month famine was intense in the course of the winter we are going to a city, the people had no bread, and the daily email format (like the good 'ol city was breached.” (2nd Melachim 25). ZEMANIM SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

12/20 12/21 12/22 12/23 12/24 12/25

Shacharit 8:15 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 6:30 AM 8:00 AM

Mincha/Maariv 4:19 PM 4:20 PM 4:20 PM 4:21 PM 4:21 PM 4:10 PM

Earliest Talit 6:17 AM 6:18 AM 6:18 AM 6:18 AM 6:19 AM 6:19 AM

Gedolah 12:17 PM 12:18 PM 12:18 PM 12:19 PM 12:19 PM 12:20 PM Shkia 4:31 PM 4:32 PM 4:32 PM 4:33 PM 4:33 PM Tzait 5:11 PM 5:12 PM 5:12 PM 5:13 PM 5:13 PM 5:14 PM

בס"ד MIKETZ DEC 18, 2020

gghgh ADULT EDUCATION UPCOMING EVENTS

All classes on Zoom can be accessed using the shul Zoom Following the success of our previous food trains, sign Room: up for December’s Soup Train by Saturday, December * https://zoom.us/j/729131189918-25 Saddle River Road, Fair Lawn, NJ 0741026th 201.797.0502. The exchange WWW.AHAVATACHIM.ORG will happen on Friday, January 1st. Password: 112233 After the overwhelming success of the first parlor meeting, Rabbinic Intern R' Yair Lichtman will be continuing an excit- we are planning a third parlor meeting scheduled for Tues- ing series exploring Responsa literature from current lead- day, December 29th at 8:30 pm. The goal once again will ing Poskim to COVID Halachic inquiries. Look behind the be to pitch the Ahavat Achim community to prospective curtain to see the halachic process of using precedent in member families. If you have any leads or would like to the midst of the "unprecedented". Don't miss this fascinat- help with this, reach out to Natan Santacruz. ing opportunity to learn with your families and Rav Yair. Please contact Rabbi Shestack to sponsor a session. The The next shul board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, series will continue on Sunday, December 20th at 9 AM on January 5, 2021 at 8:30pm on Zoom. Zoom. IN OUR FAMILY The Beginners Gemarah Shiur will take place on Monday, December 21st at 8:15pm with Rabbi Shestack and will Thank you to Kira Wigod and the entire Youth Committee continue in Brachot. for organizing a very special and creative drive-through carnival for our youth this past Sunday. Thank you to car- Fundamental Texts of Jewish Thought will continue this nival volunteers – Helene Brenenson, Lori and David Gar- week on Thursday, December 24th at 9pm on Zoom with funkel, Joan Goldberg, Steve Plotnick, Randi and Arnie Spi- Rabbi Shestack. We will read & discuss essays by great er, and Seymour Wigod; and to hosts - Zehava and Nor- Jewish thinkers on their approaches to some of life's big- mal Baron, Joyce Heller, Betsy and Marty Sonnenblick, and gest questions. Shelly and Steve Winchester. A wonderful time was had by all. You can check out the pictures on Flickr at: https:// flic.kr/s/aHsmSQe36m

ע״ה Shirley Vann has dedicated the attached Covenant & Conversation (used with permission of the Office of Rabbi Sacks) in memory of her beloved mother Necha Bat Yitzchok C O N G R E G A T I O N A H A V A T A C H I M P R E S E N T S : SOUP TRAIN EXCHANGE

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This series will take place on the following days: 11/27: Day after Thanksgiving 2/15: President's Day 1/1: New Year's Day 4/18: Tax Day 1/18: Martin Luther King Day 5/31: Memorial Day 7/4: 4th of July

H T T P S : / / Z O O M . U S / J / 7 2 9 1 3 1 1 8 9 9 P A S S W O R D : 1 1 2 2 3 3 L E A R N M O R E A T W W W . A H A V A T A C H I M . O R G Rabbi Sacks zt”l had prepared a full year of Covenant & Conversation for 5781, based on his book Lessons in Leadership. Te Office of Rabbi Sacks will continue to distribute these weekly essays, so that people all around the world can keep on learning and fnding inspiration in his .

Three Approaches to Dreams Mikketz 5781

In one of the greatest transformations in all literature, Joseph moves in a single bound from prisoner to Prime Minister. What was it about Joseph – a complete outsider to Egyptian culture, a “Hebrew,” a man who had been languishing in jail on a false charge of atempted rape – that marked him out as a leader of the greatest empire of the ancient world?

Joseph had three gifs that many have in isolation but few in combination. Te frst is that he dreamed dreams. Initially we do not know whether his two adolescent dreams – of his brothers’ sheaves bowing down to his, and of the sun, moon and eleven stars bowing down to him – are a genuine presentiment of future greatness, or merely the overactive imagination of a spoiled child with delusions of grandeur.

Only in this week’s parsha of Mikketz do we discover a vital piece of information that has been withheld from us until now. Joseph says to Pharaoh, who has also had two dreams: “Te reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the mater has been frmly decided by God, and God will do it soon” (Gen. 41:32). Only in retrospect do we realise that Joseph’s double dream was a sign that this, too, was no mere imagining. Joseph really was destined to be a leader to whom his family would bow down.

Tree Approaches to Dreams 1 Mikketz 5781 Second, like Sigmund Freud many centuries years later, Joseph had a gif for interpreting the dreams of others. He did so for the butler and baker in prison and, in this week’s parsha, for Pharaoh. His interpretations were neither magical nor miraculous. In the case of the butler and baker he remembered that in three days’ time it would be Pharaoh’s birthday (Gen. 40:20). It was the custom of rulers to make a feast on their birthday and decide the fate of certain individuals. (In Britain, the Queen’s birthday honours continue this tradition.) It was reasonable therefore to assume that the butler’s and baker’s dreams related to this event and their unconscious hopes and fears.1

In the case of Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph may have known ancient Egyptian traditions about seven-year famines. Nahum Sarna quotes an Egyptian text from the reign of King Djoser (ca. twenty-eighth century BCE):

I was in distress on the Great Trone, and those who are in the palace were in heart’s affliction from a very great evil, since the Nile had not come in my time for a space of seven years. Grain was scant, fruits were dried up, and everything which they eat was short.2

Joseph’s most impressive achievement, though, was his third gif, the ability to implement dreams, solving the problem of which they were an early warning. No sooner had he told of a seven-year famine then he continued, without pause, to provide a solution:

“Now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a ffh of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. Tey should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. Tis food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.” (Gen. 41:33-36)

We have seen Joseph the brilliant administrator “Give yourself the time and before, both in Potiphar’s house and in the prison. It space and imagination to was this gif, demonstrated at precisely the right time, dream. In dreams we discover that led to his appointment as Viceroy of Egypt. our passion, and following our From Joseph, therefore, we learn three passion is the best way to live principles. Te frst is: dream dreams. Never be afraid a rewarding life.” to let your imagination soar. When people come to me for advice about leadership, I tell them to give themselves the time and space and imagination to

1 Ibn 40:12 and Bechor Shor 40:12 both make this suggestion. 2 Nahum Sarna, Understanding Genesis, New York, Schocken, 1966, 219.

Tree Approaches to Dreams 2 Mikketz 5781 dream. In dreams we discover our passion, and following our passion is the best way to live a rewarding life.3

Dreaming is ofen thought to be impractical. Not so; it is one of the most practical things we can do. Tere are people who spend months planning a holiday but do not give even a day to planning their life. Tey let themselves be carried by the winds of chance and circumstance. Tat is a mistake. Te Sages said, “Wherever [in the Torah] we fnd the word vayehi, ‘And it came to pass,’ it is always the prelude to tragedy.”4 A vayehi life is one in which we passively let things happen. A yehi (“Let there be”) life is one in which we make things happen, and it is our dreams that give us direction.

Teodor Herzl, to whom more than any other person we owe the existence of the State of Israel, used to say, “If you will it, it is no dream.” I once heard a wonderful story from Eli Wiesel. Tere was a time when Sigmund Freud and Teodor Herzl lived in the same district of Vienna. “Fortunately,” he said, “they never met. Can you imagine what would have happened had they met? Herzl would have said: ‘I have a dream of a Jewish state.’ Freud would have replied: ‘Tell me, Herr Herzl, how long have you been having this dream? Lie down on my couch, and I will psychoanalyse you.’ Herzl would have been cured of his dreams and today there would be no Jewish state.” Tankfully, the Jewish people have never been cured of their dreams.

Te second principle is that leaders interpret other people’s dreams. Tey articulate the inchoate. Tey fnd a way of expressing the hopes and fears of a generation. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech was about taking the hopes of Black Americans and giving them wings. It was not Joseph’s dreams that made him a leader; it was Pharaoh’s. Our own dreams give us direction; it is other people’s dreams that give us opportunity.

Te third principle is: fnd a way to implement dreams. First see the problem, then fnd a way of solving it. Te Kotzker Rebbe once drew atention to a difficulty in Rashi’s writing. Rashi (Ex. 18:1) says that Yitro was given the name Yeter (meaning, “he added”) because “he added a passage to the Torah beginning [with the words], “Choose from among the people ...” (Ex. 18:21).Tis occurred when Yitro saw Moses leading alone and told him that what he was doing was not good: he would wear himself and the people to exhaustion. Terefore he should choose good people and “What makes a leader is delegate much of the burden of leadership to them. the ability to find a way of putting things right.” Te Kotzker pointed out that the passage that Yitro added to the Torah did not actually begin, “Choose from among the people.” It began several verses earlier when he said, “What you are doing is not good.” (Ex. 18:17) Te answer the Kotzker gave was simple. Saying “What you are doing is not good” is not an addition to the Torah - it is merely stating a problem. Te addition consisted in the solution: delegating.

3 One of the classic texts on this subject is Ken Robinson, Te Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything (New York: Penguin Books, 2009). 4 Megillah 10b.

Tree Approaches to Dreams 3 Mikketz 5781 Good leaders either are, or surround themselves with, problem-solvers. It is easy to see when things are going wrong. What makes a leader is the ability to fnd a way of puting them right. Joseph’s genius lay not in predicting seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, but in devising a system of storage that would ensure food supplies in the lean and hungry years.

Dream dreams; understand and articulate the dreams of others; and fnd ways of turning a dream into a reality – these three gifs are leadership, the Joseph way.

1. Dream dreams: How big are the ideas you dream up for your life? 2. Articulate the dreams of others: Do you ever listen to other people’s aspirations, and help them to visualise them more clearly? 3. Find ways of transforming them: How can you turn these dreams into realities?

Tree Approaches to Dreams 4 Mikketz 5781