Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Miketz 1

good evening today we're learning parat mik we're using Arash we're on page 223 last week we learned about the sad story of um miscommunication between ysep and his brothers Between Brothers and ysep and um the the sad story of the Brothers being jealous of ysep of ysep uh being suspicious of his brothers and uh the brothers thought that ysep is doing things on purpose to hurt them and they decided that for self- protection they have to sell him and they sold him to be a Slave but in reality um not yoseph not his brothers and not their father uh did anything wrong on purpose their father loved ysph because he wasn't really treating him better than other children he just saw in yph continuation of his wife Rael that died and uh he loved him not only because he was son but also because he reminded him of his wife he didn't mean to arouse jealousy in the brothers and ysep brought reports about The Brothers to the father not because he wanted to hurt the brothers not because he wanted to become uh greater than them just simply because he cared for them and he wanted them to improve and uh he said it specifically to the father because he knew that they will listen if yakob rebukes them so he spoke um to the the person who has ability to help them to improve themselves and brothers as well they sold yoseph not because they hated him for no reason not because they were bad but rather because they realized that Abraham had a son who was not good Yak had a son who was not good and they thought that perhaps unfortunately yov will have to go through the same thing and Shalom one of his sons is going to be not good and they saw in ysf that son and they said let's not wait until he damages the whole family let us take care of him while he's still young so at the end no one wanted to do anything wrong and Hashem sees the intentions and even though temporarily something negative happened uh ysep became a slave and and later the Jewish people will have to be um to go through suffering the sons of Yakov really regretted what they did yakob suffered the brothers suffered ysep suffered everybody is is um really really going through difficult 22 years but Hashem says since you wanted it to be um well each person in the in this story had good intentions and therefore Hashem says if a person makes a mistake miscalculates something I Hashem will make it that things will work out perfectly despite uh you making mistake and this is something we have to keep in mind that even if we make a wrong decision make a wrong uh step in the wrong direction we should not give up we should not assume that if we made a mistake therefore all our life uh will be not as good as it could have been no such thing we have to remember that Hashem is in control Hashem is in full control always and if he wants that we should have have good life we're going to have good life despite our mistakes not only that we will see that because of our mistake things worked out perfectly just like the invention of penicillin or discovery of penicillin happened because of a mistake discovery of radio activity happened because of an accident um many many things happened because someone miscalculated someone made a mistake stake and Hashem still worked it out that it should be perfect and now the person looks back and says what would I do if I didn't make a mistake I wouldn't be here now how good it is that I made a mistake so this is the same idea with tsha it says that if a person does true T out of love he's mistakes his aot his sins turn into mitv into positive actions how is that possible and that is because we believe that we human beings are only able to make decisions the result is up to Hashem we are not able to change things unless Hashem allows us we can certainly make decisions to make things but unless Hashem allows whatever we want to come into the world it's not going to happen for example a person may decide to kill someone Shalom and he will be punished for his decision for his attempt but if the time for that person did not come yet to Die the attempt to kill him will not be successful we will still be punished because we made the decision and we took steps to carry it out but the result will not be achieved and if the result was achieved then we believe that Hashem wanted it to happen so for example a person wakes up in the morning the alarm rings and he knows he needs to get up and instead he presses the snooze button and he sleeps another 10 minutes and alarm rings again and again he presses the smooth button even though he's already late and then finally he gets up 20 minutes late and after leaving the house he feels bad he regrets he says I uh I realized that I was weak I realized that I did not overcome my desire to sleep longer and I feel bad and I take upon myself to make steps not to repeat it I'm going to go to to sleep earlier I'm going to put the alarm clock a little further it's too important life is too important to miss miss out on and he says Hashem please help me to have a successful day and he goes to the bus stop and he misses the bus he has to wait for another bus and he knows that he's going to miss a a an important meeting but nevertheless he accepts it and he says Hashem you in charge everything's going to work out I am not worried and he arrives to the job and who walks in together with him the person who he had to have a meeting with and and uh not only he didn't miss the meeting but he actually has couple minutes to spend with him in the hallway and in the elevator and by the way before the other members of the meeting here he gives you some hints and you speak oneon-one and you find common ground and you make certain decisions and he likes you you create Rapport and when you come to the meeting he agrees to the deal now you think to yourself you know it's so funny I thought that my waking up is going to hurt my waking up late is going to hurt me but I see that really it was for the best if I didn't meet him in the elevator and we didn't discuss certain sensitive details he would come to the office and we would not be comfortable to discuss those details details in the public meeting and the deal would not happen that I made a mistake now we have to recognize that the mistake is not what helped us it's Hashem that helped us despite our mistake which means if we did wake up on time and we did catch the bus it's very possible that the other person would also come earlier and we would meet him in the hallway and everything would be perfect and I would say look how good it is to wake up early this way I was able to catch this person in the elevator and and uh secure the deal but rather because we sincerely regretted we did T we prayed we asked Hashem for help Hashem said don't worry I will fix all your mistakes and he may that the other person gets delayed or things work out in an unexpected way and they still turn out perfect so that's what happened with the story of um ysf and his brothers the brothers made a small mistake they thought ysep is against them ysep made a small mistake he thought that if he speaks to the brothers directly about things he saw they will not listen and really he was wrong the brothers didn't do anything wrong and if yoseph spoke with them they would correct him and their behavior and everything would be perfect and yov made a small mistake that he inadvertently showed great love to ysph than his brothers all parties in this story made mistakes but Hashem said I know that your intentions are pure and therefore I will turn this mistake into the greatest thing that happened to the Jewish people and what happened the we we um we will read in this story and I'm in this para and I'm going to say briefly the story of the para that there was a famine in the land of Canan and it spread to Egypt and everyone thought it's just a coincidence but Hashem knew what he is doing Hashem was bringing about the slavery of the Jewish people in Egypt and he was forcing them to descend into Egypt now our sages say that if ysep was not sold into slavery Yakov and his 12 sons and his entire family would have to fight a war the Egyptians would win and they would in Chains bring yakob and his sons to Egypt to be slaves or if it would happen later uh after yov and the the 12 sons died the Jewish people would become slaves in an embarrassing way so Hashem said ysep yob and the the brothers I will use your mistake for your benefit because you regret and you do T I'm going to uh bring you into Egypt with honor I will make yourself second to King I will make Yakov the most honorable man in the entire Egypt the one that the the king par himself asks for blessing I will make the Jewish people have the best real estate in Egypt so that they they have their own land they don't have to mix with Egyptians so that they preserve their identity and therefore although the the slavery in Egypt is uh decreed in advance it will happen in a in the best possible way so that the Jewish people always remember that they came into Egypt as free people as members of royal family of U the vice Roy ysf and it's the Egyptians who mistreated them and um were not grateful and therefore it will be easier for the Jewish people to survive the long difficult uh slavery and so looking back the three mistakes that were made by yakob by ysep and by the brothers turned out for the greatest benefit of the Jewish people and now let's start the partial on page 223 chapter 41 at this point yoseph is 30 years old he's already 13 years out of his father's house and he's still in prison it happened at the end of two years two years since the Butler and the baker had dreams since y ysep asked the butler to help him to come out of prison and the butler didn't do a thing about it and now finally par was dreaming he saw a river and out of the river emerged seven beautiful healthy cows and then out of the same river came out seven other cows which were very skinny and and not good-looking and the cows of ugly appearance ate the seven healthy cows and then par awoke in the middle of the night he thought about it he couldn't understand it and he fell back asleep and he saw a second dream verse 5 he fell asleep and dreamt a second dream and behold seven ears of grain were sprouting on a single stalk the ear is the part of the stock that contains the seeds you have the um the straw or the the stubble the stock and on top of the stock you have the ear and there was one stock and out of the stock came out not one ear but seven which is surprisingly a hint to the Min of the BET mikdash special for kanuka you have one long stock and out of the stock came out seven um ears of grain they were healthy and good and after them seven more ears of grain came out from the same stock and they consumed swallowed up the healthy ears of grain and Par awoke a second time and he doesn't know what it means verse 8 his Spirit was agitated he summoned all the necromancers of Egypt and all all its wise men but none could interpret the dreams to par then finally the butler remembered YF now we turn to page 225 verse 12 and he told parro that when he was in prison there with us was a Hebrew youth a slave of the Chamberlain of the butchers we related our dreams to him and he interpreted them for us and it was that just as he interpreted for us so did it happen he has a talent to interpret dreams me He restored to my post and him he hanged and now here you will notice that the butler is adding something he says that ysph restored him to his post and that ysep hung the baker which really didn't happen par was the one who restored the him to to his post and who hung the baker but the butler understood that ysph is the one that caused it to happen because we have a rule that a dream happens according to how it is interpreted and therefore since your interpreted it this specific way that is why it happened like that now verse 14 par sent and summoned ysf they rushed him from the dungeon they shaved him and changed his clothing and he came to parro and Par asked him to interpret his dream and ysep said in verse 16 that is beyond me I don't know the future or how to interpret the dreams it is God who will respond with paro's welfare very often if you are sincere and honest and unbiased and you want to find the truth Hashem will help you and he will implant the truth inside of you as it says plants eternal life in us which means the truth which means the Torah if I just open my mind Hashem will be able to give me the knowledge the truth and that's what ysf recognized he said I know things not because I'm smart and I can figure them out but rather because Hashem puts this information in me so par said excellent verse 17 then par said to Y in my dream behold and he related to him the entire dream with some important deta details changed on purpose and if as you read the the next paragraph and compare it to the original Dream you will notice that some details were changed because par wanted to test your to see if he has true knowledge if he has true knowledge he will be able to interpret the dream without even hearing it because if he hears the dream then he will try to logically figure it out and Par doesn't want that all the necromancers and the wise men and the Sorcerers of Egypt already tried it it didn't work so Hashem knows that I'm sorry part knows that only Hashem can give the true answer and therefore he withholds some information and and he says y doesn't need to know everything he has connection direct connection to God he'll receive the answer this is similar to the story that happened with u um Danielle many years later the the king of Babylonia invited him and said I want you to inter interpret my dream so he told him okay let me he and he said I forgot the dream so how do you want me to interpret your dream if you're not telling me your dream he said you have connection to God figure it out and he did he received the prophecy from Hashem so to with ysf when page 2 227 verse 25 yosef's interpretation ysep said to par the dream of par is a single one even though you saw two dreams but it's one message and what's the meaning of it verse 29 behold seven year years are coming and there will be a great abundance throughout all the land of Egypt then so that is represented by the seven healthy cows and seven healthy ears of grain and then seven years of f famine will arise after them and all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten and the famine will ravage the land and the reason why par saw the dream twice is to show that this is a decree that's going to happen for sure and it's going to happen immediately and in verse 33 ysph even gives advice to par now let par seek out a discerning understanding and wise man and set him over to be in charge the land of Egypt and uh verse 35 let them gather all the food of those approaching good years and let them amass grain and under paro's Authority for food in the cities and Safeguard which means they took 20% of every crop and they saved it and so over the seven years you save 20% and that will be enough for the following seven years from here the sages derive that in times of famine a person can survive on one5 of the regular amount um and therefore it's a message to us that if we spend less on food and other unnecessary things we can actually survive on much less than our current budget now we turn to page 229 ysph becomes the vice Roy the Met appeared good in paro's eyes and in the eyes of all his servants par said to his servants could we find another man like him a man in whom is the spirit of God so par said to ysf since God has informed you of all this there can be no one so understanding and wise as you you shall be in charge of my Palace verse 42 paru removed his ring from his hand and put it on yosef's hand he made him ride in a Royal Chariot with Royal garments and a Golden Chain on his neck and as they were carrying him throughout the city they they called out a a a means he is the vice Roy he is the advisor to the king and they appointed him over all the land of Egypt so in a very short time ysph went from being a slave within the prison system to become the highest office in the government next to the king verse 45 par called yep's [Music] name which means the one that reveals the SEC secrets and he gave him osnat daughter of poera for a wife now verse 46 now ysep was 30 years old when he stood before Paro verse 47 the Earth produced during the seven years of abundance by the handfuls ysph gathered all the food of the seven years that came to pass in the land of Egypt and he placed food in in the cities the food of the field around each City he placed within it in addition to people saving their own food ysph made a national uh Gathering centers that belong to par verse 15 now to ysph were born two sons verse 51 ysf called the name of the first born Min and the name of the second he called Ephraim each name signified um yosef's life Mas comes from from the word to forget that your