Transcript
Good morning and a פרייליכן חנוכה freilichen Chanukah to all. Welcome back to Parsha Perspectives for today. Thank you so much for joining us, so glad that you are here. I want to thank our sponsors, as always, dear friends Becky and Avi Katz and family, loving memory of David Grossman, Becky's father, לעילוי נשמת דוד בן מנחם מנוש l'iluy nishmas David ben Menachem Manush. And a big מזל טוב mazal tov to the Katzes on their nephew's Bar Mitzvah in Israel in בית שמש Beit Shemesh. Parsha class is also sponsored by Helene and David Levitsky. מזל טוב Mazal tov to Abby and the Rosenblatt family on her Bat Mitzvah this past Thanksgiving weekend. Thank you so much for your generosity and for your sponsorship. Okay, one quick housekeeping note. Next week, please God, next week, please God, the Parsha shiur will only be available on YouTube and Facebook, not on Zoom. So if you normally watch on Zoom, just for next week, please note that for you'll need to join in on YouTube or on Facebook in order to be able to watch. Okay, this week we have the privilege of learning, of studying together פרשת מקץ Parshas Mikeitz, a parsha very near and dear to my heart. It happens to be my Bar Mitzvah parsha. In פרשת מקץ Parshas Mikeitz begins, פרשת מקץ Parshas Mikeitz begins in the Artscroll חומש Chumash, page 222. ויהי מקץ שנתיים ימים ופרעה חולם Vayehi mikeitz shnasayim yamim u'Pharaoh cholem. And it happened at the end of two years, and Pharaoh began to dream. A lot of interesting questions about this פסוק pasuk. The use of the word ויהי vayehi. ויהי Vayehi is often connotes a negativity. So what is the negative about this dream? Number one. Number two, חולם cholem is in what tense? חולם Cholem is in the present tense. Why is חולם cholem in the present tense? It was a past dream. It was חלם chalam. Pharaoh had a dream. So let's begin with the word ויהי vayehi. Let's start off with the story of the word ויהי vayehi, connect our parsha and חנוכה Chanukah, and begin our first parsha perspective for today, a lesson which I think is very, very instructive and inspires and inspires me.In the מעגני רבי מאיר Magnei Rebbe Meir, the story of רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan, he lived 1783 to 1850, it tells the following story. אמר רבנו הקדוש Amar Rabbeinu haKadosh, סיפר לי אבי הקדוש כי פעם אחת עלתה נשמתו siper li avi haKadosh ki pa'am achas alsa nishmaso. רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan, the great חסיד chasid, the great disciple of the holy בעל שם טוב Baal Shem Tov, had a homiletical interpretation of the opening פסוק pasuk of our parsha, of ויהי מקץ שנתים ימים vayehi mikeitz shnasayim yamim. And he said the following, based on an experience that his father once had. He records this experience of his father. That his father once appeared, וראה כי עלה לעולם עליון v'ra'ah ki alah l'olam elyon. His father said that his נשמה neshama was elevated, was brought up, to the world of truth. איש אחד צעיר לימים ואחריו איש זקן ושבע ימים Ish echad tza'ir l'yamim v'acharav ish zaken u'sva yamim. And two individuals ascended on high, one after the other. His father once had a vision, and he saw two people being brought into heaven. One was quite young and the other appeared to be ripe in age, aged like fine wine, the other appeared to be very old. And strangely in שמים shamayim, וישמע כי לצעיר קראו זקן וישיש vayishma ki la'tza'ir kar'u zaken v'yashish, the older one, sorry, the younger one rather, was called a זקן zaken. The younger one was called an old man. ולזקן, והאיש הזקן קראו קטן וילד V'l'ish ha'zaken kar'u katan v'yeled. The older man was called a youngster, a child. וישמע Vayishma, and his father wondered, הן פה עולם האמת ולמה תצחקו Hein po olam ha'emes v'lama titzchaku. This is the world of truth. It's פה אמת עליון po emes elyon. This is the world of truth. So why are they joking around? Why would you call the older one youngster and the younger one old man? After all, this is the world of of truth. So listen to what his father said. השיבו לו Heshivu lo, his father said in his vision, he was answered, כי האמת כן הוא ki ha'emes kein hu, שהאיש הצעיר פעל בשנותיו ועמל עד מאוד Sheha'ish ha'tza'ir pa'al b'shnosav v'amal ad me'od. The younger one lived life to its fullest. The younger one embraced and took advantage of each and every day. ויום לשנה נחשב לו V'yom l'shana nechshav lo. Every day he lived as if it was a complete year. Every day was like a whole year. That's how richly he lived it, that's how fully he engaged it, that's how invested he was in it. אבל הזקן Aval ha'zaken, but the old man, לא פעל כלום בכל השמונים שנה שלו lo pa'al klum b'chol hashmonim shana shelo. In all 80 years, never accomplished much, never really made the most of any given day. וגם כן ילד מסכן הוא V'gam kein yeled misken hu. And therefore, this older man might have reached 80 years old chronologically in time, but remained a young man in accomplishment, a young man in what he had achieved. This was the vision that רבי מאיר פרמישלאן's Reb Meir Premishlan's father had in heaven in the עולם האמת Olam HaEmes, a place where there was no joking, where there was no ליצנות leitzanus, but rather this was an accurate and an objective and fair observation. When רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan heard this, שמע רבי מאיר shama Reb Meir, רבי מאיר Reb Meir learned the following. He said, אין ויהי אלא צרה ein vayehi ela tzara. ויהי צרה גדולה היא Vayehi tzara gedola hi. The word ויהי vayehi always connotes negativity. It always connotes something which is something which is sad. So what does, I'm gonna move my microphone because people might be getting back drop. Is that better? ויהי Vayehi connotes connotes sadness. So what is the sadness here? What is the sadness taking place that we begin ויהי vayehi? Where is their sadness? So רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan said, you know what the sadness is? It says, ויהי כשמקץ vayehi keshemikeitz. מקץ Mikeitz means at the end. סוף חיי האדם sof chayei ha'adam. At the end of a person's life, אז כל שנותיו אינם כי אם שנתיים ימים az kol shnosav einam ki im shnasayim yamim, ימים מועטים yamim muatim. The days, they passed quickly. The days, they passed fast. So that is רבי מאיר פרמישלאן's Reb Meir Premishlan's observation, his homiletical interpretation of this opening פסוק pasuk. ויהי Vayehi is a לשון lashon, a language of sadness. And why is the sad? Because מקץ mikeitz, indeed at the end of a person's life, when he realizes שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim, when a person realizes no matter how many years he lived, relative to how long he could have lived, meaning living each day to its fullest, how much we could have accomplished, how much we could have achieved, measured by the difference we could have made from a heavenly perspective, it's שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim. It's only two years. You could die at 120 years old, but מקץ mikeitz at the end, it's שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim, it's only like two years. And why is it only like two years? It's only like two years because relative to who we could have been and what we could have accomplished, we achieved so little. There was so much more that we could have done, so much more of a difference that we could have made.There's another interpretation. רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan and רבי ברוך ממז'יבוז' Reb Baruch of Mezhibuzh say ויהי מקץ vayehi mikeitz, when you reach the end of your life, שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim. That word שנה shana can be a year. שנתיים Shnasayim can mean that you lived for two years, but there's another interpretation which is שינה sheina, which means to sleep. A person can live a full life and מקץ mikeitz at the end of their life, they look back and they reflect and they say, I slept through my life. I slept walk through life. I was sleeping even while I was awake. What a waste. How much I how much I wasted, how much I didn't take advantage of. Because the גמרא Gemara says, היושב בטל כישן דמי hayoshev batel k'yashen dami. חז\"ל Chazal say that a person who sits idle, a person who passively and complacently and apathetically lets life pass them by, then it's as if they're sleeping. They're sleeping even while they are awake. They're asleep walking through their life. What an absolute mistake, what an absolute tragedy. Ben Franklin is quoted as saying, \"Some people die at the age of 25, but they're not buried until they're 75 years old.\" Some people die at the age of 25, but they're not buried until the age of 75 years old. What does that mean? What happens to the years that are in between, those 50 years, if they die at 25 and they're not buried? What did he mean Ben Franklin, they're not buried till 75? What happens in between is שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim. רב משה יעקב Rav Moshe Yaakov explains the word שנה shnei can mean two, but שינה sheina as we just said, could also mean sleep. ויהי Vayehi is so sad when we get upstairs and we found out that we were sleepwalking through life, that we slept so much of our lives away, that we were on autopilot. We were mindless. We were simply the creatures of momentum that carried us. We were numb to the signals that Hashem was sending us. We were oblivious to the opportunities that are around us, and we wasted and squandered the potential that's inside us. We were sleeping. ויהי Vayehi, how sad it is, מקץ mikeitz at the end of life, שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim, when we realize that even if we live to 120, we only have two years of productivity, or that we were sleeping through our lives, sleepwalking through life.And that's what the holiday of חנוכה Chanukah comes to remind us. You know, we're in the middle of the winter, it doesn't feel like it here in Florida. It's a magnificent day outside, but we're in the darkest part of the calendar. We're in the shortest part of the calendar. We're in the depth of the season of the winter, in which we have fallen into habits and patterns in which we've become mindless creatures who momentum is simply carrying us. And then comes חנוכה Chanukah. חנוכה Chanukah is meant to wake us up, to arouse us. רבי לייבלה אייגר Reb Leibel'e Eiger, רב עקיבא אייגר's Reb Akiva Eiger's grandson who became a חסידישע רבי chasiddishe rebbe, we spoke about him in shul several weeks ago, says, you know, there are two ways to wake wake someone up when they're in a deep sleep. I had to wake one of my daughters this morning for school. So she told me her alarm went off. I said your alarm went off, that's nice, but you're still sleeping in bed. You got to get up. You got to get to school. So the second way that you can wake someone if the alarm fails is, what does a parent do? They turn the light on in the room. That's when the kid really tells how much they love you. They put the covers over their head and they yell how much they don't love you and they say turn it off. I have 17 snoozes, let me go back to sleep. When a person fails to wake up from the alarm, what we need to do is turn on, what we need to do is turn on the light. When you turn on the light, that's what wakes people up. And so, says רבי לייבלה אייגר Reb Leibel'e Eiger, the same is true in our lives. You know, ראש השנה יום כיפור Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur came, we blew the שופר shofar on ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah, and the the שופר shofar of ראש השנה Rosh Hashanah, it's an alarm. It says, עורו, עורו uru, uru. Wake up, ישנים משנתכם yeshenim mishnaschem, those who are sleeping from their slumber. Wake up, wake up, stop sleepwalking through life. But you know what happens after ראש השנה יום כיפור Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur? We're awake for a brief moment, the alarm awakens us, and you know what we all collectively do? Snooze. One snooze, a second snooze, a third snooze. You know what? I'm going to finally take care of my health and wellness, when I'll finally take my דאווענען davening or learning seriously, when I'll finally work on my מדות midos, snooze. I'll get to it later in life. I'll get to it later in the year. I'll get to it later. Snooze, snooze, snooze. The alarm of the שופר shofar comes ראש השנה ימים נוראים Rosh Hashanah, Yamim Nora'im come and we snooze. So what happens? Then comes the second method. חנוכה Chanukah comes, and if the snooze failed us, it's time to turn on the light. We turn on the light and that's what wakes us up. That's when we can no longer stay in our beds. And that's the message of the הפטרה Haftorah, which tells us of a different חנוכה Chanukah. The הפטרה Haftorah we read this past שבת Shabbos, שבת חנוכה Shabbos Chanukah, the inauguration of the מנורה menorah in the second בית המקדש Beis Hamikdash. זכריה הנביא Zechariah HaNavi tells us, וישב המלאך הדובר בי vayashav hamalach hadover bi, ויעירני כאיש אשר יאור משנתו vayeireini k'ish asher ye'or mishnaso. The angel that talked to me came back and he woke me up as a man is wakened from sleep. ויאמר אלי Vayomer eilai, and he said to me, this angel, מה אתה רואה ma ata ro'eh? What do you see? ואומר ראיתי והנה מנורת זהב כולה va'omer ra'isi v'hinei menoras zahav kulah. He said, what do you see? And I answered, I see a lampstand. I see a lamp. I see a candelabra. It's all gold. The vision of the מנורה menorah of חנוכה Chanukah is associated with being woken up from sleep. It's what the הפטרה Haftorah of שבת חנוכה Shabbos Chanukah tells us. ויהי Vayehi, how sad, מקץ mikeitz at the end of life, שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim, we realized we were sleepwalking through life. Stop sleeping. If the שופר shofar and its alarm failed, you pressed snooze and went back to sleep. And now we're in the middle of the winter, it's כסלו Kislev, it's טבת Teves, it's December, it's January, turn the light on in the room so you no longer can stay in bed. Wake up. חנוכה Chanukah rattles us, it shakes us. It's an extreme alarm. It turns on the light. It breaks us out of the dark sleep and slumber and of habit and rote, of fatalism and predeterminism, and into the illuminated world of opportunity and of free will, of conscious and mindful living. It takes us into a world of growing, of achieving, of making progress.When אהרן הכהן Aharon HaKohen met lit the original מנורה menorah in the משכן Mishkan, the פסוק pasuk describes ויעש כן אהרן vaya'as kein Aharon, that the Torah, משה Moshe, related to אהרן Aharon what he was meant to do, and ויעש כן אהרן vaya'as kein Aharon, אהרן Aharon did what he was meant to do, what he was supposed to do. And רש\"י Rashi quotes our rabbis who tell us ויעש כן אהרן vaya'as kein Aharon, the Torah testifying that אהרן Aharon did what he's meant to do, להגיד שבחו שלא שינה l'hagid shvacho shelo shinah. It tells us the praise of אהרן Aharon that he didn't change, he didn't deviate whatsoever from what he was meant to do. So the obvious question is, אהרן הכהן Aharon HaKohen, אהרן Aharon, the righteous אהרן Aharon, do you think that he's going to distort or manipulate or change what Hashem had told him to do? What do we need to be told this is the praise of אהרן Aharon that he didn't change? So the אמרי נועם Imrei Noam, the holy זיקאווער Zikov'er, the זיקאווער Zikov'er suggests that perhaps what it means שינה shina is not that he didn't change, שלא שינה shelo shinah, he didn't change, but rather שלא שינה shelo sheina, that he didn't sleepwalk through the experience. אהרן Aharon lit the מנורה menorah, and then he lit it again, and then he lit it again. So we've become creatures of habit. We settle in, we get used to the pattern. I put on my תפילין tefillin, I דאווען daven my שמונה עשרה Shemoneh Esrei, I light my candles, I do my מצוות mitzvos, they've become mindless. We've become unconscious while we do it. The שבח shevach, the praise of אהרן Aharon, ויעש כן vaya'as kein, that he did it, not שלא שינה shelo shinah that he didn't change, שלא שינה shelo sheina that he didn't sleep, that he was awake, that he woke himself up. This is the יום טוב yom tov of the חג chag, the חג האורים Chag HaUrim. This is the light, the אור הגנוז Ohr HaGanuz, this hidden, wonderful, messianic, spiritual light inside us, it can wake us up. Even when the alarm has failed and we're still asleep, then turning on the light can wake us up so that we can go. I've told the story before of a senior manager at a successful business firm who was retiring, and there were two employees in the firm, both vying for the job, both wanted to be the successor, both applied for the position. One had worked in the company 15 years, and the other had only been there for five. And they each interviewed and they each they each made the proposal that they should be the ones to get the job. And lo and behold, it was time to award the position and it was given not to the one who had been there longer 15 years, it was given to the one who had been there five years. And you can imagine the employee who had been there longer, more experienced, more senior, 15 years, barges into the boss's office and says, \"I don't understand. What did I do wrong? Why am I being denied and deprived? I've been here three times longer.\" So the boss turns to the man and he says, \"No, you misunderstand. You see, you've really only worked here one year, you've just repeated that one year 15 times. He has worked here five years. Every year he grew, every year he learned, every year he contributed more. So you may have been here 15 years and he five, but he's been here five times longer than you because you were really only here one year and you repeated it 15 times.\"And the same is true for our lives. Are we going to live the same year over and over again? Obviously not the same understanding of the parsha. I'm preaching to the choir if you're here with us this morning. If you're listening, you're looking to grow in your understanding of the parsha. But how many of us are דאווענען davening the same way, 20, 30, 50, 80 years? How many of us are approaching מצוות mitzvos and our relationship with Hashem and our conversations and our אמונה ובטחון emunah u'bitachon and our דבקות dveikus with Hashem the same way we did at our בר מצוה bar mitzvah or בת מצוה bat mitzvah, but we've not grown at all. We're living the same life, the same year over and over and over again, instead of being able to look back and measure how much we've grown and how much we've advanced. And that's also the lesson of the מנורה menorah. I'm looking over because my מנורה menorah is right over here. A מנורה menorah, the מנורה menorah, it's a מחלוקת בית שמאי בית הלל machlokes Beis Shammai, Beis Hillel. בית שמאי Beis Shammai say פוחת והולך poches v'holech, we start with eight and then we scale down to one. בית הלל Beis Hillel say we start with one and מוסיף והולך mosif v'holech, we add on until we get there. בית שמאי's Beis Shammai's opinion also has a lot of merit, and there's depth to it, even though we don't follow it, as I shared that yesterday in a little video that I put out. We follow the opinion of בית הלל Beis Hillel. And בית הלל Beis Hillel is our philosophy in life. Our philosophy is מוסיף והולך mosif v'holech. We add on. We don't lifelessly and mindlessly go through the same thing eight nights in a row. We don't light one candle 18 times. We don't live the same year 80 years, but rather מוסיף והולך mosif v'holech. This is our philosophy. This is our mentality. This is who we're meant to be. We're meant to be מוסיף והולך mosif v'holech, to add on and to add on and to add on and to continually grow. So this is the opening פסוק pasuk, according to רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan, at least homiletically, this is the opening פסוק pasuk, the vision of his father. ויהי Vayehi, how sad, מקץ mikeitz, at the end of your life, שנתיים ימים shnasayim yamim, when you on the calendar lived for many years, but in terms of achievement and contribution, you failed to be מוסיף והולך mosif v'holech. You lived one year over and over and over again, we're sleepwalking through life, how tragic and how sad. And therefore we begin with the word ויהי vayehi. Our mission, our mandate is to be מוסיף והולך mosif v'holech, to add on and to add on and to add on over and over again.Now the פסוק pasuk says ויהי מקץ שנתיים ימים vayehi mikeitz shnasayim yamim, it was the end of two years, ופרעה חולם u'Pharaoh cholem, Pharaoh is dreaming, והנה עומד על היאור v'hinei omed al haye'or. And he has this whole dream. Now what you'll notice, our parsha begins with the Pharaoh, the leader of Egypt, the most powerful empire in the world, and he's experiencing these startling dreams. So startling, so shaken is he from them that he summons interpreters and his interpreters, his own staff, they fail him. Nobody's ever able to successfully suggest an interpretation that satisfies that resonates with Pharaoh. He rejects them all. Pharaoh doesn't just have one dream. He has another dream. Now Pharaoh is not the first biblical figure to dream. Who else had dreams, meaningful dreams? Obviously יוסף Yosef, we read last week's parsha about יוסף Yosef and his meaningful dreams, but even before יוסף Yosef, פרשת ויצא Parshas Vayeitzei begins with the dreams of יעקב Yaakov. He went to sleep on a pile of stones and a pile of rocks and he saw the image of the angels descending and ascending or ascending and descending from the heaven and the earth and he's moved by his dream. What happens to יעקב Yaakov when he wakes up from his dream? What happens to יעקב Yaakov when he wakes up from his dream? He's transformed by the experience. He says, \"I didn't know God was in this place.\" \"I didn't realize Hashem was here.\" He doesn't go back to sleep. How could he sleep? He's so jarred, he's so startled, he's so awakened by this dream, by this image of being in the presence of the Almighty of Hashem, that he's transformed from the experience and he wakes up changed. And in fact, he regrets going to sleep in the first place. He says, אכן יש השם במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי achen yeish Hashem bamakom hazeh v'anochi lo yadati. Hashem is here and I know. If I knew, I never would have gone to sleep here.רב שלום שבדרון Rav Sholom Schwadron, the great מגיד maggid of ירושלים Yerushalayim, encourages us to contrast יעקב's Yaakov's reaction to his dream with Pharaoh's reaction to his dream. Think about it. יעקב Yaakov has this dream, he senses Hashem, he's startled, he's moved, and he wakes up energized, ready to greet the day, regretting he ever fell asleep, and unable to fall asleep again. What happens to Pharaoh? What happens to Pharaoh? Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows, bizarrely being devoured by seven thin cows. The dream is intense, it's unusual. It disturbs him, it jolts him awake. And what happens next with Pharaoh, in contrast to יעקב Yaakov? וישן ויחלום שנית Vayishan vayachalom sheinis. You know what Pharaoh does? He turns right over and he goes back to shluff. He goes right back to sleep. And the Torah tells us he has a second dream. And this one too is disturbing and again he's shaken to the point of waking up. And what does he do next? The פסוק pasuk tells us, says רב שבדרון Rav Schwadron, the מגיד maggid, ויהי בבוקר vayehi baboker. He obviously had turned over to go back to sleep again because it's only in the morning, it's only when his alarm and it's only when Mrs. Pharaoh turns on the light to finally get him out of bed, it's only ויהי בבוקר vayehi baboker, it's only in the morning when he finds the energy and the courage to address the dreams. What does he do the whole night despite these two disturbing and jarring dreams? He turns over and he goes right back to sleep. Says רב שבדרון Rav Schwadron, you learn such a lesson in the contrast between יעקב אבינו Yaakov Avinu and Pharaoh. יעקב Yaakov wakes up and he's ready to go. And Pharaoh turns over, he has a second dream, and after the second dream, he turns over and it's only in the morning that he wakes up ready to address.רב שבדרון Rav Schwadron encourages us to look at a third dreamer. Who is the third dreamer in the list? שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech. בגבעון נראה השם אל שלמה בחלום הלילה ויאמר אלהים שאל מה אתן לך B'givon nir'ah Hashem el Shlomo bachalom halayla vayomer Elokim sha'al ma eten lach. One night while sleeping, Hashem visits שלמה המלך Shlomo HaMelech in a dream and asks him to make a wish that he's going to grant. And שלמה Shlomo nobly asks. You know what he says? לב שומע לשפוט את עמך lev shomea lishpot es amcha. You know what I want? He doesn't ask for, you know, all the wishes in the world. He asks if he can have one thing, a לב שומע lev shomea. He says, \"I want a listening heart. I want to be able to sensitively understand and listen to the problems of your children and I want to be able to judge them and offer good advice to them, sage advice to them.\" שלמה Shlomo awakens from this dream and what does he do next? says רב שבדרון Rav Schwadron. If it weren't שבת חנוכה Shabbos Chanukah, this is the הפטרה haftorah that מקץ Mikeitz, this this year we'll have this הפטרה haftorah because מקץ Mikeitz is sometimes שבת חנוכה Shabbos Chanukah, as it was my בר מצוה bar mitzvah. This year it's not. We had שבת חנוכה Shabbos Chanukah by this שבת Shabbos, it will no longer be חנוכה Chanukah. So the הפטרה haftorah for מקץ Mikeitz is going to begin, this שבת Shabbos, ויקץ שלמה והנה חלום ויבוא ירושלים vayikatz Shlomo v'hinei chalom vayavo Yerushalayim. שלמה Shlomo doesn't go back to bed. He doesn't turn over and fall back asleep. ויקץ Vayikatz, he wakes up, what does he do? ויבוא ירושלים Vayavo Yerushalayim. He, like יעקב Yaakov, he wakes up invigorated, transformed, inspired. Says the מגיד maggid, רב שבדרון Rav Schwadron, that if Pharaoh had שלמה's Shlomo's dream in which God asked him what he wanted him to do, he would have answered, \"You know what I want? A few more minutes of sleep.\" Pharaoh wanted to sleepwalk through his life. Pharaoh wanted to just fall asleep and be numb to everything around him. Just a few more minutes, just a few more minutes of not having to deal with reality, of not having to deal with my potential. Just a few more minutes of sleepwalking through life. Hashem spoke to יעקב Yaakov, Pharaoh, and שלמה Shlomo through their dreams. יעקב Yaakov and שלמה Shlomo saw it as a call to action. Pharaoh turned over and went right back to sleep. And the question is our dreams, our dreams, either while we're sleeping or while we're awake, what do they do for us and how do they inspire us and what do we do with those dreams? You see a lot about dreams, about sleepwalking through life, the light of חנוכה Chanukah should wake us up, should arouse us, should enlighten us, should illuminate us, and should enable us and enrich us to be able to be transformed and inspired to go and to be able to lead the next chapter of our lives.Okay. ופרעה חולם U'Pharaoh cholem. ופרעה חולם U'Pharaoh cholem. We said there's something unusual about this word ופרעה חולם Paro cholem. What's unusual about the word ופרעה חולם Paro cholem? What would I have expected? What should it see, not חולם cholem, but ופרעה חלם u'Pharaoh chalam. So why does it say ופרעה חולם u'Pharaoh cholem, he is dreaming? It should say חלם chalam, he had a dream. Says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra on the פסוק pasuk, I won't look at it inside, we're already running late, story of my life. Says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, ופרעה חולם u'Pharaoh cholem is identical with ופרעה היה חולם u'Pharaoh haya cholem. Had it said ופרעה היה חולם u'Pharaoh haya cholem, היה חולם haya cholem would have meant he dreamt, so חולם cholem can be used even for the past. says the אבן עזרא Ibn Ezra, a great grammarian, because we read it היה חולם haya cholem, not חולם cholem. But רב סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik offers a different suggestion in his wonderful, the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Soloveitchik wonderful חומש Chumash, I highly recommend. The רב rav says the following, \"The change in Pharaoh occurred precisely when יוסף Yosef was to be elevated to power. Pharaoh would have been disconcerted over his dreams even if this metamorphosis had not taken place. However, to accept יוסף's Yosef's interpretation, Pharaoh himself had to be a dreamer, a visionary. Otherwise, he would not have chosen יוסף Yosef to manage the economy of Egypt. He preferred יוסף's Yosef's interpretation to that of others, not on objective grounds, but on purely subjective ones. Dreamer met dreamer.\" It's an incredible insight of רב סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik. Says the רב rav, you know, there are two types of dreams that we have. We have dreams while we're sleeping, but then you also have to be willing to be a dreamer while you're awake. Many of us have dreams. I happen to be a person who has very vivid dreams. You can ask my wife and children or those closest to me. Sometimes my dreams are so vivid when I wake up, it takes me time to distinguish between reality and the dream. I can hold a grudge against a person who did nothing wrong to me other than in my dream until I can work out the fact that it was only a dream. And the opposite, I could be so grateful and overjoyed. I have very vivid dreams. There are people who dream, they fall into REM sleep and they dream. But there are many who when they wake up, the dream is just a dream and they move on so quickly. And then they go back to this very hard life of a cynical life. You know, it's not enough to dream while you're asleep, you have to have the capacity to dream while you're awake. So חולם cholem, the reason it's in the present tense suggests רב סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik is that Pharaoh didn't just חלם chalam, it's not just that he dreamt in his sleep, he is a חולם cholem. He remains a dreamer even while he is awake. What how does he know that? Because when Pharaoh meets יוסף Yosef and יוסף Yosef offers his interpretation, Pharaoh says, you know, I see that vision. I can buy into that. I can share that dream of the economy of Egypt. Pharaoh was not just a dreamer while he was sleeping, he's a dreamer even while he's awake, and that's what makes an enormous difference.Now Pharaoh's dream is different than the way he relays it to יוסף Yosef. When Pharaoh has the dream it describes, פסוק ב pasuk beis, והנה מן היאור v'hinei min haye'or, I'm sorry, in the first פסוק pasuk, פסוק א pasuk aleph. והנה עומד על היאור V'hinei omed al haye'or. In his dream, where is he? He's עומד omed, he's standing where? על היאור al haye'or. On the river. What river? It doesn't even need to tell us that it's Egypt, he's standing on the ירדן Yarden, on the Jordan, on the Nile, on the Nile river rather. על היאור Al haye'or. והנה מן היאור V'hinei min haye'or, and from this river he sees the seven cows and so on and so forth. What does it mean והנה עומד על היאור v'hinei omed al haye'or? And how is על היאור al haye'or different than later when he relates the dream to יוסף Yosef, he says עומד על שפת היאור omed al sfas haye'or? He doesn't say I was standing on the river, he says I was standing on the bank of the river. What's the difference between standing on the bank of the river and standing on the river? And why did Pharaoh feel motivated to have to change when he relayed the dream to יוסף Yosef? So again, we turn to רב סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik, and he tells us the preposition על al has the connotation of nearness, of proximity. But there's another meaning. על Al is a biblical idiom, as in והנה השם נצב עליו v'hinei Hashem nitzav alav. Hashem was standing over him, playing paying special attention to him, רש\"י Rashi. The word על al describes a relationship. יעקב Yaakov dreamt of God's concern for him. And now, when Pharaoh is על היאור al haye'or, the Nile is not merely a river. The economy of Egypt in antiquity depended on the Nile, as it does today. The Torah speaks of how this unique geographical feature was responsible for either abundance or for famine. In דברים Devarim, it tells us, when contrasting the Egypt and Israel, Israel is a place where our eyes are on Hashem always. Rely on the rain. Only when the rain falls will there be what to eat. But in Egypt, they rely on the Nile. Local rain did not play a role in the agricultural economy. Life instead depended on the Nile. רש\"י Rashi says no other river is called a river except the Nile, because the whole country consists of artificially constructed canals, and the Nile flows into them and fills them with water, since rain does not fall regularly in Egypt. The river became the very symbol of Egyptian civilization. Pharaoh thus saw himself עומד על היאור omed al haye'or. He was concerned with the destiny of Egypt as a land and as a people. So says the רב rav, what do you mean he's עומד על היאור omed al haye'or? על היאור Al haye'or is not just describing geographically where he was standing in this dream, when this unusual event took place, but על היאור al haye'or is describing in the רב's rav's words, Pharaoh's concern, his perspective, his relationship with the Egyptian economy. And I would humbly suggest that maybe it means more. We know that Pharaoh saw himself so arrogantly as responsible for the success of the economy. We know later, Pharaoh, a later Pharaoh relieves himself at the river, doesn't want anyone to know he's not a deity or a God. So Pharaoh historically sees himself so arrogantly as really the source and the cause of the Egyptian economy. So maybe והנה עומד על היאור v'hinei omed al haye'or, he's standing over the river. It means the people worship the river because they see the river as the source of their sustenance. And Pharaoh says, \"I stand over the river. I'm even greater than the river.\"In his later description of the dream to יוסף Yosef, Pharaoh used the term עומד על שפת היאור omed al sfas haye'or. Unlike the earlier phrase, here עומד על היאור omed al haye'or, על שפת היאור al sfas haye'or has no connotation other than physical description of the scene in his dream. And רב סולובייצ'יק Rabbi Soloveitchik suggests, maybe in this way, he was actually testing יוסף Yosef. When he describes the dream, he says, \"I was standing על שפת היאור al sfas haye'or,\" and there it's just a geographic description. When יוסף Yosef interprets Pharaoh's dream, he doesn't interpret it as על שפת היאור al sfas haye'or, he interprets it as על היאור al haye'or as the dream originally happened. And therefore, maybe that's why Pharaoh was so taken. Unlike the other interpretations which he rejected, the interpretation of יוסף Yosef had something superior, namely, יוסף Yosef saw in Pharaoh's dream something that Pharaoh himself didn't even relay. That's how astute, that's how insightful יוסף Yosef was. Pharaoh had the dream על היאור al haye'or, he said it was על שפת היאור al sfas haye'or, and יוסף Yosef knew it was על היאור al haye'or nonetheless, and maybe that's why Pharaoh was convinced that יוסף Yosef was the right dream interpreter. A share of רבי מאיר פרמישלאן Reb Meir Premishlan, our second רבי מאיר Reb Meir of today, who says, maybe this is what we say. We say this in תהילים פ\"ח Tehillim Pei Ches. It's in one of our שיר של יום shir shel yoms. The מדרש midrash on the פסוק pasuk says עדות ביהוסף שמו בצאתו על ארץ מצרים שפת לא ידעתי אשמע eidus biYehosef samo b'tseiso al eretz Mitzrayim, sfas lo yadati eshma. It's an unusual פסוק pasuk to even translate what it means. The testimony of יוסף Yosef when he left מצרים Mitzrayim, שפת לא ידעתי אשמע sfas lo yadati eshma. As דברי המדרש הללו divrei hamidrash halalu, the צדיק רבי מאיר פרמישלאן tzaddik Reb Meir Premishlan explained, that when Pharaoh has his dream, ופרעה חולם והנה עומד על היאור u'Pharaoh cholem v'hinei omed al haye'or. And yet when he communicates it, he says בחלומי הנני עומד על שפת היאור bachalomi hineni omed al sfas haye'or. So יוסף Yosef immediately corrects him. ומייד תיקן יוסף את פרעה ואמר כי בחלומו לא עמד פרעה על שפת היאור אלא על היאור U'miyad tiken Yosef es Pharaoh v'amar ki b'chalomo lo amad Pharaoh al sfas haye'or ela al haye'or. And that's what the פסוק pasuk means. עדות ביהוסף שמו בצאתו על ארץ מצרים Eidus biYehosef samo b'tseiso al eretz Mitzrayim. What's the עדות eidus that יוסף Yosef gave Pharaoh that he was a חכם chacham בצאתו על ארץ מצרים b'tseiso al eretz Mitzrayim, to have been appointed over all of Egypt? That שפת לא ידעתי אשמע sfas lo yadati eshma. When יוסף Yosef corrected him on the word שפת sfas, that Pharaoh said שפת היאור sfas haye'or, and יוסף Yosef corrected him it wasn't שפת היאור sfas haye'or, it was on the היאור ye'or itself, and it was in that correction, שפת היאור sfas haye'or, that's the עדות eidus that יוסף Yosef gave, that Pharaoh was moved by and elevated him on top of all. מצרים Mitzrayim. The very beautiful interpretation of what that פסוק pasuk may be means. Okay, let's continue. פרק מ\"א פסוק ט' Perek mem aleph pasuk tes. Moving right along. So we have these two unusual dreams, and פרעה Paro awakens. He had fallen back to sleep as we discussed, and he calls interpreters, and they all fail him. וידבר שר המשקים את פרעה לאמור, את חטאי אני מזכיר היום Vayidaber sar hamashkim es Paro leimor, es chatasai ani mazkir hayom. So the שר המשקים sar hamashkim turns to פרעה Paro and he says, את חטאי אני מזכיר היום es chatasai ani mazkir hayom, listen, I've got a great suggestion for you. I have the I got a guy. You know the people tell, I got a guy. Whatever you need, I've got a guy. שר המשקים Sar hamashkim says, I've got a guy. I've got a dream interpreter guy. But in order to be able to tell you how I have that guy, את חטאי אני מזכיר היום es chatasai ani mazkir hayom. I have to tell you where I met him. To tell you where I met him, it was in prison. And why was I in prison? Because I had failed you. So he takes a risk, שר המשקים sar hamashkim, in telling פרעה Paro about יוסף Yosef. פרעה קצף על עבדיו ויתן אותי במשמר בית שר הטבחים Paro katzav al avadav vayiten osi b'mishmar beis sar hatabachim, he gives him the whole history, if you remember, you were outraged at me, you threw me in prison, ונחלמה חלום בלילה אחד אני והוא vanachalma chalom b'laila echad ani v'hu, we had dreams there. איש כפתרון חלומו חלמנו ish k'fisron chaloimo chalamnu. ושם אתנו נער עברי עבד לשר הטבחים v'sham itanu na'ar ivri eved l'sar hatabachim. And there was a נער עברי עבד na'ar ivri eved, the שר הטבחים sar hatabachim. There was a נער na'ar, there was a young man with us there in Egypt. וידבר שר המשקים vayidaber sar hamashkim. The שר המשקים sar hamashkim here speaks to, speaks to, speaks to פרעה Paro and tells him that I have to remind you of how I got there, but I got a guy for you. I've got the perfect guy to interpret your dreams.So here we turn to our first, איש תמיד eish tamid or our first Rav Yisrael Meir Druk of the day. We have been on the פרשה שיעור parsha shiur this year studying so many of his beautiful insights of the great Rav Yisrael Meir Druk. I actually spoke to him this week and I told him how we've been sharing his תורה Torah and he was so, of course, gratified by it. So רש\"י Rashi on this פסוק pasuk, וידבר שר המשקים vayidaber sar hamashkim, these series of פסוקים psukim that שר המשקים sar hamashkim reminded פרעה Paro when we were in Egypt. Let's just finish the פסוק pasuk. ושם אתנו נער עברי עבד v'sham itanu na'ar ivri eved. While we were in prison, there was this נער na'ar. Now יוסף Yosef was in advanced age. He wasn't a young man at this time and yet, nonetheless, the שר המשקים sar hamashkim speaks so derogatively about יוסף Yosef, so dismissively about יוסף Yosef. He's a נער na'ar, he's a young lad. He's עברי ivri, he's another. He's a עבד לשר הטבחים eved l'sar hatabachim, he's a slave. ונספר לו ויפתר לנו את חלומותינו איש כחלומו פתר vanisaper lo vayiftor lanu es chalmoseinu, ish k'cholmo pasar, and he so accurately was able to interpret our dreams. It turned out to be true. ויהי כאשר פתר לנו כן היה אותי השיב על כני ואותו תלה vayihi ka'asher pasar lanu kein haya, osi heishiv al kani v'oso salah. And as he predicted, as he interpreted, thus, so it happened, I was returned to my post and the baker was hung. And רש\"י Rashi here on the pasuk says, ארורים הרשעים שאין טובתם שלמה arurim ha'reshaim she'ein tovasam shleima. Cursed are wicked people who can't just do a nice thing. מזכירו בלשון בזיון mazkiro b'lashon bizayon. The שר המשקים sar hamashkim threw in such gratuitous insults at יוסף Yosef. Why was it relevant? פרעה Paro says I'm looking for a guy. I need someone to interpret my dreams. And שר המשקים sar hamashkim has a guy. So why doesn't he just tell him, here's my guy. Why does he have to offer all the derogatory, degrading insults? נער na'ar, says רש\"י Rashi, שוטה ואין ראוי לגדולה shoteh v'ein ra'ui l'gedulah. What does שר המשקים sar hamashkim mean by נער na'ar? He's a kid. He's not worthy of greatness. He may be successful. He may come out and interpret your dreams, but if he does, even if he does successfully, don't elevate him. עברי, אף לשונו אינו מכיר Ivri, af leshono eino makir. He's an עברי ivri, he's an other. He's an outsider. He speaks another language, he's a foreigner. עבד, כסבור בנימוסי מצרים שאין עבד מולך ולובש בגדי שרים Eved, kasbur b'nimusei mitzrayim she'ein eved molech v'lovesh bigdei sarim. He's a slave. What are you gonna dress him in aristocracy, in royalty? You're going to elevate him and and and give him the wardrobe of an officer? He's an עבד eved. He's an עבד eved. So wonders of Druk, הנה יצטרך ביאור מה היה סברת שר המשקים, הלא ידע שאף אחד לא הצליח לפתור את החלום לפרעה, וידע מניסיונו שיוסף יצליח לפתור את החלום, כיצד היה סבור להשפיע על פרעה לשנות את דעתו של יוסף Hinei yitzarech bi'ur ma haya savras sar hamashkim? Haloi yada she'af echad lo hitzliach liftor es hachalom l'Paro, v'yada minisyono sheYosef yatzliach liftor es hachalom, keitzad haya savur lehashpia al Paro leshanos es da'ato shel Yosef? What in the world was שר המשקים sar hamashkim thinking? Was he trying to bias פרעה Paro against יוסף Yosef? Didn't he know it would never work? After all, פרעה Paro is bereft of an interpretation. פרעה Paro is startled, he's bothered, he can't find peace or solace. He needs someone to interpret the dreams. He knows יוסף Yosef is gonna succeed. יוסף Yosef is gonna hit a grand slam and knock it out of the park. And when יוסף Yosef succeeds, what will all of this bias do? Why will it help him to have spoken so, so derogatorily, so discriminately against יוסף Yosef? הלא ברור שמיד כאשר יפתר החלום לסביעות רצונו של פרעה, הרי פרעה יחטוף את יוסף ויכניענו לצידו. Halo barur shemiyad ka'asher yipater hachalom l'sviyus r'tzono shel Paro, harei Paro yachtof es Yosef v'yachnieinu l'tzido. It's gonna appoint him to a side. So what was the point? It seems so gratuitous.Listen to Rav Druk's answer. נראה לבאר על פי מה שביארנו הח\"ק בחפץ חיים בסיבת איסור לשון הרע. Nireh l'va'er al pi ma she'bi'arnu ha'Ashach v'Chofetz Chaim b'sibas issur lashon hara. The great חפץ חיים Chofetz Chaim and the Alshech, both explain why is לשון הרע lashon hara, why are gossip and slander so pernicious? Why are they so terrible? שהרושם הראשוני של אדם על אדם נקבע לפי מה ששמע עליו לראשונה Sheha'roshem ha'rishoni shel adam al adam nikba l'fi ma she'shama alav l'rishona. We know we have a principle that you never get a second chance to make what? A first impression. We have a concept in תורה Torah, we have a a concept in business, in the secular world, we have a concept in social world, that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The notion of a first impression. דיבורים ראשונים רעים על אדם נכנסים כארס שהאח\"כ היה השומע Diburim rishonim ra'im al adam nichnasim k'eres she'acharei kach haya hashoma'a. So when a person is prejudiced before they ever meet the other and they're told something about the other, it seeps in like poison. You contaminate, you absolutely embed within the listener a bias against the person they've not yet even met. המבט והסתכלות הראשונה של האדם קובע רושם רב, את כל החשיבה של הרואה והשומע Ha'mabat v'ha'histaklus ha'rishona shel ha'adam kove'a roshem rav, es kol ha'chashiva shel ha'ro'eh v'ha'shome'a. Have you ever had someone create a bias? Oh, that person is this, that, and the other. And then you meet them, and you can know that other person for years, and your own personal experience with that other person will disprove the bias you were told before you ever met them. And yet, years later, you still remember what you were told about them. Years later, it still impacts you, the seeds that were planted in you about the other person. נאמר בגמרא, הגמרא אומרת, מנין לשניים שבאו לדין, אחד לבוש סמרטוטין ואחד לבוש טלית שווה מאה מנה, שומרין ללבוש כמוהו או ילבש כמותך? Nemar ba'Gemara, ha'Gemara omeres, minayin l'shnayim sheba'u l'din, echad lavush samrtutin v'echad lavush talis shava meah maneh, shomrim l'lavosh kemoho o yilbash kemosecha? The הלכה halacha is, the גמרא Gemara in שבועות דף ל\"א Shavuos daf lamed aleph tells us that if two people come to בית דין beis din, two litigants come to בית דין beis din, and one comes in a custom made suit and the other is wearing tattered clothing, that you turn to the two litigants and you say, either, go out. Either both of you put on the tattered clothing, some of the tattered clothing today could be more expensive than the custom made suit, which is bizarre. But anyway, let's assume really tattered clothing, the tattered clothing of a poor person, not the ripped jeans that cost $400 that make no sense. So, you turn to the two litigants and you say, either you both go out and put on the tattered clothing, or you both go out and come back in in custom made suits, but you can't one come in in the custom made suit and the other come in in the ripped jeans. Why not? Why not? מבואר בדברי הגמרא להלן שהסתכלות הראשונה של הדיין על האדם היא היא שתקבע את כל המהלך בסדר דין הפסק המשפט. וכיון שאחד אדם בבגדיו הכרעת הדין יכול להיות מושפע מכך לעולם הרושם הראשוני הוא שקובע. Mevo'ar b'divrei ha'Gemara l'halan she'ha'histaklus ha'rishona shel ha'dayan al ha'adam, hi hi shetikba es kol ha'mahalach b'seder din psak ha'mishpat. V'keivan she'echad adam b'bgadav, hachra'as ha'din yachol lihiyos mushpa mi'kach. L'olam ha'roshem ha'rishoni hu she'kove'a. The reason is because when you walk in that courtroom and the judges take their first look at you, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. The first impression is powerful. That's why we have such an awesome responsibility in how we talk about others, especially somebody who's never met them, because we are planting the first impression. We are planting seeds that will last a very long time and will be difficult to overcome, even if what we said was done in a moment of anger or of revenge. זה מבואר שאפילו אדם עני, מוכרח אומנם לשנות את בגדיו. Zeh mevo'ar she'afilu adam ani, muchrach omanam l'shanos es b'gadav. A poor person we say change your clothing. How will it help? Once the trial begins, once the trial begins, the judges are going to learn that that's the poor person, that's the rich person. So how is it gonna help that you get them dressed up in the same costume, in the same clothing? Ultimately, the judges are going to learn the truth. How will it help? Says Rav Druk, you know why it helps? Because you never get a second chance to make a first impression. That first impression is so powerful, that's why we have to be very careful in protecting it. And that's why he says, that's why, שר המשקים sar hamashkim was trying to bias פרעה Paro. That even though yes, יוסף Yosef was going to succeed, and יוסף Yosef was going to interpret the dream, and when he did, then פרעה Paro would fall in love with him. But פרעה Paro would always have in the recesses of his mind that יוסף's Yosef's a נער na'ar and an עברי ivri and an עבד eved. And that's what שר המשקים sar hamashkim wanted to achieve. He wanted to plant the seeds of suspicion and doubt about יוסף Yosef, even if יוסף Yosef ultimately would turn out to be successful.Okay, פסוק מ\"א pasuk mem aleph, פרק מ\"א פסוק י\"ד perek mem aleph pasuk yud daled. So יוסף Yosef is summoned. שר המשקים Sar hamashkim had a guy, and it's time to go get that guy. And that guy is none other than יוסף Yosef. So the pasuk, we've turned the page, page 224 in the ArtScroll Stone Chumash. The Torah tells us, פרק מ\"א פסוק י\"ד perek mem aleph pasuk yud daled. וישלח פרעה ויקרא את יוסף vayishlach Paro vayikra es Yosef. Paro is convinced, let's give this man a chance. So he summons יוסף Yosef. ויריצוהו מן הבור Vayiritzuhu min ha'bor, and they go get him from the pit. ויגלח ויחלף שמלותיו ויבוא אל פרעה vayigaleach vayichalef simlosav vayavo el Paro. He changes his clothing, ויבוא אל פרעה vayavo el Paro. The ספורנו Sforno here on this פסוק pasuk. Listen to what the ספורנו Sforno says on this פסוק pasuk. In the midst of Corona, I don't even remember what month we're up to. Eight, nine, ten months, how many months we've been living with this pandemic. And yes, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. The vaccine has begun to ship, and in our community here in South Florida, it's even begun to be administered. But still we're in the depth and the darkness of this pandemic. The second wave, the third wave, and we're being warned that we are the devastation is yet to come. It feels like a very dark time. It feels like we're in a בור bor. We're in the bottom of a pit, of an endless pit, of a hopeless and dark pit. How do we get out? So listen to what this ספורנו Sforno says on this פסוק pasuk. פרק מ\"א Perek mem aleph, chapter 41, פסוק י\"ד pasuk yud daled, verse 14. Says the ספורנו Sforno, Rav Ovadia Sforno, the great Italian רשעון Rishon. He says the following: ויריצוהו מן הבור vayiritzuhu min ha'bor. Just picture יוסף Yosef is sitting in the pit. What does it mean that יוסף's Yosef's sitting in the pit? Just picture it for a moment. How long has יוסף Yosef been sitting in this pit, by the way? How long has he been sitting there? 12 years. 10 years originally, and then when he did over-השתדלות hishtadlus, when he did extreme initiative, he had to sit there for another two years. So he's been sitting in the pit for 12 years. And all of a sudden, ויריצוהו מן הבור vayiritzuhu min ha'bor. They call, יוסף Yosef! Jew! Come. We're taking you out. Says the ספורנו Sforno, כדרך כל תשועת השם שנעשה כרגע k'derech kol teshuas Hashem she'na'aseh k'rega. That's the way Hashem's salvation comes. It comes in an instant. כאמרו כי קרובה ישועתי לבוא k'omro ki krova yeshuasi lavo, like the pasuk in ישעיהו Yeshayahu who says that my salvation is closely approaching. כאמרו k'omro and as the pasuk says, לו עמי שומע לי כמעט אויביהם אכניע lu ami shome'a li, k'mat oyveihem achni'a. Pasuk in תהילים Tehillim. If only my nation would listen to me, in an instant I would subdue their enemies. וכן היה ענין מצרים, כאמרו כי גורשו ממצרים ולא יכלו להתמהמה v'chein haya inyan Mitzrayim, k'omro ki gor'shu mi'Mitzrayim v'lo yachlu l'hismahame'a. We know that we left Egypt after 210 years of persecution, oppression, slavery, servitude, murder, genocide. All of a sudden at the end of 210 years, we left hastily. We left in an instant. We left quickly, so much so that the dough didn't have time to rise. וכן אמר לעשות לעתיד v'chein amar la'asos l'asid. And the same is the way it's going to happen in the future, says the Sforno. כאמרו ופתאום יבוא אל היכלו האדון k'omro u'pisom yavo el heichalo ha'adon. The same is going to happen in the future, says the Sforno, it's going to happen, it's going to feel like it's happening in an instant. And that is the way גאולה geulah comes. And that should give all of us hope. It should give all of us faith. It should make us all excited. It comes in an instant. It comes out of nowhere.So יוסף Yosef is caught. He's unkempt, he's unshaven, and the big moment arrives and they take him out of the pit, and they have to shave him, they have to give him clothing, they have to be able to take him out, they have to get him ready. And the ספורנו Sforno says, this is the way that משיח Mashiach is going to come. This is the way all salvation and גאולה geulah arrives. It comes כהרף עין k'heref ayin. It comes in an instant. It comes even when we don't expect it, even when we think it's never going to happen. And so the person who's single and desperate to get married, or the person who's struggling to be able to become pregnant and have that child, or the person who's desperate for that job or the פרנסה parnassa, how are you gonna pay the next bill? Don't ever give up hope. Because think of יוסף Yosef. יוסף Yosef wasn't in the pit overnight. He wasn't in the pit for a year. יוסף Yosef was in this jail unjustly accused, falsely accused for 12 years. 12 years he's there. And all of a sudden, the ישועה yeshua comes כהרף עין k'heref ayin. It comes in an instant, and it comes out of nowhere. And Rav Volbe writes that that's the way it's going to feel when משיח Mashiach comes. That's why it's so critical and important for us to never give up hope, to never be too despondent, to never think it's too late, but to realize that the same way it happened for יוסף Yosef, and the same way it happened for our ancestors in מצרים Mitzrayim, it's a preview of what משיח Mashiach is going to be like when it comes later. And Rav Volbe in his שיעורי חומש shiurei Chumash points us to later in the parsha, when יוסף's Yosef's brothers are brought before him and he seats them according to their age and serves them food and he gives בנימין Binyamin the last and the final portion, and it's astounding that despite all the clues to the true identity of יוסף Yosef, that he is in fact their brother, they fail to realize who he is. They don't recognize him, as our Torah, as our parsha says. He recognizes them and they don't recognize him. And it's only after יוסף Yosef reveals himself that everything falls into place in hindsight. And so, on the one hand, yes, the brothers and spoiler alert, next week's parsha, יוסף Yosef reveals himself to the brothers. Sorry, I just spoiled it for you. The brothers certainly react and recoil with a sense of אוי לי מיום הדין, אוי לי מיום התוכחה oy li miyom hadin, oy li miyom hatochecha. On the one hand, yes, they realize their accountability as the picture has come into focus. They now realize their responsibility for what they had done. But the Mashgiach, Rav Yerucham, Rav Yerucham Levovitz also points out that at the same time everything came into focus. They thought that they had no food and no provisions. They thought that their brother was taken from them and they'd have to go back to their father without him. They thought that their world was caving in. And all of a sudden, in an instant, כהרף עין k'heref ayin, Yosef says, brothers, relax. It's me. It's me, יוסף Yosef, your brother. Everything's good. Everything's good. We're a family again, and you have endless provisions, and you're wealthy, and how is abba? And you're gonna come to מצרים Mitzrayim, we're gonna live together. כהרף עין k'heref ayin. In an instant, the גאולה geulah comes, whether it was for יוסף Yosef when he's called out of the pit, or whether it was for the brothers when יוסף Yosef reveals himself, or whether it will be for us, says Rav Volbe, when משיח Mashiach is going to come. The ישועה yeshua comes כהרף עין k'heref ayin and we should be ready for it. So never become too hopeless, never become too depressed or despondent, never stop believing that Hashem can come. Never stop believing.The אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, the great אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, I have to find him. Here he is, my אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. I'm going to give a vision to the Rebba, you didn't think we were going to go without an אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim. So the אמרי חיים Imrei Chaim, the great vision of the Rebba, says the following: וישלח פרעה ויקרא את יוסף vayishlach Paro vayikra es Yosef. This is a חסידישע תורה chasidishe Torah, listen carefully. וישלח פרעה vayishlach Paro. The name Paro, he says, אם שולח אדם מאיתו את פה רע im sholeach adam me'ito es peh ra. Paro is פה רע peh ra. פ-ר-ע-ה pei reish ayin hei is פה רע peh ra. So, וישלח פרעה vayishlach Paro, if we're willing to purge and get rid of our פה רע peh ra of the mouth that speaks slander and gossip, of the mouth that has rage and anger, of the mouth that speaks with ego and arrogance, if וישלח פרעה vayishlach Paro, if we can get rid of our Paro, our פה רע peh ra, then ויקרא את יוסף vayikra es Yosef. אם מקדש לשונו, ויקרא את יוסף, ממשיך עליו קדושת יוסף Im mekadesh leshono, vayikra es Yosef, mamshech alav kedushas Yosef. The way to become יוסף Yosef, the way to realize the יוסף Yosef in us, the holy spark in us, is וישלח פרעה vayishlach Paro. Get rid of the פה רע peh ra and ויקרא את יוסף vayikra es Yosef. Then you can welcome, then you can discover the קדושת יוסף kedushas Yosef within each and every one of us. Okay, a lot more to cover.Now, they have this conversation, יוסף Yosef and פרעה Paro meet, and so much to talk about within this conversation. How יוסף Yosef is the first קירוב kiruv professional. Tomorrow night on Behind the Bima, we're going to have Lori Palatnik, Momentum, an enormous force of קירוב kiruv in this world. יוסף Yosef the first קירוב kiruv professional. He doesn't provide the Bible codes. He doesn't say here's seven wonders of Jewish history. He doesn't make the arguments for God's existence. All he does is start talking about Hashem. I think we talked about this last week in the Living with Emunah shiur. If you're not part of it, join the movement. Wednesday mornings 8:45, you can listen online. We have close to 200 שיעורים shiurim of Living with Emunah, how you can live with Hashem every day in your life. Living with Emunah, Wednesday mornings 8:45. You can find them online. So we spoke about יוסף Yosef, שם שמים שגור בפיו shem shamayim shagua b'piv. יוסף Yosef is the first seminary girl. אם ירצה השם, בעזרת השם, מחתת השם Im yirtzeh Hashem, b'ezras Hashem, me'chadas Hashem. Everything is thank you Hashem. ברוך השם Baruch Hashem. And when he does that with פרעה Paro, all of a sudden פרעה Paro turns around and he says, wow, אלקים Elokim, all of a sudden he says, um, פרעה Paro starts talking about God himself. פרעה Paro invokes, have you ever met someone who has רוח אלקים ruach elokim? פרעה Paro starts talking about God himself. So פרק מ\"א פסוק ל\"ג perek mem aleph pasuk lamed gimmel. מ\"א ל\"ג mem aleph lamed gimmel.So what happens? פרעה Paro, יוסף Yosef is interpreting the dreams. ועתה ירא פרעה איש נבון וחכם וישיתהו על ארץ מצרים V'atah yerei Paro ish navon v'chacham v'yishiseihu al eretz Mitzrayim. Now let פרעה Paro seek out a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. יוסף Yosef does something which is something that I am very sensitive to. פרעה Paro is looking for someone to interpret his dream, but יוסף Yosef doesn't just interpret the dream. יוסף Yosef doesn't just point out that the dream is going to pose a problem. You're gonna have fat years but then you're gonna have thin years. Your economy is going to is gonna plummet. יוסף Yosef doesn't just point out the problem. What else does he do? He offers a solution. This pasuk, ועתה ירא פרעה איש נבון וחכם וישיתהו על ארץ מצרים V'atah yerei Paro ish navon v'chacham v'yishiseihu al eretz Mitzrayim. Here's the solution. יוסף Yosef is the first, יוסף Yosef is is saving the economy because he doesn't just point out the problem, he says here's an economic solution. Here's what we're going to do in the fat years in order to be able to save, in order to be able to have for the thin years. He doesn't just see the problem, he offers a solution. And Rav Soloveitchik points out on this pasuk, Rav Soloveitchik says, that when he offers this solution, he says, you're looking for a someone who's נבון navon and חכם chacham. Someone who's נבון navon and חכם chacham. And פרעה Paro turns to יוסף Yosef and he says, well if that's the case, if that's your suggestion, if that's who I need to run the economy, then the Fed chair, then that's you. I'm hiring you to be the next Fed chair. Why? Because אין חכם ואין נבון וחכם כמוך ein chacham v'ein navon v'chacham kamocha. Go to pasuk lamed tes. ויאמר פרעה אל יוסף אחרי הודיע אלקים אותך את כל זאת Vayomer Paro el Yosef, acharei hodia Elokim oscha es kol zos. Again you see the success of his nuanced passive outreach. It's a passive outreach strategy where you're not proselytizing but simply when you talk about God, it is a passive outreach strategy, and it's successful, because פרעה Paro turns to יוסף Yosef and he says, אחרי הודיע אלקים אותך את כל זאת אין נבון וחכם כמוך acharei hodia Elokim oscha es kol zos, ein navon v'chacham kamocha. There's not a נבון navon and חכם chacham like you. So what happened here? יוסף Yosef tells him you need an איש נבון וחכם ish navon v'chacham. And what does פרעה Paro say? אין נבון וחכם כמוך ein navon v'chacham kamocha. What was יוסף Yosef thinking when he suggested you need someone נבון וחכם navon v'chacham, and why is פרעה Paro responding, there is no נבון וחכם navon v'chacham like you. You are the most נבון וחכם navon v'chacham around. So Rav Soloveitchik says, you know what נבון navon and חכם chacham are? Is that just, are they synonyms? Are we just repeating? Or is there a difference between them? He says a חכם chacham is one who was somehow guided by a mysterious light. To run the Egyptian empire, יוסף Yosef had to have the imagination. חכמה chachma is not enough. The נבון navon translates the imagination into fact. פרעה Paro recognized that יוסף Yosef possessed both qualities. He was חכם chacham and נבון navon. A man with a great imagination, but also one who could implement his plan. You know, you have dreamers. We said earlier that פרעה Paro is a dreamer. פרעה Paro doesn't just dream while he's sleeping, פרעה Paro dreams even while he's awake. You have to have vision, you have to have dreams, you have to have creativity. But very often, the profile of the person who has the dreams and the creativity and the vision is the person who struggles to get them done. Can't implement them, is lost. You have brilliant minds, dreamers, that can't match their socks together. You know, Rav Soloveitchik never drove because I heard the story, I don't think it's apocryphal. He had once gotten his license and he drove one time and his mind had wandered, he was probably trying to figure out a שמיעתא דרמב\"ם shmaita d'Rambam, and almost got in an accident and they took his license away. Some people aren't meant to drive. They're not living down here in this world. Their mind is not is not functioning down here. So you have the people who are creative and imagination and dreamers, but they struggle to implement. And then you've got the grinders. They implement. You've got the person who, done and done. You tell them what to do and they get it done. But you know what? They work off a checklist. Whatever's on their checklist, they do, but they can never ever think or dream off the paper. It never occurs to them to try something different than the way it was always done. אין נבון וחכם כמוך Ein navon v'chacham kamocha, what יוסף Yosef said is, your next Fed chairman, what you're going to need to do in your next cabinet post for the economy, is you need someone who's both חכם ונבון chacham v'navon. You need someone with imagination and creativity, but who can also implement and execute. And יוסף Yosef and פרעה Paro says, hmm, who is that person? You know who it is? You. You're the חכם chacham and נבון navon. You've got exactly, you've got just what it takes. Rav Druk also comments on the words נבון וחכם כמוך navon v'chacham kamocha. Rav Druk in his אש תמיד eish tamid also deals with this, and he says the following. He says, just finding the place. Yeah, here it is. הנה ודאי כאשר יוסף הציע לפרעה עצה זו, חשש שפרעה ימנה אדם אחר במקומו זה, ולכן הציע לפרעה את ההצעה זו כדי שלא ימנה חרטומי מצרים. Hinei vadai ka'asher Yosef hitzia l'Paro eitza zo, chashash she'Paro yimneh adam acher b'mkomo zeh. V'lachen hitzia l'Paro es ha'hatza'ah zo k'dei shelo yimneh chartumei Mitzrayim. Now, Rav Druk is assuming, you don't necessarily have to make this assumption, but he makes it, that when יוסף Yosef suggested him, you need an איש נבון וחכם ish navon v'chacham, and he's just proven himself to be that person through his capacity to interpret the dream, יוסף Yosef was essentially applying for the position. He did so in a passive way, but he was essentially applying for the position. And Rav Druk wonders the following question. הדברים צריכין ביאור, הלא ההשתדלות הראשונה שעשה יוסף דרך שר המשקים, השיעור או שהוא שנתיים בבור Ha'dvarim tzrichim bi'ur, halo ha'hishtadlus ha'rishona she'asa Yosef derech sar hamashkim, ha'shiur oso shenatayim ba'bor. Last week's parsha we know that when יוסף Yosef says to the שר המשקים sar hamashkim, don't forget me, don't you forget about me, he means, when you come out and you meet פרעה Paro and you have the opportunity, you have access and you have an audience with the emperor, don't forget about little old me and what I did for you here in prison. And Hashem says, mmm, that was over initiative. You said it to שר המשקים sar hamashkim twice, you clearly didn't trust and believe in me, and therefore you're spending two extra years in prison. So the same יוסף Yosef who suffered two extra years because he understood the problem, the challenge of taking too much initiative, now he's applying for a position with פרעה Paro. Why didn't he let go, let God? Why is he taking the initiative? Shouldn't he have allowed Hashem to do his magic? So why is this time different? Why didn't he learn his lesson? Why isn't he punished for it? Says Rav Druk, because there's a fundamental difference. Before he makes the suggestion, you need an איש נבון וחכם ish navon v'chacham, what does he say? בילעדי, אלקים יענה את שלום פרעה Biladai, Elokim ya'aneh es shlom Paro. יוסף Yosef says it's not me. Oh, the dream interpretation, I'm so happy that you like it. I'm so happy it resonates and it works for you. It's not me. I'm just a mouthpiece. I'm just a conduit and agent. It's really all coming from God. So because יוסף Yosef first displayed the אמונה emunah and ביטחון bitachon, then he was allowed to take the השתדלות hishtadlus. In the case of שר המשקים sar hamashkim, says Rav Druk, he did it in the wrong order. He had too much השתדלות hishtadlus and only then showed the אמונה emunah, and that's why he was punished for it.Okay. Now ויקרא יוסף vayikra Yosef, pasuk nun aleph, mem aleph nun aleph. מ\"א נ\"א mem aleph nun aleph. Says the pasuk, ויקרא יוסף את שם הבכור מנשה כי נשני אלקים את כל עמלי ואת כל בית אבי Vayikra Yosef es shem ha'bchor Menashe ki nashani Elokim es kol amali v'es kol beis avi. Fast forward, יוסף Yosef has been appointed the viceroy of Egypt, the second in command. Has anyone ever heard of the position viceroy since the story of Mikeitz? Do we have viceroys in America or anywhere else in the world? Anyway, there's certain words that we only use when we need to translate in the parsha. So יוסף Yosef rises to the position of I guess I'm more entertained by that than you are. יוסף Yosef rises to the position of viceroy of Egypt. He's in charge of the economy. He's saving the economy and he's going on with his life. And he marries. He's called צפנת פענח Tzafnas Paneach, ויתן לו את אסנת בת פוטי פרע כהן און לאשה vayiten lo es Osnas bas Poti Fera kohen On l'isha. He marries Osnas, the daughter of Poti Fera. Who is this Poti Fera? I always point this out because I can't stand the irony. Poti Fera Rashi tells us is Potifar, בניקרא פוטי פרע על שנשטרש מעצמו שהיה חומד את יוסף למשכב זכר b'nikra Poti Fera al she'nistareis me'atzmo she'haya chomed es Yosef l'mishkav zachar. Potifar became sterile, which was a punishment because Potifar actually was attracted to יוסף Yosef. He had a same gender attraction to יוסף Yosef, and therefore Hashem made him sterile. This is Potifar is Potifar, we're calling him Poti Fera. Osnas is his daughter. That means who's Osnat's mother? Or at least stepmother, if it's another mother, is אשת פוטיפר eishes Potifar. Who's אשת פוטיפר eishes Potifar? The woman who relentlessly tried to seduce and falsely accuses יוסף Yosef. So you can only imagine what Thanksgiving dinner is like when יוסף Yosef is at his in-laws. Think about who's there and his mother-in-law and the false accusation and the experience that they had. But I don't really see a lot of people talking about that. But anyway, that is something that comes up.So יוסף Yosef is 30 years old when he becomes the head of מצרים Mitzrayim, and he in fact executes his plan. He wasn't just a dreamer, didn't just have the imagination, he executes it. He marries and he has these two children. And the pasuk tells us that he gives them names. The בכור bachor is called מנשה, כי נשני אלקים את כל עמלי ואת כל בית אבי Menashe, ki nashani Elokim es kol amali v'es kol beis avi. He calls the first one מנשה Menashe because Hashem caused me to forget all my toil and all my father's household. ואת שם השני קרא אפרים, כי הפרני אלקים בארץ עניי V'es shem ha'sheni kara Efraim, ki hifrani Elokim b'eretz onyi. The second son is called Efraim, Hashem made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. מנשה Menashe and אפרים Efraim are the two sons and they are the names with which we bless our sons on Friday night. The ברכה bracha that we give that they should be like מנשה Menashe and אפרים Efraim. What's going on here with this ברכה bracha to be like מנשה Menashe and אפרים Efraim? When he ascends to these great heights. So, he names his kids these things. So, this first name, מנשה Menashe, כי נשני אלקים ki nashani Elokim. Hashem caused me to forget all my hardship. He caused me to forget my father's household. Is יוסף Yosef a צדיק tzaddik being callous? He names his son thank you for letting me forget everything about that came before. Is this a coping mechanism? Is this how he's adjusting? Is he hardened to his new reality? Has become bitter? How is it possible that יוסף Yosef, who was so close, יוסף Yosef who was the spitting image of his father, how is it possible that in his rise to greatness, he forgot about where he came from? Don't we always say don't forget where you come from? And here's יוסף Yosef, not only forgetting where he came from, but he's naming his son, thank you for letting me forget. There are a number of suggestions which are offered. First of all, it seems to me that if you name your kid I have forgotten my family, it means one thing. You haven't forgotten your family and you don't want to. But furthermore, the עקידה Akeida suggests that יוסף Yosef doesn't mean to say I've literally forgotten them, what he meant was I have a selective memory. And what he means when he says כי נשני ki nashani is, I am choosing to look back on my life and only remember the highlights. Yeah, there was fighting, yeah, there was favoritism, yeah, there was rivalry, but I'm choosing to engage and employ a selective memory. That's how the עקידה Akeida understands. It's not that יוסף Yosef is saying I have forgotten my father and I've forgotten everything about where I've come from, but rather I am choosing to engage a selective memory. I'm choosing to omit and edit out the animosity, the conflict, the enmity, and so on. Rav Hirsch, Rav Shamshon Rafael Hirsch, has an altogether different approach. He says the suggestion that יוסף Yosef could forget his family is preposterous. Of course he couldn't forget. So he reinterprets what the word נשני nashani means, the root of the word of the name, of the name מנשה Menashe. He says here נשני nashani doesn't mean cause me to forget. Says Rav Hirsch, it means what the word נושה nosheh means when it comes to שמיטה shmitta. In the laws of שמיטה shmitta we use the word נושה nosheh and in that context נושה nosheh is a creditor. In other words, says Rav Hirsch, יוסף Yosef celebrates the birth of his son as he enjoys a position of great prominence in the strongest empire in the world. And when he reflects back on it and he says, wow, how did I get here? I'm the viceroy of Egypt. I live in a palace. I have wealth. And now I'm married and I have a son. He names him כי נשני אלקים ki nashani Elokim. What he seemed until now to be terrible misfortune, he realizes upon reflection is exactly what brought him to that great moment. And so he says, I am now deeply indebted to my perceived misfortune and my family who brought them on. כי נשני אלקים ki nashani Elokim, says Rav Hirsch, doesn't mean I have forgotten. כי נשני ki nashani means I am indebted. I am indebted to the perceived misfortune, and I'm indebted to my family who made this happen. יוסף Yosef had suffered this string of challenges and hardships, and he hadn't only survived, but now יוסף Yosef finds himself thriving. And he could have looked back and said, forget them, I've risen above them, I've disproven them, I've moved on from them. But he doesn't say any of those things. Instead he looks and he says, all of that is what made me who I am. All of that is what led to today. He doesn't dismiss it and doesn't get rid of it, but he looks at it and he says, it too contributes to making me the man I am, to making me the person who I am, who I am today. The ליקוטי הלכות Likutei Halachos, Rav Nosson of Breslov, the student of Rav Nachman of Breslov, has a beautiful insight on these two names, מנשה Menashe and אפרים Efraim. And while I have so much more I wanted to share, oh my, so much more I wanted to share. Well, I have to end with this. Says Rav Nosson, he says, על שם זה נקרא בני יוסף מנשה ואפרים al shem zeh nikra b'nei Yosef Menashe v'Efraim. אשר הולידם יוסף במצרים שהיא ערות הארץ asher holidam Yosef b'Mitzrayim she'hi ervas ha'aretz. Where are they born, מנשה Menashe and אפרים Efraim? They're born in מצרים Mitzrayim, they're born in this foreign, hostile land. They're born in exile. והוא בגודל צדקתו זכה גם שם לעמוד בניסיונו ולא ליפול בדתו v'hu b'godel tzidkaso zacha gam sham la'amod b'nisyono v'lo lipol b'da'ato. כמה שהיה עובר עליו k'mah she'avar alav. Yosef never became compromised. He never assimilated. He never forgot his values. כי כשנכנס אדם לניסיון ואינו נופל בדעתו, שלוקחים ממנו שלמות הדעת, שזה עיקר הניסיון ki k'she'nichnas adam l'nisayon v'eino nofel b'da'ato, shelokchim mimenu shleimus hadaas, shezeh ikar ha'nisayon. כאשר שמעתי ממנו שם הברכה ka'asher shama'ati mimenu shem ha'bracha. ויוסף עבר עליו כל זה והיה בניסיון גדול ועמד בניסיון V'Yosef avar alav kol zeh v'haya b'nisayon gadol v'amad b'nisayon. ועל ידי זה זכה שיהיה לו כוח לברר ולנצח הטוב בכל מקום שהוא v'al yedei zeh zacha she'yihiyeh lo koach l'vareir u'lenatzeiach ha'tov b'chol makom she'hu. שעל ידי זה היה כוח לישראל להיות במצרים בגלות she'al yedei zeh haya koach l'Yisrael lihiyos b'Mitzrayim b'galus, כי למחיה שלחני אלוקים ki l'michyah sh'lachani Elokim. Yosef becomes the paradigm and the model for how to live in exile. How to live with prosperity in exile. How to not forget where we come from, how to let go of the hurt and embrace the joy, how to hold on to the values. כי לולי כוח יוסף הצדיק שהקדים לפניהם שם, לא היה כוח לישראל לעמוד בגלות ki lulei koach Yosef ha'tzadik she'hikdim lifneihem sham, lo haya koach l'Yisrael la'amod b'galus. Had Yosef not created this precedent, this מעשה אבות סימן לבנים ma'aseh avos siman l'banim, we would not know how to live in exile. וכן אף שלולי כוח הצדיקים אמיתים שמלמדים עלינו זכות ומחזקים אותנו, לא היה כוח לסבול מרירות הגלות v'chein af sh'lulei koach ha'tzadikim amiti'im she'melamdim aleinu zechus u'mechazkim osanu, lo haya koach lisbol merirus ha'galus. And if we didn't have our role models, and we didn't have our contemporary righteous צדיקים tzadikim who paved the way, we would be lost in גלות galus too. We would have no idea how to find השם Hashem or live life. על כן קרא שם בניו מנשה ואפרים al kein kara shem banav Menashe v'Ephraim. Says Reb Nosson of Breslov, and that's why he named his sons Menashe and Ephraim. על שם זה שאפילו במקומות רחוקים מאוד יכול למצוא את השם al shem zeh she'afilu b'mekomos rechokim me'od yachol limtzo es Hashem. Even in the far-off and the distant places, one can find השם Hashem. Even in a pandemic, even in the pit, even in גלות מצרים galus Mitzrayim, even in exile, even in a moment that feels like despair, you can find השם Hashem. זהו בחינת מנשה, שנקרא על שם כי נשני השם את כל עמלי zehu b'chinas Menashe, shenikra al shem ki nashani Hashem es kol amali. אפילו הניסיון והשכחה, הכל מהשם afilu ha'nisayon v'ha'shich'cha, ha'kol mei'Hashem. Everything is from השם Hashem. The ability to forget the misfortune, the ability to forget the hardship, the ability to employ a selective memory, that's also from השם Hashem. שגם בבחינת חלל הפנוי, ששם אינו יכול למצוא אלוקותו יתברך, גם זה מהשם יתברך she'gam b'v'chinas chalal ha'panui, she'sham eino yachol limtzo Elokuso yisborach, gam zeh mei'Hashem yisborach. Even the hole in our heart, even when we feel that we're lost or distant from השם Hashem, that's also from השם Hashem. Sometimes that distance makes the heart grow fonder and becomes the catalyst that pushes us to come closer. That too is from השם Hashem. כי יודע שהניסיון והשכחה גם כן מהשם יתברך ki yodea she'ha'nisayon v'ha'shich'cha gam kein mei'Hashem yisborach. ועל ידי זה יכול להשתדל לחפש את השם יתברך גם משם v'al yedei zeh yachol l'hishtadel l'chapes es Hashem yisborach gam mi'sham. ואפרים נקרא על שם כי הפרני אלוקים בארץ עניי v'Ephraim nikra al shem ki hifrani Elokim b'eretz onyi. שגם בארץ עניי אני יכול למצוא טוב she'gam b'eretz onyi ani yachol limtzo tov. Even in a foreign land I could find the good. מנשה Menashe is סור מרע sur mei'ra, and אפרים Ephraim is עשה טוב aseh tov. When we're in that exile and we're in that foreign land, we distance ourselves from the negative, and we pursue the positive, and even in a place of hardship and struggle and challenge, one can nevertheless continue to still find השם Hashem.As I said, a lot more to cover, but we're out of time. Wishing everyone a פרייליכן חנוכה freilichen Chanukah, a לעכטיגע חנוכה a lechtige Chanukah. Join us tomorrow morning for 10 minutes of meaning at 8:15. Living with אמונה emunah at 8:45. Going behind the Bima tomorrow night with Lou Platnik at 9 p.m. And again, thank you to our sponsors. Please note, next week, YouTube. If you're looking at YouTube, subscribe to that YouTube channel, it'll remind you when we go live for all of our classes. 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