STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS
VAYIGASH 5779
“EVER
CLOSER”[1]
In his inspiring memoir, Out of the Depths, Rabbi
Yisrael Meir Lau relates the final hours of his father’s life. Along with
twenty-eight thousand Jews of Piotrkow, where he served as rabbi, his father
was taken to Treblinka. The day that they arrived, another train arrived packed
with the Jews of Presov, Slovakia. Eight years earlier, Rabbi Lau’s father had
left Presov, where he had served as rabbi. The community did not have another
rabbi since then.
“Those two
towns reflected two completely different worlds: the Jews of Presov spoke
German and Hungarian, whereas those of Piotrkow spoke Yiddish and Polish. The
only thing they had in common was that the last rabbi of Presov was also the
last rabbi of Piotrkow – my father. The Jews of Presov, the Jews of Piotrkow,
and their chief rabbi all met on the train platform of Treblinka, on their way
to the gas chambers.
“Father addressed them by recounting the last
speech of Rabbi Akiva, one of the Ten Martyrs of Israel. When the Romans raked
the rabbi’s flesh with iron combs, his disciples asked him how he could
withstand the tortures. Rabbi Akiva replied by referring to the Shema, the
declaration of faith, Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One.
“All my life I have wondered about the verse following the Shema prayer, Love
your G-d… with all your soul,” mused Rabbi Akiva. “I understood this as
meaning ‘Love your G-d even if He takes your soul’. I asked myself, when will I
have the opportunity to fulfill this commandment? Now that I have the
opportunity, how can I not fulfill it?” Then Rabbi Akiva recited the Shema,
prolonging the last word, One, as his soul departed.
“Jews!” Father shouted so that all present could
hear his concluding words. “Of all six hundred thirteen mitzvot, we have one
remaining mitzvah to fulfill: I shall be sanctified among the Children of Israel
– to give up your life for bearing the name of G-d… Come, my brothers, let us
fulfill this commandment in joy. The world is null and void, a boiling rain of
hatred and bloodshed. The one mitzvah left for us is to sanctify G-d’s Name.
Come, brothers, let us do it joyfully. I repeat to you the words of Rabbi
Simcha Bunim of Pshischa: ‘For in joy you will go out- with the power of joy
will we leave behind the troubles, the suffering, and the trials of this
world.’”
“Then father raised his voice and began to recite
the vidui prayer of confession: For the sins we have sinned before You.
The crowd repeated it after him. The prayer began in a whisper and ended with
the shout: “Shema Yisrael! Hear O Israel, the Lord is our G-d, the Lord is
One. G-d reigns, G-d has reigned, G-d will reign for all eternity.”
“I never saw Father again…”
We are taught that the greatness of the Jewish
People can only be achieved through unity. Ahavas Yisrael, love for our fellow
Jews, is of our supreme values. If so, why do we seem to struggle so much in
trying to attain it? Why is there so much disunity amongst us?
When Yosef approached the brothers, dispatched by
their father Yaakov to seek the brothers’ welfare, the Torah says, “They saw
him from a distance, and before he approached them, they plotted about him to
kill him.”[2]
The Torah alludes to the source of their enmity and jealousy of Yosef, i.e.
that they saw him from a distance. They did not recognize his greatness and
could not see the incredible potential within him. They therefore viewed him as
a dangerous threat, and therefore felt he had to be eliminated.
Even years later, when they arrived in Egypt
looking for sustenance during the raging famine, when they stood before Yosef,
they did not recognize him. They could not fathom that the powerful monarch
before them was their younger brother whose dreams they had derided and sought
to destroy.
One of the greatest impediments to loving others
is that we view others from a distance. We see a fraction of the complete
picture and yet we scrutinize and freely pass judgement, based on our limited
understanding.
The antidote for that rejection and emotional
distance is contained in the opening words of the parsha: “And Yehuda drew
close, and he said to him, ‘please my master, let your servant speak words in
the ears of my master…”[3]
Yosef reciprocated when, a few moments later, he
revealed his identity to his shocked brothers. The Torah relates that Yosef gently
called out to them, “”Come close to me”, and they came close.”[4]
It is only when there is a sincere desire to ‘draw
close’ to each other, to overlook our differences and embrace our
commonalities, that we can reconcile and achieve true unity. When Yehuda drew
close to Yosef, and Yosef summoned the brothers to draw closer to him, they
were able to recognize the greatness in each other, and see past their
differences to again be a complete family.
It is a painful reality that it often takes tragedy to unite us. The
problem is that we are blinded by our differences and the minutiae that
separates us. But in the face of tragedy we seem to have momentary clarity that
allows us to recognize the more significant components that unite us. We often
feel jealous and resentful towards others, which is usually triggered by
external factors – such as possessions or social standing. When tragedy
strikes, and we are reminded of the futility of status and possessions, and we
are able to recognize that real person is his soul, and internally we are all
united.
At the conclusion of Sefer Hacharedim[5], the author explains that the
three paragraphs of Shema contain the remedy to three prime character defects -
jealousy, desire, and the pursuit of honor.[6] Wearing tzitzis quells a
person’s desire for honor. The Torah warns “Lest your heart turn away, and you
will veer off from the way…” a reference to one seduced by lust.
The Charedim explains that the opening pasuk contains the solution for
envy. Properly accepting and declaring one’s unwavering acceptance of the yoke
of heaven upon one’s self and upon all of the Jewish people, entails unity,
which requires overcoming all traces of jealousy and envy.
In parshas Vayechi, Yaakov Avinu gathered his children prior to his
death to bless them. “Yaakov called to his sons and he said to them, ‘Gather
and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days. Assemble
and hearken sons of Yaakov and listen to Yisrael your father…” Why does Yaakov
tell them to gather and then assemble?
The Charedim explains that gather meant that they should physically come
together. But then Yaakov Avinu prevailed upon them to assemble, to unite
spiritually by ridding any traces of envy, enmity, or resentment from within
their hearts.
When we recite Shema, we are seeking to spiritually and emotionally
unite with every one of our fellow Jews the world over. Only if we have that
understanding can we conclude the verse, “Hashem, is our G-d, Hashem is One.”
This concept is poignantly described by the prophet Yecheskel[7]: And you, son of man, take
for yourself one stick and write upon it ‘of Yehuda’… and take another stick
and write upon it ‘of Yosef’… And you shall bring them one towards the other,
and they will become one stick, and they will be joined in your hand.”
On December 6, 2017, President Trump publicly recognized Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital, and announced that the American embassy would be moved to
Jerusalem. Immediately, 128 countries in the United Nations called for the
United States to reverse its decision.
Dovid Hamelech describes Yerushalayim as “the city that connects us
together.”[8] Few things bring any
semblance of unity to the United Nations more than condemnation of Israel[9]. Our response is by uniting
ourselves in our divine eternal mission to spread the sanctification of G-d’s
Name throughout the world. In doing so, we must draw together and put aside our
external differences.
It is that unity which ensures that our inherent light, symbolized by
the lights of Chanukah, will continue to glow brightly until the ultimate
redemption when we will be unified perpetually.
“And Yehuda drew close”
“They will become one stick, and
they will be joined in your hand”
Rabbi Dani Staum, LMSW
Rebbe/Guidance
Counselor – Heichal HaTorah
Principal – Ohr Naftoli-
New Windsor
[1] The following
is the lecture I delivered in Kehillat New Hempstead, Shabbos Kodesh Vayigash
5778
[2] Bereishis
37:18
[3] Bereishis
44:18
[4] Bereishis 45:4
[5] Rabbi Elazar ben Moshe Azikri (1533–1600); the sefer
is based on the 613 mitzvos, with each mitzva divided based on the limb of the
body that it corresponds to.
[6] See Avos
(4:21) “Rabbi Eliezer Hakapar would say – jealousy, desire, and (the pursuit
of) honor remove a person from the world.”
[7] 37:16-17; it
is the opening verses of the haftorah for parshas Vayigash
[8] Tehillim 123:3
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