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This week’s reading begins with Josef, the second youngest son of Jacob, relating a dream to his father:
He and his brothers were gathering sheaths of wheat in a field and when they finished, his brothers bundles stood and bowed to his bundle.
The Torah then tells us that his brothers overheard him saying this and became so incensed with anger they designed to kill him.
Does this make sense? Why would they take a dream so seriously to want to kill him?! Weren’t they holy people? And even more, what was it in the dream that so angered them?
Also, this week is the holiday of the 19^th of Kislev when the first Rebbe of Chabad; the author of the Tanya, was released from Czarist prison. What is the connection?

Here is a story that might help us understand.

The first Rebbe of Chabad was imprisoned in 1799 by the Russian Government on charges of treason based on documents forged by his enemies saying he was working together with the King of Turkey to overthrow Russia and be crowned King of the Jews.
The Rebbe’s enemies were ultra-orthodox Jews who called themselves “Misnagedim” (opposers) due to their opposition to  the Rebbe’s ‘Chassidic’ teachings.
The Rebbe taught that all Jews; including sinners, are holy. And every Jew even of the greatest, holiest scholars, has to ‘return’ and improve in genuine love for G-d, the Torah.
He taught that because all Jews are ‘part’ of G-d’s essence, all Jews, regardless of any accomplishments, are essentially equal.
The Misnagedim could not bear this. The Rebbe was destroying Judaism turning everything ‘inside out’: stressing the essence of all things and devaluating their greatness in Torah.
In any case, their lies worked. The Rebbe was taken to the highest maximum-security prison in Russia and finally interrogated with twenty-two questions about his goals and his ‘philosophy’.
He answered all the questions, some at great length and in writing, all to their satisfaction.
Except the last one.
The last question was; how could he write in his book ‘Tanya’ (in the very first chapter) that Jews are different from gentiles; Jews can devote totally to G-d and therefore are ‘good’. While gentiles, even the most altruistic of them, are motivated by selfishness which is ‘bad’!
This, that Jews are bad and gentiles are good, was not only untrue but not found in any Jewish book they know of!  They wanted an explanation!
To this question the Rebbe just smiled and said nothing.
It must be remembered that Czarist Russia was a fanatically religious country and there was no natural way they would ignore this brazen insult to their religion which they believed to be the quintessence of mercy, good and truth!
This smile spelled his certain death.
But amazingly they not only didn’t kill or punish him … they actually freed him on the nineteenth day of ‘Kislev’ which became a major holiday for Chabad as the day that the meaning of life was revealed to the world.

There are several explanations of what happened.

One is; that the Czar’s men realized the Rebbe was right but were afraid to hear his explanation. So they released him.
Another is, that they realized from being in the presence of the Rebbe, that Jews really are completely different in a way they could never understand. So they released him.
A third explanation is that the Rebbe smiled because he was happy that he was about to die for the truth; for the ideals of the Baal Shem Tov. But precisely this joy broke the decree (simcha poretzes
geder) and they, not understanding why, released him.

But I want to add another explanation.

I think he smiled because when he heard them asking about the Tanya he realized he was ushering in a new era; the era of Moshiach. And they released him because they wanted to be part of it.
The Jewish people are, in fact, completely different from the non-Jews; they are ‘Chosen’.
Superficially, until the Tanya was written, ‘chosen’ seemed to mean that only the Jews got G-d’s Bible and were promised the land of Israel.
But the Tanya revealed and advertised the true meaning: that Jews are a different sort of creation. Jews are ‘parts’ of G-d, designed and ‘Chosen’
to bring Moshiach and ONLY they can do it.
Moshiach will fill the entire world with meaning, blessing and joy by educating ALL mankind to worship ONLY the Creator, a feat which no Jewish leader has ever done.
This is why the Rebbe smiled.
When he realized that gentiles had read his Tanya and for the first time in history had become aware of this truth, he smiled. It was a foretaste of
Moshiach.
And when his captors saw this joy, they reacted by exonerating him from death, a foretaste of the Raising of the Dead.
This answers our question about Yosef’s dream about gathering wheat.
Yosef’s brothers were great and holy people. But they only succeeded in unifying small amounts of the world (represented by their gathering sheaves)
Yosef was a forerunner of Moshiach who will come to unite and gather all the world; even the accomplishments of the holiest people. Therefore, their bundles bowed to his.
But his brothers couldn’t conceive that anyone could be more holy than themselves. They couldn’t accept the idea of Moshiach.
This is exactly what happened to Rebbe Shneur Zalman; his enemies thought that anyone different than them was a threat to them.
There is a tremendously deep and urgent message here: to try to see the potential good in everyone, especially every Jew. especially one who tries to change the world for good.
The Rambam (Maimonides) writes that every Jew must constantly long for and do all he can to bring such a person; the Moshiach. Moshiach will be a Jew that will be incomparably ‘higher’ than any other Jewish leader in history who will ‘gather ALL the sheaves: bring all Judaism to learn and observe the Torah and all the gentiles to serve the Creator alone.
So it is all in our hands to correct the mistake of Yosef’s brothers. and not much is lacking.

 We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought will bring ……  

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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