Parshat Vayigash
With greatest thanks to Rav K,
In this weeks parsha the Sfat Emet noticed the difference between the way the children of Yaakov are mentioned as opposed to the children of Esav.
The Torah tells us that Yaakov went down to Egypt with “shivim Nefesh” seventy soul(s). The word Nefesh is in the singular. While counting the descendants of Esav the Torah speaks about Nefashot – souls in the plural. The Sfat Emet comments that this is the secret of the Galut and the Geulah. The Jewish people went into Galut as one – with achdut - together. The purpose of this galut was to create the Jewish Nation – the multitudes of Jews that would come out of Egypt – again not individuals alone but with achdut – togetherness. The Sfat Emet goes on to comment that even though the Jewish people are compared to Stars that is because each individual has their particular shlichut to perform. There is nothing wrong with individuality or with differences. In fact the differences between individuals is put there by Hashem, as each of us has our own mission- but we need to work together to survive the galut and eventually to attain and maintain the geulah.
This idea is found not only at the end of the Parsha but throughout. When Yehudah and Yosef meet with each other and go “head to head” the Midrash compares them to 2 kings who are “avru yachdav” that eventually work together. In fact when we look at the haftorah from Yechezkel we see that Yechezkel is told by Hashem to take 2 branches and write on one Yehuda and Bnei Yisrael and on the other Yosef / Ephraim and Yisrael. Hashem then tells Yechezkel to put the 2 branches together and they will miraculously form one branch!! This seems to be foretelling the future Geula will be when Bnei Yisrael form one unit.
What is the secret of getting to this unity that is so lacking in our generation? This also is found in our Parsha. When Yosef reveals himself to Binyamin they fall on each others necks and cry. Rashi explains that Yosef was crying for the 2 destructions of the Temple that happened in the chelek of Binyamin. Whereas Binyamin cried about the destruction of Shilo that happened in the chelek of Yosef. However, each knew about their “own” destruction as well! So why did this not bother them?
A Chassidic Rebbe explained that they were each crying not for themselves but for the other. They cared about the others problems more then their own. This is the secret of Jewish Unity and the Yeshuah from the galut – when we care about the other more than we care about ourselves. When we focus on the other person’s pain more than on our own.
In todays day, it may be hard to focus on Jewish Unity, we just have to keep reminding ourselves what Klal Yisrael is really about and what we should really focus on....
Shabbat Shalom
Ariella :)
No comments:
Post a Comment