Did Yosef know the "Behind the Scenes?"

When Yosef was thrown into a pit and eventually sold as a slave, most people never stop to think about what he thought was going on. Did Yosef actually know what was happening? Surely he must have had mixed emotions. His father sent him out to check on his brothers, and then before he knew what was happening he was thrown in a pit. Perhpas he thought that his father had planned for this to happen all along; after all, he was the one who had told him to check on his brothers. Maybe Yosef thought his brothers and father were planning this all along. He might have also guessed that the brothers acted on their own.
On another note, when the brothers tell Yaakov that Yosef was killed, Yaakov mourns and plays the part rather convincingly. After the brothers come back the first time from Egypt and ask to being Binyamin, Yaakov's response hints that he may have known more than he let on before. He says that his son is  "not with him" with the same phrase that he uses to show that Shimon is not with them at the moment, because he is currently somewhere else. Yaakov very well may have sent Yosef to his brothers that day because he knew what was going to happen, and that in order to ensure their good future it had to. He may have also known that it was G-d's will and for the best.

Yosef's Motivation

A couple classes ago we discussed what Yosef's motivation was to not tell his brothers it was him from the moment he saw him. Our class had many ideas on what might actually be going on in his head. Like he could have been trying to get revenge on them or he could have been scared that his brothers were still angry at him and wanted to give them a chance to cool down or he could have been wanting to fulfill his dreams or he is making them go through the same thing that he went through to see if they had the same with the thoughts before he opens himself up he must see if they have changed or it could be that he hasn't yet matured and he couldn't treat them any different. As we went through the Pesukim and saw the whole story we see that the reason that he really did this was because as Rambam says: A second chance is the biggest Teshuva a person can do. They go through the same exact situation and they have to prove that they have changed and this time the results of the situation would be them doing the correct thing. This is exactly what Yosef did. He put his brothers through the exact same situations: favortism, one being left behind. This time Yehuda stood up for his siblings and his father and took all the blame on himself. When Yosef saw that Yehuda had done this he broke down crying and he realized they had trained and he revealed who he was.

Yosef

Yosef is an interesting character. He was always Yaakov's favorite because he was Rachel's oldest son, and his brothers became very jealous of him. He then grew up in Egypt and learned how to govern a people and live as an Egyptian. His experiences led him to be able to bring a lot of different things to the table of Bnei Yisrael. In a way, what happened to him is the one thing that was able to unite the brothers. I don't think that Yosef's exile was a punishment, in fact it was probably a good experience for the most part. I think that Hashem put him through it to make him that much stronger and able to be the glue that holds the brothers together. He became their connection to each other and it is because of him that Bnei Yisrael exists today.

On a dare from Alex....Something

A couple of weeks ago, Sarah posted about how Yaakov was the first to come up with something on Biology with the speckled/spotted and plain goats/sheep in Lavan's flocks. Moshe/Yisro also came up with something new for the court system with the court heirarchy.


Now it turns out that Yosef came up with something new as well. In Perek 41, he tells Pharaoh that he must save up food during the 7 years of plenty in order to have food for the 7 years of famine, thereby instituting the first food rationing and in the words of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, "The first recorded rationing in history was a hit!"

If you can think of any more feel free to comment! :)

A 100% Worthy Blog Post

Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov all have a prayer that is associated with each one of them. Avraham's is Shacharit-the morning prayer, Yitzchak's prayer is Mincha-the afternoon prayer, and Yaakov's is Maariv, the evening prayer. In class we discussed why these prayers are associated with the Avot. In the morning when we say Shacharit it is easy to see G-d. This is considered 'Avraham's prayer' because he was the first person to see G-d in everything around him. Avraham was a visionary and was the first to discover G-d's presence, so too Shacharit is the first prayer of the day in which we can see G-d's presence in the world. Yitzchak's prayer is Mincha. One opinon as to why Yitzchak is associated to this prayer is because Yitzchak was out praying in the middle of the day when he first met Rivkah. Another reason is that Yitzchak was stable and grounded. He never lost sight of G-d's presence in the world. Mincha is in the middle of the day so we can stop in the middle of a busy day when it is easy to forget to thank G-d for what He does for us, and pray to Him. Yaakov's prayer Maariv is said at night when all is dark and murky and it is hard to see G-d's presence. At night we are confused and unclear about our plans or our beliefs. Yaakov was constantly unclear about his role in life. He occasionally needed a push from G-d or others in the right direction.

In the past week we have read over ten Perakim in which Yosef is the main character. We read about the events that took place in his lifetime, from the day he had a dream till the day he died. Throughout these Perakim Yosef's most notable virtue that I noticed is his dedication and commitment to G-d. Yosef was thrown into a pit by his own brothers and sold. He ended up in Egypt and was even thrown into jail. There are times in his life when the majority of people would start losing faith in G-d and wondering where He is. Yosef does no such thing. His belief in G-d never falters.One way he proves this is when he names his sons. Yosef named his first son Menashe because Hashem helped him forget his father’s house and named his second son Ephraim because Hashem made him fruitful in the land of his affliction. Yosef is not one of the Avot for many reasons, but if he were he would need a prayer to be associated with (He wouldn't really need one, but in this post he does). I would associate Yosef with benching. When we bench we thank G-d for the food he has given us just like Yosef thanked G-d for the advantages and privileges G-d blessed him with in Egypt. Also, it takes a dedicated Jew to bench after every meal. Many Orthodox Jews cannot find the time or simply forget to bench after meals. It takes real dedication and commitment to G-d to remember to thank G-d after meals. There are many reasons and obstacles that can prevent a person from remembering to bench, daven, or do any mitzvah (I just happened to have picked benching to compare him to), but Yosef was able to not be influenced by his surroundings or be discouraged by his unfortunate situation. He was able to continue believing in G-d and thanking G-d when something positive happened in his life.

100%?

Please?

It would make my dreams come true.

Invitation

In Zionism I, we learned about how Queen Salome Alexandra did everything in her power to strengthen Judaism in Judea during her rule.  Once she died, her sons had a civil war over who would gain power.  One of them INVITED the Romans into Israel to help his defeat his brother.  Obviously, that is not what happened.  In the end, the Romans got rid of both brothers and conquered the land.  This directly led to the second exile.

The first major exile of the "ethical monotheist nation" A.K.A. Bnei Yisrael was their slavery in Egypt.  Although it was predicted by G-d, it still hit the Jews pretty hard.  I can't help but compare the above situation to this one.  A truly good person with all the right intentions did the right thing in trying to save their people.  In the above situation, the good leader died and left an opening for "evil" to come through.  By the Jews not protecting themselves against the Romans and not assuming that they might have come to Israel to take over, they led to their own demise.  In the case of Yosef and his brothers, Yosef gained power in a foreign country and was able to save lots of people from starving to death in the famine.  Here comes the problem:  After Yosef revealed himself to his brothers, he invited them to come and live in Egypt until the famine was over.  The Midrash says that as soon as Yaakov entered Egypt, the famine ended.  So why did the Jews stay in Egypt?  Maybe it was because Yosef could provide for them there.  As they all had professions, I don't see why they couldn't have returned home and shepherded for themselves.  Maybe it was so that they would be in position to enter slavery and be redeemed later.  This is slightly reminiscent of the other situation where the Jews were also "set up" for failure and ruin.

Although these two scenarios are not identical, they do remind me of each other.  What do you all think?  Are these pieces in the Jewish people's puzzle? Why did these saddening events happen?  Why did the people have to suffer?

What happened to Tamar?

What in the world happened in this story? While I was reading this story, I was really troubled and bothers, as I think everyone else was too. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I got out of the story.
Tamar, Yehuda's daughter in law, was married to Er. Hashem kills Er because he was evil. Er's brother, Onan, also gets killed because he was evil as well. Instead of remarrying, Tamar stayed a widow so that she won't look bad in the eyes of her son. Then Yehuda's wife dies. Yehuda thinks that Tamar is "not a shomer girl", or prostitute in real words. After all of this Yehuda promises to give her sheep. When he does though, he does not actually have the sheep to give to her. Instead he gives her his coat, staff, and ring. Later on when she got pregnant. Everyone is mad at her. In addition to everyone else, Yehudah wanted to burn him. Little did he know that it was his child. One night, being very "not shomer", they slept together. After she even proved he slept with him by showing that she had his belongings, he still wanted to kill her. He had her burnt.
I'm sorry, but to me this story is insane! And it came out of nowhere. I personally feel like this story was dropped in the middle of a completely different story. Also...this is so cruel! That's all I got out my feelings on this matter :)

Sad times for Tamar! 

The Avot Mashal

In class this past week, we discussed a mashal that compares Avraham to a mountain and shacharit, Yitzchok to a field and mincha, and Yaakov to a house and maariv. The different locations have an interesting reason behind them. Avraham is the mountain because he was the visionary. He was up above everything looking at the bigger picture. Yitzchok, as the field, fulfilled the important role of stabilizing the nation. He paved the roads and made sure everything ran smoothly. Yaakov then built the house. He takes Avraham's vision and tries to bring it down to the field and make it work.
We have all heard how each of the avot "created" a different part of davening, but what is truly interesting is how it fits their personalities. Avraham is famous for shacharit the first davening of the day. Some people even wait to eat until after they have said shacharit. He was the one who went out early in the morning to do the work. Yitzchok was the kind of person who was spiritual enough to be able to willingly stop his day in the middle and daven mincha. Yaakov is known for spending time to thank Hashem for his family after a long day of working and caring for them. Maariv takes place at night after the day's work when you are tired, but he was able to persist and thank Hashem for everything.

Yaakov's development in Prakim 33-34

IN perakim 33-34, we see some mixed signals about Yaakov's development. On the one hand, Yaakov finally meets up with Esav. This is the moment that he has been preparing for for so long. Everything went as well as it could have. Esav was not angry with him, they did not fight ,and they seemed to reconcile. Yaakov stood up to Esav, and it seems like his goal of becoming a non- passive person and a leader is finally accomplished. Later in, his daughter Dinah is captured by SHchem. Yaakov tries to reason with them, and they that if all the people of Shechem are circumcised, then Yaakov will accept them into his family and they can have Dinah. He is not very aggressive about getting his daughter back; in fact it looks like he is helping the process along. Shimon and Levi then attack the people of Shechem on the third day after the bris, when they were the weakest. They wipe out the city and rescue Dinah. When Yaakov asked them why they did it, they claimed that someone needed to stand up for their sister- implying that Yaakov wasn't, so they took it upon themselves. Yaakov is not confrontational about this at all .So this can be confusing. Why did Yaakov stand up to Esav but not Shechem? Has he really matured and developed into an active person and a leader? Or not?

שימשון and יעקב

          Recently in נביא, we have been learning about שימשון the שופט. At the same time, in חומש, we have been learning about יעקב אבינו. In נביא one of the main things we said about שימשון was that he was very manipulative and willing to get what he wanted in perhaps not the most scrupulous of ways. We also said that towards the end of his life it seems as if שימשון had a major decline in spirituality and closeness to 'ה.

In חומש, on the other hand, we learned that though יעקב was very spiritual and close to 'ה, he had to become more worldly in order to be deserving of the political part of ברכת אברהם. I think that if the two had lived during the same time period and in the same geographical area, (providing they would be the same as they are where and when they are now) they could have balanced each other out. שימשון could have taught יעקב some of his ways of interacting with the rest of the world and יעקב could have taught שימשון some of his spirituality and control so that both could have the qualities they needed. We can see very obviously that שימשון would have benefited immensely, as would have all of  בנ"י. Also, we can see that even though יעקב seems to be gaining political prowess and worldliness, he still is very non confrontational and non political at the core (with his family). Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, שימשון still might have been able to teach יעקב a few things about dealing with other people.

Like Father, Like Son?

In the past few weeks we have focused on Yaakov's personality. In the past week we also talked a little about Reuven, Yaakov's firstborn son. After Rachel died, Revuen assumed that his mother, Leah, would become the #1 wife. He was wrong. Bilha became the #1 wife. In order to prove that Bilha is only a maidservant, and Leah deserved to be the primary wife, Rueven slept with Bilha. Yaakov hears what happened, and as far as we know,  he did nothing. The pesukim go on to say that Yaakov has 12 sons, in order to confirm that Reuven was not kicked out of the family for what he did.

The saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" does not apply in this case. Yaakov would never have done something like this. In a sense what Reuven did was manipulative and obnoxious. For whatever reason he thinks that he can go sleep with his father's wife just because he is mad. He didn't get what he wanted so he acted out. Where have we seen something like this before?
Back when Eisav found out that Yaakov had gotten his blessing, he also acted out. Things hadn't gone his way so he cursed Yaakov and begged for a blessing from his father. He later swore that he would one say kill his brother. Yaakov, on the other hand, was hesitant to do anything manipulative. His mother had to basically force him to pretend to be Eisav in order to get the blessing from Yitzchak. (The situation with the birthright cannot be considered manipulative according to the Mefarshim.)

We see in many different cases that Yaakov does not handle manipulative people well. In Charan, it took him over 14 years to stand up to Lavan who had constantly manipulated him throughout his stay in Charan. Yaakov didn't even confront him when Laven switched out Rachel for Leah at his wedding or when he changed his wages numerous times. It took even longer for Yaakov to become prepared to confront Eisav. Even after leaving Charan, he was still not ready. According to Radak, G-d had to send an angel to fight with Yaakov so Yaakov could see that he could defeat Eisav. This would give him the courage to face Eisav later on. Even after facing these two tricksters, Yaakov can't seem to rebuke his own child for committing such a devious, unacceptable act. Maybe this is one of Yaakov's faults, but it proves that this is just the way Yaakov is. He is not a confrontational human being. It's part of who he is, and in many ways it makes him a great leader. Reuven is clearly not like Yaakov. He is not passive. He does what he wants, and does not think about how others will be affected. He could learn a lot from his father; it's too bad Yaakov will not make an effort to teach him.

Dear Mrs. Perl,
I think this deserves an 100.
Todah, Alyssa.

Bad Things Happen

Bad things happen to even the best of us. Yaakov certainly did not have an easy life. We think that just because he is one of our avot that he must have had it made, at least I thought that. Quite on the contrary though, Yaakov had his fair share of hardships. While he was a young man he had to trick his brother then his father. Then as a result of that he had to flee from his home so that his older brother wouldn't kill him. Then he had to work for Lavan for 7 years just to marry the love of his life. Of course when it came time for that, Lavan gave him the wrong daughter "by accident" making him have to work another 7 years for the right daughter. After that Lavan wouldn't let him return back to his home, so he had to escape in the middle of the night. Rachel stole her father's idols so he came after them. Yaakov had to confront him and send him back his way. When Yaakov finally returned him he was met by an angel and then sent gift after gift to appease his brother before meeting him. Then he meets with his brother and everything seems fine. Yaakov finds out after that that his father died. His wife Rachel also dies. Reuven, Yaakov's oldest son decides he has to put his mother on top and sleeps with Yaakov's concubine.
I don't know why many people just assume everything is handed to our avot. Maybe its because Hashem was so close to them and was with them every step of the way. I certainly thought that automatically our avot had the life. That they never had any heartaches or difficulties. In fact its the complete opposite. They might have had to deal with worse and more difficulties in their lifetimes. Our avot are even more similar to us than I had ever realized.
I think we can all take a lesson from Yaakov and the rest of our avot. Life gets tough sometimes, but then it gets better. Hashem is always with us no matter what, just like how He was with Yaakov and all our other avot and imahot.

What's Wrong with Reuven?

Reuven, Yaakov's firstborn son, always seemed to be getting into trouble and interfering with the issues of his parents.  Leah married Yaakov through a scheme of her father Lavan.  He tricked Yaakov into marrying the wrong sister.  In order to marry Rachel, Yaakov worked an extra seven years.  Anyways, Reuven was never Yaakov's favorite child.  Being the oldest, he would have been the first child to sense the lack of affection between his two parents and Yaakov's clear love of Rachel.  He just wanted his mother (and siblings) to be in his father's favor.  Of course, he tried to achieve this through some very odd actions.  Way back, he gave fertility flowers to his mother, which led to her having another child.  After Rachel died, Reuven went to Bilha and "Vayishcav."  There is little room for misinterpretation here.  He had inappropriate relations with his father's concubine and former maidservant of Rachel.  Reuven's intentions were rather sinister: he wanted to make Bilha "damaged goods" so that Yaakov's main wife would become Leah, not Bilha.  (Yaakov exhibits no severe reaction to this.  The text pauses and then commences again with "Yaakov had twelve sons."  This comes to show us that Yaakov's core personality was still non-confrontational and that he could turn the leader part of his personality on and off.)  Later on, he is the one who throws Yosef in a pit.  He had intended to go back and rescue him, but Yosef was gone before that.  He just wanted his brothers to be in their father's good graces.

What can we learn from Reuven?  He displays incredible persistence and determination in all of the above instances.  Obviously, this is not always a good thing.  When one child (or seven) are overlooked by their father, they may go to extreme measures for attention.  Reuven wanted to get Yaakov's attention and wound up doing obscene things for it.  He did not go unpunished.  Although Yaakov did nothing to him immediately after these incidents, Reuven was cursed on Yaakov's deathbed.  We learn two things from this.  First, no misdeed goes unpunished.  Second, as parents and children, jealousy will arise if one is favored over another.  All children want is to be loved.  They deserve that, at least.  What so y'all think?

Yaakov in Charan

We recently learned about Yaakov going to Charan. The Chazal, or sages, say that the name Charan can be associated with anger.
 According to the Sichos by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, there are three different parts of Yaakov's stay in Charan. In class we discussed how the parsha vayeitze shows Yaakov's growth and development, and we showed this using a chiastic structure.The Rebbe also says that this parsha show sYaakov's growth and his characteristics, but instead of a chiastic structure, it breaks the parsha into three pieces that demonstrate how he grew and his character. The first "piece" is that he was challenged to remain who he was, instead of being influenced by Lavan. The second part is that he built up his family and made sure that they were not affected by outside influences either. He set this as an example for the Jewish people to come: we are among the other nations but can still remain true to who we are. The third part is that he gained a lot of wealth and brought holiness to the land of Charan. Each of these pieces shows a spiritual power. In the first part, he shows the power of a soul. Even in a harsh place it still has a Jewish spark and identity that will always be there. In the second part, he shows his ability to influence a lot of people. The third part shows that ne is continuing to spread the holiness and to more and more people. Like it said above, the name Charan can we associated with anger. Everything about Charan that was not connected with Yaakov made G-d angry, as we see by the name Charan. So, because Yaakov was elevating them and making them more holy, he shows us that even the lowliest and least holy place can be turned into a great holy place for G-d. Amen.

One more...

Let's get this over with.

The kidnap and rape of Dina. This is something we have all heard about. What we don't necessarily hear about is the details of the retaliation on Shechem. Shimon and Levi heard what had happened and killed ALL of the men in the city and pillaged the houses, the streets, the women, anything they could find. Is this not a little over the top? I'm going to go a little out there and say it is a good thing this happened. Because of this incident, years later we can read about it and get upset. We can show people that we didn't make up the Torah. If we did, why would we write about the bad things?

The Nidche

Today we learned about the connection between prakim 36 and 25. Both of them begin with the words "V'eileh Toldot" and then continue to tell an unusual tale. That of those who were nidche: Yishmael and Eisav. Normally when we have a story it is about someone who was nivchar, but here we have an exception. Everything is connected. Without Yishmael, Avraham would not have grown to the height that he did. Without Eisav, Yaakov would probably have remained a naive shepherd. Though they were not chosen, they still played a major part in the development of those who were chosen. We all have own place in life, our "niche" if you will. (lol Biology :) It is ok to not be the main character, as long as you don't lose sight of your goal and become the antagonist.

Standing Up

In class we learned about Yaakov's journey to being a true leader. He started out as a man of G-d; he was completely naive to the way of the world. He then goes through many different trials and tribulations to become a true leader of B'nei Yisrael. He is sent to Lot, a renowned trickster to begin. There he marries his wives and learns to stand up to Lot. In the beginning he just let Lot walk all over him, but by the time he left, he knew how to stand his ground. From this we can all learn something. We can come to understand the importance of standing up for what you believe in. In this world where we are less than 1% of the population it is important to know who you are and be able to fight for it.