{"id":274,"date":"2013-11-18T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=274"},"modified":"2013-11-18T23:45:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T23:45:00","slug":"vayigash-5769-2009","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/?page_id=274","title":{"rendered":"VaYigash 5769 (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Drash for VaYigash 5769<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Marc Mangel<\/p>\n

There are many events in the Torah about which we can intellectualize but not feel the power of the moment in the way that it happened then.<\/p>\n

This week, we have one case in which we can:\u00a0 when \u2013 at the start of Chapter 45 \u2013 Joseph no longer able to continue the charade tells everyone to leave the room and says (v 3)<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” “Ani Yosef.\u00a0 Ha-od avi chai?\u201d \u00a0Every year I am struck by the power of this simple question.<\/p>\n

What brought us to that moment?\u00a0 It is the preceding three verses in which Judah says<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause your servant [Judah] took responsibility\u00a0 for the youth [Benjamin] from my father saying \u2018If I do not bring him to you then I will have sinned to my father for all time. Now, please let your servant remain in the place of the youth as a servant to my lord and let the youth go up (to Canaan) with his brothers.\u00a0 For how can I go up to my father if the youth is not with me, lest I see the evil that will befall my father\u201d<\/p>\n

About these verses the Ishbitzter teaches \u201cThe power that the blessed God instilled in the tribe of Yehuda \u2013 that is, all of us Jews —\u00a0 is that he will never give up\u201d. \u00a0Shem MiShmuel teaches that when hearing these words, Joseph realized the Judah had repented the sin of putting Joseph in the pit because he was willing to accept the humiliation and suffering of a slave.<\/p>\n

Today, I want to particularly focus on the first verse of Judah\u2019s final please:\u00a0 Chapter 44, v 32, about which Nehama Leibowitz is silent (although she comments on 44:30-31 and 33).<\/p>\n

From VaYetze, we learned \u00a0\u201cYou are responsible for your own deeds. <\/i><\/span>Not the organization, not the community, and not somebody backing you. You, and you alone.\u201d. \u00a0Rashi tells us that when Judah says \u201cI will have sinned to my father for all time\u201d it means\u00a0to be banished both in this world and the world to come \u2013 that is, to use the vernacular, if Judah blows off his responsibility he will be suffer both in this world and the world to come.<\/p>\n

From VaYetze and VaYigash we learn two things as people named in honor of Judah:<\/p>\n

First, that we are responsible for our own deeds.\u00a0 Second, that when we take responsibility for something, we MUST follow through because it matters not only here but in the world to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Drash for VaYigash 5769 by Marc Mangel There are many events in the Torah about which we can intellectualize but not feel the power of the moment in the way that it happened then. This week, we have one case in which we can:\u00a0 when \u2013 at the start of Chapter 45 \u2013 Joseph … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":53,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"full-width-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-274","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/274\/revisions\/275"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcmangel.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}