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שבת שלום - פרשת וישב \ חנוכה
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Video Shiur
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Click play to watch the video shiur by Rav Yosef Kaminetsky
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News and Notes
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Yeshivat Yesodei HaTorah was proud to welcome Rabbi Natan Slifkin this past Tuesday for a special shiur on "Mythical Creatures and Other Animals". The entire Yeshiva was entertained as they listened to the well-known "Zoo Rabbi" offer his insights and interpretations, along with an audio-visual presentation.
On Monday morning, the Yeshiva hosted Mr. Yona Baumel, father of Zack Baumel, an Israeli soldier who has been missing in action since the first Lebanon War in 1982, and Dr. Stuart Ditchek, father of our shana bet student Tuvia Ditchek and Director of the Committe for the Release of Zachary Baumel. Mr. Baumel and Dr. Ditchek gave a moving presentation which has helped our students to further recognize the importance of pidyon shevuyim - securing the release of captives - and the need for constant tefillah for the eight Israeli soldiers still missing in action.
This Shabbat is an in-Shabbat, hosted by Rabbi Ariel Greenberg and family. In addition to the regular lineup of tefillot, meals, and shiurim, there will be a special oneg hosted by the Rosenblum family of Beit Shemesh. Additionally, Rabbi Kahn and Rabbi Greenberg will be jointly sponsoring a kiddush in honor of their having received the honors of Chatan Torah and Chatan Bereshit, respectively, on Simchat Torah.
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Parsha Insights
By Rabbi Scott Kahn
Yosef has two dreams, both of which suggest that he will rule over his brothers. Pharaoh has two dreams, both of which suggest that there will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. When Yosef interprets Pharaoh's dreams, he states that the apparent repetition means that the dreams will come true immediately. (Bereshit 41:32) But his own experience seems to belie this understanding; for when Yosef intereprets Pharaoh's dreams, thirteen years had passed without any indication that his dreams would become reality. If the repetition of a dream means that it will immediately come true, why were Yosef's dreams fulfilled only thirteen years after he had dreamt them?
This leads to another question. After Yosef reports his first dream to his brothers, the Torah tells us that they hated him. After his second dream, we are told that they were jealous of him. What changed between the first and second dreams?
The Beit HaLevi answers this question through a close analysis of the content of each dream. In Yosef's first dream, he and his brothers are binding sheaves together, after which Yosef's sheaf stands up straight, and the brothers' sheaves bow down to his own. In his second dream, eleven stars, the sun, and the moon bow down to him. Notably, the brothers' possessions bow down to Yosef in the first dream, while in the second dream the stars - in other words, the brothers themselves - bow down to him.
The Beit HaLevi explains that the first dream was a prediction that Yosef would find more material success than his brothers, to the point that they would need him and his riches to survive. Wealth, possessions, material goods - these are undoubtedly desirable, but in no way do they define a person's fundamental greatness and station in G-d's eyes. Accordingly, their possessions alone prostrated before Yosef, but the eleven brothers all remained standing; the differences in material success did not reflect authentic differences between them. The second dream, however, with its intimations of heavenly superiority, predicted that Yosef would achieve greater spiritual greatness than the brothers. Unlike wealth, success in divine service does impact an individual's elemental importance and distinction. Therefore, the stars themselves prostrated before their brother, for this second dream predicted authentic, rather than superficial, superiority for Yosef.
The brothers had no desire to rule over one another, but rather assumed and hoped that they would share equal success in the material realm. Indeed, we see that they all shepherded together, indicating that they planned to work together for the common welfare of the family. Great men like Yaakov's children were not jealous of Yosef's supposed desire for greater wealth, for jealousy implies that they wished they had the same thing. They did, however, hate him for demonstrating a desire to rule over them, and for the fact that they would need his food to survive. But they were jealous of his spiritual greatness, for the brothers all wanted to achieve such tremendous spiritual stature. Only after hearing the second dream, which indicated that they would be spiritually inferior, did they feel jealousy as well as hatred toward Yosef.
This also explains why Yosef's two dreams did not come true right away, whereas Yosef himself told Pharaoh that a dream's repetition indicates that its fulfillment is imminent. The first thing Yosef told Pharaoh upon hearing Pharaoh's two dreams is that "Pharaoh's dream is one." (Bereshit 41:25). According to the Beit HaLevi's interpretation, however, Yosef's two dreams represented two very different predictions. They were not one dream repeated, but two entirely different forecasts. Unlike Pharaoh's seven fat cows and seven fat ears of grain, both of which indicated the same seven years, the brothers' sheaves and the stars represent two different concepts - namely, their possessions and themselves. Thus, Yosef's dream was not immediately fulfilled, for it was two dreams rather than one.
Although the brothers' jealousy and hatred cannot be emulated, we nevertheless can learn from their real ability to recognize true greatness. They were not jealous of greater success in the material world, but of exceptional spirituality. Indeed, the holiday of Chanukah - which begins this Tuesday night - celebrates the victory of the Torah's ideal of spiritual greatness over the Greek ideal of physical might. For this reason, the Shulchan Aruch rules that there is no obligation to have festive meals on Chanukah, for the holiday was established in order to praise and thank G-d, rather than to celebrate in a directly physical manner. (Orach Chaim 670:2)
With G-d's help, we will successfully internalize that only spiritual greatness, achieved through close adherence to the Torah, allows a person to achieve an authentically higher position in the world. Material success is a blessing, but can never be confused with authentic distinction.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Chanukah!
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