Parshat Vayigash- Risk Your Life!

"And Yehudah approached him..." The Torah narrates the dramatic climax of the episode with Yosef and his brothers. Yosef deliberately frames his youngest brother Binyomin, "catching him" with his "stolen" silver goblet. "The one who was found with the cup will be my slave, and the rest of you will go up to your father in peace."

We know from the previous parsha that Yehudah took full responsibility to bring Binyomin back from Egypt alive and well. It was up to Yehudah to appeal for his release from Yosef, who was disguised. "Please, my master, we only came down here to begin with to buy food...and my master asked us if we had a father or a brother...and you said to your servants 'bring him (your brother) down to me so that I may see him. And we said to my master 'the young man is not able to leave his father...' And you told us 'if you don't bring your brother you may not see me again.' And now how can I go back up to my father without the young man (Binyomin) with us? Their souls are very closely bound to one another." Yehudah then suggested that he remain as a slave in Binyomin's place, "lest I see the evil that will befall my father." At that point Yosef was no longer able to contain his emotions, so he sent everyone out besides his brothers, and he began to cry, and he said "I am Yosef " and he revealed himself to his brothers. 

Yosef had guards by him at all times so no one would harm him. Yosef sent out his guards before revealing to his brother "I am Yosef". Yosef risked his life by sending his guards out of the room in order not to embarrass his brothers even though what they did towards him was wrong. When a person embarrasses another he loses his share in the world to come. We must be very careful and sensitive to the words that we utter and the actions that we do to other person in order not to embarrass them even if they are wrong. We need to aspire to a certain level of Yosef Hatzadik and be sensitive to the feelings and embarrassment of our "brothers".

Shabbat Shalom

By:Esther Shamayev

"Theres A Light At The End Of Every Tunnel"

What was so special about the miracle of Chanukah that we remember it every year?

The uniqueness of the Chanukah miracle was that even though they were in a world filled with such darkness with the Greeks convincing the Jews intellectually by saying how G-d doesn't exist. No matter how hard the task was they were still searching for Hashem. They didn't give up until they found Him. So too, the Maccabees didn't give up searching for the sealed pure olive oil until they found it. They knew it was there even though it was hard for them to find a sealed jug of pure olive oil they didn't give up they knew that even though it's dark and they can't see Hashems kindness at the end of the day we will see it and understand why it had to happen in that specific way. 

The four exiles that the Jewish nation were in and are currently in is 

A) Bavel - tried to kill us spiritually- destroyed first temple

B) Persia- tried to kill us physically- final solution (Purim story)

C) Greek- tried to kill us intellectually - disproving our religion

D) Edom- Roman Empire - currently in the process of destroying us spiritually, physically and intellectually. The last exile we are in now is a monster.

On Chanukkah we play with a dreidel which symbolizes "Nes Gadol Haya Sham"- "a big miracle happened there." Nun stands for nefesh- soul- spiritually, Gimmel stands for Guf -body- physically, Hey stands for Hacol Hacollel and Shin stands for Sechel- intellect. On the dreidel there's one handle that spins it this is to symbolize that Hashem is orchestrating it all. Chanukkah is the story that we can see clearly how Hashem is helping us survive all three attacks. We sometimes feel so overwhelmed with darkness but at the end of the day we need to remember that there is light at the end of the tunnel. The miracle of the oil lasting for eight days was that they didn't give up on the search and 8 is a number which corresponds to above nature. Hashem is above nature only He can help us. So when you are feeling down and don't know what to do turn to Hashem our father and speak to Him and ask Him to help you see the light clearer. 

Chag Sameach =)

By: Esther Shamayev