Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vayigash 1

good evening we're learning par we're using the art scroll and we are on page 251 last week we learned about the great challenge that the brothers of ysep faced ysep accused them of being spies he put one of the brothers in in Dungeon Shimon the brothers had to go home and tell the father of the sad news that not only they don't have YF but now they lost Shimon and not only that now they have to bring Benyamin and yakob didn't allow them to take beamin until he had no choice until there was no more food the famine was still continuing of course this was a grand master plan of Hashem in order to bring Yakov and his family to Egypt in honor while ysep is still the vice Roy and to bring about the prophecy that was foretold to Abraham ainu that his children will be slaves in a in a land not their own for 400 years and Yakov sent the nine brothers together with Benyamin to try to bring Shimon back and buy some more food and when they came yoseph seemingly treated them well and released Shimon and had a nice lavish meal with them and sent them home but he placed his silver goblet into binyamin's sack and uh accused him of theft and now he wants Benyamin to be his slave and now we come to this week's paral page 251 then Yehuda approached him and said now the brothers are standing again again in front of ysf with the possibility that uh they will not see Benyamin ever again and that they will have to go to yak and gave him the sad news that both children of his beloved wife Rael disappeared YF and now bam and that will be a tremendous blow and that it may even kill yob and that's what Yehuda is trying to relate to yourself to yourself and he says if you please my Lord may your servants speak a word in my Lord's ears and let your anger not flare up at your servant he's speaking very politely with great reverence and he is trying to appease yourf he doesn't know he is YF he thinks this is a cruel evil leader of Egypt and he's trying to play on his emotions and uh try to convince him to be more compassionate and he relates this Story how uh he started asking them private questions questions that he didn't ask any other buyers and how they honestly revealed to him information about their father and about their little brother and then he hooked on that information and asked them to bring proof and if we skip to verse 30 and now if I come to your servant my father and the youth and bamin is not with us since his soul is bound up with his soul since Yakov loves bamin his his only remaining Survivor from his wife it will happen that when he sees the youth is missing he will die and your servants will have brought down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave and now on page 253 verse 32 Yehuda is explaining why specifically he out of all the brothers is uh speaking with Y for your servant took responsibility for the Youth from my father saying if I do not bring him back to you then I will have sinned to my father for all the time so he adds a third reason why ysf should let Benyamin go number one Benyamin himself he claims is innocent it was a setup plus bamin has a large family bam has 10 children additionally Yakov his father will not be able to handle benin's disappearance if it's any other son it will be easier please replace him with me I will volunteer because I am one of six children of Leia and if I stay as a slave my father will mourn but he will still have five more sons of his wife Leia but Benyamin is the only remaining son of Rael if he die if he disappears Yakov will not be able to handle and Yakov will die that's reason number one first have mercy on Benyamin second have mercy on yob and thirdly yehudah says have mercy on me because I promise Pro to my father that I will bring beamin back and if I don't do it I forfeited Mya I promised to my father that if I don't bring Benyamin I am giving up not only this life but the life in the world to come I put everything on the line please have mercy on me and allow allow bamin to go back to his father and I will stay as as the servant as the your slave this way bamin will come back to his large family and he he is the youngest among all the brothers his children need him most number two Our Father yakob Will Survive and number three I will gain my Hab so again verse 33 now therefore please let your servant meaning yehudah remain as a slave instead of the youth as a servant for my Lord and let the youth let beamin go up with his brothers to the father for how can I go up to my my father if the youth is not with me lest I see the evil that will befall my father and now at this moment of uh great despair for the brothers at this moment when they don't know what's going to be at the moment when if the evil seemingly evil leader of Egypt will remain stubborn they will be faced with a choice if th to give up and to retreat and go back to their father empty-handed without bamin and live for the rest of their life without ysep without bamin and seeing their father die or they have to make another difficult choice and that is to start a fight start a battle start a war and potentially die trying to um protect bamin and very very difficult moment what is going to be and for ysph it's a very difficult moment as well he was away from his father and his brothers for 22 years he missed them but at the same time time he knows that it's a very crucial time he knows that they sinned he knows that they need atonement he knows that if he doesn't provide them with atonement they will have to suffer in the future he knows that for for hurting a human being and causing him so many years of suff suffering they need to go through some suffering themselves and he's trying to give them this measured suffering so that so that they are cleansed of their sin and it's very difficult for him because he doesn't want to see his brothers suffer he doesn't want to see his brothers so scared and he's pulled in two directions on one hand he wants to stop their suffering and and uh give them the good news that he is YF on the other hand as a a surgent who knows he needs to perform operation and he knows that it hurts and he has to operate without anesthesia and the the patient is screaming and suffering but the surgeon knows that I have to continue cutting and I have to continue hurting the patient because I will save his life through it and now in chapter 45 verse 1 the Torah tells us that ysep cannot stand any longer seeing his brother's suffering now ysf could not restrain himself in the presence of all who stood before him he sees that he cannot control himself he is going to stop the test he's going to stop the surgery and he'll have to reveal himself but he doesn't want to do it in front of Egyptians he doesn't want to embarrass his brothers he doesn't want Egyptians to know that he was tricking them and he was playing games and therefore he screamed out remove everyone from before me thus no one remained with him when ysep made himself known to his brothers ysep is now alone with his 11 Brothers they don't know what's going on yet they see that all the guards and all the ministers all the officials are leaving the doors are closed and now it's just ysf and 11 of them and yoseph is putting himself in grave danger because if they act quickly they may take the opportunity and strike him and kill him before he has a chance to tell them that he is their brother but nevertheless he decid decides to take this risk and he remains alone with them and he quickly cries in a loud voice such a loud voice that Egyptians outside of the of the hall here and parro's household here and ysph said to his brothers I am yourself and of course they are shocked they don't believe it and he continues screaming is my father still alive now finally after he revealed himself he can ask for an honest answer is my father alive 22 years I didn't see him he is a very old man now I want to make sure I I can see him before he dies and the reason why he's asking again even though the brothers spoke about Yakov being alive is because he suspects that they spoke about their father only as an excuse why ysep should be compassionate toward towards them but he doesn't know maybe they're lying maybe the father is not alive anymore so he's asking tell me if he is alive but his Brothers could not answer him because they were shocked before him and there was a long Silence with ysep looking at them and they looking at him in shock and looking at each other what did we just witness what did we just hear this is ysf this is our brother brother who told us that we will bow down to him and we just bow down to him they are embarrassed they are still scared because now he they realize what is going on he was treating them as spies and accusing them of theft and wanted to take them as slaves and perhaps he's going to continue it perhaps he is angry at them and now that he revealed himself the roles will reverse until now he was saying he'll take Benyamin as a slave but perhaps now Benyamin will be the only one who is going to go home and all other brothers are going to stay as slaves or maybe will'll be killed they don't know yet what's in his his heart and therefore they are shocked and scared then ysep said to his brothers come close to me if you please and they came close slowly slowly he's trying to convince them that he's still their brother that he does not wish them bad and he said again I am ysf your brother it is me whom you sold into Egypt he's giving them information that only he would know thereby proving that he is yourself and now don't be distressed and don't accuse yourselves for having sold me here for it was to be a provider that God sent me ahead of you ysph understand how much pain they're going through now pain that is even greater than few moments ago before he reveal himself and ysep is trying to appease them and and calm them down don't worry it's not as bad as you think Hashem arranged it in such a way Hashem planted these thoughts in your mind and the decision to sell me to Egyptians was from Hashem because now I can provide you with food and he continues to explain in verse six for this has been two of The Hunger years in the midst of the land and there are yet 5 years in which there will be neither plowing nor Harvest and therefore what you thought was not good I'm telling you this is the best thing that ever happened to me and to you through your sale I became the king of Egypt and through your mistake Hashem is saving you from certain death from famine thus God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival in the land and to sustain you for a momentous deliverance and now it was not you who sent me here but God and this is an important idea to keep in mind a person is judged for his mistakes he is judged for his decisions but but a person is not judged for the outcome the person is only judged for the decision to do right or wrong the outcome is from Hashem and therefore it's very easy to change the decision all you have to do is change your decision right now take upon yourself that if you are ever facing with the same choice you will make the right choice and go back in time and say I'm imagining how I am going through the events of many years ago and I am while in my mind being back in time I'm making the decision to do what's right and I regret of making the wrong decision and I ask forgiveness from Hashem and from uh the person that I sinned against and through that we erase the past and through that we achieve complete forgiveness but what about the fact that the person suffered what about the fact that the person may still be suffering till this day because of our past actions how can we undo that and we cannot undo that and it's our role to undo it because YF is teaching us it is not you who did it but God you may have wanted to kill me but God didn't let you wanted to get rid of me so Hashem sent the a caravan of ishmaelites to pass specifically next to you so that you get an idea to sell me so it was not you who sent me here but God and therefore don't feel bad all you have to feel bad about is the decision to hate me the decision to be jealous of me but the fact that you sent me to Egypt was not up to you God has made me father to par which means par is like a puppet par is like a baby and ysf is his father ysf is the one that is making decisions in the entire Egypt and I'm master of his entire household and the ruler throughout the entire land of Egypt now we're in page 255 he appeased them showed them that it's all for the best now they will be able to survive because ysf is in charge of all the food in the world and he pointed out that it's not their responsibility for the outcome that happened the fact that ysph ended up in Egypt was up to God verse 9 now without waiting for their answer he wants to break some more ice and he gives them practical instruction hurry go up to my father and say to him so said your son yourself God has made me master of all Egypt now we have to stop the suffering of our father quickly go and inform him that ysf is alive and not only that he is the leader of Egypt and give him a second message come down to me do not delay you will reside in the land of Goan and you will be near to me you your sons and your grandchildren and all your animals and everything that is yours and I will provide for you there because there will be five more years of famine so you do not become destitute in your whole household and ysep is not done he's trying to convince them even more that he is YF and that he's friendly towards them behold your eyes see as do the eyes of my brother Benyamin that it is my mouth that is speaking to you he is equating beamin with the rest of the brothers to say the just like like I love Benyamin so too I love all of you therefore tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and all that you saw but you must hurry and bring my father down here and they're still silent they're still shocked so ysep goes on to the next stage verse 14 then he fell upon his brother binyamin's neck and cried and Benyamin wept upon yosef's neck he then kissed all his brothers and wept upon them doesn't say the brothers are crying or hugging him ysep is going first to beamin and crying with him Benyamin is crying then he goes from one brother to another and brothers are dry they they have no words no no they're so shocked and he goes and cries on every brother's shoulder and after words all these things all these speeches and all the crying his brothers conversed with him only at the end can they utter a word now verse 16 parro is happy and he invites yep's family to Egypt as well the news was heard in paro's Palace saying yosef's Brothers have come and it was pleasing in the eyes of par and in the eyes of his servants and that is for two reasons number one until now ysep was a lone wolf he he was an alien and descendant of slaves and it was embarrassing for a country like Egypt to have a leader for who is a foreigner and descendant of slaves and it was embarrassing for par to have a a vice Roy a grand advisor who is a nobody from an unknown family and now that yosef's family is coming and they are great in their own right it's honorable for Egypt and it's honorable for par and the second reason is par says if ysep is so great must be all his brothers and his father are equally as great and now I will have many servants like ysph so par is thinking how great Egypt will become with so many Jews moving in par said to ysep say to your brothers do this load your animals and go directly to the land of Kanan bring your father and your household and come to me I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land and do this take for yourselves from the land of Egypt wagons for your small children and for your wives transport your father and come and let your eyes not take pity on your belongings for the best of all the land of Egypt it is yours so par is very generous giving his he wants Yakov to come for sure the don't say no and he wants him to come quick he's even supplying Transportation now as as you remember ysep promised the Jewish people the land of Goan parro just said I'll give you the best he didn't mention Goan and we will see that at the end par did agree to give Jewish people Goan and why was it that U ysf asked for the land of Goan and there were a few reasons for that number one land of Goan was on the outskirts of Egypt it was on the edge of the country and yoseph didn't want the Jewish people to live in the midst of Egyptians he wanted them to be out of sight so that they shouldn't be tempted and influenced by the evil IM moral Egyptian society and number two he didn't want Egyptians to be looking at the Jewish people and being jealous saying things like look at these people they came from another country they immigrants and now they've become greater than we and a third reason was because when Abraham yosef's great great um yosef's great grandfather when Abraham visited Egypt with Sara parro kidnapped Sara and then when he was punished he returned Sarah and he gave Sarah and Abraham a lot of money possessions as well as a plot of land and that region that par gave was Goan and ysf said