Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Concretizing Josephs dream and the Key to Redemption

[Music] thank you hi everybody and obviously this week we are beginning the second coming of the Torah and there's an interesting a point that you see from the Ghanim now every Hunnish has a nickname besides its regular name so how much gracious is called safer how Yahshua the book of the uprights because I've remit second Yaakov commissioned most I'll get to in a moment kamesh viagra is called Taurus calling him the laws of the Kohanim in fact Leviticus actually means the law of the Lavy by mid bar is called Kamisha P khuddam the Book of Numbers the book of census and devar M is called Mishnah Torah the repetition of the law which is actually Deuteronomy so it's interesting that the English are technically the Greek names actually match up Casals nickname for each of the commotions except Regenesis so what is sure most called so the native rings from the guy owned him that the great name that schmoes is given is from a shochet knee the second commission that's not much of a name I mean basically Exodus would have been much more logical and then it sieve explains if that's because the essence of seifish MOS is a hash Lama it is a completion of creative creation the creation story starts off with the creation of the world and then the individual personalities of the Jewish people and the book of schmoes is the creation of the Jewish people as a national entity by essentially three formative experiences the first was the exodus of Egypt from Egypt that made us free but it made us servants of God because God was one who liberated us the second is montón Torah which gave us our manual for instruction our mission statements and the third is the haka Mata Michigan the establishment of the Michigan which in the sense meant that God's presence was with us and since the very purpose of creation was that there should be a Jewish people that accepted God's Torah so consequently the most fitting title for the book of schmoes would be for machinee it is part 2 of Genisys it is the completion of the creation story but I want to focus on perhaps a relatively small question but I think it can be a key to a very important idea and that is we read at the end of kumis gracious that when Yaakov was dying after spending 17 years in mitzrayim he made his son Yosef swear that he would not be buried in myth ryeom and that his body should be taken back to where which Israel to be buried in the Murata Machpelah and you're safe made that oath and indeed in a very poignant moment all of the Vinaya Cove went to Erica so they left mitzrayim I'm sorry they left me trying to go to a rich Israel knowing they would have to go back meaning it reminds me very much I keep on thinking in my mind a mental image of the great rubble honey and Vassar men who left Europe to come to the United States in 1938 in order to raise money for his yeshiva in Poland and at that time it was fairly well known that the Nazis were going to invade Poland which they did in September 1939 right before Rosh Hashanah and it was also well known what the Nazis work were going to do to their Jewish populations and rava Honan was given many many opportunities to stay in the United States he was offered rabbinical positions he was offered positions in the few yeshiva that were here that would have been very honored to have him but he made a decision that he could not abandon his tongue meet him who were in stuck in Europe so he went back knowing that short of a miracle he was going back to his death and there's a very haunting picture of him on the ship going back to Europe maybe I'm reading too much into it but it's he's staring out at the ocean and I I just can't help but think that he knew where he was going to and of course over hundred bosserman did die a martyr's death al kiddush Hashem in the Covenant ghetto I believe it was 1941 so there's something similar in this type of scene in which the Jewish people are well aware that a slavery is going to begin because God had told Abraham that your children will be enslaved no land that's not there so they realize there's some repercussion of being in miss Ryan and they're given this chance to go to Eretz Israel but then they have to go back and I wonder what is in their mind as they are going back do they have any type of inkling of what is awaiting them what type of life they're going to have the fate of their children their grandchildren yes I say given the fact that this was a new vow already told to eyebrown they must have had some sense of it of course you might just asked a simple question why didn't they just stay there out of Egypt let him stay well first of all keep in mind that pyro took hostages as all repressive regimes do the young children were left behind I assume some of the wives were left behind as well so these were hostages guaranteeing the return also the Commish tells us that there was a heavy armed guard from mitzrayim that was accompanying this whole procession granted you might think it was just to provide security for the Jewish people but in a faith in effect there were also the guards that would make sure that the Jews would go back be it as it may though Yaakov is buried in mitzrayim and Yosef himself I'm sorry in Eritrea I'm sorry and Yosef himself returns to where which Israel to bury his father then he goes back now in the beginning of schmoes I'm sure at the very end of gracious Yosef similarly makes his brothers swear that when God remembers you pakodi of coda look you missed them and God remembers you and you leave this lands take my bones with you and we know that for the 40 years that the Jewish people wandered in the desert Moshe Robina was the primary custodian of the aughts Motz Yosef so my question is a very simple question why didn't Joe safe have the same type of arrangement as Yaakov Yaakov died they buried him in there to sell immediately Yosef on the other hands did not say bury me right away Yosef said when God finally redeems you take my body back with you why couldn't you save stipulate he wanted to be buried right then now one simple answer might be that's only Yosef had the clout to basically get kind of a temporary dispensation to leave Mitzrayim so when Yaakov dies Yosef is still the Mishnah lamella so Yosef could waive the passport and visa restrictions and Yosef can basically say let him go and pyro listens to yell safe when Yosef dies there is no figure there is no comparable figure that has the authority to make this extraordinary request and Yosef knows that after he's dead his influence is gone so as a result this is what we thought the best yo safe could say is hey listen I know that I'm going to be stuck with you in with Ryan for all of these years but God will eventually redeem you and when he redeems you take me take me back as well like that could be all people shot but I want to suggest there might be of much much deeper reason why it was part of Yosef destiny and part of yo safes intention that he remained even in a physical sense with his brethren in Mitzrayim as they undergo slavery and for this I have to go back a little bit back to braces right it's hard to leave raesha so there's so many themes that are so rich there but one of the great questions that them a fortune have always pondered was the very strange bizarre behavior that yoseef exhibits towards his brothers in those encounters right the brothers come during a time of famine they don't recognize Yosef Yosef recognizes them and Yosef accuses them of being spies and even though we heard the story there's one remaining son Benjamin his brother and taking that son away from Yaakov would cause great pain and suffering yo safe demands that his brothers bring Benjamin knowing how much this would hurt Yaakov and not only that but once Benjamin is brought he frames Benjamin by placing his goblets in Benjamin's sack and what is that all about even if you were to assume which is generally not Casals assumption that Yosef was justifiably angry upset he wanted vengeance he wanted to afflict pain on his brothers but surely Benjamin was not involved in his sale at all so in what way would it make any sense for Yosef to hurl false accusations against me Yemen what's the point and of course he's also hurting Yaakov although there's a cue that question let me just mention a little side point which is not the main thing I want to talk about one of the other questions people asked was that Yosef was separated from Yoko for 22 years from the age of 17 to the age of 39 why did yo safe apparently make no attempt to contact his father throughout that entire period now there are different interpretations that are given some say that Yosef didn't have the opportunity at least well know that maybe maybe so when he was a slave or in prison but certainly as missional lamella he had opportunity but some say at that point it would have been politically dangerous perhaps he would be endangering his position by being accused of collaborating with a forming power although there actually was no centralized government in Kanaan anyway but that might have been the accusation but one of the modern commentaries I think one of the teachers in bush you know thee in Hertzog College says a very striking I think if they made anything it may be rather been done says a very striking interpretation that's yo safe thoughts for those 22 years that Yaakov himself had betrayed him because Yaakov centos safe to his brothers to seek out their welfare and Yosef shows up and the brothers strip him and they throw him into it they want to kill him initially then they throw him into a pit and then they sell him Yosef actually thinks perhaps that his father for some reason that also rejected him now that makes the experience so much more painful that Yosef literally thought he was alone in the world because his mother had died Raquel had died giving birth to Benjamin his brothers had turned against him and most painful of all perhaps Yaakov himself had betrayed him and hated him because perhaps Yosef thought because of the P hoods that Yosef was introducing between Yaakov and his other sons by giving them the Russian hora now I'm not sure if cuz I would accept that interpretation if you recall cuz I'll make the point that what stopped Jakov I'm sorry who stopped yo se from sinning with Potiphar's wife even though she was tempting him and over and over and over again was the image of his father appeared before his eyes if he thought I'm not sure but if it seems that if he thought that his father hated him his father betrayed him he wouldn't necessarily be using his father as his role model but maybe not maybe the idea was he still recognized his father was righteous and holy and whatever reason the father rejected again it's a very very powerful speculation I have to call it only in speculation because there is no Makar in the Torah for that type of idea but that's an interesting point of why Yosef did not contact Yakko but be it as it may let's now look at the behavior with the children so there are two basic approaches that try to explain yo safes behavior with his brothers the first is the approach of Ron bond a very very famous approach when your safe was 17 years old Yosef had certain dreams dreams of grandeur the Sun and the moon and the Eleven stars would bow down to him then the 11 sheaves of grain would bow down to his sheaf of grain Yosef saw these dreams as prophecies which indeed they were Yosef saw this as a divine mission that he would be a Mela he would be a sovereign over his brothers as indeed he became so the RAM bond says yo se felt it was imperative that he do whatever he can to ensure the fulfillment of those dreams now when 10 brothers come to buy grain and they buy down to him a lot of the dream was fulfilled 10 brothers bow down to him Brooklyn but 10 is not 11 there have to be 11 now if you're safe reveals himself and then Benjamin comes down looking at Yosef as a long-lost brother that's not the same as acknowledging him as king right you know now in in England now with Harry and whatever your name is Maegan well this you know of how to deal with the royal family you know but Harry you know it doesn't treat William as the king necessarily it's a brother so Joseph could not reveal himself until Benjamin comes down and bows down as well but even that's not enough because you got the eleven stars but you need the Sun you need the father so they're on bond actually says yo se framed Benjamin in the hope that Yaakov himself would come down and beg for Benjamin's life and that would have been presumably with his wife Billa that would have been the fulfillment of the column but what happened was Yosef broke down prematurely because of you who this speech that he's willing to give his life instead of in Yemen which means according to RAM ban yo safes plan was never fully carried out because he revealed himself earlier than he wanted to reveal us now it's true it does say that Yaakov bow down to Joseph even after Yosef revealed himself so the dream was ultimately fulfilled but yo safes own plan was that this should happen before he revealed himself right so this is the schita seremban that all of yo safes behaviors were in attempt to ensure a fulfillment of his hollow mos which he saw as a divine mission indeed it was a divine mission that was yo safes destiny the ax bar Bernal raises many many questions I'm the run bans approach again a little biographical detail about the apartment now he was done you talk about me now so he actually was a titled member of the Spanish aristocracy he was the finance minister of Spain on during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella of Columbus Fame and indeed the Abbar Bernal raised the financing for Columbus's mission which eventually resulted in the discovery of the new world or but and and the like and this was also during the time of the Spanish Inquisition and this was when Ferdinand annals and Isabella under the influence of Turku manga issued a decree that Jews either have to convert to Christianity or be expelled or suffer the consequences of being burnt at the stake there were Jews who converted openly but continued to practice Judaism in private they are known as the morano's of the Muranos is actually an offensive term a new sim is the term that that we use in in Hebrew the abar Bernal however because his financial acumen was so necessary he was given an exemption Ferdinand basically said hey you can be from you can watch fill in you can do mitts votes I need you for your monetary skills the Abravanel however refused to accept that offer and the last major expulsion which traditionally we often say it was on teach above again the history doesn't doesn't quite match up the idea that the final expulsion of personal there was not a single explosion Jews left in a number of waves but the what is often said to be the final expulsion on 14 1492 was said to be on Tisch above again and historically there are some difficulties but that is kind of a tradition in Jewish history and just a little sense of that procession the head of the procession was the O Bar Bernal who was the elder of the Jewish community in the back of the procession there was a widowed woman with her four-year-old child and that four-year-old child grew up to be Rovio safe karo the author of the Shannara who first went to Turkey and from Turkey came to Eretz Israel came to swat so theater imagine very interesting procession a barber Nell is towards the end of his life reveals if Cairo is still a little child there's also a tradition that the Abravanel gave up such that although thousands of Jews were leaving on the ninth of our so says the tradition he ordered the procession to play musical instruments in a very joyous way which of course is a great violation of hwacha and there are two interesting justifications given for this hectare which almost go in opposite directions reason number one is that the Jewish spirit they were so broken they were so heartbroken they were so demoralized that it was a matter of spiritual because nefesh if their spirit would have totally died they could never reconstitute so they needed this simply as a special emergency dispensation an analogy would be in a valence of me I'm not giving you a plaque eNOS each person asked ask an individual shylu but in our Val for parents generally does not listen to music for an entire year but sometimes a person might be very prone to depression to sadness so in fact there is a room that the novel can listen to music at least with headphones and the light if they are suffering kind of an unusually strong sadness so this was very similar but the other explanation is even more interesting the other explanation was that the Jews were so heartbroken that they were leaving Spain the lesson of the music is hey you're just leaving one goal is to go into another goes Spain is not usual I am Spain is not your real home Spain is not where you're supposed to be anyway so you need to understand that going from gullets to godless is no tragedy it doesn't mean that much in the long picture and therefore they played music to de-emphasize the idea that this is such a traumatic event doesn't have to be so traumatic godless is godless like they tell if a cute story when the Vilna Gaon was six years old so I think his father asked him a question you know hope you know both circus and Pesach are in the fifteenth of the month Circus is 15 or kitc ray pace of his 15 of Nisan how come on Pesach you say - Tina why are things so different and then circus there's no managed honor you can never manage time on circus - - Tana Elias that we going to the circuit so the Vilna Gaon the answer when he was only six years old he says you know listen when they Jew is kicked out of his house and he has to go into a hut and wander from place to place nothing unusual with that that's Jewish history but Pesach fancy dishes China we sit like kings we recline like we're free people mohnish Tana that is different so to simply get kicked out of your place and wander from home to home that's what she know that's that's that's that's that's normally okay so the ax bar Bernal when he left Spain he first went to Italy Portugal Italy he wrote his great great commentaries on the Commission not just on Flemish he wrote commentaries on commish on virtually I think all of this if renuvium he did not write on kasuba except for safe words anil the mob our Bernal was fascinated with mushiya so he he does write on the book of in fact he has three play room in the book of the meal and some farm on mushiya in general is the neo has many Messianic indicators and the like now the vibra Nell's derek of partial notes is very interesting because when he does is he takes a Pyrrhic of commish or a parsha and he will ask many questions he may ask up to a hundred questions and then give an explanation that answers all of these questions so they tell the story about the dangers that this approach has about someone who loved to learn the Abbar Bernal Shabbos afternoon after cholent so he had his children and he would sit in his easy-chair and he would read the Abbar Bernal and you know what happens after you eat challenge you know you're falling asleep so as a result he read the hundred questions but never got to the answers so he became a not because he says the Torah has so many questions contradictions inconsistencies things don't make sense they're not in the right place I can't believe in this Torah too many things are wrong so there's always a risk in asking too many questions before you have answers okay another great strength of the Rebbe Reynolds commentary is that he is like a she Tameka bets it but that I mean that before he gives his explanation he summarizes the predecessor explanations whether it be Rashi or rambin or eben Ezra or the run he even brings Karaites interpretations of the Commish and he even brings Christian interpretations of the Commish usually to dispute them and sometimes to accept them in fact as an aside I'm digressing a little bit there's a story that's brought my own feeling is it's a Bubba miser but it's brought down as a true story that the greater of hi gone the greatest of the Ghanim his yeshiva was located across the street from a monastery and one time they're learning some Sookie mint an ox and if I go and had some problem so we told the owner first I'll meet him go across the street and ask them how they understand this first and there's going ask the monks so the student was like frozen in place he didn't he just he just didn't respond and if I'd go and said what's the matter did you hear me I said go across the street just across the street says why you think we can't learn from any anybody there because I'll say Cobell ha I met Mimi Sean row all right so the story goes that rope I Gong himself said go and ask the Kris since how they interpret this verse because it's true that when they interpret verse is referring to yashka you know we say that that's incorrect and we have our own interpretation but in matters of linguistics and matters of language they could very well have some type of understanding so the Abravanel himself does not hesitate to even quote Christian sources look all of that is just by way of general introduction but going back to the Union here here is the problem the barber Nell brings the Rambam and again and the Rambam is the one that says Joseph's behavior was to be maga Shem to concretize his column robbing else says frankly that's none of your safes business a dream even if it is a prophecy even if it comes from God and a lot of times we don't even know that is not a commandment God did not tell yo say thou shalt make yourself a king God is simply telling yo save how yo safes life will eventually unfold but it's not up to yo safe to manipulate reality by hurting people particularly innocent people because he has to fulfill his dream he that gives the right to hurt ya Cove and hurting umin and engage in lying and misrepresentation isn't this a classic example of the ends not justifying the means you have a dream so it's God's responsibility to make it happen it's not your responsibility so to say that Yosef can manipulate reality because he's supposed to be a Melek that's up to a Shem it's not up to him safe so because of this the barber Nell offers an alternative interpretation to explain yo Saif's behavior and that is Yosef wants to guarantee that his brothers have done chuhwa because again the Torah tells us at the very beginning of the story of mysteriously Oh safe that Yaakov showed great favoritism - yo safe by making him a special coat and obviously the favoritism derived from the fact that Raquel was Yakko more beloved wife however we understand this I mean the Torah uses words that are frankly inconceivable to be taken in a literal way Leia describes herself as sin Noah Leia literally more than once describes yourself as a hated woman a rejected woman a despised woman again because I'll never take that in as literal away as that word suggests and it's Oh cause I'll always go with the approach that's Noah is a relative term visa be the love that Yaakov had Baraka and keep in mind that ultimately it is Leia that is buried next to Yaakov in Marathi Mikayla it is Leia that is the mother of six tribes of AM Yisrael it is Leia that is the mother of the tribe of Judah which is mm elephant mushiya and the tribe of Kohanim and lithium from which Moshe iron and really all the Kohanim and William come from so Leia's role in Klaw Israel is obviously very very very significant and it would not be that conceivable that this could come out such holiness can come out of a hated relationship nevertheless it is the Torah does say over and over again that Yaakov loved Raquel more and he worked seven years for Raquel he got deceived then he had to work in other seven years although he married a lady married Rafael just a week later but he had to work in other seven years so the so the sheriff of the brothers hatred to Yosef was based on jealousy for the favorite position that Rockville and therefore her children had over Leia and her children Yosef wanted to determine whether his brothers have successfully eradicated that character flaw from their heart now there's only one remaining child of Russell other than Joseph himself and that has been Youngman so you're safe wants to engage in an experiment he wants Benjamin to be brought down he wants to frame Benjamin and he wants to see how the brothers who hated Yosef are now going to react if they still have jealousy and hatred towards the favoritism that Yaakov shows turns when they rock up they might very well say well okay listen good riddance let's get rid of this last child of Rocco and we'll just tell her father that what could we do this this dictator in Egypt was crazy and he did what he did or they could even say Benjamin was a gun if they could even turn their father against Benjamin by saying that the young man was arrested because Benjamin committed a serious crime instead what happened was that Yehuda who is the leader of the brother steps forward and really offers himself and is really his other brothers to be slaves either in place of Benjamin or along with Benjamin so the abar Bernal says the purpose of Yosef behavior was not to carry out his dream that was the responsibility of the Almighty the purpose of Yosef behavior was to ensure that his brothers had overcome the jealousy and animosity they had for been a racquel and they could now embrace an ethic of love and your safe would not reveal himself to his brothers until he was sure that they had done that Shuba so according to the apartment Nana Joseph's mission was completed meaning the Rambam understood that Yosef revealed himself prematurely because Joseph was expecting to get Yaakov down to beg according to a bar Bernal Yosef revealed himself exactly at the point he wanted to reveal himself when the brothers demonstrated a selfless love for Binet Raquel for Benjamin but here is the thing could we not ask on the Abbar banal the very same question the Abbar Bernal asks on the Rambam the barber Nell asks on the romm bond why is it yo safes business to make sure that his dream gets carried out that's up to God well here we have a parallel question yes there are 10 people who did something very bad to Yosef and they have to do chuhwa but Inyo safes desire to make sure they do Trueba is he allowed to hurt innocent people is he allowed to hurt Yaakov you see allowed to hurt than yumin in other words Yosef is basically saying you know I'm gonna you know hurt Ben your man unless you guys stand up for him you're back to the same problem 10 people need to do true huh well that's between them and God and Yosef cannot engage in wrongful cruel behavior in order to manipulate his brothers in doing true it's almost like because I'll call Mitzvah hey Baba Vera you do one Mitzvah by the commission of a sin no that's not really a mitzvah so why is the abar burnell's solution any better than the Rambam solution so here is the additional point I want to superimposed on the Run button and that is if the chuva of the brothers was simply the chuhwa of 10 individual people that did something bad then indeed it would not have been in yo safes purview to do wrong things in order to get them to do chuva but this has a much more cosmic application and that is the following Joseph is pondering the extraordinary nature of his life the miraculous nature of his life in which he was a person who was sold into slavery by brothers who hated him and he languished in Egypt for many years both him as a slave and then in prison and somehow by a combination of the most unlikely of circumstances he becomes the most powerful person either perhaps in some ways even more powerful than Cairo because Yosef was making the decisions although officially he was under power how did it happen what's the tough kid what's the purpose and one has to think about this just as for example the Punisher up take another example the part of a giraffe was the only one of 800 Lithuanian city robbing him who survived the Holocaust 799 of them died the part of it your love was obsessed with the question why is he alive why did he make it if so many great and righteous people didn't make it and he understood that if God gave him life there must be some extraordinary mission that I Shem hat for him and he became one of the greatest builders of torah of the 20th century not just the part of it Parvati she was the largest thing that he created but he created hospitals orphanages hedorium Bais Yaakov a filter of Torah sets at institutions of all types the satmar rebbe once remarked at the point of virtue of after the first moon landing and he was in 1968 so people were discussing could there be life on other planets could they give the real life on the moon could there be life on other planets so the satmar rebbe said I'm not a scientist I don't know all the science but I am absolutely convinced there cannot be life on other planets because if there were the punica Karev would have been there collecting money so either there's no life or there's no money maybe there's life they don't have money up there he would have gotten there no matter what so the concept is and many people who survived the Holocaust often have that feeling they ask themselves why am i alive well going back to Yosef how did he get here why is he here his life is not an ordinary life it's an amazing life it's a supernatural life it doesn't make sense so you're safe came to the following conclusion God told Abraham that his descendants are going to be enslaved in a land that is not theirs Yosef either knows are we Intuit's that this is probably it this is probably going to be after my death or at some point in the near future the beginning of a long and difficult experience from Israel and we know that the experience of being slaves in Egypt almost destroyed us we were slaves for - and not slaves we were in with Ryan for 210 years we were not slaves the whole time because we're counting from the time that Yaakov came and slavery didn't begin till all of the schwartz and died but be it as it may are staying with Ryan was 210 years during that time four fifths of the Jewish people died only one-fifth survived of that one-fifth we are told they had reached the 49th level of impurity whatever that means but the yoke there are only 50 levels when you hit level 50 you re ready mobile you've reached the point of no return we were on when I say we I mean the one-fifth that survives the four-fifths hits the level 50 they're gone the one-fifth that survived we're in the 49th level of tumour when the Torah says when they left they didn't have time to let their dough rise and be baked as bread and they had to bake it as matzah the I reason it's not a cos I'll be a reason says it doesn't just mean Paro was telling them to leave which is how many commentators understand it rather spiritually they had to leave exactly at that moment because if they would have stayed the small number of minutes that it takes for dough to become comics which is a maximum is 18 minutes they would have fit level 15 we don't know what that means what does it mean to say if you stay another 10 minutes you're going to hit level 15 but that is how precarious we were so yo say and of course cuz I'll tell us all of the Jewish people except the tribe of Lavery were over there voda Zara all of the Jewish people except for the tribe of Lavery did not practice bris Mila it's only when he got em gave us the korban Pesach and was going to take us out that he gave us that mitzvah so Yosef understands that his divine mission is to give us the tools to survive to keep our head above the water so we totally do not disappear this is why he's there in a more generic sense what's going on is that Joseph exemplifies how to survive in Gullah at the two extremities because a Jew and gullets faces two challenges we face challenges of persecution and enslavement when people want to kill us or despise us or treat us in a very very bad way Joseph was a slave he was languishing in prison but then there's another nice onion then the sign of greatness of leadership that can corrupt a person even more Joseph is Joseph at both extremes at the nadir he sank as low as you can be and he rose at the zenith as high as you can be so generically Yosef exemplifies how to survive in billa's and by the way I want to point out there armed aggression that actually say that many Jews were doing quite well as slaves in other words there were different levels of slaves there were slaves who were actually independently wealthy it reminds me a little bit I remember years ago I spent a few two weeks as for Smith in South Africa so right outside of Johannesburg is a famous famous black suburb a huge black suburb Soweto and Soweto is full of shacks it's really a slum it's a big big big slum but sometimes you'll see in the middle of Soweto you'll actually see some big mansions in the middle of the slum that there were people who lived in Soweto who happened to be no they got wealthy I don't know if it's through drugs or whatever it was I don't know exactly how they got wealthy but it's so incongruous that in the middle of this really garbagey slum you have big mansions so the metrics actually says there were Jews guess Jews have a good business sense whatever it is there were Jews who managed to make it even in the industry so in a sense even in myths rhyme we faced in the song of leadership of good of elevation and then he saw enough oppression but beat us at many this is your safes mission now there's a famous puzzle that comes in different versions if the Jewish people were so low on the 49th level of Touma what's worse as a Fiat that enabled them to survive what kept their nose above the water what kept them a tiny bit beyond the point of no return and the Midrash the gemara says there were a number of factors they didn't change their names they kept their Jewish names they didn't change their language they continued to converse in leshawna kodesh and then there's another version so they didn't change their clothing but but according to the mistletoe it says they didn't intermarry with non-jewish spouse's and were faithful to their wives and the fourth is they didn't speak Lashon Hara against each other now I want to explain for a moment that last one because a lot of people ask a question if you remember when Moshe killed the Egyptian that was beating the Jew and the next day he sees two Jews are fighting and he says to the one who raised your fist not Russia you're a Russia why are you hitting your friends so the person doesn't write this is Dustin and javie room says to Moshe are you going to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian who made you we made you the boss are you going to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian and Moshe said O'Kane no da da da VAR the matter is known and that is why Moshe left Miriam and he fled to Midian Rashi says that when Moshe said saying no Darwin says ah now I see among these people there's Russia and Hara and that's why they're not deserving to be redeemed and that's why I'm leaving so people ask Akasha the mistletoe says they didn't speak Russian ARA moshe rabbeinu but africa says they did speak russian harder but the answer is it's really not and i'm not a question if you think about it because when it says they didn't speak russian Hirai doesn't mean they were learning a paragraph of coffee time every day and they keep the laws of russia morale rather this was a matter of group solidarity we know that in extreme times including the Holocaust for example superimposed on the tragedy of six million Jews being killed is the tragedy that sometimes sometimes Jews collaborated with the Nazis because they thought usually it didn't work for them either but they thought they could get some extra food for their family or some something better what the Torah is telling me is no Jew turned against another Jew fellow slave in order to get advantages they had a united front even Dustin of Ihram the proverbial bad guys in the desert first of all note that they made the one-fifth cut that itself says something good about them number two Dustin vib remember taskmasters and they had to report on whether the slaves met their quotas and if there were slaves you didn't meet their quotas they would never give that slaves name they took the beatings in fact I would suggest this is a psychological interpretation I've not seen it anywhere that part of why Dustin of our veeram are always causing trouble in the desert is again this may sound like a funny thing to say they just didn't like motion because look at it this way their taskmasters they're getting beaten every day now here is this guy motion now they knew Moshe was Jewish because he would come out and talk to the slaves he talked to the slaves and gives them treats and then he goes back into the palace and then he becomes the big shot again I am he becomes the leader what about us is a bit of an unusual way to understand the personalities but I actually think Lee Bo merrily that is actually a hundred percent correct because if you're a person who suffered in the trenches and you sacrificed and you were beaten and then comes this person who lived in comfort in the palace and all of a sudden God makes him the leader you're going to resent it very much from a human perspective so when it says they didn't speak loshon Hara they had no problem speaking Russian horror about Moshe Moshe they looked at as a quasi traitor but they didn't speak loshon Hara about their fellow slaves that that's how you reconcile the contradiction so once again what are the four merits that kept us over above the water we didn't change our names we didn't change our language we didn't intermarry we didn't badmouth each other to get to ventus by the way people say we like to look at the Jews and mitzrayim and say oh they were so bad they were in the 49th level of Touma well let's ask ourselves typical jewelry today how many of those four do this quality throw team Jewish names speak Jewish language don't intermarry don't disparage other Jews we have to ask ourselves if we fit level 50 now you may say well obviously we haven't little that we haven't hit level 50 because we're redeemable so I'll tell you this refined below gender says in the episode I am that the rule that once you hit level 50 you are not redeemable is only before the Torah was given once the Torah was given that you take you even out of the fiftieth level now that's good news but it's also bad news in the sense it's good news that says no matter how far you are Torah brings you back but the bad news is that perhaps we are on level 50 but British MFP thing we have the turret helped us meaning we shouldn't look down to the Jews in Egypt and say we're better than them we might be a lot worse than them because we don't even have the for many people don't even have the fours the quilts okay but let's let think about the force field a little bit they didn't change their names they didn't change their language I mean you can go to Tel Aviv I mean even in Jerusalem you got go to a bar go to a discotheque and you'll find huh no no I'm not saying I'm not saying to do it and you'll certainly find you know Hebrew speaking Israelis that have Hebrew names hopefully not like Nimrod or something but you know some of it as a you know avi you know real Rafi a real Hebrew name and maybe though even where I'm not going to be is this something I mean that means that means something I mean no Torah know mitzvahs no a moon in a sham because they were out there both Azara doesn't mean anything if the answer is it does mean something because it means you identify yourself as a member of the Jewish people and that is not the purpose of redemption the purpose of redemption was to bring us to Matan Toa but the roots of redemption the start of the process requires that you identify yourself this is my nation these are my people I want to share a language of them I want to share a name with them these are the people I want to create my family with these are the people that I don't betray even if it may be a short-term advantage for me and when you identify yourself as a Jew that is the beginning of the possibilities of redemption I'm sure many of you have had this experience again not so much in Israel where the airport is full filled with Jews but let's say you know you're in Kennedy Airport or whatever so if you're conspicuously Orthodox so what's often gonna happen is somebody will come out of the woodwork woodwork you know maybe be an airport worker maybe it'll be just another person who does not look like a religious Jew does not look like a Jew in particular and will kind of almost whisper a conspiratorial whisper you know I'm Jewish too or they like to say I'm a member of the tribe now I personally don't like it because it's usually intruding but but I wish I liked it because I should like it because it's a good thing that person is basically saying I don't know what it is what you're doing I don't know what those black boxes on your head are I don't know what those strings coming out of your pocket is but I want you to know I'm with you I'm on your team we're we're one people and that's a very very beautiful thing and there's something that we should welcome because we are one people that was what enabled us now again it didn't keep us from hitting the 49th level because if that's all you have you can still sing pretty low but it keeps you from hitting the fiftieth level and if you don't hit the 50th level everything is possible everything is possible from that point Jewish identification I may have told you the story before I forgive me because I speaking different laces I don't forget when I lived in Chicago so in Devon Avenue there was a Jewish Street Devon Avenue now it's largely Indian although there's still a Jewish presence when I lived in Chicago Devon Avenue was a totally Jewish Street all sorts of restaurants and Jewish bookstores and all sorts of things like that so I remember there was a kosher style restaurant that means traif a non kosher kosher style restaurant called the bagel and I remember walking by on Shabbos and I saw a sign in the window of the bagel that said we give a free glass of wine for every order of cholent on Saturday so I was thinking to myself like what type of person is going to take advantage of that offer he comes in to a traif restaurant he orders traif children to has probably trayful wine unless it's my bushel and the like pays money because he remembers that his grandmother you know made something some bean stew called cholent and the lady your grandfather made some blessing over a cup of wine and I said to myself this is American jewelry superficial gastronomic sentimental having nothing to do with Torah nothing to do with mitzvahs nothing to do with serving our Jim and I said superficial stupid meaningless as I got older hopefully wiser I began to think that this was exactly the situation of the Jews and mitzrayim they were idol worshippers that means they didn't believe in one god they weren't keeping commandments but the person who walks by and sees an advertisement for challon's and wine on Shabbos Saturday he's basically saying you know I don't really know what Shabbos is about I don't know how to connect but I remember my grandparents and I remember these Jewish traditions and I want to be part of it I want to do something I want to do something it means very very much it may not take you beyond the 49th level of tumor but once again if you're not hitting 50 you are a redeemable person and that's something we should treasure something we should cherish even the superficial manifestations of Jewish identity can be very very profound and they shouldn't be ridiculed they do mean something because they can lead to something much better and much deeper without it not you know in North America give you an example in our Sameach you know we have these several times a year we have visiting groups of college students who come and most of them are not religious but they come because they're proud to be Jewish right and this is a manifestation of Jewish pride and you can work with that so there was one case I hate to call people K people are not cases but there was one young man that he was literally being passed from rabbi to Robert if they finally came to me they thought I could you know be the great one who could solve this problem and I was frankly very stymied and this person I don't know why he came at all this person basically said I don't understand why Jews have their own get-togethers why can't you just be part of general society what type of racist thing is that you Jews get together I mean he's Jewish and you have your own separate meals and the life in other words he was missing and I hope he would get it somewhere he was missing something that is kind of more or less almost intuitive in though in most Jews that is a sense of pride in being Jewish I don't mean pride in putting other people down that is not what I mean at all I mean just the pride of being a Jew like you know I'm used to the guy saying well I don't believe in the Torah but I am proud to be a Jew we can work with that but somebody who says why did you even get together like what's the point mmm you know you really there's like there's no there's nothing to grab on through they're very very very difficult case and I hope that somehow he would discover that and that is the sheriff of what happened to me Thompson now let's go back to Yosef and the abou Brunell if yo safe understands that his role is to give us the survival mechanism to endure the galoots mitzrayim and that survival mechanism is a sense of unity togetherness caring for each other then yo safe cannot allow like the gullets begins when jakob comes down and Yossi reveals himself yo safe cannot give the green light for the godless to begin until he determines that the referrer the healing is there before the maca so the question is this if the idea of the brothers doing chuhwa would simply be an individual question of 10 people repenting that's not your safes business but if he o safe understands that the mission of his improbable life is to give us the mechanism to survive goldsmith Ryan then yo safe has to be absolutely certain that the brothers have overcome the hatred the animosity and the jealousy because if they haven't then they're going to sink eventually to level 50 and become a redeemable so this is a cosmic process this is not just an individual prety issue with ten people who have to do chuva this is setting the foundation for what will let us survive in miss Ryan the sense of active unity togetherness caring even if they're over their voters or even if they're so far from serving a Shem but the sense of being a nation can give them an ability to be redeemed it'll keep them above the 50th level so with this let me go back as a variant here to the very first question I raised the very first question I raised was why did yo safe say don't take me back until you are redeemed meaning Joseph did not say like y'all go bury me right away Joseph said when you are redeemed take my pounds number one yo safe needed to kind of be almost a physical presence in Egypt so the Jews would be reminded of the lesson that he imparted to them he needed to be there and moreover what Joseph is saying is my message to you is we are one I'm not going to go back to Israel marriage Israel when you are here if you're here I'm gonna be here dead or alive because the whole idea is I am with you we are one we're not going to have part of on the Israel going back even as a dead body and part of armies real estate and therefore part of yo se sock this message is we stay we're all in it together was it either Thomas Paine and American patriots or Benjamin Franklin who remarked I don't remember which one said it I'll check it we must all hang together for otherwise we will surely hang separately and that indeed is the ultimate message here it's an interesting irony that that it's precisely Joseph's descendants the Bonet of Ryan lapsim it's write him on their own 30 years early and they got killed it's a little fascinating kind of it's a bit of a question I'm just old approach that if Joseph is the great exemplar of unity then it would be strange that yo safes own children didn't her descendants didn't take that lesson and they left on their own but okay that's a kids don't always follow the guidance of their parents we know that as parents and as kids so that's not necessarily such a such a question but okay so this could be the explanation again although this is largely about gracious but it really kind of explains how yo safe lay the foundation for what enabled us to survive the godless of myths right now y'all have a good weekend there take care [Music]