Vayeishev 

The sicha for parshas Vayeshev is in Vol. of Likkutei Sichos. 

The Rebbe speaks about the title of the parsha Vayeshev, which the Gemarrah says, bikesh Yakov leshev b’shalom, that after all the suffering Yakov had with Lavan, and then with Esav and then with Dina, he wants to live in shalva, he wanted to have a restful, peaceful existence and we find that this peaceful existence was denied him. According to the Gemarrah, immediately that he wanted the peacefulness, immediately the trouble with Yosef came about, and God says to the tzaddikim, you have shalva in the world to come, you don't also have to have it in this world.

At the same time, the Rebbe says, when a tzaddik desires or requests something, it must be that somewhere, it is answered and given or granted. So it must be that this problem with Yosef was not a denial of the shalva, a refusal to give Yakov the restfulness or the peacefulness that he desired, but rather it was a means by which he acquired it, as we will soon see.

We find the same idea by Yakov, where Yakov wanted to reveal to his children the time of the coming for Moshiach. But the Shechina departed from him, and he wasn't able to reveal it, or he took the hint from Shechina departing that he wasn't meant to reveal it. There are two opinions in the Gemarrah, either that the Shechina departed telling him not to reveal it or that the Shechina departed and he himself could not say when was Moshiach coming.

What Yakov wanted to tell his children, the Rebbe said, is not that Moshiach was going to come in three thousand years, which would not be encouraging or inspiring, but rather he was telling them that the exodus from Mitzraim, the coming out of Egypt, could be a permanent and complete geulah, and could be Moshiach, if they were deserving and that it was only two hundred years away. And even those two hundred years, if they truly deserve, if they do something special, they could shorten that time as well. Just as the four hundred years that G-d told Avraham that his children would be enslaved, the four hundred years was changed to two hundred and ten years, so we see that we can shorten the time through merit. So Yakov was going to tell his children that Moshiach was going to be coming in their lifetime, if they do something special to deserve it. And that is certainly helpful, encouraging and inspiring.

However the Shechina did not permit it. Because in order for the geulah to be a complete, total and permanent geulah -a thorough geulah, which is not followed by further golus, it has to come from the bottom, from the people, from the earth itself, which means that the Jews have to serve God, and produce Moshiach, not through an inspiration from Above, but through their own effort and by their own steam.

So if Yakov were to tell them that Moshiach was coming immediately, that inspiration would not be coming from within them, but from outside of them, from Above, from the imminence of Moshiach, and that would in some way detract from the thoroughness of their avodah, and therefore would detract from the thoroughness of the geulah that would follow.

And so G-d removed the Shechina from Yakov, so he would not tell his children, so that they should serve G-d, without knowing when Moshiach was coming, but trusting “ahakeh lo b’kol yom she yavo” – I will wait daily for his coming, and by doing that they created and prepared the world for the complete and true geulah, without interference from Above.

There are the two opinions in the Gemarrah. One opinion is that since Yakov had to help them with this, he also had to serve G-d without inspiration from Above, and therefore he also forgot, or no longer knew when Moshiach was coming. The other opinion is that by Yakov, knowing when Moshiach was coming didn't add any inspiration; he was already on that level, because of who he was. Internally and thoroughly he was on the level of Moshiach. Knowing when Moshiach was coming, didn't detract from his avodah of self-motivated avodah. Through his self-motivated avodah, he was already in Moshiach. Therefore he could help his children reach that same level without forgetting when Moshiach was coming.

From this, the Rebbe says, we learn, that even though it is G-d’s heshbon, calculation, and it is G-d's desire that the avodah come from the bottom, completely without inspiration from Above, yet Yakov shows that by wanting to reveal the ketz, the end, and bring it a moment closer, even if it is not the most thorough manner, which G-d will somehow fix, that our desire and our attempt has to be to shorten the golus and bring Moshiach a moment closer. And whatever purpose there may be in waiting any longer for Moshiach, we don't want to wait, we want Moshiach now.

Also when Yakov desired to reveal the coming of Moshiach to his children, it must have had an effect and it must have been successful. The effect was in fact, that for a long period of time, the awe of Moshiach was felt in the world, because Yakov wanted to reveal it, and as a result, Jews were able to keep mitzvahs and live as Jews without interference from other nations, or from their internal yetzer hara. A thorough effect of the Moshiach is that not only do the nations don't interfere, or don't discourage Jews from living like Jews, but they themselves start to live by the laws of the Torah, the seven Noahide laws, and actually help the fulfillment of the six hundred and thirteen mitzvahs of the Torah.

And so the same is true with “bikesh Yakov leshev b’shalom” that this peacefulness and this restfulness that Yakov requested, or sought, must have been fulfilled.

And in fact, we find that there were two periods, where Yakov actually had the shalva. One was the nine years that he shared with Yosef, while they lived in Eretz Israel, those were nine good years, and then after Yakov and all his children come down to Mitzraim, they had seventeen good years, in fact the best years of his life were the seventeen years in Mitzraim, where he lived b’shalva.

Now the difference between the first nine years and later seventeen years is the first nine years were in Eretz Israel, a place of holiness. So there was a shalva, restfulness, peacefulness, in a place of holiness, which does not compare to the peacefulness that can be accomplished in Eretz Mitzraim, ervas ha’aretz, a place of unholiness. Even there Yakov had shalva that were the best seventeen years of his life.

But how can that happen? How can it be that in a place of unholiness, you have not only survival, but actually shalva - a restful, peaceful existence of holiness in a place of unholiness.

For this, the rest of the parsha tells us the troubles with Yosef. And with this, we will understand why the title of the parsha is Vayeshev, which implies peacefulness and restfulness, and yet the entire parsha speaks about the tumultuous events of Yosef and then later of Yehuda.

In order to bring the shalva in to Mitzraim, Yosef had to go down to Egypt. Yosef means in addition – haysafa - and that's why he was named Yosef, because his mother said, yosef li Hashem ben achar, G-d should add, increase, give me an additional son like this one. But the words are “ben acher” that G-d should add to me another son, to make from the other, from the stranger, make a son. In other words to bring the stranger into the family and make him part of the family, to make a son out of an acher.

And this is the quality of Yosef’s neshama, his soul, where Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov, all represented G-dliness as it exists in this world, Avraham was G-dly love, Yitzchak was G-dly fear, Yakov was G-dly compassion, that was all the place of G-dliness, a state of G-dliness as it appears in this world, but not beyond that. Yosef’s neshama was beyond G-dliness present on earth. It was the ability to reach beyond the place of G-dliness into a place of unG-dliness, and there reveal the holiness that is hidden or buried in the unholy.

That’s why his name was Yosef. And that’s why he disagreed with his brothers – they insisted that in order to be holy, you had to be a shepherd, away from the corruption of society, and Yosef insisted that you have to be in society, and yet not only not be affected negatively by it, but to have a positive effect  and  bring  G-dliness  into  the  acher, into  the place of unG-dliness, and turn it into a “ben”, into something G-dly.

Now when Yosef went down to Egypt, when his brothers were selling him as a slave to be taken down to Egypt, the Torah tells us in the Midrash that G-d was reading the minds of the players involved and He said that while Yosef’s brothers were busy thinking of how to sell him, Yehuda was busy thinking how he should get married, and so he left the other brothers and went off to get married. And what was G-d thinking? G-d was thinking that it was time for the light of Moshiach to be revealed, to be born, and so Yehuda met Tamar, and from that union, Peretz was born, who is the great, great grandfather of Moshiach.

The Gemarrah asks, why does the Torah interrupt the narrative about Yosef, and tell us the story of Yehuda. The simple explanation is because Yehuda went to give birth to Peretz, just as Yosef was being taken into slavery into Egypt. So the coming of Moshiach, represented by his great, great grandfather Peretz is the antidote to the exiles that began with Mitzraim. It is a case when G-d prepares the antidote before the illness. Before the golus, the suffering in Egypt actually began, the light of Moshiach was introduced into the world, which is the antidote to golus, a complete and permanent redemption.

But on an even deeper level, the birth of Peretz, “paratzta olecha Peretz,” is not only the antidote preceding the problem, but it is actually an integral part of Yosef himself. So that it is not an interruption in the narrative at all.

And that is as follows:

The idea of Yosef is adding, bringing the unholy to holiness, reaching out to the acher and making him a ben. Peretz was born with a twin brother. But before his older brother was ready to be delivered, Peretz pushed his way through, and was born first. And so the midwife said, “lama paratzta olecha Peretz,” why do you break through the borders, the rules, and called him Peretz.

The Rebbe points out that this _expression “ paratzta olecha Peretz” is like a double dose of Yosef. Yosef means reaching beyond the border of holiness into the place of unholiness, and there producing holiness. It is a form of breaking through a barrier, an inyan of pritza, but it is the breaking through of the barriers that separate holy from the unholy and bringing holiness to the place of unholiness.

“Paratzta olecha Peretz” means a double breaking through – a double overcoming of borders and that implies that in addition to overcoming the border that separates the unholy from the holy, we need to overcome the borders of holiness itself. Holiness also has its properties - there is the love of Avraham, the fear of Yitzchak, etc. There is a certain amount of holiness that G-d invests and reveals in the world. Breaking through that barrier and bringing greater holiness into the world, that is the idea of Peretz.

So in order to truly overcome the golus, to truly accomplish what Yosef is supposed to accomplish by breaking through the barrier that separates holy from unholy, the ability to be a tzaddik even in Egypt, the ability to  bring  G-dliness into worldly activities and ultimately bring Moshiach into the world, this requires also the second breaking through, the paratzta olecha Peretz, breaking through also the limits of G-dliness and holiness itself. As the Rebbe points out, paratzta olecha Peretz, it’s not paratzta para Peretz, that Peretz pushed his way passed his brother, but paratzta olecha Peretz, he pushed himself away, meaning to say he overcame his own limitations, limitations of holiness.

That’s the difference between Peretz and his brother Zerach, and Yakov and Esav. They were also twins, but the struggle between Yakov and Esav is understandable because it is the struggle between good and evil. When they were fighting and they both wanted to be born first and Yakov was holding on to the heel of Esav, it was the struggle of goodness trying to overcome evil. But Peretz and Zerach were both tzaddikim. So what was the need that Peretz felt he had to reach out and be born first and break through the material order of things? If Zerach had born first, it wouldn’t have been a terrible thing because he was a tzaddik.

So we see that there is a need to break through the limitations even of holiness, even of a tzaddik. And also as a result, his name became Peretz, it wasn’t some additional thing, some activity that he had engaged in, which was not his essence, but this became his name, he became Peretz. That was his quality of his neshama, that he overcomes all the restrictions, even the restrictions of holiness. And together, that’s what makes up the dwelling place, the dira b’tachtonim that G-d desires. In order for the world to become truly a dwelling place for G-d, it has to have these two qualities – on the one hand, the world itself has become receptive to holiness. Reaching into the unholy – Yosef going down into Egypt and there creating holiness, that  prepares the  world   to be  a  vessel, to  be  receptive for   G-dliness. But then also you have to have the “vayechi Yakov”, that you have to have the G-dliness that comes into this vessel, into this home that has now been prepared, is now receptive to be a dwelling place for G-d, now you have to bring all of G-d, atzmus, you have to bring G-d himself into the home and not only the Shechina or some aspect of G-d, because a true dwelling place is a dwelling place where a person can be himself completely.

That’s why the story of Yosef and the story of Yehuda are all a continuation of the theme of Vayeshev, of the peace and the contentment that Yakov desired, because in order to have a contentment even in this world, even in the land of Egypt, even in a place of unholiness, this comes about through Yosef and Peretz. Yosef prepares the unholy to make it receptive to holiness and then Peretz breaks through the limitations of G-dliness, the restrictions on G-dliness, and reveals the essence of G-d in the dwelling place.

And that is the function of Moshiach, that in the coming of Moshiach, the world itself will be ready, the world itself will be receptive to holiness, and at the same time, Moshiach reveals Torah hadasha, new Torah insights. In the generation of Moshiach, Chassidus is revealed and taught on all levels, available to all levels, and that is understanding G-d Himself and understanding the essence of G-d, atzmus, available in a keli, atzmus available to the human mind and heart. So that you have this combination of shalva, of a peacefulness and a restfulness, when the two come together, the highest of the high and the lowest of the low, the ben that was once an acher, the unholy that becomes holy, not in the ordinary holiness but paratzta olecha Peretz, the breakthrough of holiness which is a reference to Moshiach, who is called the poretz, because he takes down all the limitations on Torah and reveals the essence of Torah, the inner part of Torah, which is also the inner part of G-d, and also the inner part of the neshama. Then you have the fulfillment in the actual experience in life, that Torah and G-d and the Jewish neshama are really all one. 

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