"And G-d said"(Genesis 1:3) Tevet 10, 5784/December 22, 2023 "And G-d said." Ten times G-d spoke and brought the world into being. G-d spoke to Adam and Eve. G-d spoke to Cain. He spoke to Noach and to Avraham and to Sara. He spoke directly and through His angels. G-d spoke to Yitzchak and He spoke to Rivkah. And to Yaakov G-d spoke in dreams and night visions. But G-d never spoke, not once, to Yosef or his brothers. Not once did He appear as an angel, nor visit any of the twelve sons of Israel either in waking hours or in their dreams. Has G-d, Whose speech informed all of creation, Who was not reticent to reach out to Adam and Eve after their transgression, Who spoke words of comfort and encouragement to Cain before he took his brother's life and Who spoke with indignation after he took Abel's life, and Who spoke with Avraham as an intimate friend, with Yitzchak, following his near death on Mount Moriah as only two souls who have shared a traumatic moment can, and Who spoke to Yaakov as he fled from Esau and again as he fled from Lavan, and again at Yabok and again in Beit El, suddenly gone silent? Has He nothing to say to Yosef and his brothers, who left to their own devices have only made a mess of things? Surely a well timed visitation by an angel or a heart to heart appeal in the night could have helped the brothers to avoid a lot of pain they caused to one another and to their father Yaakov. Why has G-d refrained from speaking out at such a crucial and perilous moment in the life of the family of Avraham, whose great grandchildren, although twelve in number, have still not achieved the status of tribes, let alone the great and numerous nation that G-d promised him? The family unity has been shattered. Yosef, as successful as he may be in his new home in Egypt and capacity as Pharaoh's chief advisor, is estranged from his father and his younger brother Binyamin, and continues to nurse the open wound of his brothers' betrayal. The brothers, who may have once imagined that the moment they rid themselves of the pesty Yosef that their lives' would be on easy street, have found themselves plagued with guilt and misgivings ever since. And Yaakov, for his part, has never recovered from receiving the news of his beloved son Yosef's demise by the claws of a wild beast, and has regarded his surviving sons with suspicion and mistrust even since. What "great nation" can possibly come of this? G-d can fix many things simply by virtue of His spoken word. But He cannot fix wrongs committed by man against his brother. When man errs it is up to man to repair the damage he has caused. Trouble between brothers has existed ever since brothers have existed.Cain killed his brother Abel for reasons we know not why. A conflict arose between the sons of Noach, Shem and Yafet and their brother Ham. Yishmael tormented Yitzchak, Esau resented Yaakov and swore to kill him, and Yosef, clearly the favorite of his father, couldn't leave well enough alone. He tattled on his brothers and to make matters worse, repeatedly boasted to them of his dreams of dominion over them. By this, the twenty third generation of man, G-d has developed a close and fruitful relationship with man, His prize creation. But brothers, the sons of man, were still unable to get along. Rather than intervene, as He had done in the case of Cain and Abel, and in the case of Yishmael and Yitzchak, and in the case of Yaakov and Esau, this time G-d understood that to achieve true reconciliation between quarreling brothers, He must switch His approach from hands on to hands off. By placing His full trust in the brothers to repair their own broken relationship, He was also placing upon their shoulders the awesome responsibility for seeing to it that G-d's promise to Avraham would indeed be fulfilled. But there was really no other option. Only man can feel regret for his misdeeds, only man can ask forgiveness of his fellow man, only man can change his future course of action, and only man can forgive his fellow man. G-d, like an anxious father, can only watch from a distance and hope that His children will find the wherewithal to make amends. But, of course, despite refraining from any direct intervention, G-d played a very active role behind the scenes, planting dreams in the heads of Yosef, his two fellow prisoners, and of course, Pharaoh. G-d's hand can even be seen in the selling of Yosef: why did Reuven, who planned to rescue Yosef and return him to his father, suddenly walk away, only to return to discover that Yosef had already been sold to the Midianites? Why did the Midianites pass Yosef onto the Yishmaelites, who sold him to Potiphar? From the unnamed man who happened upon Yosef when he was looking for his brothers, to the chief cupbearer of Pharaoh, who recalled Yosef the dream interpreter, to Pharaoh, G-d was anything but passive as the drama of Yosef and his brothers played out. On the contrary, G-d did everything He could to bring the brotherly conflict to a boil before the brothers themselves resolved it. Just as in the akeida - the binding of Yitzchak, when G-d pushed Avraham to the absolute limits of faith in Him, G-d has been pushing Yosef and his brothers to the absolute breaking point of their long simmering estrangement. This week's parasha, Vayigash, opens with an impossible situation. Yosef is insisting on retaining his brother Binyamin as a slave, while sending his other brothers back to Canaan. Yehudah, representing himself and his eleven brothers, refuses to accept what Yosef insists upon. The Torah shares with us a very intense appeal by Yehudah, fraught with the desperation of an unresolvable moral dilemma, fighting back with all his might against Yosef's implacable insistence on rending Binyamin from his heart-broken father. Midrash exacerbates the already white hot dispute, saying that Yehudah was signaling to his brothers that should Yosef not relent, the brothers would take on all of Egypt with their swords. That's how desperate the situation was. Would this be another Cain and Abel moment? Something had to give. And, of course, it was Yosef who, seeing that his brothers' insistence on taking Binyamin back with them was proof of their regret and an attempt to redress their past error, stepped back and revealed himself to his stunned brothers. Just as when HaShem stepped back from the precipice of the akeida, allowing for a resolution of the unimaginable conflict within Avraham's heart, so too, Yosef's revelation to his brothers allowed for all parties involved to repent, to forgive and to reunite. In this single, dramatic moment, man himself, unaided by G-d, has resolved for G-d the greatest stumbling block in G-d's plan for Israel and for man. For if brothers can't get along how can a nation be built? How can G-d keep His promise to Avraham if Avraham's children are squabbling? The antidote to the problem was created even before creation and was an integral part of creation from the very first moment. The antidote is teshuvah - the ability for man to express regret for his misdeeds, to make all efforts to repair the damage he has done, to determine never to do it again and to ask forgiveness from the person he has sinned against. And the same measure of integrity and concern for his fellow man is required of the offended party in order to forgive. Asking for forgiveness and forgiving may be the most difficult tasks demanded of man. They are both the ultimate expression of the free will that G-d has blessed us with. To have the courage to do teshuvah - to regret, repent and seek forgiveness - one must accept that the burden is totally his. G-d has no say in this. But the injured party, like Yosef must clearly understand and accept that G-d has been an active player behind the scenes all along, that it's all a part of G-d's great plan, even if we have been offended against, and with that knowledge, to forgive. Teshuvah - asking for and granting forgiveness - is life itself! . |
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Yitzchak Reuven discusses 3 days in Tevet, Israel's multi-front war, and how Yosef reunites with his brothers! Israel advances in its war in the south to destroy Hamas, even as it engages in war in the north against Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in Syria, and even as it guards against the Houthis in Yemen and fights terror in Judea and Samaria. The 8th, 9th and 10th of Tevet are all days of mourning for Israel. The 10th is a fast day commemorating the beginning of the Babylonian siege against Jerusalem that ultimately led to the destruction of the first Holy Temple. And Yosef reunites with his brothers and welcomes his father to Egypt, of which we will talk about more next week! |
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“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” So says Shakespeare. But the Torah assigns great significance to names. So when Yaakov is referred to as both "Yaakov" and "Yisrael" in a single narrative, there must be an explanation. Vayigash (Genesis 444:18 - 47:27)
Parashat Vayigash is read on Shabbat:
Tevet 11, 5784/December 23, 2023 |
Haftara For Shabbat Parashat Vayigash I Ezekiel 37:15-28: "And the word of HaShem came to me, saying: 'And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write upon it, 'For Yehudah and for the children of Israel his companions'; and take one stick and write upon it, 'For Yosef, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.' And bring them close, one to the other into one stick, and they shall be one in your hand. And when the children of your people say to you, saying, 'Will you not tell us what these are to you?'...'" |
Three Days In Tevet: The 10th: Breaching The Walls Of Jerusalem The Month of Tevet: A Cycle of Temple Consciousness The Divine sequence of the Hebrew calendar presents a wondrous opportunity for spiritual growth, if we would but hear the call. The Holy One, blessed be He, literally beckons to us through the very days of our lives, as the verse alludes: "He stands behind our wall, observing through the windows, peering through the lattices" (Song of Songs 2:9). The progression of our observances constantly reminds us that the timeless message each holiday imparts to us is just as vital in our own time as ever. |
The Platform (Duchan) The platform of the Levitical choir was at the edge of the Court of Israel. Here the Levites would sing the "Daily Song," while the wine libation was taking place, at the completion of the Tamid offering. |
Three Days In Tevet: The 9th: The Passing Of Ezra And Nechemiah The ninth of Tevet marks the day of the passing of both Nechemiah and the great sage Ezra who each played essential leadership roles in the return of a small community of exiled Jews from Babylonia to Jerusalem. In the year 538 BCE, the Persian king Coresh (Cyrus) declared that G-d had spoken to him, commanding him to reestablish the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. |
"A Pit Is Dug For The Wicked" This photo was taken today in one of the hundreds of terror tunnels exposed by the IDF that Hamas dug throughout the length and the breadth of Gaza, funded by your hard earned tax dollars used for "humanitarian aid" to Gaza for the past eighteen years. These tunnels are dedicated to one purpose: to wage terror against Israel and to cowardly hide within them when Israel returns fire. Indeed, as the psalmist said, "a pit is dug for the wicked. For HaShem will not forsake His people, nor will He desert His inheritance." (Psalms 94:12-14) |
The Court Of Israel The main entrance to the Court of Israel was through the Nikanor Gate. The platform was located at the edge of the Court of Israel, upon which the Levites would stand and sing. Representatives of the tribes of Israel would also stand in the Court of Israel to witness the daily Tamid offerings. Israelites were permitted entry for prayer or prostration. |
Three Days In Tevet: Today - The 8th: The Septuagint "In happened with King Ptolemy, that he gathered seventy-two elders, and gathered them in seventy-two houses, and did not reveal to them the purpose for which he had gathered them, and he went in to visit each of them, one by one, and he said to them, ?Write for me the Torah of Moshe your teacher.? The Holy One, Who is Blessed, gave to the heart of each of them, one by one, wisdom, and all of them arrived at a single understanding." (Tractate Megillah 9a) |
"Arise, HaShem, May Your Enemies Be Scattered And May Those Who Hate You Flee From You" "So it was, whenever the Ark set out, Moshe would say, Arise, HaShem, may Your enemies be scattered and may those who hate You flee from You. And when it came to rest he would say, Repose HaShem, among the myriads of thousands of Israel." (Numbers 10:35-36) |
Chambers In The Wall Of The Women's Court At the western wall of the Women's Court there were three chambers: The Chamber of the Musical Instruments, The Chamber of Pinchas the Outfitter and the Chamber of the Griddle-Cake Makers.
There were two entrances to the Chamber of the Musical Instruments, one on either side of the fifteen steps leading up from the Women's Court to the Court of Israel. The open space of the chamber was created beneath the Court. Its ceiling was 7.5 cubits high. |
This Week - Vayigash: Israel Builds An Altar In this week's Torah reading, Vayigash, (Genesis 44:18 - 47:27) Yosef reveals his identity to his brothers and sends for his father Yaakov to come down to Egypt. On his way to Egypt Yaakov stops over in Beersheva where he makes offerings to HaShem, who speaks to Yaakov in the night, telling him not to fear. |
The Nikanor Gate The Nikanor Gate, the eastern gate of the Court, served as entrance and exit from the Women's Court to the Court of Israel. It was named after the man who donated the brass doors of the gate, which he brought from Alexandria, Egypt. |
Beautiful Photos Of The New Moon Of Tevet! The Israeli New Moon Society has shared beautiful photos of the new moon of Tevet over the sacred skies of Israel. Rosh Chodesh Tevet, (the new month of Tevet), was last Tuesday evening-Wednesday. |
Mikdash Monday - 7 Species (Part 1) “For the Lord thy God brings thee into a good land, a land of water courses, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; A land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey(dates);” (Deuteronomy 8:7-8) |
2000 Years On, Search For Temple Menorah Continues For generations, researchers have tried to track down the location of the menorah that was used in the Second Temple. Was it looted by the Romans and taken to Rome to be depicted on the Arch of Titus? If so, is it still kept in the cellars of the Vatican? Or did the Romans loot a replica, with the original having been hidden in Jerusalem? By Nadav Shragai. |
Hamas Fires Missiles At The Temple Mount! This Shabbat Hamas fired a barrage of missiles aimed for the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted the missiles. |
Shavua Tov From The Temple Mount! "Many are the pains of the wicked, but as for him who trusts in HaShem- kindness will encompass him. Rejoice with HaShem and exult, You righteous, and cause all those of upright hearts to sing praises." (Psalms 21:10-11) |
Build a House for HaShem! "Be strong and have courage! Build a House for HaShem!" In this scene from a film soon to become an integral part of the Temple Institute's Jerusalem based Visitors Center experience, the prophet Samuel charges King David with the task of building the Holy Temple! |
The Glory of this Last House Shall be Greater than the First! "The Glory of this Last House Shall be Greater than the First!" In this scene from a film soon to become an integral part of the Temple Institute's Jerusalem based Visitors Center experience, Zerubavel from the house of David and Kohen Gadol (High Priest) Yehoshua consult with the prophet Haggai who instructs them to waste no time in rebuilding the Holy Temple! |
Red Heifers Arrive In Israel! On Thursday, September 15, 2022, 5 PM, 5 perfect, unblemished red heifers arrived in Israel from the USA. A modest ceremony was held at the unloading bay of the cargo terminal at Ben Gurion airport, where the new arrivals were greeted and speeches were made by the incredible people who have put their hearts and souls and means into making this historic/prophetic day become a reality. |
Biblical Red Heifer Could Bring Million Visitors To Samaria The Ancient Shiloh heritage site will soon host a Red Heifer research center. Hundreds of visitors flocked to Shiloh in Samaria’s Binyamin region on Thursday to welcome a biblically pure red heifer. The 22-month-old cow, which was brought to Israel from the United States, found a new home at the Ancient Shiloh heritage site, where the biblical Tabernacle once stood. |
Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem!
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute |
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