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BEGIN WITH A GRIN

“If there were traffic reports during the Torah era, what would they broadcast?”

“There appears to be heavy traffic between the Egypt Interchange and Canaan Interchange, looks like Moshe will be stuck there for about 40 years…”

FEELING DOWN?

This Shabbos, we are celebrating the Rosh Hashana l’Chassidus, Yud-Tes-Chof Kislev, together with the reading of parshas Vayeishev. The words of the Shelah are well-known that the holidays of the year are deeply connected with the parshiyos we read during those days and holidays. This is true for the Chassidic holidays in the yearly cycle. Since parshas Vayeishev is always read in proximity to Yud-Tes Kislev, there is certainly a deep connection between the two. Especially in this year, when we read parashas Vayeishev, not just near the Rosh Hashana l’Chassidus, but on the actual [second] day.

At first glance, it seems that parshasVayeishev and Yud-Tes Kislev are not only unrelated but represent completely opposite ideas. While 19 Kislev is the Chag HaGeula, parshas Vayeishev symbolizes the “chag” of exile. In parshas Vayeishev, we read about the “initial cause of the Jewish people’s descent to Egypt” (in Rashi’s language, Sotah 11a). We learn about the events that directly caused the descent of the Jewish people to Egypt, we learn about the selling of Yosef, his sale to Egypt, which led to Yaakov Avinu and his entire family descending to Egypt, which subsequently caused the Egyptian exile.

So what is the connection between the Chag HaGeula and the cause of exile? And how can this teach us something about our daily lives?

At the Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen of 1980, forty-four years ago, the Rebbe gave us an original and innovative way of looking correctly at exile. The Rebbe, in fact, gave us his perspective on what truly happens in the world, and through the Rebbe’s specs, everything looks different! Through the Rebbe’s lens, what seems to us like a source of exile becomes a source of redemption, and what appears to us as contradictory and opposing becomes connected, related, and unified. So too, in our case, in our superficial view, 19 Kislev and parshas Vayeishev contradict each other, but in the Rebbe’s eyes, through the glasses of Chassidus, they are connected and remarkably unified.

The Rebbe introduces a wondrous Medrash. On the verse in our parsha (Vayeishev 39:1): “And Yosef was brought down to Egypt,” the Medrash Raba says: “Like a conquest, as it says [about Moshiach] ‘and he shall dominate from sea to sea.’” At first glance, this Medrash is very puzzling. The words “And Yosef was brought down to Egypt” symbolize the ultimate low point. Yosef is sold against his will to a merchant caravan, like a helpless slave, and they lower him, both physically and in a deeper spiritual and mental sense, to Egypt. He is humiliated, subdued, crushed, and broken, he feels degraded and miserable, to the point that he is ultimately sold as a slave. Is there a greater humiliation than this?

Yet the Medrash sees in those exact same words a symbol of dominance and conquest that Yosef is about to rule over all of Egypt. He is destined to conquer/rule Egypt, he is destined to govern all of Egypt, he will become the most powerful person in the entire Egyptian kingdom.

Both the verse and the Medrash refer to the same root and the same word. The root Y-R-D as it appears in the verse means descent and humiliation, submission and prostration, and that exact same root as it appears in the Medrash means monarchy, control, power, and honor. How can the same event, the same word, the same root serve two completely opposite directions simultaneously?

The answer is, it depends on which glasses you look through, and through which eyes you gaze. In a human, external, and simplistic view, the simple meaning of the text, we see suffering, exile, troubles, and descent. But in a deep Torah perspective, through the eyes of the Medrash, and according to the Chassidic X-ray glasses that penetrate beneath the surface, we discover a source of strength and might, a source of control and power.

LOOK UP!

We look at the present, and in the present, we see exile, troubles, war, and hostages (at the time of writing these lines…) but the Torah, the Medrash, the Rebbe, look at the future, at the goal, at the ultimate end to which all current events will lead. They see the good emerging from the bad, they also see how the path to reach that desired good passes through these channels. Therefore, from this perspective, what appears to us as negative and galus’dik appears to them as a source of redemption and joy.

So too, in Yosef’s story, the intention in Yosef’s descent to Egypt was to bring about Yosef’s rule over all of Egypt, to make him the viceroy, without whom “no man shall lift his hand or foot in all of Egypt.” But to make this happen, Yosef needs to come to Egypt, he needs to descend to Egypt, both physically and spiritually, and only thus will he reach the good awaiting him. The Egyptian exile was not a punishment, the children of Israel had not sinned and did not deserve any punishment. The Egyptian exile was the well-paved road to reach the goal.

And so too, in the story of the imprisonment and liberation of the Alter Rebbe; the imprisonment and redemption are not separate matters from each other, but rather the redemption is the purpose of the imprisonment itself. The liberation of the Alter Rebbe brought about a new period in the revelation of Chassidus, a revelation that without the imprisonment we would not have merited.

As the Rebbe Rashab once put it, the imprisonment of the Alter Rebbe is like the statement of the Sages, “When the olive is crushed, it produces its oil.” The crushing of the olive is not a negative action followed by a positive result, but on the contrary, the crushing of the olive from the outset is a positive and essential action to produce excellent olive oil. This is the correct way to look at Yosef’s descent to Egypt, this is the correct way to look at the Egyptian exile, and this is the correct way to look at the current exile. These are not negative actions with positive results. Rather, these are necessary and inevitable actions to produce good, important, and vital results.

When it seems to us that Yosef is brought down to Egypt, he is actually bringing down Egypt. When it seems to us that Yosef is controlled by those from Yishmael, he is actually becoming the ruler of the entire world. When it seems to us that the exile is beginning and imminent, what is actually happening is that the redemption is flashing and approaching.

The lesson learned from this in relation to us today is simple yet empowering. Our work is the work of light, to illuminate the world with the light of Torah and mitzvos. The problem is that we live in darkness, the darkness of exile that causes us difficulties and trials. A person might think that the right way is to wait, to wait until the darkness disappears, the difficulties cease, and the trials vanish, and then he can continue his work, the work of light.

Yosef’s story, along with the story of the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment and redemption, teach us that the opposite is true. Darkness was created to bring light, the difficulties we experience are to reveal a new strength in us, and the trials we feel are meant to motivate us to find a new depth within our inner selves. The downward travel is actually a means to bring down the walls of galus, and the one who is on bottom today will rule tomorrow, and exile is just a well-paved path to bring redemption!

TO CONCLUDE WITH A STORY

And we’ll close out with a story that highlights how one can discover the ultimate light from within the darkness.

Tzir Kissufim, the route leading in and out of Gush Katif. Friday, 15 Tevet 5763, 9:24 PM. A large family car drives on the exit road from Gush Katif. The driver is Rabbi Yitzchok Arama, rabbi of ‘Netzer Hazani’ – one of the Gush Katif settlements, in the car are his wife Oshra and six children. They are driving to a ‘Shabbat Chattan’ of a family relative in Afula.

Suddenly, a sound of gunfire is heard on the road. To those in the car the noise sounds like hail, but after a moment they understand they are in a deadly ambush.

Hundreds of bullets were fired at them, and by a miracle the bullets circled the car from all sides, as if a guardian angel navigated the bullets to miss the car.

A single cry of ‘Ai’ pierced the frightening silence. A single bullet, the only one from the entire barrage, emerged into the car and directly hit the driver – Rabbi Yitzchok Arama. After the cry of pain, he managed to stop his car, and then his head dropped. Rescue forces that arrived minutes later understood the injury was critical. Rabbi Yitzchok Arama ascended in a flame of holy sacrifice minutes later. In an instant, a family led by a great man lost its driver. The family was struck at the most destabilizing point of their lives. The father, the leader, the rabbi, was injured and killed before the eyes of his young children and his wife.

Matanya, Rabbi Yitzchok Arama’s son, was ten years old when his father was murdered before his eyes, and he describes that at the moment his father was hit, everything stopped. Everything stopped, and even the ‘voice’ stopped. The child stopped talking…

For years he escaped from the environment and found it difficult to communicate. He simply spent a lot of time with himself.

About thirteen years after the attack he began to go outside, and the way he was able to speak fluently without any stammering was through singing. He became a composer, playing and singing with a unique intensity and his own style. This unique personal style emerged after ‘ripening’ over a long period of time with a lot of pain. Without his psyche being so turned inward, it would not have so much richness to express…

And we conclude with good:

Good Shabbos!

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