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Parshas Vayeishev – the Focus of Chanukah There Is a Fascinating Medrash Discussing Yaakov’S Mourning for Yosef

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Parshas Vayeishev – the Focus of Chanukah There Is a Fascinating Medrash Discussing Yaakov’S Mourning for Yosef BS”D December 11, 2020 Potomac Torah Study Center Vol. 8 #9, December 11, 2020; Vayeishev; Hanukkah 5781 NOTE: Devrei Torah presented weekly in Loving Memory of Rabbi Leonard S. Cahan z”l, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Har Shalom, who started me on my road to learning almost 50 years ago and was our family Rebbe and close friend until his recent untimely death. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Mazel-Tov to Rabbi Joshua Cahan and Dr. Tamar Gordon on the Bar Mitzvah of their son Elisha Moshe Gordon-Cahan, brother of Yair Simcha Gordon-Cahan, grandson of Rabbi Leonard S. Cahan, z”l, and Elizabeth Cahan, and Dr. Robert & Evvie Gordon. Following the Cahan family tradition, Elisha’s Bar Mitzvah is on Shabbat Hanukkah. _______________________________________________________________________________ Devrei Torah are now Available for Download (normally by noon on Fridays) from www.PotomacTorah.org. Thanks to Bill Landau for hosting the Devrei Torah. __________________________________________________________________________________ For the next four weeks, until the end of Sefer Bereishis, the Torah focuses on Yosef, the only of our ancestors to be the primary subject of four parshot in the Sefer. Yosef’s is also the only generation in the Sefer where no one in the generation has any direct communication from God. The absence of any direct communication is strange, because Yosef constantly speaks of God and, in particular, frequently responds to questions by stating that God will reveal His plans, interpret dreams, or otherwise let him know how to proceed. How is Yosef receiving messages from God when He never speaks to Yosef or any of his brothers? God communicated with Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, usually through dreams during which He identified himself as God, or the God of Avraham (and sometimes also of Yitzhak and Yaakov). Yosef also had dreams, but in none of them did God tell Yosef that He was communicating with him. How did Yosef know that God was sending him messages? Rabbi David Fohrman asks this question and provides an obvious answer. The dreams must have had special information that Yosef could readily understand but that others would not have enough knowledge to discern. I have discussed these points in previous messages, and Rabbi Fohrman’s new Parsha series, plus his Devrei Torah at alephbeta.org, explain the details very clearly. Devrei Torah from many other scholars also make this point implicitly. I do not have room here to summarize the hints. We always start reading about Yosef shortly before or during Hanukkah. Since chazal had some flexibility of how to divide the Torah to select when various parts would come during the calendar, an obvious question is why we read about Yosef around Hanukkah. Purim and Hanukkah share a number of aspects that relate to this question. In davening, we add “Al HaNisim” during the Modem in the Amediah and during Birchat HaMazon (thanks for food). The Modem is a prayer thanking God, and “Al HaNisim” means that we are thanking God for miracles. Purim (fourth Century BCE) and Hanukkah (second Century BCE) were the first two crises facing the Jews after the end of prophecy. While a few prophets were still alive at the time of Purim, prophets generally did not receive or pass along messages outside Israel, even when the very existence of the Jews faced a threat (as it did in Persia). In both Purim and Hanukkah, the question facing the Jews was whether God would save the Jews when God did not intervene directly and we did not have any prophets passing on His messages. This question is the same one that Yosef faced – would God help him even without Yosef receiving any direct communication from God? Yosef had to find a way to see God’s hand in his life and understand hidden messages. Purim and Hanukkah involved crises of faith. The miracles of victory (Hanukkah) and events saving the Jews (Purim) showed that God would, indeed, save the Jews. During Purim, Mordechai knew that God would save the Jews and that Esther’s choice was either to intervene with the King and be God’s chosen person to send God’s plan into action – or 1 Esther could pass on the opportunity. If so, she would die and God would find some other person to bring God’s salvation to our people. How did Mordechai know that God would save the Jews? Rabbi Fohrman said that Mordechai found the answer from Vayishlach, when Yaakov went to meet Esav again after leaving Lavan’s home. (See Rabbi Fohrman’s Parsha book, chapter on Vayishlach.) When did Yaakov start for home? After the birth of Yosef, when Yaakov felt that his time had come to return to Canaan. We read this story last Shabbat, a few days before the beginning of Hanukkah. The connections between Yosef and Hanukkah remind me of my days in graduate school, fresh from college philosophy class, where we learned that there is no way to prove or disprove the existence of God. I remember asking Rabbi Cahan how one learned to believe in God. He taught me to look at the world, at the way everything hangs together in a way that could only arise through a master plan. How could such a world have come to be without an incredible mind putting it together? (Rabbi Fohrman’s investigation of the precise conditions required for each stage of a Big Bang theory to lead to creation rather than chaos or things falling apart show how science has reinforced this lesson in recent decades.) We must learn to see God in the physical and mathematical beauty and perfection of a sunset, mathematics, music, and so many other treasures in our world. What I am presenting is a pale version of a beautiful lesson that my beloved Rebbe, Rabbi Leonard Cahan, z”l, gave me nearly fifty years ago. This lesson enabled me to rise from a very secular upbringing and learn to see God’s hand in our world. This Shabbat we celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Elisha Moshe Gordon-Cahan, son of Rabbi Joshua Cahan and Dr. Tamar Gordon, grandson of Rabbi Leonard Cahan, z”l, and Elizabeth Cahan, great grandson of Ellis (Elisha) Peilin and Morris Cahan, both of whom Hannah and I knew and remember well. The Cahan family tradition has become to have Bar and Bat Mitzvot on Shabbat Hanukkah, not only so they can all recite my Bar Mitzvah Haftorah, (from Behaalotecha, the same Haftorah). How my beloved Rebbe would have kvelled joining with Elizabeth to enjoy Elisha’s Bar Mitzvah! Shabbat Shalom and Hanukkah Samaich, Hannah & Alan ___________________________________________________________________________________ Much of the inspiration for my weekly Dvar Torah message comes from the insights of Rabbi David Fohrman and his team of scholars at www.alephbeta.org. Please join me in supporting this wonderful organization, which has increased its scholarly work during the pandemic, despite many of its supporters having to cut back on their donations. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Please daven for a Refuah Shlemah for Nossan ben Pessel, Hershel Tzvi ben Chana, Eli ben Hanina, Yoram HaKohen ben Shoshana, Gedalya ben Sarah, Mordechai ben Chaya, Baruch Yitzhak ben Perl, David Leib HaKohen ben Sheina Reizel, Zev ben Sara Chaya, Uzi Yehuda ben Mirda Behla, HaRav Dovid Meir ben Chaya Tzippa; Eliav Yerachmiel ben Sara Dina, Amoz ben Tziviah, Reuven ben Masha, Moshe David ben Hannah, Meir ben Sara, Yitzhok Tzvi ben Yehudit Miriam, Yaakov Naphtali ben Michal Leah, Ramesh bat Heshmat, Rivka Chaya bat Leah, Zissel Bat Mazal, Chana Bracha bas Rochel Leah, Leah Fruma bat Musa Devorah, Hinda Behla bat Chaya Leah, Nechama bas Tikva Rachel, Miriam Chava bat Yachid, and Ruth bat Sarah, all of whom greatly need our prayers. _____________________________________________________________________________ Hannah & Alan _____________________________________________________________________________ 2 Drasha: Vayeishev: Rest Stop by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky © 1996 [Please remember Mordechai ben Chaya for a Mishebarach!] Yaakov’s struggles were over — or at least he thought so. He had met the challenge of living 22 years with a conniving uncle; he had held back the malicious advances made by Esav and had appeased him properly. His daughter was rescued from the clutches of an evil prince, and though his children had attacked and decimated the city of Shechem, the neighboring countries did not seek revenge. This week the portion begins “Vayeshev Yaakov,” and Yaakov settled. The Midrash tells us that Yaakov wanted to rest. The Midrash continues that the Almighty did not approve of Yaakov’s retirement plans. Hashem asked, “are the righteous not satisfied with the World to Come? They would want to rest in this world too?” Immediately, says the Midrash, the incident with Yoseph occurred. Yoseph is kidnapped by his brothers and sold as a slave, thus throwing Yaakov’s tumultuous existence into another 22 years of agony. What exactly is the objection toward Yaakov’s desire to rest? Why couldn’t the father of the 12 tribes spend the final third of his life in tranquillity? On the fast day of the Tenth of Teves, during the height of World War II, Rabbi Ahron Kotler took the well known activist Irving Bunim on a train trip to Washington. The war in Europe was raging, Jews were being exterminated, and the two had to see a high-ranking Washington official to plead with him in every possible way — “save our brothers.” On the way down to Washington Rabbi Kotler tried to persuade Bunim to break his fast. “Bunim,” he explained. “You cannot fast now. You need your strength for the meeting.” But Irving Bunim refused to eat. He was sure that he could hold out until the evening when the fast ended.
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