Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection

00:00 - Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe (Host)
All right, welcome back everybody to the weekly Parshah review. It is an honor to be here with all y'all this morning and this week's Parshahs, parshahs Valleyshev it is the ninth portion. If you can believe it, it's already the ninth portion in the book of Genesis. What an incredible Parshah. And, as I've mentioned previously, yosef I Don't know just he he touches me in a way. The story of Yosef I get. I get very emotional when I talk about Yosef. Yosef, such a, such a special person. In fact, the only other person aside for Yosef called a tzadik is Noah, and We'll talk about that soon. But there are 112 verses in this week's Parshah, 1558 words, 5972 letters. Why do we say that? We say that every week because there's not an extra word, is not an extra letter, and we'll see an example this week as well as To why Hashem put a specific word in the Torah, why it's added, why it's not added. Everything we'll see is exact and perfect. I and there's no mitzvahs in this week's Parshah. We just learn from the teachings of our sages, we learn from how to conduct ourselves properly and we learn many, many lessons. There's a lot of stories in Genesis, but they're not just stories, they're life lessons. They're things that we need to derive and extract all of the meaning and the purpose and the wisdom To instill into our lives. So let's jump right in.

01:37
So the Parshah begins Yosef and his brother. So Yaakov. Now a hundred years old, he settles in the land of Kanan and stays in chevron with his 12 sons. Yaakov loves his son, yosef, more than the other brothers, more than the other sons, and gives him a multicolored coat as a gift. Yosef's brothers were jealous of him and they hated him. It's interesting that the Torah says this multiple times. Yosef tells them about two dreams that upset them even more. The two dreams were as follows. One they were in the field. One sheaf arose and 11 sheaves surrounded and bowed to it, and they hated Yosef, the Sun, the moon. The second dream was that the Sun, the moon, the 11 stars bowed to Yosef and they were jealous of Yosef. And it says actually the verse says, by Yosef, who owed snow. So, and they Increased their hatred towards him.

02:39
The brothers go to fields near Schem to bring their sheep to the pasture. There. Yosef stays behind to care for Yaakov and gives a critical report of his brothers. The brothers, including Shimon and Levi, indict Yosef and resolve to execute him. Now they indicted him based on halachic reasoning and and here Yosef committed a sin, an egregious sin of Lashon Harav speaking slander against his brother, his brothers, and they convened a bettin a court and said okay, we got to put him to death. Now there's a lot to talk about, we'll see soon. Ruvane persuades them, you ruins the oldest of the biological brothers we consider. Yosef gets the double portion as the first born because he's from Jacob's favored wife, rachel, and he's the oldest son to Rachel. So, but Ruvane is the oldest of the family and he persuades them not to kill Yosef but instead to throw Yosef into a pit and Ruvane intends to come back to save him. Upon Yehuda's recommendation, the brothers sell Yosef, who at the time is only 17 years old, to the Ishmaelites for 20 silver pieces.

03:58
Ruvane returns after caring for Yaakov, and you see that Joseph was caring for Yaakov and then Ruvane was caring for Yaakov. What they did was and this is I just a side note it's important to care for our parents. Ruvane, shim on. Each one of the tribes had a rotation when they were responsible to care for their father. There was a time when Yosef was caring and there was a time when Ruvane was caring. Ruvane gets back there To the pit to find the pit empty and Yosef is gone. The brothers soak Yosef's coats in goat blood, which is similar to human blood, and Shows it to Yaakov. They show it to Yaakov, who assumes he makes an assumption that Yosef has been devoured by wild beasts. Yaakov tears his clothes. Yaakov tears his clothes and he starts mourning for Yosef and he's inconsolable. Now it's very interesting. There's something called plausible deniability, where you come up with an assumption and I'm not here to correct you from your assumption, and this is sort of what's happening with Yaakov. Yaakov makes an assumption that my son Joseph was devoured by a wild beast and the brothers are just there not saying a word, not correcting him, not Saying anything. You just live with on with your assumption.

05:21
Then comes the incredible story of Yehuda and Tamar. So you who does son and this is a very important teaching in the Torah, very important teaching in the Torah Yehuda has two sons, air and onan. You who does son, dies as punishment for preventing his wife, tamar, from becoming pregnant. A man has a very powerful Ingredient that can bring life if done properly. Wasting that seed, wasting that power, is one of the most hated things upon. The Almighty God takes air, is life because he spilled his seed. Onan, you, who does. Second son Weds Tamar by levered marriage, which is to bring his brother's life to to memorial, and he too is punished for the same deed. When you, who does wife dies, tamar resolves to have children from you who does, as per her prophecy. She has prophecy that she will Be her children to you, who will eventually be Messiah, and we'll see this in a few minutes.

06:34
Yehuda admits his guilt. The guilt so we'll see what happens is is that she hears that Yehuda's wife dies. Tamar hears she's now a widow of two husbands. She hears that Her mother-in-law passed away and her father-in-law is now alone and that he's coming to town. So she takes off her clothes of morning and she hides in a veil and she solicits him to have relations with her.

07:04
She, he doesn't know who she is, he doesn't recognize her, and she says what's gonna be my payment? He says well, I'll send you a whole flock of sheep, which he does. She says but how am I gonna know that it's you? What are we? How are we gonna know this? He says here, take my staff, and my staff will be the identification that it's me. So she holds on to. He didn't know who she was, she know who he was and she knew from a prophecy that she was going to have Descendants from Judah. First you thought it was the sons. Turns out it was actually from Yehuda that she was gonna have that child. It was going to bring about the Messiah.

07:46
So now Yehuda finds out three months later, the tom, the Torah, tells us. Three months later he finds out that his former daughter-in-law, tamar, is pregnant. He didn't know about her getting married, he didn't know that it was from him. So he adjourns a court and says okay, she needs to be put to death because she's just doing things. And she says wait a second, wait a second right before she says does anybody recognize this staff? And you who just says that's my staff, she's like well, we have something here, something happened to which you who it admits, which actually our sages tell us is the ingredient for leadership. It's one of the great leadership Abilities. For someone to be able to admit their guilt, the admit their wrongdoing, is a very, very, very high thing. And Yehuda lives up to that with his admission here. And and you who admits his guilt and Tamar, beers to sons, to you who the parrots and Zerach, and Indeed, the Messiah comes from parrots Yo safe. Back to Egypt now. Hashem blesses Yo safe. He is well liked by everyone and everything he does is successful.

09:10
Yosef rises to power in the house of his Egyptian master, potifar. His extreme beauty Attracts the unwanted advances of his master's wife, the wife of potifar, and, enraged by his rejection, she accuses Yosef of attempting to seduce her and Yosef is imprisoned in prison. Yosef rises to the top again, impresses people and is placed in charge of the other prisoners. When fellow inmates have dreams they cannot interpret, yosef accurately interprets them. Pharaoh's chief wine butler will be reinstated, while Pharaoh's chief baker will be hanged. Yosef asks the butler to use his two words remember him. And he returns to Pharaoh. And Then the butler forgets about Yosef and Yosef languishes in prison for two more years.

10:14
And that's how we start next week's Torah portion by he mcate's shna sayem. And it was two years later. What was the two years? That was the extra two years that Yosef was imprisoned because he said two words that showed a lack of trust in Hashem. He said two words and for Yosef, who was considered a tzadik, he was a righteous holy Jew. He was a righteous, holy person. At the level that he was at, this was a high degree of, I Would say, not rebellion, but distancing himself from Hashem. Now we'll see that these two years served as a very, very powerful message for Yosef, because the first thing, when we talk about the important lessons we need to get out of this week's parasha, yosef was a growing. You see a very raw example of what a growing Jew looks like.

11:12
He learns his lesson from experience. He learns his lesson. You know. There's a difference between someone doing something wrong and sticking with it, versus doing something wrong and recognizing. You know what? I got punished. I should change my ways and Become a different person, and that's Yosef. Yosef, I'll give you an example.

11:32
Yosef, when he interprets the dreams this time he just interprets the dreams the beginning of next week's parasha. He also interprets dreams, but this time for Pharaoh. And what does he say? After two years of being in prison and probably sitting and learning the book of Chovos halavovos, the importance of be tachon, the importance of clarity and knowledge of Hashem. What happens now? Something totally different. When he's asked to interpret the dream, he says if Hashem will grant me to interpret the dream, I Will interpret it as God tells me. Oh, that's a little bit different than what he said till now. He took that lesson. He took that experience and changed, which is what we need to do. We need to take experiences. You know what? There's nothing wrong with making a mistake we all make mistakes, we're human but there is something wrong making a mistake and not owning up to it and not changing our ways.

12:33
I had the privilege this year, before Yom Kippur, as we all do, we introspect, we think about our year, we think about what we've done right, what we potentially may have done wrong. And I made two phone calls to two rabbis that are friends of mine, who live in other cities, who, in two different, very different matters one was a community matter and one was a rabbinic matter I disagreed with them very harshly and I felt that perhaps I was not respectful enough. Even though we're friends, there's still prominent rabbis respectively in their own communities and I said you know what? The right thing for me to do is humble myself, pick up the phone and call them and apologize. And the most remarkable thing happened is that both of them shared with me their gratitude and appreciation for me reaching out. They both said no, we understood. You're defending your community and you're defending your people and you're doing the right thing and we appreciate so much that you reached out Both of them. It was amazing and what happened as a result? We became so much closer.

13:56
So, while it may have been a dip in the relationship, where things go awry guess what you can make it so much greater. But you know the best example of this Marriage what marriage doesn't have conflict? What marriage doesn't have disagreements? But you know what? It's the greatest gift for a relationship? Fighting is not a problem in marriage. Hating is a problem in marriage. If you can't make up from a fight and if you can't bring the relationship to a higher level, then potentially there could be a problem. But if you use that dip for the next rise, for the next elevation in that relationship, that's what we're supposed to be doing. There's no problem in making mistakes. That's the journey of life. We're human beings. What we need to do is utilize those mistakes to become better people, and we see Yosef doing that. It's a perfect example. Yosef is using every resource he has to correct himself and become the best possible person he can become. So let's look into some more of the important lessons we can take from this week's Barsha. So it's very important for us to remember this constantly.

15:15
The author always writes about what's important to him. John Grisham, l'havdil, elif, alpha, avdolos not to compare between holy and unholy. When God writes in his Torah, he writes about what's important to him. When authors write their mystery novels and whatever they write about what's important to them JK Rowling writes in what is that, harry Potter? She writes about what's important to her.

15:39
Hashem writes about what's important to him. If you want to know what's important to the Almighty, look about what he spends time writing about. He talks about righteous people. He talks about good people. He talks about growing people. Oh, you want to know about Asa v'nishmo? Not much detail. You want to know about the people of Saddam and Gomorrah? Not much detail. God doesn't really like them.

16:03
You want to look about Abraham? Oh, there's a lot to talk about Abraham. Hashem focuses a lot on Abraham, isaac and Jacob and Joseph Tremendous amount. You want to see about the Jewish people, their struggles, their successes. There's a lot to see in that, because you know what Even the struggle Hashem likes, which is why there's not a single struggle that's omitted from the Torah.

16:30
You want to see about the golden calf? Oh, it's written in the Torah, it's not. We don't hide it, we don't cover it over, throw it under the rug. You know what? Nobody needs to.

16:39
For the rest of history, people are going to have to know that the Jewish people sinned like that right after they were at Mount Sinai and had the greatest revelation in the world. The greatest revelation in the history of the world has never been a revelation like that. Just after days, days after having the splitting of the sea, they had the miracles in Egypt with the ten plagues, and now guess what? Few weeks later, they're bowing down to a golden calf. That's embarrassing for people, but you know what Hashem loves more than that, that we do teshuvah and that we repent and we say that's not who I am, I'm changing, I'm becoming a better person. That needs to be the goal. We can always change. No one should ever relent and just say you know what? I'm just an alcoholic. Oh, I'm just addicted to cigarettes. That's just who I am. I'm an addictive personality. No such thing. Take control, get a grip and make a change. We're all in a challenge. Everybody has something that they're weak at, and everybody has the ability and the tools, hopefully, to overcome them. Hashem shall bless us all that we should succeed in overcoming those challenges.

18:02
Another thing that we see is Meda, keneged Meda. We see, eye for an eye, very interestingly, that yosef called the sons of bill ha and zilpa. He called them the slaves. You know what his punishment was? He became a slave. He. He suspected others of idol of adultery. You know what his me de connecd me. Me de was his eye for an eye. He was not a, yeah, he was accused and went into jail for it.

18:40
We have to be very careful Because generally, toma tells us which you accuse others of. I know, susan, you don't like this. It's fine, we're gonna talk about this. Well, you accuse others of? Is a little bit of that in us, because otherwise we wouldn't even see it. You know, let's just make an example here.

19:01
Okay, in our class, right? So we have all beautiful people here, but you know what? Every one of us are different. Every one of us are unique. Every one of us are special and I guarantee you that if you spend five minutes schmoozing after class, talking about Politics, talking about food, talking about anything in the world, you'll see that you have very different styles, very different flavors and Not necessarily do you appreciate or enjoy what the other person appreciates and enjoy. To some, a vacation might be going to Lake Tao, others like no, that's so boring. I want to go hiking, and another person wants to go skiing, and another person. Everyone is different. Everyone is unique in our own character traits. That's also true. We're all unique and we're all different, and that's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way it's supposed to be when the Torah tells us of the challenges that Josef had.

20:01
Josef was punished in the exact way that he was accusing someone else. Why do we see all the flaws in another person? No, we see the flaws in the other person that we have. Oh, I can't believe they get so angry. Well, other people may not see that anger because they don't have that angry. That's that little spark of anger in them. Another person can see the good, the good as well. When you see the good and other people, oh, they're so kind, they're so benevolent, they're so giving. It's because you have that as well. What you see in others is a reflection of yourself, and, and perhaps that's why Hashem gives us certain challenges to correct them, to fix them, to bring ourselves to a higher level of perfection.

20:54
Josef saw things because he may have seen a weakness in himself and that was his test. His test with the wife of potifar, where she was trying to seduce him, was the exact test and he passed. He passed the test. There's nothing wrong with being tested. That's why we're here. You know we may have a vision of what life should be. Life should be just Vacation and relaxing, and you know we have our financial security.

21:25
No, that's not what it's about. It's about the struggle. We see this last week, the beautiful idea where it says Yaakov was fighting with Asaf's angel and it says by a week ish, emo, and there was a struggle, a struggle with the other man. Say, just tell us what is by a week. It's a very interesting word. It also comes from the word avak. Avak means dust, they dusted up, there was a challenge. Or say, just say that that fight, that dust went to the heavens and God loved it. You know what God loves. It doesn't say anywhere that Yaakov won the war, said he won the struggle, because God loves the struggle.

22:15
Be in the game, be in the fight. Life is not about just smooth sailing. Everything is going great. Life is about the challenge about the struggle and that's what the entire Torah is crafted for is to give us the tools to succeed in the struggle. God doesn't necessarily want winners. God wants fighters. That you're willing to fight the struggle of life. Get in the game. Don't run away from your challenges. Embrace your challenges and use them to your benefit.

22:52
The next important lesson the next important lesson is that why is the dream about grain bowing this is also an important tale is that soon it will be a time that they will need that grain. We'll see next week again. You have the similar story in Pharaoh's dream, but the grain, the idea of the grain here is that this is going to be the struggle that they're going to be dealing with. Soon they're going to need food and that's when they're going to come and that's when they're going to bow to Joseph. So this is a prophecy.

23:26
A dream, our sages tell us, is a 60th of prophecy. Sleep is a 60th of death. A dream is a 60th of prophecy. Dreams are very powerful and our sages tell us there there are a number of ways to resolve dreams. Number one is you can go to someone who can interpret dreams, but they need to interpret it in a positive way. Even a frightening, a terrifying dream, a night-mirish dream, you wake up and like, wow, that was just a dream. So there are a number of options. Number one is you cannot talk about it, and if you don't talk about it you don't give it life, so it doesn't have what to apply itself on. But there's another way to do it and that is to share it with someone who can interpret a dream.

24:12
There are rabbis who are so powerful and they find the positive in the dream, and it only gives life to the positive elements of the dream. It's an important thing to know that dreams are not a joke. Dreams are God's way of communicating with us in a prophetic way, because we don't want negativity in our life. We don't want it. So if there's a negative dream, we can call a rabbi, call someone who's good at this and can interpret it in a positive way, and then it turns the prophecy that was given into a positive, because everything has can go both ways. Even a good dream can turn bad. So you know, there are people who wish to win the lottery and sadly, the majority of people who win the lottery their dream came true end up with no money within a year. So their dream became their nightmare too.

25:10
What was Yosef's interpretation of the baker's dream when the baker said he had baskets over his head with fruits and a bird came and ate from the fruit. So what did Yosef see in that? You know, if you stood outside right now with a basket of fruit, the birds won't even get close to you. You know why? Because they're afraid of living people. Yosef saw in the dream that if the bird wasn't afraid to come eat from the basket that he was carrying, that he wasn't living. Because they're not afraid of a dead person, they're afraid of a living person. And that was Yosef's indication that this was no good. It was over for that individual. And that's why the baker was interpreted in that way, because, at the end of the day, you only have the power to interpret the dream as Hashem wants it to be interpreted.

26:00
We continue. So we mentioned about Yehud and Tamar, such an important lesson in taking responsibility. Take accountability, take responsibility for what it is that you are doing. A person should not shy away from responsibility. Responsibility is a very important thing. I tell my children don't give me the story, don't tell me. You know, take responsibility, I did it. You can even say it was a mistake. That's fine. We make mistakes, but don't run away from the responsibility Own up to it, and it's a very important thing in life not to shy away from responsibility.

26:39
Okay, now the Arab merchants, their caravan had a beautiful smelling fragrance, a beautiful smelling fragrance. So I want to share with you. My son, shlomo, shared with me seven different reasons why the fragrance smelled good. Why did he need to have good smelling fragrance? I mean, he's traveling all the way down from Hevron, where they were, or from Shchem, actually, where he was sold from, and he's going all the way down to Egypt. It's a nice little journey and he's with these Ishmaelite merchants who eventually sell him to the Midianites, who sell him to the Egyptians. And it says that they were selling these fragrances or these ingredients. And Joseph was thrown into this caravan after being sold for 20 coins, 20 silver coins, and it says that it had a good scent, it had a good aroma.

27:45
So what do you think? Why is it important for him to be in a situation where the smell is a positive smell, where it's a good smell? In fact, our sages actually say in some of the opinions that it was kerosene and it was an awful smell, but Hashem made it smell good. Why so? One of the reasons is because Joseph was atzadik, and this was Hashem showing him. I'm with you that, even in your most dire situation, in your most challenging situation, where your brothers just sold you off to the Ishmaelites what a terrible thing you know what Hashem gives you the fragrance. Hashem gives you the little scent. I'm right here, don't worry. We're in this together, and every person we're all in situations in our lives where we're like what's going to be, sniff around for a little hint of Hashem being there with you.

28:45
I want to read you from my son's notes that he shared with me seven reasons. Number one and these are all from different schools of thought he says that number one is that just because he was on his way doesn't mean that it had to be an awful way. This teaches us that everything is like Hashem plans it. Hashem plans our ways. It's one of the blessings that we say every morning Ha mechin mitzadei gover. Hashem prepares our ways. Do you know what's going to happen today? Two o'clock in the afternoon, we have no idea. Guess what Hashem does, and he's already prepared it for you that great fungal that you're going to get with that awesome news. It's pre-ordered. Hashem prepares our ways for us.

29:31
So yeah, hashem prepared that Yosef is going to be sold. For what is he being sold? Why is he being sold to Egypt? Why does he have this whole quarrel with his brothers? Because Hashem knows the Jewish people are going to need food. Later the land of Canaan is going to be in the total famine. The whole world is going to be in a famine. Guess what's going to happen 400 years later? The Jewish people are going to need redemption from Egypt. God already plants the seeds.

29:56
Now there are sometimes that things happen to us, tragedies happen to us that seem to be like tragedies. He's only preparing us for something that's going to happen maybe 5 years, 10 years, 20 years down the road. It's going to give us the strength to deal with and cope with other things. It's a big, beautiful master plan that Hashem prepares for us in our journey through life. So that's number one. Number two to show Yosef that Hashem is watching and to give him extra hope. Like a kid who gets a surgery and he wants his father next to him, but his father's not allowed in the operating room, but there's a small little window where he sees his father looking, and this was Yosef having a little window, seeing that Hashem, his father in heaven, is right there with him. That's why he had that great fragrance. Hashem is like waving to him. Here I am.

30:54
There's another opinion that the entire time he was going to Egypt he was thinking about Torah. Yosef was a tzadik. He was a righteous scholar too, although he was only 17 years old. But when someone learns Torah, you cannot learn Torah in a place that has a bad odor. Hashem changed the bad odor into something sweet, something good, so that he can continue learning his Torah. He can continue reviewing the Torah. Another reason, the fourth reason, is that Hashem is showing that his current problems were just to shape and save, like sometimes someone needs a surgery, also going back into the operating room, but sometimes it's going to be a little painful, but this is to save your life. You have to do this to save your life. Sometimes you can have a little bit of a challenge, but just know this is for a good cause.

31:50
Others say it in not such a positive way that this is how low people are. Even though he's going down to Egypt, he still was enjoying a smell and was attached to the worldly pleasures, to the materialism. He says that Joseph was busy with his hair, making sure he looked fine. He was a good looking guy, but perhaps he was a little bit too much into it. It's another way of thinking, a way of seeing it. Others see it as the greatness of man, that even someone in such a low place won't lose himself and he appreciates everything that he has. And the last is that this was a suffering of the body of the Goof, but not as Neshama, his Neshama, the Neshama.

32:39
You know, it's very interesting that every Shabbos, after we escort Shabbos out. How do we do that? We do that with Havdallah. What's Havdallah Separating, distinguishing between the holy and the mundane? And we take a something, a bishamim, some type of scent, and we smell it why? Because our Neshama. It says that our Neshama is elevated. We mentioned that sleep is a sixtieth of death, dreams are a sixtieth of prophecy. Shabbos is a sixtieth of the world to come. We have an elevated soul that is infused into our body on Shabbos and it departs after Shabbos. Now we have this vacancy in our soul. We have this elevated soul that was just taken away after Shabbos. The way we console our body is we take that little snuff, that little smell which is Neshama, neshima, the breath, the soul. You breathe it in, you smell that aroma, you smell that smell and that sort of consoles the body and the soul for what had just departed. Very interesting that here it compares Yosef having that fragrance was the fragrance for his soul that was still in a high place even though his body was being sent to Egypt.

34:07
Another important lesson from this week's parasha is that Yosef, we mentioned previously, is a growing person. He's very handsome and focuses on his looks on the external, but learns to rise to the top. He's lowered in a pit with snakes and scorpions. It says Habor-Rak is another example of how everywhere in the Torah is calculated. It says Habor-Rak, the pit was empty. Ain bo maim, there's no water in it. Why does it need to say there's no water in it If we know that it's empty? It's an empty pit. There's no water in it. By definition. What does empty mean? There's nothing in it. So why does the Torah need to tell us that the pit was empty and there's no water in it?

34:52
Snakes along, rashi and teaches us there's no water in it. But you know what there is in it Snakes and scorpions. You know that. Why does it need to be snakes and scorpions? Just leave snakes or just leave scorpions. Why do you need both? Because snakes generally don't attack unless they're being messed with you. Bother them, like if you're dumped on them in a pit, they'll attack you. Snakes don't need reasons. They will attack you for no reason.

35:24
Because it's a beautiful Sunday afternoon and yet Yosef was unharmed to tell us that he was a tzadik. A tzadik has a protection, a protection from the Almighty. Even though he was thrown into a pit that had snakes and scorpions, he was untouchable. Important lesson here. But also we see the first dreams that he interprets are different than the second dream that he interprets. The first dreams are the butler and the baker. The second dreams are Pharaoh. We'll see next week in Parshash Meket. And the beauty of it all is that you look at the difference in Yosef. Yosef suddenly recognizes everything is from Hashem. Everything is from Hashem. He was in the prison for ten years. He may not have learned that lesson well enough. He interprets the dream on his own. But now he realizes everything is from Hashem. And when he interprets the dream for Pharaoh he says if Hashem gives me the ability to interpret it. I'll interpret it. He recognizes everything. He attributes everything to Hashem.

36:42
Now, why was Yosef thrown into the prison? And again, this is another part of the story where it could just seem in our life that it's just not going for me. Look, I'm trying everything. My brother sold me out If he wanted to be depressed. He had very good reason to be depressed. My brother sold me out. And now my boss, who? I've been running his whole household, I've been taking care of everything for him, and now his wife gets me thrown into the prison. Look at me. Look at me. I'm sitting rotting away here in prison. Look how terrible things are. And yet we see that that's the only way he gets to the top. And we'll see next week.

37:28
In one instant he's brought the second in command in the entire kingdom From nothing, from being inside the pit, inside the prison, inside the lowest place possible, all the way to being at the top of the kingdom. Our sages teach us Yushuas, hashem K'herafayin, the redemption from God comes at the bed of an eyelash. Just like that blink comes and goes so quickly, so too the redemption comes so quickly. And another thing is that Yosef was punished for not accurately and not properly trusting Hashem, and he just says two words. Two words. He says remember me, and he gets two more years. But you know, it's very interesting.

38:18
The last verse in this week's parasha says that when the butler goes back to the kingdom, he goes back to Pharaoh. It uses two terminologies. It says lo zachar, he didn't remember Yosef, and it says v'ishkacheyu and he forgot Yosef. Now again, we listed at the beginning of class the exact amount of letters and words. Why? Because there's not an extra one in the Torah.

38:45
So why does it seemingly have a repetition here of he didn't remember him and he forgot? Generally speaking, if you forget, you don't remember. So what's the difference? I say just tell us. There's two different components here. Number one is that he didn't remember, he forgot. Sometimes that happens Remember, oh, I have to tell someone something and then you forget to tell them. But then there's another level V'ishkacheyu, he forgot he ever existed, completely erased. But two years later, suddenly he has this epiphany. He's like oh, one second, there was a Yosef. What happened two years, two years, you forgot he existed. Yes, he didn't only forget to give the message that he just didn't remember, he didn't remember he even existed. Why is this important for us to know this, because there's a master plan. There's a master plan where Hashem guides and controls this world and the exact message that is supposed to be conveyed will be conveyed at the exact moment God decides that it will be conveyed. Not when you ask for it, yosef, but when I decide, signed God. God decides when that message will be conveyed and when he will even remember that you exist.

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You know, sometimes we can hold hard feelings, like I ask someone for a favor, like what's the big deal? Why can't they just like do that favor for me Doesn't hurt them. Why don't they just do it? Guess what? Hashem didn't want it to happen and that's why they didn't Not because they have any like oh, that's it. They didn't invite me to that wedding. I don't want to talk to them again. No, they sent it to your old address. There was a problem in the post office. How many times has that happened to us? We think like someone was egregious, someone did something against us. No, hashem didn't want you to get it. Hashem didn't want you to be there, or Hashem wanted you to, and it doesn't make any sense. And they pull you out of the pit and boom, you're at royalty. There's a master plan. That's the.

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I think the underlying teaching of this week's parasha Is that there's a big picture. We're right in the middle of that big picture. The Talmud tells us in Sanhedrin. A person should always be in the habit of saying the world was created for me. The world yes, becky, the world was created for you. You're right in the middle of the universe, the whole world around you. Guess what? Created for you? Hashem plans and puts things in ways sometimes seems to be a mystery Handcrafted for you. My dear friends, have an amazing Shabbos. Thank you so much.