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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

A journalist was sent to interview a successful banker who had been chosen as economist of the year in the global economy.

“Sir,” asked the journalist, “can you perhaps tell us what is the secret of your success?”

“Two words,” said the banker.

The journalist asked, “Can you reveal to us what they are, sir?”

The banker answered, “Correct decisions!”

“Very nice, sir. Can you perhaps tell the readers how one arrives at correct decisions?”

“One word,” said the banker.

“And it is?” pressed the journalist.

The banker answered, “Experience!”

“With all due respect, sir,” said the journalist, “it’s known that experience is important. But the question is how does one acquire experience?”

“Two words,” said the banker.

“Will you reveal to us what they are?” requested the journalist.

The banker answered, “Many mistakes…”

FULL GUARANTEE

In this week’s parsha, Parshas Vayigash, we read about the tense struggle between Yehuda and Yosef over the fate of Binyamin. Yehuda explains to Yosef the reason for his intervention more than the other brothers, in that “your servant guaranteed the lad” (Vayigash 44:32). Yehuda was the guarantor for Binyamin”s safe return. And not just any guarantee, but rather “a strong bond to be excommunicated in both worlds,” this world and the World to Come.

Also, last week in Parshas Miketz, when Yehuda tried to convince Yaakov to allow Binyamin to go down with them to Egypt, he used the same language of taking on the role of ‘guarantor:’ “I will guarantee him, from my hand you shall seek him” (Miketz 43:9). The question arises: why does Yehuda use the language of ‘guarantor’? What does the guarantorship or guarantee add to the relationship between Yehuda and Binyamin? And what is this supposed to teach us regarding our personal service of G-d, and regarding bringing the Geula?

If that’s not enough, even in Parshas Vayeishev, we find the subject of collateral [from the same Hebrew root of “arvus”] in connection with Yehuda. In the story of Yehuda and Tamar, we find that Tamar asked for collateral from Yehuda: “If you give collateral until you send it,” Yehuda agrees and he gives her the garment with which he covers himself, the ring with which he seals, and even his staff. We find that Yehuda is the national guarantor; everywhere possible, Yehuda “sticks his nose in” and promises another pledge and another guarantee. What happened to Yehuda? Is he bored, or perhaps he’s looking to make headlines?!

The Rebbe explains (Likutei Sichos vol. 30 Vayigash 1) that Yehuda’s double and multiplied guarantorship comes as a result of his very essence. Yehuda is called “king of the tribes.” In the coming portion – Parshas Vayechi – he is compared to a lion, “king of the animals.” He is blessed by his father that for all time “the scepter shall not depart from Yehuda, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet” (Vayechi 49:10), both in exile and in Geula. Yehuda’s kingship is unshakable. From Yehuda came Dovid, and after him the Davidic dynasty, about which it is ruled in halacha that it is “the essence of the kingship of Israel” (Rambam, Laws of Kings 1:8). These sources (and many others) prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Yehuda is indeed “king of the tribes” without any dispute.

The uniqueness of a king, according to the Torah, is that a king is not just an individual person, rather the king is a collective person. Moreover, the king is not just an entity that includes within it all the people, but rather through the king the people become one entity. And in the language of the Rashba in his responsum: “The king is like the collective, for the collective and all of Israel depend on him.” The king is the collective, and through the king the collective becomes a unified entity, without any division between them, as their entire existence is only the existence of the king.

GUARANTEED RESULTS

We find an example of this, together with additional explanation, in Chassidus. The Arizal says (Sefer HaGilgulim, Chapter 4) that every Jewish person must fulfill all 613 mitzvos in deed, speech, and thought. Therefore, one must come in many reincarnations until fulfilling them all. Moreover, every Jew must also fulfill the special commandments given to Kohanim, Leviyim, and even mitzvos given to the Kohen Gadol exclusively, and therefore every soul must wait for a time when it will come to the world in the body of a Kohen, Levi, etc. (or it will come in a way of ‘impregnation,’ which cannot be elaborated upon here) in order to fulfill these mitzvos. There is only one exception: the mitzvos of the king! “For he fulfills the obligation for all of Israel because he is the totality of them all” (in the language of the Alter Rebbe, Igeres HaKodesh 29). The king fulfills the obligation of all Israel regarding the king’s commandments, because the king is the people, and the people are the king – meaning the existence of the people and the king is one unified existence!

And now in simple words: the king reveals the true unity within the Jewish people, a unity that is above any boundary of division. There is no more important Jew or less important Jew, no more equal Jew and less equal Jew. For just as there is only one king, so too each Jew represents a unique individual!

This feeling of unity, expressed in the existence of the king, leads a Jew to feel that he must be a guarantor for his fellow Jew. This is a very deep guarantorship, from the depths of the soul, coming from a place of truly feeling that we are all equal, exactly the same thing. I am not more equal, and the other is not less equal. This is how the king feels, and this is how Yehuda felt, and therefore he was willing to give up everything in order to save Binyamin!

For a true king is a guarantor, a true king unites, a true king “equalizes small and great,” exactly like Hashem.

And this is the instruction to us in the time of exile, in order to bring the Geula: to strengthen in each and every one the feeling that “all of Israel are guarantors for one another,” and all of Israel are mixed [another play on the term “arvus”] with one another. To strengthen the feeling of unity among all the dispersed parts of the people, and to give everyone the feeling that each one is important and special, exactly like the other.

Parshas Vayigash is always read in proximity to the fast of the Tenth of Teves. According to the well known teaching of the Shelah that the weekly portions are connected to the time of year when they are read, there is a special connection between Parshas Vayigash and the Tenth of Teves. On the Tenth of Teves, the king of Bavel, Nevuchadnetzar laid siege to the city of Yerushalayim. In the sichos of the Rebbe, we often find the good in every negative matter, and so too regarding the siege on Yerushalayim. The cause of the destruction was the sin of baseless hatred, and the cure will come through fixing the cause of the exile, through the opposite action – namely through baseless love to the point of absolute unity.

Naturally, when a siege is imposed on a city, “no one goes out and no one comes in,” so that all the city’s inhabitants are always together, or in other words (as explained above), the siege makes all the city’s inhabitants into one unified entity. Yerushalayim in Tehillim is called “a city that is joined together,” a city that joins all of Israel together. This receives double strength when a siege is imposed on the city of Yerushalayim – then the natural unity of the city grows and intensifies. In light of the above, bringing the city of Yerushalayim under siege is actually a correction for the division and disconnection in the people that brought about the cause of the exile, and through this it would have been possible to prevent the destruction. To our sorrow, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim at that time did not understand the deeper significance of the situation, and it did not bring about the desired correction.

There is a well-known saying that whoever does not learn from history is destined to repeat the same mistakes. Parshas Vayigash teaches us to correct the mistake of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim. We must impose upon ourselves a positive “siege,” to feel how we are together with another Jew, and how we all together become one entity, unified and complementary.

This is the connection between Yehuda’s guarantorship and the fast of the Tenth of Teves, and this is the moral lesson to us today: Through “your servant guaranteed the lad” – we are guarantors for another Jew, because we are all as one! Only thus will we correct the cause of the exile, and only thus will we bring the Geula!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

And we will end with a wonderful parable from the ‘Ben Ish Chai’ about the need for mutual guarantorship. A man went on a journey with his young son to a distant city. And because his son was thin and weak, he helped him along the way; when they climbed mountains, he gave him a supporting hand, and when they crossed the river, he carried him on his shoulders. After a long and arduous journey, they arrived at their destination at night, but the city was surrounded by a wall, the gates were closed, and the guards had already gone home to sleep.

The father and son were about to sleep in the field in the gate plaza, but the cold was severe and it even began to rain heavily, and it was not possible to wait outside until daylight. The father knew that the guards customarily leave the gate keys under the mat spread in the guard room, and suddenly he noticed that there was a tiny window leading through a narrow passage to inside the building.

The father said to his son: “See, my son, all the way you needed me. When you were tired, I carried you, and when we reached the river, I placed you on my shoulders. Now we have reached the closed city gates and I need you, because you are small. Enter through the window and bring us the key, and thus we can enter, for the rain is strong and a long night is still before us.”

And so it was. The thin son squeezed through the window with difficulty, found the key, and gave it to his father, who opened the gate and entered into the city.

The ‘Ben Ish Chai’ concludes the parable with a saying: “Even the king needs the least of the least, and a great man needs a small child.”

Good Shabbos!

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