Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Vayigash 2

you know what Goan belongs to my family anyway Goan belongs to Sara Abraham's wife when Sarah died Abraham inherited Goan and when Abraham died Yak inherited Goan and when Yak died yakob inherited Goan so the land of Goan really belongs to Yakov I want the Jewish people to live in their own land of course after so many years passed and the Jewish people didn't claim ownership of it it was forgotten but ysep still remembered and he didn't want Egyptians to accuse the Jews that they're living on Egyptian land so he wanted the Jewish people to live in their own land now we're on in verse 21 the sons of Israel children of Yakov did so and ysph gave them wagons by parro's W and he gave them Provisions for the journey and to each brother he gave a change of clothing because when they heard the the news that the stolen object was found in binyamin's sack the Torah tells us that they ripped their clothing they tore their clothing in mourning and now they have ripped clothing so ysep gives them a change new clothes to wear but to bamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of clothing and to his father he sent the following now we're on page 257 10 male donkeys Laden with the best of Egypt and 10 female donkeys Laden with grain bread and food for his father for the journey and he sent off his brothers and they went and he told them do not become agitated on the way meaning don't start blaming each other it was your fault that we sold your so we should have done this we should have done that just travel quietly friendly don't fight on the way now the great moment arrives they uh verse 25 they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Yakov their father and they told him saying ysph is still alive and that he is the ruler over over the land of Egypt but yakov's heart rejected it for he could not believe them he was mourning for ysep he was mourning for shiman now for many days that they were absent he was mourning for bamin and now all of a sudden they're telling him that was all fake it was all for Nothing ysep is alive shiman is back bam his back imagine after Fe thinking that God is Harsh with you that God is testing you that God took away so many things from you now you realize that it was all good and if you stayed loyal and you stayed trust trusted trusting God all this time you feel proud wow I knew all along that everything will work out well thank you Hashem but if you were not so trusting if you really thought that things are not fair and you complained then when things work out well you feel embarrassed so Yakov can't believe them it's very painful to admit a mistake however when they related to him all the words that ysep had spoken to them they had to repeat the whole conversation and all the proof that ysep brought and he saw the wagons that ysep had sent to transport him all of a sudden a huge transport of 10 male donkeys and 10 female donkeys Laden with all kinds of Delicacies and clothing and food now he buil believes them then the spirit of their father Yakov was revived he received the spirit of Prophecy again he became happy again and Israel said how great my son ysph still lives not only physically but I see that he is spiritually still strong and loyal to Hashem I shall go and see him before I die hasem a a a wonderful good ending to such a difficult period of time we are now in chapter 46 verse one so Israel set out with all that he had and he came to beeva on his way down to Egypt he stopped by beeva beeva is a place where he visited before that's a place where his father isak lived that's the place where his grandfather Abraham lived there's a long history in beeva and there he slaughtered sacrifices to the god of his father isak now a good question is being asked why all of a sudden yacob's name is changed to Israel and the reason is because yakob represents the name at the time of struggle the name at the time of suffering and Israel refers to the name at the time of victory at the time of being on top of the world just now Yakov found out that ysph is alive Yakov receives prophecy again Yakov is happy again he's going to reunite with his son ysf Yakov now is on top of the world and therefore he's referred to as Israel God spoke to Isel in night visions and he said yov yov and he said here I am and now all of a sudden we're surprised Hashem again is calling Isel yov twice why is that and now we have the answer because yov is about to go into the harsh long Exile in Egypt so Hashem says my dear Yakov right now you're happy right now you have prophecy you just brought offerings to Hashem everything is perfect in your life all your children are with you Hashem is with you but you should know that soon you are going to be Yakov again very soon the Jewish people will be enslaved they will be crying they will be low it will be difficult for them are you ready and yov said here I am yes Hashem I ready for another test Yakov just went through a 22-year test and as soon as it's finished Hashem tells him are you ready for another one and Hashem appeared to him in the night vision to show him that night time is coming to the Jewish people shalom now we go to page 259 Hashem reassures yov and Hashem said I am the god god of your father have no fear of descending to Egypt even though I'm telling you that Egyptian Exile is about to start I'm tell telling you that a difficult period for the Jewish people is about to start but you should not be afraid for I shall establish you as a great nation there because of this test because of this slavery because of this suffering in Egypt I will make you a great nation you will rise because of the tests that you pass not only that verse four says I shall descend with you to Egypt don't worry I'm not sending you alone I will come with you the sh divine presence will accompany the Jewish people in Egypt and I shall also surely bring you up and don't worry you will your children will come out of Egypt and inherit their land and I will be with them I will be with them in Exile and I will be with them when they come out and ysep shall place his hand on your eyes ysep will live with you until the last day of your sojourn on this Earth and now again he's referred to as Yakov verse 5 so Yakov arose from beeva and the sons of Isel transported yob their father they are still called sons of Israel B Isel they don't know yet the message that Yakov received as well as their young children and wives in the wagons which par had sent to transport him they took their livestock and their wealth and they came to Egypt Yakov and all his offspring with him his sons and grandsons with him his daughters and granddaughters and all his offspring he brought with him to Egypt now who are his granddaughters we know that yob only has one daughter and that is Dina so one um answer is that he had other daughters as well they just not mentioned for example according to midash every son that was born to Yakov was born with a twin sister so actually Yakov has 12 sons and and 12 potentially 13 daughters and another answer is that by daughters we refer to yakob uh Sons wives so daughter-in-laws are called daughters and his grandsons and his granddaughters now these are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt yakob and his children and now we will count the 70 descendants of Yakov the 70 people who came to Egypt ruven's Sons ruin had four Sons together that's five people Shimon Shimon had six Sons so together that's seven so 5 + 7 is 12 leevy had three sons together is four and all together total number is 16 Yehuda had first three sons two of them died and then he had two more Sons twins so now he has three living children so together with Yehuda is it's uh four now we up to 20 and we list yehuda's two grandchildren that's 22ar has four children together with him it's U five so total is 27 zul has uh three children together with him it's four so together we are now up to 31 and in addition to Dena his daughter and now we're surprised all the people his sons and daughters numbered 33 we just counted 32 where's the 33rd person so the three answers the 33rd person is either yakob himself because the pasuk says the verse says Yakov and all his offspring with him so Yakov and his children Yakov is counted as well and he's counted together with his first wife and by this time Leia is no longer alive so she's not counted but yov is counted plus the 32 descendants of Leia together 33 that's answer number one answer number two is that the 33rd U person is y daughter of Le of Levy she was born as they were entering Egypt so she's not mentioned here yet because she's a newborn maybe she didn't even have a name yet but she still counted and the third answer is the divine presence is counted as the number 33 because Hashem said to yakob I will go with you so that's 33 now we turn to page 261 and we list um zila's children God and AER together they number 16 people and Sons of Rael Y and bamin Y had two children Mas and Ephraim and bamin had 10 Children Al together 14 people and now we count children of bilha Dan and naali Dan had one son and napali had four children all together it's seven people and now we are uh on on in verse 26 all the people coming with Yakov to Egypt his own descendants aside from the wives of yakov's sons 66 people in all 66 people and who are the four remaining people that's 66 people are coming into Egypt three people are waiting for them in Egypt ysep Mas and eph and the person number 70 is not coming into Egypt he's if we say it's y she is born in Egypt she didn't walk to Egypt she was born as they entered or we're counting yov together with him 66 people came plus three of jph that's 70 and uh according to the the third answer it's Hashem himself so all together now we we read in verse 27 all the people of yacob's household who came to Egypt are 70 verse 28 yov sent yehudah ahead of him to yoseph to pray prayer ahead of him in Goan and they arrived in the region of Goan ysph harnessed his Chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goan he appeared before him ysf fell on his neck on yakov's neck and he wept on his neck excessively ysep is again crying on his father's neck doesn't say that yob is crying and now sages say that yov used this opportunity this unique opportunity of so much happiness to express his gratitude and loyalty to Hashem he was saying is then Israel said to ysep now on page 263 now I can die after my having seen your face because you're still alive and uh ysph is is giving instruction to his brothers that when they meet par what should they say verse 33 and it shall be when parro summons you and says what is your occupation then you to say your servants have been Cattleman from our youth till now we're Shepherds both we and our forefathers why so that you may be able to settle in the region of Goran since all shepherds are abhorent to Egyptians so ysph wants the Jewish people to live in Egypt but he has to to convince par and he instructs the the brothers what to say to par to convince him and that is tell him that you're Shepherds that you love to eat sheep and Egyptians serve sheep they don't eat sheep and therefore they will push you to the outskirts of Egypt to the far away land of Goan now chapter 47 par meets five brothers verse two from the least of his brothers ysph took five men and presented them to par he chose the shortest the skinniest the least beautiful so that parro shouldn't be impressed by them and shouldn't enlist them into his service and parro said to the brothers what is your occupation they answered your servants are Shepherds and they said if you please allow your servants to dwell in the region of Goan and Par answered he instructed yoseph let them settle in the region of Goan but if you know that they are capable please appoint them to um serve me verse S yov meets par ysph br brought yakob his father and presented him to par and Yakov blessed par now on page 265 and Par asked Yakov how many are the days of the years of your life how many years you lived and how many of those years are productive days and Yakov answered par the days of the years of my sojourns have been years few and bad have been the days of the years of my life I'm really 130 years old but if you're asking how many of those days I actually enjoyed they were very few and they have not reached the lifespans of my forefathers in the days of their sojourns number one Yakov lived less than his forefathers and number two humbly he says my forefathers achieved more than I then Yakov blessed par and he left left Po's presence and I'll say just say that because of this blessing the famine stopped 5 years earlier now verse 12 ysph sustained his father and his brothers and all of the his father's household with food according to the children which means according to the smallest member of the household meaning he took care of everybody he did not omit even the tiniest babies the second explanation is that children often waste food crumble it throw it and ysph knew that and he provided the Jewish people with more food that they need than they need to account for the food that's going to be wasted by children and that teaches us practical lesson it's normal for children to waste it's normal for children to spoil food it's normal for children to break things don't get angry plan ahead that's part of life that's part of raising children and U you have to accept it don't berate your children for things that they're supposed to do and children are supposed to be children okay now verse 13 we describe how yoseph saves the entire world from famine there was no bread in all the Earth for the famine was very severe we're describing what happened during the first two years of the famine verse 14 ysf gathered all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canam through the provisions that they were purchasing because he collected all the Grain and now he was able to sell all that grain to Egypt and other countries and yoseph brought the money into parro's palace and when the money was finished ysph in verse 16 said bring your livestock and I will provide for you in return for your livestock if the money is gone so they brought their livestock to ysep and ysph gave them bread in return for their horses and flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and for their donkeys and when that year ended again they came to ysep and said we don't have money and we don't have cattle no animals verse 19 why should we die before your eyes both we and our land now on page 267 acquire us and our land for bread and we with our land will become servants slaves to par provide seed so that we may live and not die so verse 20 ysph acquired all the land of Egypt for par now ysep acquired the land but it doesn't say that he acquired the people because he didn't want to possess the bodies of Egyptians because we know that when people don't have freedom they don't work well when everything belongs to the government including the people people become lazy why should I work for the government we've seen it in all the commun IST countries and socialist countries people don't want to work why should I work for the government and therefore ysep said you're going to be free even though the land belongs to the government but I will still give the back land back to you and you be business owners on your own how as for the nation verse 21 he resettled it by cities from one end of Egypt borders to their other he wanted them to feel that the land is not theirs they shouldn't forget and later claim that uh the land belongs to them but at the same time he didn't uh make them slaves and we'll see why only the land of the priests he did not buy since the priests had a stien from par and they lived off their stien that par had given them therefore they didn't have to sell their land and by the way this was a very good thing for the Jewish people because among the Jewish people they also had a Priestly family the family of the Levites and in fact they benefited from this typen as well when the Jewish people came to Egypt the Egyptians asked do you also have a Priestly class who will receive a stipend and will not work and the Levites were the only ones who said yes we are ready for that we're not going to be business people we're not going to earn a lot we're going to live modestly and we will dedicate ourselves to Hashem and later they benefited from that because the Priestly class was not enslaved and the entire tribe of Le remained free and dedicated to hashem's service and that's a message for us that when you dedicate yourself to hashem's service you will benefit in the end you might not earn at the beginning as much as the the those that dedicate their life to money but at the end you will come out Victorious ysep said to the people look I have acquired you this day with your land for par however here is the seed for you so the land and when you GA gather the Harvest you will give one fifth to par and the other four parts shall be yours as seed for the field and food for yourselves this is the genius of ysph that he's not paying Egyptians for their work minimum wage as in communist countries rather he's making them business owners the more you work the more you will earn only give 20% a set tax both for poor and for Rich 20% but you are encouraged to work more because the more you earn the greater your 80% portion will be and therefore he guaranteed that the Egyptians will work diligently