Va-Yeshev 5762

Shabbat Shalom-

The Rebbe is still busy this week making his living so these brief words and texts to study follow.

Words play an important part in this week's reading. Words convey not only their simple meaning, but also layers below, an entire universe of interpretations and hidden yearnings. After Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, dreams a dream, he feels compelled to tell it to his brothers. The dream of the brother's sheaves bowing down to his sheaves clearly imply his sheaf's supremacy. Was Joseph naive to this meaning? The text says they began to hate him more. "And they hated him more for his dreams and his words." (Gen 37:8). He dreamed again and told his father as well, who became livid by the implication of him and Rachel prostrating to their then 17-year-old son (37:10), whom the text calls "a lad" (37:2). His brothers were jealous, but Jacob either kept his opinions to himself or alternately remembered the dreams (37:11).

Regardless of weather Joseph's dreams were prophetic omens or merely the subconscious churnings of an over-nourished ego, the words were just as hated as the dreams themselves (37:8). Joseph's speaking the dreams without note of the effects of his words nearly leads to his death, and only by the slimmest of margins to his fortune. He might have been a talented and gifted young man, but "keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking treachery" (Psalm 34:14) and "He who guards his mouth and his tongue (from ill-speaking), guards his soul from troubles." (Proverbs 21:23).

There is a story of a man who was a terrible gossiper. If he wasn't asking for gossip, he was giving it. One day, word got out that he had been charged with stealing in a different town, though it was a false charge. The man was a business man and his livelihood became threatened. He went to his rebbe to ask advice. The rebbe said, "Take a pillow, one of your nice goose-feather pillows, to the center of town, and hack away at it with a knife". The man did just that and, though impressed by the beauty of all the flying feathers, didn't understand how that would help his business. He went back to the rebbe to ask what else he could do. The rebbe said, "Collect all the feathers you have loosed." That man was flabbergasted, "That's impossible; they have flown everywhere! I cannot possibly collect them all!" The rebbe smiled, "And so it is with your gossiping. Once you tell your tale, you cannot take it back." The man, needless to say, learned his lesson.

After Joseph tells his brothers his first dream, they reply "and will you reign, yes, reign over us, or rule, yes, rule over us?" (37:8). Do not read 'mashal' as 'to rule' but rather 'to speak parables'. Thus, we must read the sentence "and will you ultimately reign over us if you tell your tale?" Words can so consume us that they destroy us and rule us, as well as others. Do not be a slave to words nor enslave others with yours.

Follows are some relevant quotes:

Mishnah Avot 2:11 Rebbe Yeshoshua says: An evil eye, an evil inclination, and hatred of fellow creatures remove a man from the world.

Mishnah Avot 3:9 Rebbe Hanina ben Dosa says: All whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom, his wisdom is established (remains). And all whose wisdom precedes his fear of sin, his wisdom is not established. He used to say: All whose deeds are greater than his wisdom, his wisdom is established. And all whose wisdom is greater than his deeds, his wisdom is not established.

Mishnah Avot 3:13 Rebbe Akiva says: Tradition, a fence to Torah. Tithes, a fence to wealth. Vows, a fence to licentiousness. A fence to wisdom is silence.

Mishnah Avot 3:17 Rebbe Elazar ben Azaryah says: Without Torah, there is no occupation. Without occupation, there is no torah. Without wisdom, there is no fear (of sin). Without fear (of sin), there is no wisdom. Without understanding, there is no knowledge. Without knowledge, there is no understanding. Without grain, there is no Torah. Without Torah, there is no grain. He used to say: All whose wisdom is greater than his deeds, to what is he similar? To a tree whose branches are many and its roots few, and the wind comes and uproots it and turns it on its face.... But, all whose deeds are greater than their his wisdom, to what is he similar? To a tree whose branches are few and whose roots are many, that even all the windows in the world may come and blow at it but they do not move it from its place....

Have a caring week!
Benjamin Fleischer
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