Let’s talk about the Parsha

imorethanamother

Mon, Dec 06 2021, 3:06 am

b.chadash wrote:

I think the message there is that there is often much more than meets the eye. (Rabbi Glatstein has a beautiful shiur on this subject, I can try to link if you are interested.)

Yes, please. If you can link it.

b.chadash wrote:

But another idea that is brought out in that Medresh about Yehuda and Tamar, and also in the story of Lot and his daughters, is that in the midst of upheaval and what seems like a time of "Din", Hashem is meanwhile busy thinking about the ultimate redemption. We, with our mortal eyes, can only see destruction, pain, hopelessness and despair.

I always saw the interruption as a natural consequence. Yehuda was ousted from the family. He marries, his two sons die, and yet he accepts it almost as his due. There's no narrative there, no mention of mourning or sadness. I wouldn't say he's broken, but he's almost there. There's a process he's going through.

Yehuda himself is the instrument for his own salvation, and when that occurs, then the one with Yosef can occur. That's the true narrative of the story. Once Yehuda accepts responsibility for Tamar, he can then accept responsibility for Binyamin and reunite his family.

b.chadash wrote:

I think we can say the same with Rus and Boaz. There was a famine. Elimelech abandons his people, moves to Moav, his children intermarry, then they die. Naomi is left alone and bereft. It seems so hopeless. And yet, Hashem caused the family from Beis Lechem to go to Moav to aquire or reclaim the precious "lost object" that was Rus.

I don't see the similarities.

b.chadash

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 7:38 pm

imorethanamother wrote:

I don't see the similarities.

I just came here to post something and I noticed your response.
To respond to your comment, the way I understood the medresh, it's that everything was unraveling in the family of Yaakov...things seemed bleak and hopeless.
To quote Keym: "The medrash tells us the shevatim were eating. Reuven was in sackcloth mourning. Yaakov was mourning. Yosef was davening in chains. Binyomin was crying. Yehuda, he went to find himself a wife. And what was Hashem Yosborach doing? He was planting the seeds to bring the geulah and the roots of Melech hamashiach.
Everything has a plan. And Hashem has it all in hand, even if it seems so confusing."

The point is that at the moment, things seemed like they were falling apart, each man wallowing in his own pain. And yet, Hashem had an eye to the future.

The connection with Elimelech and Rus is that there too, things seemed to just be disastourous. This once great family made some poor choices and ended up in a foreign land, and then descended into poverty and intermarriage. And then 3 of the four members of the family die. And in the midst of this, Hashem was pulling strings, bringing Elimelech to the fields of Moav so that Rus (who is known and the "lost object" ) is connected with Elimelechs family and eventually brought back to EY. At the time it seemed so bitter and hopeless, but what was Hashem doing? He was planting the seed for the geulah.

And I will bezH look for that shiur by Rabbi Glatstien and post it shortly.

b.chadash

Wed, Dec 08 2021, 7:58 pm

So I came back here to add something to this discussion. I just read this in the Shaarei Aharon in Parashas Shemos.

The Torah says that Amrom married the daughter of Levi who was his aunt.
The question is asked, why did Amram take his father's sister, a marriage that would later become assur from the Torah? Why did Hashem see fit to have a great man like Moshe emerge from a union that would later be forbidden?

He gives several reasons. (The second one is relevant to our discussion.)
1. Because Hashem won't put a leader on the tzibbur who doesn't have some "skeletons in his closet." (The lashon he uses is that a "necklace of sheratzim are hanging from his neck.") He does this so that the leader shouldn't feel superior to the people.

2. The Sifsei Cohen says, it's to confuse the Satan, so he won't interfere with the redemption process. Because the Satan will imagine that the "glory of Yisroel and the king Moshiach will only emerge from the purest and holiest of places", and that it's impossible that he will emerge from such a union. This will serve to distract him from what is happening under his nose.

Just adding my own thoughts. Moshe was considered a Moshiach as well, and that is why the idea of distracting the Satan applies to his birth as well as the births connected with the Davidic dynasty.

The second thought is somewhat disturbing but I'll say it anyway. Based on this philosophy, the Xtians can claim a similar idea about their Savior, that he was born in a compromised state, and that is a theme surrounding many if the ancestors of the Moshiach.

The only flaw in this train of thought is that they claim his mother was actually a Virgin

b.chadash

Sat, Dec 18 2021, 11:31 pm

I want to share something nice I read on Shabbos.

Yaakov blesses all of his sons and tells Shimon and Levi, "Cursed is their anger because it is strong. I will divide them among Yaakov and scatter them in Yisroel."

It seems like he is reprimanding them, but the Chassam Sofer understands it differently.
Shimon and Levi acted with excessive fury when they destroyed Shechem in defense of their sister. On the other hand, the other brothers did nothing to save their sister. The other brothers should have been upset enough to take action.

Yaakov said he would divide Shimon and Levi's anger among the rest of the Shevatim so that each tribe would then have the right amount of this midda.

The point is that every midda is necessary - the only question is how much and in which situation to use it. Someone without anger will not be able to fight injustice. But someone with TOO much anger will always be fighting.

Anger is a feeling that helps a person have more energy to defend themselves and others who are being unjustly attacked. But in everyday situations, anger can be very harmful.

Yaakov was teaching us that every midda is necessary, we just have to develop the right balance.

Last edited by b.chadash on Sat, Dec 18 2021, 11:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

sweetdimples

Sun, Dec 19 2021, 12:24 am

One of my favorite midrashim:
when Yaakov blesses Yosef with the words "Ben Poras Yosef, Ben poras alei ayin, bnos tzoados alei shur," ("A charming son is Yosef, charming on to look upon; young women climb walls to gaze at him).
according to the Midrash, the young women would even fight for a place to get a good view of Yosef when he would pass by. And that they would throw jewelry at him to get his attention so that he would look at them. And he never does…
Until one young lady throws a kemaye on a chain which Yosef “catches”. on this Kamaya there is an inscription which reads“ I am from the house of Yaakov”
This sparks Yosef’s interest…
This young girl’s name is Osnas bas Potifera as she grew up in the house of Potifar and was raised as his daughter but who was she?
She is the baby girl born as a result of the assault of Shechem on Dina… and she is sent away but not before Yakov gently places a necklace around her neck which proclaims where she comes from…
Yosef marries her, his niece from his father’s house.
Gives me chills every time…

Last edited by sweetdimples on Sun, Dec 19 2021, 12:36 am; edited 2 times in total

Ema of 5

Sun, Dec 19 2021, 12:33 am

sweetdimples wrote:

One of my favorite midrashim:
when Yaakov blesses Yosef with the words "Ben Poras Yosef, Ben poras alei ayin, bnos tzoados alei shur," ("A charming son is Yosef, charming on to look upon; young women climb walls to gaze at him).
according to the Midrash, the young women would even fight for a place to get a good view of Yosef when he would pass by. And that they would throw jewelry at him to get his attention so that he would look at them. And he never did…
Until one young lady threw a kemaye on a chain which Yosef “caught”. on this Kamaya there was an inscription which read “ I am from the house of Yaakov”
This sparked Yosef’s interest…
This young girl’s name was Osnas bas Potifera as she grew up in the house of Potifar and was raised as his daughter but who was she?
She was the baby girl born as a result of the assault of Shechem on Dina… and she is sent away but not before Yakov gently places a necklace around her neck which proclaims where she comes from…
Yosef marries her, his cousin from his father’s house.
Gives me chills every time…

She was his niece, not a cousin.

etky

Sun, Dec 19 2021, 5:06 am

b.chadash wrote:

Levi managed to channel this mida of anger into righteous indignation in defense of Hashem.
We see this in the tribe's response to Chet Ha'egel, in the zealotry of Pinchas and, much later in the Macabim. The descendants of Levi - starting with Moshe and Aharon, became the religious/spiritual leaders of the Jewish people.
Shimon, OTOH was less successful. His descendant Zimri, the Nasi of shevet Shimon, sunk into moral corruption and was the object of Pinchas's zealotry. Later, during kibush ha'aretz, the tribe of Shimon was markedly unsuccessful in conquering their nachala. Ultimately Shimon was subsumed into Yehuda and lost its tribal identity.

PinkFridge

Sun, Dec 19 2021, 9:36 am

b.chadash wrote:

Yes, their passion was something we all needed. It's why Shimon became teachers. So did Levi. (Regrettably they met again a few generations later, Zimri and Pinchas.) They lived throughout the shevatim to share this. It's pretty amazing. 12 shevatim but we can all access their unique strengths.

ETA: I see Etky got to this already. I'd like to think we still have some of the best of Shimon in us.

GLUE

Thu, Jan 13 2022, 10:19 pm

From R'Gershon Weiss z"l

Why was Phorah able to go to sleep? Every thing that Moshe predicted came true, why was he not worried?

Phorah saw that during the plague of darkness the Jews could roam throw out Egypt, but could not leave. In Egypt no slave has ever escaped because of there magic, so obvious even there God is not powerful enough to brake the magic in Egypt. So phorah went to sleep with total confidence that he was still more powerful then the Jews God.

happytobemom

Thu, Jan 13 2022, 10:53 pm

Ema of 4 wrote:

Someone posted this in my local chat a little while ago. I don’t remember learning it, but it’s cool.

When Benai Yisrael crossed the Yam Suf, the entire sea didn’t split in one shot. Every step they took caused more of the sea to split. THEY HAD TO HAVE BITACHON EVERY STEP OF THE WAY

~ Rabbi Yechiel Spiro

Wow!
That's amazing!
I never heard that!

PinkFridge

Mon, Jan 17 2022, 8:40 am

GLUE wrote:

I heard something from Rabbi Tatz IIRC about the dogs not barking. There were animal statues stationed around the border that would start making noise if any slaves tried to escape. That night, the dog statues didn't bark.

imorethanamother

Mon, Jan 17 2022, 9:19 pm

Ema of 4 wrote:

I mean, maybe the people in the front. But not the people in the back.

b.chadash

Tue, Jan 18 2022, 12:51 am

I once heard an interesting idea about Krias yam suf as it connects to shidduchim.

The sea split into 12 paths, one for each shevet. Rather than going across from one side to another, the paths went in a semi circle; they ended up on the same side of the beach, just further down. (From above, it may have looked like a rainbow. )

Consequently, the shevatim that were in the inner part of the rainbow had a shorter path than those on the outer part of the rainbow.

Chazal say "kashe zivugo shel Adam k'krias yam suf. "
How?
Some people have a shorter path and some have a longer path. We all have to believe that whether a person's path is long or short, it's always ratzon Hashem.

Another idea is that the sea didn't split until Nachshon jumped in. Sometimes you just gotta jump in blindly and trust Hashem that he will split the sea for you.

What other ideas have you heard in connection to shidduchim and krias Yam Suf?

Last edited by b.chadash on Tue, Jan 18 2022, 9:44 am; edited 1 time in total