These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly portion: #1360 – Showing Favoritism Amongst Your Children

Good Shabbos!

Don’t Give Up Hope

There is an interesting Medrash in Parshas Vayeshev which, in effect, asks: “Mi haya mechakeh?” – Who would have waited or thought or anticipated that Avraham and Sora would ever have a son? Who would have ever anticipated that Yaakov Avinu, who crossed the Yarden with nothing more than his walking cane, would eventually return a wealthy man, with a large encampment of family members? Who would have ever anticipated that Yosef, who had all these trials and tribulations, would become the viceroy of Mitzrayim? Who would have ever anticipated that Moshe, who was thrown into the Nile River as an infant, would become the great teacher of Klal Yisrael, the master of all prophets? Who would have anticipated that Rus, who was a lowly convert, would become the matriarch of monarchy in Klal Yisrael? Who would have ever anticipated that Dovid the shepherd would become the king whose descendants would rule until the end of all the generations? Who would have anticipated about Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya…? Etc., etc., etc.

The simple message of this “Who would have anticipated…” Medrash is that these are comforting and encouraging words to Klal Yisrael. If we examine the history of the Jewish people – who would have ever anticipated it?

Who would have believed that eighty years after the Holocaust, Torah study would reach the magnitude it has reached today? Who would have believed in 1941, when Rav Aharon Kotler started the Lakewood Yeshiva with six talmidim or in 1933, when Rav Yaakov Ruderman started Ner Yisrael with four talmidim, who would have believed that today these yeshivos would have thousands of talmidim? This is a nechama to Klal Yisrael: Don’t give up hope!

I was recently in Antwerp (2017) to speak at a dinner there. Antwerp is a very interesting community. Today, it is a small community with a very interesting mix. It was decimated during the Holocaust. As much as the Holocaust is in the recesses of our memory in America, there, it is still such a reality. They told me that there are very few Jews over the age of eighty in Antwerp, because there is a gap until the end of the 1940s. Most of the people there in the beginning of that decade were killed. The Nazis cleaned out Belgium in general and Antwerp in particular.

Yet, if you look around today, you will see that it is once again a beautiful community. Who would have anticipated…? The school I spoke for is 120 years old. But there was a certain period in its history when there was no one there.

This year (2017) is the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. The same (Who would have anticipated…?) can be said about the developments in Eretz Yisrael. Who would have believed that what we witnessed there this past century would have happened? I am not a historian, and I don’t remember all the things that expert Jewish historians have said, but for the Balfour Declaration to have been issued, so many historical precursors had to occur that anyone contemplating its issuance only a decade or so earlier would have had to be crazy to expect it to be issued. Not the least of which was that the Ottoman Empire, which had been in business for three or four hundred years, would collapse at the end of World War I. Who would have believed it?

The simple reading of this Medrash is that “Who would have anticipated (what happened with all these Biblical personalities)” foreshadows the unpredictability of all of Jewish history.

However, I saw a schmooze from Rav Elya Svei, z”l, in which he said that the message of this Medrash is more than just this lesson. In each one of these cases of “Mi haya mechakeh?“, the answer was: “Yes, there was someone who was mechakeh!”

For example, when the Medrash says “Who would have been mechakeh that Yosef, who experienced all these trials and tribulations would eventually become the viceroy,” there was indeed someone who anticipated it. Who was it? Yosef anticipated it! Yosef never gave up. He was keenly aware that all the trials and tribulations he experienced were the “Yad Hashem” (Hand of G-d) and that all these things were happening for a purpose!

The Medrash says that when Yosef heard the dream of the sar hamashkim (wine butler) regarding the three clusters of grapes, he saw in it an allusion to the three future redeemers of Klal Yisrael from Mitzrayim: Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam. This sar hamashkim is dreaming about idle grape vines, but Yosef sees within it a matter of Divine prophecy. Yosef is constantly waiting and thinking – how is this going to pan out?

“I know this looks impossible now. I am currently sitting in a dungeon with a bunch of lowlifes – but one day I am going to get out of this!” Or, when Yosef speaks of “kos Pharoh” (Pharoh’s goblet), “kos Pharoh,” “kos Pharoh,” “kos Pharoh” (repeating the term kos Pharoh four times), the Medrash states that Yosef intuited four nations that would enslave Klal Yisrael and that the Ribono shel Olam would provide Klal Yisrael with four kosos of salvation.

The answer to the question “Who was anticipating?” is “Yosef himself was waiting and never gave up!”  Just like the pasuk says, “And his father guarded the matter” (Bereshis 37:11) when Yosef related the dream that the sheaves would all bow down to him, Yaakov did not reject the dream as a crazy vision, so too Yosef himself guarded the matter and never gave up!

Another example – Who was waiting for Moshe? The answer to that question is that Miriam was waiting for him. She never gave up hope. Chazal say on the pasuk “And his sister stood at a distance to find out what would happen with him” (Shemos 2:4) that she was waiting in anticipation. What was she waiting for? Chazal say that she had a prophecy that her mother was destined to give birth to a son who would save Klal Yisrael. The fact that he was as an infant floating aimlessly down the Nile River in a basket with minimal chances for survival did not faze her. When Moshe was born, the room filled with light and Amram also rejoiced over the apparent omen that Miriam’s prophecy would come true. However, when Moshe had to be cast away into the river, Amram chastised his daughter for conveying false hope to the family. However, Miriam yet waited in anticipation.

So in each of these cases, there was someone who still believed. Furthermore, as with the case of Yosef, Moshe also waited for himself. Moshe was out of Mitzrayim for a minimum of sixty years. There is a machlokes how old he was when he had to flee Mitzrayim, whether it was twelve or twenty. He returned at age eighty. In sixty years, the distant past becomes forgotten.

The pasuk says that Moshe saw a burning bush that was not consumed by the fire. The Medrash says that he saw in that imagery the fact that Klal Yisrael was going to be saved. Klal Yisrael? That was ancient history. He left Klal Yisrael sixty years ago! The answer is that Moshe Rabbeinu never gave up hope. He knew that Klal Yisrael would eventually leave Mitzrayim. How would it happen? That he didn’t know. But he sees this burning bush sixty years later and he thinks “Aha! This is a sign from Heaven!”

The same can be said of all these examples: Yosef was waiting. Miriam was waiting. Moshe was waiting. And so too, all the others were waiting. They had emunah that eventually the Ribono shel Olam is going to bring the geulah and save us.

Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]

Edited by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]

This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Vayeshev is provided below:

• # 034 – Chanukah Licht on Erev Shabbos
• # 076 – Katlanis: The Twice Widowed Woman
• # 125 – Ha’Malbim P’nei Chaveiro: Shaming Another
• # 172 – The Complex Issue of Child Custody
• # 218 – Grape Juice and Yayin Mevushal
• # 262 – Yichud and the Open Door Policy
• # 308 – Secular Studies
• # 352 – “Chamar Medina” — Used for Kiddush?
• # 396 – Artificial Insemination Before Chemotherapy
• # 440 – Third Night of Chanukah but Only Two Candles
• # 484 – The Ubiquitous Donor Plaque
• # 528 – Sending Someone on a Fatal Mission
• # 572 – Determining Paternity
• # 616 – Chanukah – Women Lighting for Husbands
• # 660 – Birthdays – A Jewish Minhag?
• # 704 – Sparing Someones Humiliation
• # 748 – The Menorah – Inside The House or Outside?
• # 792 – Observing Shiva for Grandparents?
• # 836 – Katlanis: A Third Marriage
• # 880 – Lying For The Sake Of The Truth
• # 924 – Bitachon Vs Hishtadlus
• # 967 – Can Older Brother Object to the Younger Brother’s Engagement?
• #1011 – Davening with a Minyan on Chanukah vs Lighting On Time
• #1055 – Can You Kill Someone Who Hashem Doesn’t Want To Die?
• #1098 – Doing A Mitzvah in Face of Sakana
• #1141 – Business Partnerships With Non-Jews
• #1184 – Holding the Kiddush Cup – Exactly How? Always?
• #1228 – Saved Miraculously from a Car Accident? Special Bracha?
• #1272 – V’sain Tal U’Matar: Some Fascinating Shailos
• #1316 – Endangering Oneself To Perform The Mitzvah of Kibbud Av
• #1360 – Showing Favoritism Amongst Your Children
• #1404 – Is Grape Juice As Good As Wine For Kiddush And Other Halachos?
• #1448 – MaOz Tzur and Its Traditional Tune – Not as Kosher as You Might Think
• #1492 – Zerizus vs Hidur: What’s More Important Doing Mitzvos Promptly or Beautifully?
• #1536 – Using Jelled Olive Oil for Chanukah – Not as Simple as You May Think
• (2022) – Why Should You Always Light the Shul Menorah Every Year?

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