5771 פרשת ויחי

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the Berachos that Yaakov gave to his 12 sons. After going through the blessings that Yaakov gave to each tribe, the Torah adds a seemingly redundant sentence that says “each man was blessed like his blessing.”

 The Siforno explains that what the Torah was telling us with this Pasuk is that after Yaakov gave his sons their original blessing; he gave each one of them the blessing that each one of them would need for their individual functions in their lives for example, for Yehudah a blessing regarding his position as being the king, for Levi a blessing regarding his function of doing the Avodah and for Yissachar the blessing relating to his purpose as the Torah scholars of Bnei Yisroel.

 If we look at this Siforno a little bit closer we can ask the following questions.

 The examples that the Siforno brings about Yehudah and Levi did not occur in their life times. The descendents of Yehudah only became the rulers during the life of  Dovid Hamelech almost 10 generations after Yehudah. Similarly, the tribe of Levi did not merit being the Kohanim until they received that merit when they were the only tribe that didn’t worship the golden calf.  If this is the case, what was this special blessing that Yaakov gave to each of his sons that would not even apply in their lifetimes?

 The answer could be that in essence what a person becomes is not only applicable to him but also to his descendents. Yaakov Avinu knew what in the future would be the function of the descendents of each tribe in Bnei Yisroel and their place within Bnei Yisroel. He also knew that for them to successfully take their place in Bnei Yisroel his children must fully reach their potential. This is why Yaakov Avinu gave each of his children the blessings that they would need to grow in that particular area that his descendents will need to achieve.

 We can learn a very important idea from this Siforno. Every person in the world has a specific objective to accomplish. Every person has the tools he needs to accomplish his purpose in the world and if he can achieve his purpose that will impact positively on his descendents.

 With the knowledge that what we achieve in our ruchnius and mitzvah observance will benefit not only ourselves in this world and the next but will also assist our own descendents in achieving their purpose in the world will help us strive to work harder to grow in our ruchnius and our service of God.

5770 פרשת ויחי

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the conversation that Yaakov had with his son Yosef where he requested of him to ensure that he is buried in Israel.

 The Torah when discussing the request Yaakov made of Yosef the Pasuk uses s a very interesting language which is “If I find favor in your eyes please do for me a true kindness”.

 The Ohr Hachayim asks why Yaakov said to Yosef “If I find favor in your eyes” which implies that there was questions in Yaakov’s mind that he would not find favor in Yosef’s eyes. Yosef’s actions in taking care of his father and all his children and supporting them would seem to be proof that he cared and loved for his father so why did Yaakov had any doubt?

   The Ohr Hachayim answers that in truth the fact that Yosef supported his father and his extended family could have been done for one of two different reasons. The first reason could be because in truth Yosef did love his father and truly wanted to take care of him. The second possible reason is that Yosef would have been embarrassed not to support his father and his family but nevertheless did not feel any desire to do so.

 This is what Yaakov was telling Yosef. If you do this for me and make sure I am buried in Eretz Yisroel, which not doing will not cause you any embarrassment, it will show me that all the time you supported me it was done from love. If however you don’t do this for me then I will know that all the time you supported me you did it only so you would not be embarrassed.

 If we look at this Ohr Hachayim a little more closely we can ask the following question. Yaakov felt that if Yosef would agree to bury him in Eretz Yisroel then it must be that for all the years he supported him it must have been because he loved him and not just for Yosef’s self interest. Why is this connection automatically true? Maybe supporting Yaakov all these years was done by Yosef for his own self interest and he just agreed to his father’s last wish as a one time request.

 The answer can be that a person who is doing something totally out of their own self interest and not due to their love and true desire to help them will not be able to get themselves to do something that takes a great effort to do if they won’t gain from it. When Yosef was supporting his father for all those years he was benefiting in that he prevented himself from being looked down upon but to bury his father took a tremendous amount of effort and Yaakov knew that if Yosef did not truly care about him he would not be able to get himself to comply.

 In our lives many times we do Mitzvos and Chesed because we feel we must as we would be looked down upon if we do not do a specific mitzvah or if we do a certain Chesed we will get something back. However, if we don’t work on ourselves to create a strong desire to love to do Mitzvos, when certain Mitzvos or Chesed opportunities arise where we won’t have any apparent physical personal benefit and those Mitzvos take effort it will be very difficult for us to override our natural inclination not to do them.

 How then do we create these feelings of love of doing Mitzvos? The answer is we must constantly remind ourselves that every Mitzvah we do has inherent benefit in the next world even if we don’t see it or feel it now and furthermore, we must create feelings of love towards God for all the good He gives us on a consistent basis and then we will want to do the Mitzvos as they are fulfilling the desire of God who we love.

פרשת ויחי 5769

 In this week’s Parsha the Torah describes to us the events surrounding the final time of the life of Yaakov Avinu. The Torah tells us that he called his son Yosef who was the viceroy of Egypt and requested from him to insure that he will be buried in the burial place of his ancestors, in Eretz Yisroel. After Yaakov completed his request and received a commitment from Yosef to fulfill it, he requested of Yosef that he swear that he will keep his word and bury him in Eretz Yisroel.

 Some of the commentaries ask, why did Yaakov need to make Yosef swear that he will keep his word? Yosef was Yaakov Avinu’s most beloved child. Did Yaakov Avinu have any thought that Yosef would not keep his pledge to him that he required him to take an oath?

 The Rabbeinu Bechai gives two answers:

 The first one is also given by other commentaries which is that maybe Pharaoh would not want Yosef to bury Yaakov out of Egypt because they would want the merit of having the great Yaakov Avinu be buried in Egypt. Due to that fact, Yaakov had Yosef take an oath, not for Yosef to take his commitment seriously rather that Pharaoh should appreciate the responsibility of Yosef to bury Yaakov in Eretz Yisroel.

 The second idea though puts the purpose of the oath not on Pharaoh but rather on Yosef. The Rabbeinu Bechai explains that Yaakov was worried that the duties of Yosef of running the country would get in the way and prevent Yosef from keeping his commitment. He therefore had him take an oath.

 The question that can be asked is how can it be that Yosef who loved his father and committed to burying him in Eretz Yisroel be sidetracked by his duties as a king?

 The answer can be that it is not that Yosef would Chas Veshalom ignore his commitment to Yaakov, it is just that he might rationalize that it is not so important for him to be involved with the burial as others can do it while my duties as viceroy could not be done by anyone else or he might think that temporarily I will bury Yaakov in Egypt just for a short time until the crunch is over and then we will bury him in Eretz Yisroel. This could be why Yaakov Avinu felt it an imperative to give Yosef an oath which will insure that nothing gets in the way of Yosef keeping his commitment.

 We can learn from here a very important lesson on how we have to live our lives. We are constantly involved in our lives with many things: Our families, our Service of God, our livelihoods, etc. Many times we can find ourselves saying we don’t have so much time for our families or our Avodas Hashem since we are so busy with other things. We find ourselves saying, when things calm down at work, I will learn a bit more, etc. This is a natural tendency and it can be a challenge even for the greatest people and in order to conquer it we must realize that these aspects of our lives are of such great importance that it wouldn’t occur to us to spend too much time on work or other things. This is what Yaakov did for Yosef by making him take an oath. It reminded him of what was truly important in life so he would not lose his focus.

 In these times when we see the futility in so many of the things we took for granted as important in the past, it should help us sharpen our focus on what is truly important in life and through that we should truly grow in our Avodas Hashem and merit to see the time when the entire world will realize their true purpose in the world which will be with the coming of Mashiach.

5768 פרשת ויחי

 In this week’s Parsha we see that before Yaakov Avinu died he gave his children blessings and rebukes. The Torah lumps the rebuke of Shimon and Levi together. The Pasuk describes to us part of the rebuke as follows:

 Their anger should be cursed since it is strong, I will divide them amongst Yaakov and scatter them among Yisroel.

 Rashi explains what Yaakov Avinu was telling Shimon and Levi when he told them that they will be scattered amongst Bnei Yisroel the following way:

The poor people, the scribes and the teachers of children were all from the tribe of Shimon in order that they should be scattered about, while the tribe of Levi were made to go from storehouse to storehouse to request the tithes that should be given to him. The tribe of Levi was given its punishment of being scattered amongst Bnei Yisroel in an honorable way unlike the tribe of Shimon.

 The Sifri tells us that the reason that Shimon and Levi were to be scattered amongst Bnei Yisroel is due to their actions in Shechem where they wiped out the entire city of Shechem as a punishment for the actions of Shechem when he assaulted their sister Dina. They had done this without asking permission from Yaakov Avinu.

The Sifri is bothered by the obvious question. If they both did the same action why were the desendents of Levi given their punishment in a more honorable way than shevet Shimon?

The Sifri answers as follows:

The situation is compared to the following allegory: Two people borrowed money from a king. The first one not only paid back the money but even loaned the king money, while the second person not only didn’t pay back the loan but he borrowed money from the king again. This is the case with Shimon and Levi also. Both of them “borrowed” from God when they killed all the males in Shechem, however the tribe of Levi made it up at the time that Bnei Yisroel worshipped the golden calf and Moshe Rabbeinu asked whoever is with God come to me and the entire tribe of Levi went with Moshe Rabbeinu. The tribe of Levi then “lent” to God when Bnei Yisroel was involved in adultery with the daughters of Midyan, the one to step up and protest was Pinchas from shevet Levi. While the tribe of Shimon not only didn’t pay back the “loan” at the time of the golden calf, it was their nasi who was publicly involved in the sin of adultery with one of the princesses of midyan.

From this Sifri it appears that it was the actions of the descendents that made the difference between how this decree of Yaakov Avinu played itself out.

The question that can be asked is why should the actions of one or two people or even the whole tribe impact the way the decree of Yaakov Avinu should play out. Granted that the tribe of Levi should get tremendous reward for their actions but it shouldn’t impact the decree of Yaakov Avinu since the situation that caused it didn’t change.

The Ohel Yaakov answers this question the following way:

 The actions of the tribe of Shimon in Shitim (their involvement in adultery) caused the sin of their forefather Shimon to grow, while the actions of Pinchas at Shitim caused the sin of his forefather Levi to become smaller.

The Ohel Yaakov explains this idea further using a Gemara that says the following:

Any commandment that Bnei Yisroel sacrificed for, that commandment is still held strongly in their hands (meaning that strong adherence to that commandment sticks even with their descendents. 

Based on this idea, we can understand why the actions of the tribes of Shimon and Levi at Shitim so many generations later had an impact on the decree that related to a sin of their ancestors so many generations before.

When Shimon and Levi decided to kill all the men of Shechem, what was their reasoning for the action? On a slight level, was there some aspect of their action that was not totally done for heaven’s sake? The answer can be seen from the actions of their descendents. Pinchas who was the descendent of Levi was willing to sacrifice his life to stand up and stop an act of immorality when Bnei Yisroel were involved in acts of adultery with the women of midyan. The only way he was able to do this was that this trait of morality was so ingrained in him from his ancestorLevi  who was willing to risk his life to stand up to the immoral acts that were perpetrated against his sister Dina. From the action of his descendent Pinchas we see that the actions of Levi were totally for heaven’s sake and therefore his descendents even though they were scattered merited receiving their livelihood in an honorable fashion.

However, if we look at the actions of the nasi of the tribe of Shimon at Shitim, he was involved in an act of adultery with one of the princess of Midyan. If the action of Shimon would have been as 100% totally done for the sake of God like that of Levi then his descendent could not have committed such an act of immorality. From the actions, of his descendent,Zimbi we see that there must have been, on a minute level, a part of his action that wasn’t totally doe nfor heaven’s sake and for that reason his descendents did not merit to receive their livelihood in an honorable fashion like Shevet Levi

 We see an incredible idea from this Ohel yaakov. It is every parent’s dream that his children should grow up to be God fearing  and aside from davening a lot, we wonder what we can do to help them along the right path. One answer is if we want our children to give of themselves for a particular mitzvah then we have to give of ourselves for it. Levi was willing to give the ultimate sacrifice to stand up to immorality and that trait stuck through his descendents for generations. We don’t usually have the opportunity to sacrifice our lives for a mitzvah, however if a person works on himself and constantly does the mitzvah even when it is very difficult, he will naturally build himself up to the state where if he had to sacrifice his life for the mitzvah he would. Attaining that level is enough even if we don’t actually come face to face with putting our lives on the line. This level is attainable. If we make a mitzvah important to us so that no matter what the situation is we do it then it will become part of us so that nothing can stand in its way. A prime example would be davening with a minyan. If a person, no matter what the situation is always davens with a minyan and will not let anything get in the way, (truly because he feels its importance), then his descendents will have that same built in desire. This is a hard level to reach but if we work on one mitzvah at a time, we never know what we can accomplish and how we can be impacting our future generations.

פרשת ויחי 5767

 In this week’s Parsha there are 2 commentaries on two different Pesukim that both teach us the same very important lesson from two different angles.

 The first one is on the second Pasuk of the Parsha which says the following:

And Yaakov lived in Egypt for seventeen years.

The Chizkuni asks the following implied question. This Pasuk seems to be extra. The Torah is not a history book, that tells us dates for no apparent reason and furthermore we know that no word in the Torah is extra, so what is the Torah teaching us from this Pasuk? The Chizkuni answers as follows:

The Pasuk was written to tell us the praise of Yosef that he supported his father and his entire house (family) for 17 years just like the period that Yaakov supported Yosef who was sold to Egypt at age 17.

Let us examine this Chizkunia little bit closer. According to the Chizkuni the Torah is coming to praise Yosef for supporting his father and his family for 17 years. Yosef was a beloved child to Yaakov. There was nothing that Yosef would not have done for his father.

Even if you want to say that the praise relates to also supporting his brothers and their families, the same question still applies.  If Yosef would not have given them food, he would have hurt his father very much.

Furthermore, Yosef was the second most powerful person in Egypt and to support his father’s entire family would not be such a big deal, so why is the Torah praising Yosef so much for this act?

Before answering this question let us look at a second Chizkuni a little later on in the Parsha. The Pasuk says that  Yaakov tells Yosef that Menashe and Ephraim will be treated as 2 shevatim which was something special given over specifically to Yosef and not to any of the other shevatim. The Chizkuni asks what merit Yosef had to deserve the double portion? One of the answers was as follows:

He deserved the double portion since he supported his father Yaakov during the hunger.

Based on what we asked earlier, we can also ask why is the fact that Yosef supported his father something so great that he deserved that his shevet was divided into 2 which was something that none of the other shevatim merited.

As in many such cases the answer to the question can be found in the question itself. We had asked what was the great praise of Yosef that he supported his family as money was no object and he would do anything for his father?

The answer is to just understand how difficult it is for a person to part with money. Chazal are telling us that giving away money to support his father and brothers was difficult even for Yosef who had a tremendously close relationship with his father and no financial limitations. Therefore, the reward he received and the praise that the Torah ascribes to Yosef really was commensurate with the test that he conquered.

The question for us is, how can we get ourselves to be able to do the proper things with our money. We all know that Chazal tell us  a person always desires more and more money and material wealth, so how can we overcome this inherent desire and use the money we receive from God for the proper things?

The answer can be found in the Serer Ahavas Chesed written by the Chofetz Chaim where he brings the following:

The answer to our question is in this Tana Devai Eliyahu who basically says that if you give charity you will merit more money, and when a person receives money from God it is for the purpose of using it not only to support themselves but also to do with it mitzvos like charity and kindness. If we don’t use our money properly, one day we can find ourselves without it. If we can keep this idea in our thoughts, when the question arises should I give more charity, do I have the money to do this particular chesed, then we will always come to the right conclusion.

If we can keep giving charity and doing good with our money, God should continue giving us from his blessing and enable us to do more and more good and merit good both in olam hazeh and olam haba.