CROSSROADS

Reflecting on this week’s tragedy on the streets of New York suggests that our society is in trouble. A different set of priorities are needed to stem the tide of our societal maladies.

  George Orwell’s classic book 1984 is about an evil society.  He creates for the reader a frightening world where black is white, good is bad, evil is justified and the innocent one is guilty. Well “Hello”! I do not think 20014 is far off from Orwell’s 1984.

  Somehow, people believe that making nice to the tiger diminishes its’ appetite. We end up making the victim the bad guy, and the good guys who are working furiously to assure the safety of our country are the scapegoats for injustice.

  What a strange and dangerous world we live in!

  Permit me to share with you a story of the motorist who came to a busy intersection and could not decide how to proceed. The traffic lights turned from red to green to amber three times while he was trying to make up his mind. At last the traffic policeman came over to him and asked ‘What’s the matter Sir, don’t we have the color you like?” Is this dilemma a parable of life? Many of us find ourselves, repeatedly, at moral and ethical crossroads and sorrowfully we have lost our sense of direction.

  The question I pose to all of us, “How to proceed to reach our life’s destination successfully?”

   Our Torah reading this week, Pashas Vayigash, relates that after 22 years of separation, Joseph, finally, meets up with his brothers. They stood face to face and his brothers did not realize that the viceroy of Egypt was Joseph their brother whom they sold into slavery. Suddenly and unexpectedly they heard these frightening words.  אני יוסף אחיכם אשר מכרתם אתי מצרימה

   “I am Joseph your brother whom you have sold into slavery in Egypt”   

  What a day of Judgment, what a dramatic outcome! Mind you, Joseph did not rebuke or threaten his brothers.  He merely reminded them of what they did by saying, “I am Joseph your brother.  In spite of what you did, I am still your brother. But now I am not the helpless brother, but rather Joseph the Viceroy. G-d had different plans for me and you were merely the pawns of Hashem.”

  This truth stares the brothers in their faces.  This type of retribution can serve for greater feelings of admonition by Joseph  just looking at them,  resulting  in a more dramatic way for acts of Teshuvah,

   In a like manner, the truth stares us in the face, when evil rears its ugly head.  All we need is to have Joseph’s attitude, “ I am Joseph the messenger of G-d – remember who I am!” In our society we need to make a similar declaration;   “I am a man of G-d, I am a human being!  Remember me.!”  In this way we can change the course of the evil in our society.

   I implore The State of Israel to have this same attitude towards all of its enemies.  Let the dignitaries of the Israeli Government state, “Remember me?  I am Joseph.  I stand against all acts of terrorism.   Let the world not forget!  I am Joseph/I am the Jew who will not permit evil to exist in our country.”

  Remember well, “Hate spreads like a wild fire and makes no distinction when it strikes. It, sorrowfully, take the innocent along with everyone else.”

  Do not stand by idly when wrong and evil exists in our midst.  We need to state unequivocally, “I am Joseph your Brother! I am a messenger of G-d, a messenger of peace, security and brotherly love.

    May we continue to be inspired by the Holiday of Chanukah and may our lights of inspiration burn brightly in our hearts leading to an everlasting peace for humanity.

REDEDICATION

             As we light our Chanukah Menorah I see the tapers as our 'message ambassadors' to enlighten our way to a world of spirituality.

      The message is clear and unambiguous.  It is a message of non-conformity. The victory of yesterday which we commemorate on Chanukah is  a victory  of traditional Judaism over hellinization of our Judaic way of life.

    The Maccabees reaffirmed and re-educated themselves to the belief and observances of traditional Judaism. They were sending a message to the world - the Jewish people will not conform to the mores of modern society and their way of life. We will light the menorah and these little lights of inspiration will tell the world we are nonconformists when it comes to our religious beliefs. We will maintain our way of life and deny the tide of assimilation.  We will maintain our individuality with pride and bring the light of Yiddishkeit to the world. 

    We need to light the menorah  מהדרין מן המהדרין ,suggesting that the proper way of lighting Chanukah candles is to have every member of the family involved, and to encourage everyone to bask in the light of Torah and Mitzvot.

    In our Parsha this week we read about יוסף הצדיק.  Like the Maccabees, Yosef was truly a non conformist in denying any intrusion into maintaining his way of life taught to him by his father Jacob - even in Egypt where he was its leader.

     As we light our Menorah and recite הנרות הללו קודש הם, 'the candles are holy', let us affirm that we, as a People are equally Holy. To maintain our  קדושה, we must never conform to the mores of the society and always be who we are--loyal Jews to our Torah way of life.

    Wishing everyone a Freilichan and Inspirational Chanukah.

DREAMS

Our Parsha this week discusses the relationship between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph had two dreams, two visions. He dreamt of his אלומת, sheaves, which rose and stood up high while the sheaves of his brothers came and bowed down to him. Then he dreamt of the sun and the moon and the stars bowing down to him. These dreams angered his brothers greatly and aroused much envy.

The Rav, Rabbi Soloveitcik זצ׳ל, interprets these two visions in a truly insightful way. He says that the first dream speaks of material and economic power. The second dream revolved around the spiritual greatness - of achieving great spirituality which was evident by the heavenly grandeur that was seen in this vision.

The Rav seems to probe the qualities of man and wonders, "Can man achieve  and fulfill both dreams in life?" Can one truly be successful in the economic and material world and at the same time achieve a life of spirituality and ethics.

Yosef was sure that this could be done and as his life progressed we see that he did fulfill both these visions in a magnificent way, albeit under great hardship.  I sense, for this enormous accomplishment, Yosef is referred to as יוסף הצדיק.

The Rav also points out that the כתונת פסים , the multi colored coat that Jacob made for Joseph , alludes to this multifaceted life expierences of combining the materialistic and the spiritual in our lives and finding success in both fields of endeavor.

  מעשה אבות סימן לבנים , we need to use יוסף as our model in our life and especially in the lives of our children. We need to show them that we can live in our modern world and be a success in any endeavor that we choose and at the same time hold tenaciously and proudly to the ways of our Torah and to the ethics that our Judaic way promulgates to us. 

The dreams of Joseph must become our reality to assure our Torah oriented way of life will be our glorious future.

As we approach the holiday of Chanukah, this lesson is extremely important as we light the Chanukah candles and recite הנרות הללו קדש הם, these lights are holy for they represent the spirituality and religiosity that dispels the darkness of alienation and assimilation.  

Chanukah means dedication and with the influence of Yosef,  we will  infiltrate our lives with spirituality and worldly achievement.

Remembering well that Yosef was always a dreamer and as long as he dreamed of a glorious time for the Jewish People  then hopefully they will find their salvation.

Let us keep this dream alive. Through our passion we will nurture our dreams of peace and security.

May the glow of our Chanukah candles illuminate our lives with meaning and purpose and brotherly love and to be זוכה,once again, to light the Menorah in our Holy בית המקדש in ירושלים.

( This D'var  Torah is written לעלוי נשמת אליעזר צבי בן חנא יהודה ליב )

GOING HOME

The more we study Torah and Jewish Philosophy, the more we begin to appreciate that G-D has provided us with insights that help us to discern between right and wrong and thereby become empowered to make the right decisions in life.

Rabbi Nachman taught; "All sin is rooted from a persons inner unhappiness." 

A person would not run after all kinds of worldly pleasures if he was truly happy and satisfied with his situation. It is ones' inner unhappiness that causes a person to run after material pleasures of this world. The evil inclination always tries to work on a person's mind to make him unhappy and dissatisfied with what he has. 
The way to drive away these forces of evil is through happiness. 

The Parsha this week tells how Jacob is running away from Lavan , fearing his encounter with his brother. Esau, bringing him much 
anxiety.  All Jacob wishes, at this point, is to "go home". He is unhappy in his exile and the שרו של עשו wants to hold him back from "going home."

Robert Frost wrote; "Home is when you go there, they have to let you in".

Jacob appears lonely.  The way to remove his loneliness is to take his family home, the place which he was forced to leave and now finally has the courage to return to.

We, the descendants of Jacob have, for so many years, prayed and beseeched the Almighty to take us home, out of this Galut of hatred and anti Semitism. Baruch Hashem our Prayers have been answered and we are "going home"- home to our homeland to our promised land. 

Just as Yaakov encountered many obstacles on the road home, so have we been faced and continue to face many enemies who have tried to deter us from "going home". Like Jacob did after his encounter with שרו של עשו, we have assumed the name of ישראל and with our acts of courage and fortitude, finally, have arrived home.

How apropos that יעקב referred to the place of the בית המקדש as ״בית״, a home.

I sense that Jacob's  motivation in life was always to "go home" "and thus in his desire to "go home" he achieved a state of happiness which had eluded him for so many years.

Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning.
True happiness is an expression of our gratitude for our life and to savor the wonderful things in life.

"Dream as if you have forever. Live as if you only have today"

The most precious ability we possess is the power of vision. It helps us to chart new ways, opening up new avenues of action. It gives us the opportunity to live better lives. What can be better than the ability to "go home?"