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Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week's section deals
with the release of Yosef from prison to become
ruler of Egypt.
Interestingly, Yosef's life story is
connected to eerie dreams.
First his own in the beginning of last
week's section, then the enigmatic
dreams of the two imprisoned ministers and, finally the disturbing
dreams of
Pharaoh himself. And in each case only Yosef was able to interpret
them
properly.
What are dreams? Why did G-d create such
a weird thing? Couldn't we do
without them? What is the connection between Yosef and dreams?
To understand this here is a story.
Reb Shimon Rabinovitz (fictitious name)
was dejected. He walked aimlessly
down the snow covered Moscow street, crumpled the letter into
a ball and
threw it into the first trash bin he passed. The year was 1967.
Russia was
little more than a huge prison for the millions of people living
there -
especially the Jews. The only way out was to request from the
government
and the exit door was very narrow and very rarely opened. This
was Shimon's
sixth rejection to leave the country in the last six years,
and he wasn't
getting any younger.
His hopes lifted a little last year when
his brother got clearance to leave.
But now they were dashed and he was about to give up.
That night he went to sleep and...Behold!
A dream!!
An elderly man held out an official-looking
piece of paper to him and said,
"With this you will leave Russia and go to the land of
Israel." Whereupon he
gave him the document, turned around and walked away.
Shimon woke up that morning with a strange
feeling of self-confidence (which
was an unusual thing in Communist Russia). At first he couldn't
figure it
out, but then he remembered the dream. It was so clear, as though
it really
happened.
He usually wasn't one to put stock in
such things. Dreams are notoriously
false and foolish, but for some unexplainable reason he felt
that this was
different.
He made up his mind to do it!
The very next day he returned to the
visa office and again applied for
permission to leave. At first the official wanted to have him
ejected.
"What? You again? Why...you just got rejected yesterday.
What...are you
crazy or something? Maybe come back next year."
But Shimon paid no attention. That dream
turned him around. It was as
though the world was suddenly some sort of distant movie that
had no real
importance. The world was the dream!! He was sure that this
time he would
leave Russia.
He filled out the papers and handed them
in as the official just stood there
shaking his head in pity.
Shimon actually believed that in a month
or so he would be receiving that
phone call from the ministry of travel telling him to come get
his papers.
But he was in for a surprise.
Three days later there was a knock on
Shimon's door. He opened up and there
was a government official! Normally he would have fainted from
fear -
officials never bear good tidings.
"Mister Rabinovitz?" He asked
formally. Shimon apprehensively looked to see
if there were policemen standing behind him coming to arrest
him. "Is your
name Rabinovitz?" the official asked again.
"Yes" Shimon answered.
"Good. Just sign here!" he
said as he produced a receipt. Shimon signed,
the official handed him a closed envelope, turned on his heels
and walked
away.
Shimon closed the door and excitedly
opened the letter. It was an official
document and it said....
He was free! He could go the land of
Israel! He got permission to leave
Russia. And, miracle of miracles they brought it to his house!!
He never
heard of that happening to anyone!
It took Shimon some time to sell everything
and organize money for his move.
But two months later he boarded the plane for Israel and hours
thereafter he
was met by his brother in Lod airport in Israel. They hugged,
danced and
wept from sheer joy.
"It was the Rebbe that got you out!"
His brother exclaimed. "Like Moses took
us from Egypt! It was the Rebbe."
On their way to his house his brother
explained. About two months ago he
called the Rebbe's headquarters in Brooklyn and requested a
blessing for him
to get out of Russia. Oh that same day the Rebbe's secretary
called him back
and said the Rebbe answered that for sure there would be good
news and he
would soon be joined by his brother in Israel.
It must have been the Rebbe's blessing
that did it. It's the only way to
explain his wondrous release!
But when they entered his brother's house,
Shimon stood frozen like a
statue. There before them on the wall was a picture of the Rebbe.
His
brother realized that it was probably because he had never seen
a picture of
the Rebbe before (in Russia it was impossible to smuggle in
a picture of a
non-Communist leader).
"It's the Rebbe." He explained.
"You probably guessed."
But Shimon was in a different world.
"It's him!" he whispered.
"What do you mean?" His brother
asked.
He told his brother about his dream and
finished "He was the one that gave
me the letter in the dream!"
Sure enough when his brother checked
the date he had received the Rebbe's
answer he saw it was the day before the dream!
The Rebbe not only opened the gates for
Shimon. He also opened his eyes and
led him out.
That is the purpose of dreams...they
contain opposites. In a dream, things
that are insanely paradoxical seem right and natural.
That is why King David likens the Jews
in the exile (we have been living in
for over two thousand years) as dreamers (Psalms 126:1).
During the exile Jews loose their identity
and the result is a dreamlike
tragic confusion. Nowhere can it better be seen than in Israel
today. The
leaders are followers, the schools encourage immorality, the
'Jewish' state
despises Judaism while Arab murderers are justified. The country
runs
PURELY on Devine miracles and the government doesn't believe
in G-d.
But there is also a very positive side
to dreams. Because all paradoxes
exist together, even the worst sinners can, in a flash, become
totally
transformed. The weak can suddenly become strong, the ugly beautiful
and
even death can become transformed to life!!
And that is the message of all these
dreams and Yosef.
Yosef was the forerunner of redemption.
He, one lone Jew, transformed the
entire world's population, including decadent Egypt, to be subservient
to
the Creator. He changed confusion and famine into joy and plenty.
But it was all a preparation for the
dreamlike exile we are now in. Yosef
gave the power to all the Tzadikim, as the above story shows,
to convert the
confusion into redemption - and it can occur in one flash!
That is what the Lubavitcher Rebbe said
time and time again. The Redemption
is here! We must only open our eyes; think, speak and do only
positive
things and we will see that we have powers of good we never
dreamed of.
As the Jewish saying goes "If you
want your dreams to come true...you have
to wake up!"
And see...Moshiach NOW!!
Wishing you all a Frielechan Chanukah.
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
www.ohrtmimim.org/torah
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week's section tells
how Josef; a lone Jew with no friends or connections and
through no political maneuvering became the ruler of the entire
world!
At first glance this is not understood.
The Jews are G-d's people, have His promise
to be a wise and intelligent nation and
to be as many as the sand on the sea and stars in the sky.
So why didn't G-d just keep all these
promises in the days of Josef so the Jews could
naturally rule the world? Why only through one person?
We can ask a similar question about Chanukah.
Judah Maccabe and his handful of
fighters were ridiculously outnumbered. They had to battle not
only myriads of Greek
troops but the Hellenistic Jews (the majority of the Jewish
nation!) as well.
Why such odds? Wasn't the main thing
that they found oil that burned for eight days?
I want to explain this with a speech
that the Lubavitcher Rebbe gave years ago to
disabled veterans of the Israeli army.
But first a story:
Old Zalman the beggar was standing before
the Baal Shem Tov with his head hung in
shame trying to explain.
"I'm a tailor, or at least I used
to be before I started begging. It's a long story.
A few years ago, after going a while with not even one tailoring
job, I and my friend
Shmerl took to the road hoping that perhaps a change of place
would at least bring
some work so we could feed our hungry families.
"After a few weeks of wandering
we stopped in an inn. The place seemed empty but
then we saw that in a corner sat a Jew, head in hands, weeping.
"When he noticed us he dried his
eyes, stood, introduced himself as the innkeeper and
asked if he could help.
"'Yes' Shmerl answered 'You can
tell us why you were crying, maybe we can help.'
"He told us that he was in big trouble
from the local Baron. The Baron was marrying
off his daughter in a month and wanted new fancy clothes for
his entire family to
wear for the occasion. Anyway he ordered the innkeeper to find
an appropriate tailor
but everyone he brought the Baron outright rejected.
"Now the Baron said that if he didn't
come up with someone soon he'd throw him and
his family in the street and rent the inn to someone else.
"So we told him that this was obviously
the hand of G-d that brought us here because
WE are tailors and WE will save him.
"At first he looked at us and cringed.
I mean we didn't exactly look like royal
tailors. But on the other hand he was desperate so he took us
there.
"We took some measurements, made
a few samples and well, the miracle happened. We
got the job! The Baron liked our work!
"For the next month we worked day
and night almost non-stop and the Baron was
ecstatic with the results! In fact he was so happy that after
the wedding he invited
us to his official room and presented each of us with three
hundred guilder!! But I
wasn't happy.
"You see, someone told me that there
was an entire Jewish family imprisoned in his
dungeons because they couldn't pay their debts. I just couldn't
sleep nights.
"So I asked him if it was true and
he told me 'Those who cannot pay must suffer and
with a gleam in his eye asked me if we would like to pay their
debt? It was three
hundred Guilder!!
"But my partner said he couldn't
do it. He had a wife and family to feed and wasn't
willing to give half of his earnings for people he didn't even
know.
"I guess he was right but I just
handed the Baron my three hundred guilder and begged
him to set them free.
"The Baron was obviously impressed.
He took the money, ordered his men to free the<
family, gave me a few guilders for the road, shook my hand and
showed me to the door.
"Well, I went home penniless. Shmerl
invested his money in a new shop and really did
well, thank G-d. But I just couldn't seem to make ends meet
and that's why I took to
begging.
"Well a few weeks ago this rich
man gave me a nice donation and asked for a blessing
for some business he was beginning so I did it. I didn't think
I was doing anything
wrong. Then a few days later he came back excited and told me
that my blessing
worked.
"Well, since then about fifty people
come to me everyday and ask for blessings for
all sorts of things and they give me charity. So I bless them.
I guess I shouldn't
do that, right Rabbi? I mean, who am I to bless people? So if
you tell me to stop..
I'll stop, Rabbi.
The Baal Shem looked at Zalman with love
and explained to him that the opposite was
true; It was from the merit of his self-sacrifice that his blessings
were effective
and he wanted him to continue blessing. The Baal Shem even promised
him that he would
send him a special tutor to teach him Torah so he could help
Jews even more.
Now to the speech of the Rebbe:
As part of a tour of New York the disabled
Israeli veterans came to visit the
Lubavicher Rebbe. Almost all of them were missing limbs and
therefore earned the name
"Nechay Tzal" (literally disabled or 'lowered' soldiers),
and all of them, were
overjoyed to meet the Rebbe.
The Rebbe spoke to them about the difference
between quantity and quality.
Quantity, he explained, is very important
and certainly makes a difference. We see
that much money or force certainly carries weight. But nevertheless
one who
possesses such quantitative wealth or power doesn't have anything
new or unusual but
rather an unusually large amount of what already exists.
But QUALITY is something else altogether.
It doesn't depend on size or number but
rather on something deeper more spiritual and more lasting and
real.
In fact often smallness is an indication
of some spiritual greatness.
For instance; G-d promised the Jewish
people that (Deut. 7:7) "You are the smallest
of all people.
The reason for this is that the Jews
are a spiritual nation. Unlike all the others,
the Jewish people have a special purpose in the world and if
they were as large as
the others they might overlook this special quality,
In other words G-d purposely made them
lacking in Quantity in order to reveal their
unique QUALITY.
"So it is true of you war veterans"
the Rebbe said. "The reason G-d arranged things
so that you are lacking physically (quantitatively) is because
you must have some
special, spiritual greatness you have to reveal. And this will
not only compensate
for your physical loss and help you but it will help others
as well, and very
possibly the entire world.
"Therefore", concluded the
Rebbi, "I would like to suggest that from now on rather
than calling you Disabled Veterans (n'chay tzal) you should
be called DISTINGUISHED
Veterans (M'tzu'yanai tzal)!
So this answers our questions. Josef
had to be alone and the Maccabees over a
thousand years later had to be outnumbered because only then
would their unique
powers and talents be revealed.
Just like Zalman the beggar in our story;
his power to bless emerged only after he
was squeezed. And so it was with the miraculous oil of that
first Chanukah.
Olive oil in general comes only by squeezing
(and for that reason the Jews are
compared to it; it doesn't mix with other liquids etc.) but
the first Chanukah oil
came from an even greater self-squeezing; the self-sacrifice
of the Maccabees.
So it is with our generation. We should
never feel overwhelmed neither by the
awesome task before us; to bring Moshiach who will bring blessing
and meaning to the
entire world, nor from the apparent difficulties we have doing
it. Because those very
odds and difficulties are only there to force us to reveal the
powers, talents and
blessings hidden within us.
And before we know it we will be witnessing
the lighting of the Menora in the Third Temple with... Moshiach
NOW!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel
Torah Online Site:http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week's section is always
read in the days of Chanukah.
One unique thing about Chanukah is that
even the most non-observant of
Jews observe it.
The rest of the year they don't believe
in commandments, blessings,
miracles or holiness, but on Chanukah they light the Chanukah
candles,
say the blessings, know about the eight-day miracle, and even
know that
it happened in the Holy Temple.
One reason for this strange phenomenon
is Chanukah's connection to oil;
it began with finding a bottle of pure undefiled oil. Oil corresponds
to the deepest level of the Jewish soul (In Kaballah it's called
"Yechida").
The Jewish soul is like oil. Just as
oil contains two opposites; it
floats above all liquids, but is found in and permeates all
substances.
So also the Jewish people can never really
mix with the rest of the
world (they always seem to come to the surface) but their purpose
is to
be active in the world and permeate it with holiness and meaning.
It
completely defies understanding, the mystery of mysteries.
Here is a story to explain:
On the last days of the "Peace in
Galilee" war, I was one of a group of
ten Chabad Chassidim that got permission from the army to enter
Beirut,
Lebanon to cheer up the soldiers.
The soldiers welcomed us as though we
were announcing the end of the
war. The entire night we went from group to group singing, dancing,
talking, laughing, and of course making L'Chaims.
There was no time to sleep, so at the
crack of dawn we got our Tefillin
and began asking soldiers if they wanted to do a Mitzvah and
put them on
for a minute.
At that hour of the morning, most of
the soldiers were still asleep, so
I walked around looking for "customers", and happened
on a line of about
ten open jeeps with two Israeli soldiers seated in each one.
Their
motors were running and they were waiting in the chilly morning
to go
out on some sort of mission. It must have been some sort of
combat
foray, because they were armed to the teeth and were wearing
bulky
bulletproof vests and metal helmets.
I approached the first jeep and asked
them if they wanted to put on and
one agreed. Then, when he finished, I moved on to the next one
and asked the driver the same question, but I was in for an unpleasant
surprise.
He just listened, looking straight ahead,
and even didn't react to my
question. So I just stood there and waited for a reply. After
a few
seconds of silence, he turned to me and said. (Loose translation)
"Get
away from me you parasite religious scum" If you don't
get out of my
face I'll tear you in pieces! NOW GET OUT OF HERE! I hate you
vermin!"
I understood that the answer was no.
I tried to force a smile and figure
out something to say, when suddenly the driver of the next jeep
in line
called out to me in a desperate tone.
"Rebbe, Rebbe. Come here. I want
to put on Tefillin" I turned, happy to
get away, and began to walk toward him.
"Tell me Rebbe" he yelled nervously
after I had taken a few steps and
was still quite a distance from him, "If....if I put on
Tefillin will
G-d protect me?"
It was obvious that he was very worried.
Yesterday he was probably
sitting in his hardware store selling pipes and tools, when
they called
him up to reserve duty, and suddenly here he was about to enter
the
front lines.
"Listen my friend" I assured
him. "G-d will protect you whether you put
on or not. Don't worry. He loves you because you're a Jew. But
if G-d
protects you for free, so why not do something for Him for free,
and put
on Tefillin?"
It seems that the soldier in the second
Jeep, the one that cursed me
out, had heard all this and was thinking it over, because when
I
finished putting on and then removing the Tefillin from this
soldier he
yelled out:
"Hey Rabbi! Come over here!"
I turned around to see him rolling up
his sleeve like he wanted to do
the commandment, and motioning to me to come.
I took a few steps toward him and called
out as I was walking, "What do
you want? What happened?"
"Listen!" he replied "What
do you care? I want to put on too."
I gave him a look and an Israeli hand
motion as to say, "Are you for
real?" And he replied;
"Listen my friend. To put on Tefillin
in order to go to heaven or to be
religious, that's NOT for me. But to put on Tefillin for no
reason...THAT I'm willing to do!"
This is the essence of the Jewish soul
in action. It defies
understanding. If he had no reason, then why did he do the
commandment?!
The answer is, because a Jew in his ESSENCE
(above logic, or even
mystical explanations) wants to DO what G-d wants; he/she is
ONE with
G-d not only spiritually, but (even more so) PHYSICALLY!
This is the special connection of Chanukah
to Moshiach.
Other aspects of Chanukah; Light, Victory,
Purity, the Holy Temple, are
also connected uniquely to Moshiach: Moshiach will illuminate
the world
with G-dliness, defeat all enemies of Judaism, purify (with
the ashes of
the red heifer) the Jewish people and all creation, and finally
restore
the Holy Temple.
But the most important is oil. The word
"Moshiach" means anointed with
oil. And he will appeal to the "oil", the "Yechida"
of each and every
Jew.
In fact, he will use this "oil"
to teach (Chinuch) and illuminate the
entire world like it was on Mount Sinai and in the Holy Temple.
And this can only be done through the
"OIL" of the Torah. (the
revelations on Sinai and in the Holy of Holies were also accompanied
by
the Torah, but the OIL of the Torah is unique to Moshiach.)
The Torah is likened to water, to bread,
to wine, and to oil:
Because it satisfies spiritual hunger
it is like water and bread
Because it contains intoxicating concealed mysteries, it is
compared to
wine (also, the numerical value of wine "YIEN" equals
secret "SOD"). But
oil is a metaphor for the "Mystery of mysteries".
This double mystery is what made that
second soldier change his mind.
"No reason at all!" It's where the essence of the
Jew meets with the
essence of the Torah and the Essence of HaShem.
So that explains the mysterious popularity
of Chanukah. The "oil" of the
Jewish soul aroused especially on Chanukah, pushes the Jews
into action.
And its connection to Mikaitz; that very "oil" will
push and is pushing
all the Jews in the world to wake up and ILLUMINATE the entire
world
with the light of Chanukah and put an end "Kaitz"
to all darkness (Job
28:3). As it says in Ovadya (1:18) "The house of Yaakov
will be a fire
and the house of Yosef a flame" with
Moshiach NOW!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel
Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah
Tales
for the Shabbos Table
This week’s section
opens with a testimony to the frailness of man; the most
powerful man in the world; the King of Egypt, who controls all,
is
controlled by … a dream.
And to the uncertainty of fortune; suddenly
a criminal, a detested Jew to
boot, serving time for rape, offers a wild interpretation of
the dream
involving massive government expenditures.... the King swallows
it and on
the spot promotes him to ruler of the country!!
What is going on here? Why did Pharaoh
immediately accept Yosef’s
explanation and reject those of his trained seasoned wise men?
I’d like to explain with a story.
Yankela Goldman wasn’t worried,
he never really worried. Even yesterday
when he received his draft notice from the Russian People’s
Army he told
himself “This obviously is for the best”.
Usually such news brought fear and confusion
into the heart of any Jew that
received it, but Yankela was different. “Think good and
it will be good,” he
said to himself. Since he heard that the Rebbe had once said
it, it became
his life motto. “Think good and it will be good”.
But his parents had a hard time being so optimistic.
His mother was weeping. “This is
very serious” his father said, “We must go
to the Rebbe immediately, but weeping won’t help”
he tried to calm his wife.
The next morning his father had arranged an urgent meeting for
Yankela with
the Rebbe RaShaB (Shalom Dov Ber). The Rebbe had many ways to
save Jews.
Even from the anti-semitic Communist army, or worse.
But the family was very anxious, what
would the Rebbe’s advice be? Perhaps
he would just give a blessing? That would be best of all, then
the army
would completely forget about him. It happened before. But they
couldn’t
stop thinking of Sholmi Greenspan, and Avraham Farber and Zalman
whats-his-name that got killed there and this one that went
mad and this
one that etc. etc. In other words they were going crazy with
worry.
At one o’clock their Yankela returned all smiles. “Good
news!” he announced,
“The Rebbe told me what to do!”
“Nu! What did he say??” cried
his wide-eyed mother and father in unison.
“He told me to go to the draft board in Petersburg,”
sang Yankela.
His parents were frozen with disbelief. “No! NO! You must
have
misunderstood, Yankela,” his father whispered. His mother
began weeping
again.
The Petersburg Draft Board was infamous
for its anti-Semitic cruelty. All
Jews were drafted, even genuine cripples and imbeciles, absolutely
no
excuses were accepted. It was the WORST draft board of them
all.
“I can get it changed,” said
his father. “Don’t worry it will be alright I
have friends, contacts, you must have misunderstood the Rebbe.”
But Yankela was happily adamant. He paid
no attention to all the pessimism.
He applied for a change in venue and in a few days his request
was granted;
he had to appear in one week, on Shabbos no less, in the despised
Petersburg
draft board.
He arrived in Petersburg on Friday morning
and headed straight for the house
of another Chabad Chassid who was more than overjoyed to have
him as a
guest.
That night after the Shabbos prayers
and the meal Yankela got a good sleep.
He had to wake up early it was a three-hour walk to the Board
and it closed
at one o’clock sharp.
The next morning he rose before dawn
and began to pray, but his host also
woke, saw what he was doing and chastised him.
“What are you doing?! How can you
pray without learning Chassidus first?
Maybe you go and I’ll pray for you if you are in such a
hurry?” He said
cynically.
Yankela tried to explain himself but
he knew the man was right. Prayer is
supposed to be emotional, each word an expression of love or
awe or thanks
to G-d, not just saying the words.
“Good!” said his host, “We’ll
learn for a while, and then we’ll pray like
Jews, and THEN we’ll go. Don’t worry! I know a shortcut.
With G-d’s help
everything will be all right.”
Well, as you can probably imagine the
learning took a bit longer than they
had planned, as did the prayers and the meal. In fact the next
time they
looked at the clock it was … eleven o’clock! “Gevalt!”
they both cried out.
“Don’t worry!” his host
reassured him, “I know a shortcut. But we better
get going, it’s a lot later than I thought”
They ran as fast as they could, through
back yards and empty fields and
railroad yards until, sure enough, they made it, ten minutes
before
closing!!
They pushed open the huge, thick, tall
wooden doors and slipped into the
immense silent room.
It struck them that something was wrong;
everything was too quiet. Twenty
pairs of eyes were sending them messages of death and distruction.
Around the room, evenly spaced against
the walls were about twenty huge
desks each stacked with very important looking papers, and behind
each sat
an official staring with cold hatred at the two intruders.
It was five minutes before closing time,
everyone wanted to go home, and now
they may have to remain even hours! And for these despicable
Jews!!!!!
After a minute of astonished, pregnant
silence they suddenly all stood and
ran toward the odious aliens screaming, shaking their fists
and even
spitting at them.
But to no avail, the law stated clearly
that they must be processed. One of
the officials motioned for the others to go off to a side, and
after a
minute of consultation all shook their heads in agreement. Each
returned to
his table, while one went over to Yankela, grabbed him by the
collar of his
overcoat and almost lifted him over to the first table.
Without even looking up, the secretary
produced Yankela’s induction papers,
turned to one of the pages, took a huge stamp from his desk,
mashed it into
his inkpad, lifted it high in the air and sent it crashing on
the page:
‘UNFIT’! Yankela again felt himself yanked by the
collar and moved to the
second table where the short ceremony was repeated, this time
on another
page:
‘UNFIT’! Then to the third: ‘UNFIT’! Until
ten minutes later each page of
his
portfolio was stamped and on the cover in large black letters
stamped
‘DISQUALIFIED’. He was then rushed back to the door
where his amazed host
was standing, they were both unceremoniously thrown into the
street and the
doors were locked behind them.
“You see, it’s a good thing
you didn’t worry,” said his host as they were
standing up and brushing themselves off, “If it would have
been any other
draft board, or if you would have come earlier they would have
drafted you
for sure!”
Similarly in our Parsha with Yosef;
Pharaoh knew that his dreams about the
skinny cows and sheaths eating the
fat ones was ominous, but he wasn’t satisfied with the
interpretations of
his wise men: ‘You will conquer seven cities or bear seven
daughters and
lose them’, because these were too fatalistic.
Yosef, on the other hand, was an expert
at being positive; he saw the good
in everything, which is what kept him alive and sane all those
years in
prison with the lowest of humanity, serving a life sentence
for a crime he
did not commit. For example, in last week’s section we
see how he forgot his
own troubles and tried to help his fellow prisoners the king’s
baker and
wine maker. And now that very act and that same optimism took
him out of
jail and brought him to see the positive side of Pharoah’s
dream. True the
fat cows and sheaths were consumed … but not totally; the
thin ones were
left. True the dream was foreboding … but it was shown
to a king whose
entire existence is for the good of the people.
Yosef’s optimism was convincing
and contagious. The King realized that Yosef
was a representative of a positive force that he had not yet
recognized. (We
see later on that in the time of Moshe the Egyptian magicians
were able to
duplicate some of the plagues but lacked the positive power
to remove them.)
And that optimism in the face of apparent
doom is what saved the entire
world from famine, and eventually caused the exodus from Mitzriam
and the
giving of the Torah to the Jewish poeople.
Similarly today; despite the horrendous
situation in Israel and the many
critics and prophets of doom with no solutions in sight, there
is one
optimistic voice that rings loud and clear above the others
the Lubavitcher
Rebbe.
Like Yosef interpreting the dream, the
Rebbe has predicted and explained
every detail of today’s confusion and given the interpretation
and solution;
The Moshiach is here, we have only to accept him, we must think,
speak, and
do all we can to accustom ourselves to this truth. We must learn
all the
Rebbe has written about Moshiach and then look around us to
see the great
miracles that are happening, especially in the Holy land. It
all depends on
us.
Soon we will all be dancing with Moshiach
NOW!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel
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PARSHA
MOSHIACH
IN THE PARSHA
WEEKLY
MESSAGE