Vayigash  

Parshas Vayigash begins with the description of the confrontation between Yehuda and Yosef. Yosef had placed a silver goblet in Benyamin’s, the youngest of the brothers, saddle bag, and now was accusing him of stealing and demands that he be punished. Yehuda confronts Yosef, “vayigash elav Yehuda”, and he is ready for anything, to kill or be killed in defense of his brother. Of course Benyamin had not stolen goblet, it was a test that Yosef had devised. So we see how Yehuda defends his brother, defends his fellow Jew.  

Not long ago, there was a Jewish leader in Israel who made some very negative statements about the quality of Jewish life. He implied that the Holocaust occurred because of sins and because of a failure to fulfill mitzvahs properly, and that such behavior could G-d forbid produce negative results again. Therefore people should behave themselves. The Rebbe’s reaction to this was vehement and passionate.  

The Rebbe defends his people. He begins with the words “vayechi”. We are told that Yakov Aveinu lo mes, Yakov did not die, he is still alive. This is said of Yakov, but not necessarily of Avraham or Yitzchak, or other tzaddikim because as the Gemarrah explains, because his children are alive, he too is alive. In other words, Yakov’s life continues in his children, and this is true of Yakov who excelled in his children. Avraham had Ishmael, who left him, and Yitzchak had Esav who left him, whereas Yakov’s children were all perfect, were all tzaddikim. And so Yakov lives through his children, because to Yakov his children are everything. Even though it may seem that physically Yakov’s life came to an end, but in essence, the essence of Yakov’s life, true life exists in his children and as they are alive, he is alive. 

Now this means that just as Yakov’s life was a true life, titen emes l’Yakov, the same is also with his children that the children are alive as Yakov was alive. Now one might ask, when you look at Jews of our generation, you see that there are many Jews that in their daily conduct are not perfect in their performance of mitzvahs, in their observance of mitzvahs. So you might ask, how can be say that Yakov is alive because his children are alive? Sometimes it seems that his children are not so alive in the way that a Jew is supposed to live and that would somehow detract from the life of Yakov. Yet the Torah tells us that just as Yakov is alive even though physically he passed away, the same is true also with his children - it may seem that the children are not living but in truth they are.  

So when the Torah says that Yakov is alive because his children are alive, then we know that the children are in fact truly alive. And the fact that a Jew can sin, we find in the Gemarrah and the Rambam quotes it, that even when a Jew sins, he is still a Jew. It doesn’t say when a Jew sins, he is still a tzaddik or he is still innocent, it says he is still a Jew. The Rambam puts it this way: when a person has sinned either by failing to do a mitzvah or by transgressing a prohibition, the Rambam says, a Jew wants to be a Jew, he wants to belong to the people of Israel, and therefore he wants to fulfill all the mitzvahs and avoid all the sins, and it is only his yetzer hara, his evil inclination which has imposed himself on him, like an external influence that is making him behave unnaturally. However his true will is to be a Jew and therefore to do mitzvahs. 

Therefore even when a Jew sins, he is still a Jew, which tells us that even when a Jew is not living like a Jew, his desire to be a Jew remains intact and he doesn’t question his own identity. As a result wanting to be a Jew, he therefore also wants to live like a Jew, to do the mitzvahs. And that’s why the Torah is described as an inheritance – to inherit the Torah, you don’t have to do anything, because you inherit by simply being part of the family, by being related. And as long as a Jew wants to be a Jew, and remains a Jew, the Torah is his inheritance.  

We find an interesting thing concerning atzmus Yosef, the remains of Yosef, that were carried in an ark from Egypt to Eretz Israel – atzmus Yosef, the bones of Yosef, also means the essence of Yosef. Yosef refers to all Jewish people, and the essence of Yosef refers to the essence of the Jew. It is interesting that during the forty years in the desert, the Jews were carrying two arks, side by side, one that contained the luchos, the Torah, and the other that contained the essence of Yosef, the essence of the Jewish neshama. 

And so the meaning here is that the two arks are inseparable – you can’t have a Jew without Torah because the Torah is engraved, just like it is engraved on the stones of the Tablets of the commandments, it is engraved and ingrained in the essence of the neshama. So even when a Jew is sinning, it remains true that the Jew and Torah and G-d are all one.  

From this we learn, that in order to strengthen a Jew, particularly in our times, in the time of golus, when life is difficult, the way to encourage and strengthen a Jew in the performance of mitzvahs in the life of a Jew is through positive reinforcement. And what is the positive reinforcement? That we emphasize the greatness of the essence of true identity of the Jew, that “vayechi Yakov” if you want to have a life of Yakov, a Jewish life, in Eretz Mitzraim, in golus, it has to be through emphasizing that his children are alive in the way that he was alive.  

We find also that trying the opposite, using negative statements, threats of punishments and so on, not only don’t increase the observance of mitzvahs, not only don’t inspire greater devotion to Torah, but in fact have the opposite effect. They weaken people’s enthusiasm and actually estrange people from tshuva, from Torah and from mitzvahs, as we see from experience in our generation. The only way people respond to mitzvahs is “b’darchei noam, b’darchei shalom,” only through ahavas Israel. That is why the Midrash says, let Moshe come and criticize the people, because Moshe loves them, that’s why he should give the criticism. It has to come out of love. 

And particularly when our generation, those who are not studying Torah and fulfilling the mitzvahs are in the category of “ tinochei shenishbu”. The Rambam rules that those children who were raised without Yiddishkeit, without Torah, and are estranged from their people, they are like captured children, and even when they find out about mitzvahs, they are still incapable of responding because they have been raised with false beliefs. It is therefore appropriate, the Rambam says, to bring them back through tshuva, and to draw them with peaceful words, until they came back to a strength in Torah. So we see that the only way to bring Jews closer to Judaism is through kindness and love.  

It is also important to emphasize how undesirable and incorrect the other approach of using threats and shocking punishments is, that it should never be repeated again. Not only because we generally avoid saying negative things because we don’t want to bring about, G-d forbid, the reality of those negative things, but also, this kind of approach and these expressions and words, are totally unacceptable because they are not true, a) of Torah, b) of G-d, and c) of the Jewish people. In fact, it is an insult to G-d’s honor, and an insult to the honor of the Jewish people. 

This is as follows: it is the opposite of truth, it is not true of Torah, because the Rambam rules that the judgement of when a person is deserving of punishment or reward is not based on the number of mitzvahs or the number of sins, but rather by the weight of the mitzvah or the sin. Therefore the Rambam says that there are certain mitzvahs which are so meritorious that they outweigh many sins. The Rambam then says, the only one who can measure and weigh the mitzvahs versus the sins is only G-d Himself, and He knows how to value the worthiness against the guilt. And certainly in our generation, when those who are not doing mitzvahs are in the category of tinoch she’nishba, which is an impossible situation for the person and whenever it is impossible to do a mitzvah, the Torah exempts you from the mitzvah, so that you are not held responsible for it. And on the other hand, when those people who are in the category of tinochei she’nishbu, who have been torn away from Jewish life, when they fulfill even one mitzvah, and the Gemarrah says that every Jew fulfills more than one mitzvah, but even that one mitzvah, because they are fulfilling it under these impossible circumstances, that one mitzvah is more precious and more dear to G-d than we can imagine. 

We also find in our generation, that these children who are tinochei she’nishbu, not only are they fulfilling a mitzvah, but we find that in increasing numbers they are coming back by the thousands to a total and full commitment to Torah and mitzvahs, and a full observance of all of Torah, and it is increasing from day to day with greater strength and greater enthusiasm.

So who could possibly dare to express negative words according to his own human understanding and to actually bring to his lips the idea that in our generation that they are many Jews who are deserving of shocking punishments, which is the opposite of the way G-d judges and the opposite of the way Torah judges, where the Torah finds that tinochei she’nishbu is onus and rachmana pata. 

Secondly, it is an insult to G-d. To describe G-d as sitting and waiting and counting sins, so that when the sin reaches a certain level, He will punish the sinner, this is the exact opposite of the way Torah describes G-d and of the way G-d describes Himself. It is an insult to G-d because it makes G-d sound like an angry king who waits to punish when in fact G-d is the exact opposite. G-d is Av Harachamim, He is a Compassionate Father, as it says everywhere in Torah and maamorei Chazal, beginning with the thirteen attributes of mercy: Hashem, Hashem which refers to G-d’s kindness and is repeated twice, before the sin and after the sin G-d remains compassionate, and then, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and He cleanses. 

What in fact is G-d’s main occupation? It is not to wait to punish but on the contrary to produce joy and gladness, as the Gemarrah says that after creation, what is G-d busying Himself with? With bringing together husband and wife. In order to increase, to bring the joy of chasan and kallah including also the joy of children born, sons and daughters that increase joy in the world.  

And what’s more, even when G-d punishes, after being patient and forgiving, the punishment is not retribution, it is not revenge. It is for the benefit of the person, in order to cleanse him from the blemish that the sin creates, as the Alter Rebbe says, when G-d punishes it is like a compassionate Father who is wise and righteous, who hits his son for the son’s benefit. And chassidim say that the Alter Rebbe describes this Father as compassionate, wise and righteous, a chacham and a tzaddik but not a chassid. Because a chassid does not hit, even for the benefit of the child. The Gemarrah describes G-d’s punishment as a king who is washing away the dirt of his children, and that comes out of great love. Even when G-d is punishing out of love for the benefit of cleansing and removing the blemish of the sin, even then it hurts G-d and G-d suffers along with the person who is being punished. So to describe G-d as a G-d who punishes, who sits and waits until you sinned enough to deserve punishment is an insult to G-d.

It is also an insult to the Jewish people. The Jewish people are G-d’s children, G-d’s first born. As the prophet says, anyone who attacks the Jews is like starting up with the apple of G-d’s eye. And even the prophets had to be careful in not criticizing the Jewish people. We find for example, that Isaiah, who was one was of the greatest of the prophets, when he said, I am impure of lips and live among a people who are impure of lips, G-d was angry with him. G-d said to him, you are allowed to say this about yourself, but how can you say this about My children? And then a fiery angel, a seraph, came with a burning twig and placed it on his lips to burn away the unholiness of what he had said.  

So if the great prophets, the holiest of the holy, are punished for even a slight criticism of the Jewish people, certainly an average person, or even less than an average person should be very careful what he says about his fellow Jews. As the Rambam says, you have to review many times what you are going to say in public, and when you are going to write it down, you have to review it even more, to make sure that you don’t misspeak. Even the satan is not permitted to be critical of the Jewish people as it says that G-d is angry at him for saying negative things.  

In general we find that the great tzaddikim of all generations have sought to find virtue with the people, to defend the people, never to criticize, even the prophet who brought negative prophecies and warned of dire consequences, he was saying what he had to say, and was told to say but it wasn’t his idea and it wasn’t his feeling that the Jews deserve punishment. In fact we find that people were rewarded for defending and finding virtue with the people. For example the argument that are forefathers were righteous and therefore we deserve to be rewarded for their righteousness, and for that the prophet was rewarded. 

In general also, we seem to assume that all suffering comes as a punishment for sin, and that too is really not correct. The exile in Egypt was not for any particular sin, because there were no sins then. Moshe Rabbeinu says, you punished the generation of the Flood because they sinned, and the generation of the Dispersal because they sinned but why are you punishing these people they haven’t sinned. 

So to say that the Holocaust came as a result of sin is really not correct, it is outside the realm of punishment, because there is no sin that could possibly deserve such a punishment. The Mitteler Rebbe writes, that the times of the Arizal ended a five hundred year old period in which people were tested in their faith and in which they had to die protecting their faith. So there were five hundred years of forced conversions, and the souls of that time were those of the Jews who lived in the times of the first Bais HaMikdash, very lofty souls, but they had this weakness for idolatry, and so they corrected that by being tested in their faith, and refusing to give up their faith, and in that way, corrected the blemishes of having given energy to the kelipah, to the avodah zarah. 

But the Rebbe says, that in the days of the Arizal that ended. It began in the times of Rashi and ended in the times of the Arizal and will never be again. So we can’t say that the Holocaust came as a form of sin because that ended with the Arizal. And not only that, but we refer to anyone who died in the Holocaust, not as someone who died for their sins, but as kedoshim, as G-d’s servants, that they died a martyr’s death and that they are all holy. Therefore we have to be very careful in not criticizing the apple of G-d’s eye, after such a terrible time, and after such a terrible suffering, particularly after the Holocaust when we have been purified through fire. The way to bring a Jew back to Yiddishkeit is to remind him of who he truly is, he has the life of Yakov within him, and he can live the life of Yakov, if he just opens himself up to it. By telling him who he really is, and revealing his inner resources, that is the way of bringing people back to a full life of Torah and mitzvahs until the entire people live up to their potential, so that Yakov is alive not only through his children but also in the literal sense when there will be the resurrection and he will join us and live in the physical. 
 

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