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Sh'lah on the Torah |
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Parshiot VaYeisheiv/Mikeitz/VaYigash The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah Part III …To return to the subject of the kingdom of Joseph. It’s only purpose was to enable the Jewish people to be forged into a single nation, and the kingdom of Yehudah (David) to be established. The brothers did not understand this. They believed that Joseph wanted Royalty for its own sake, for both himself and his descendants. This is why they went to Dotan to devise legal schemes, to judge him according to Torah law. They all came to the conclusion that he was guilty of death. Even the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah, who were Joseph’s closest friends, agreed that from the point of view of justice Joseph was guilty. He had disputed the authority of the kingdom of David; anyone doing so is guilty of death. Insubordination against the kingdom of David is equated with insubordination against the Shechina (Divine Presence) itself. This is why his brothers wanted to kill Joseph when he revealed himself, and they saw that he had become king. The fact that he had realized (what they believed to have been) his ambition made him only more guilty in their eyes. G-d had to dispatch an angel to disperse the brothers so as to prevent them from destroying Egypt. Joseph having received such a Heavenly assist, asked his brothers to approach him in order to explain to them the true nature of his being king. He explained to them that G-d had sent him ahead in order to facilitate their becoming a nation, and Yehudah’s kingdom becoming established. Joseph said three separate times “G-d has sent me before you.” The first time he referred to the literal meaning of “G-d has sent me ahead to provide sustenance” (45,5). When Joseph mentioned a second time that G-d had sent him ahead in 45,7, he phrased it thus: “L’sum lachem she’ayrit b’aretz u’l’hachayot lachem pleita g’dola’”, “To provide refuge for you in the land, and to keep you alive for a great rescue.” At first glance these words seem totally superfluous; she’ayrit refers to something insignificant, whereas pleita g’dola alludes to something major. Actually, Joseph alluded to two separate missions which he had been entrusted with in order to establish the kingdom of Yehudah. The first, a minor mission, was to establish a base for a kingdom of Yehudah in this world, i.e. the Exodus from Egypt, whereas the more important mission was that he would prepare the ground for the Messianic kingdom of David, i.e. play the role of the Messiah ben Joseph. He explained that the Messiah ben Joseph would be slain as a martyr on behalf of the people of Israel, and that following his death the enduring kingdom of David-Messiah would arise. When that would occur, Joseph’s blood would be avenged. Reuben had already hinted at this development when he told his brothers (42,22) that Joseph’s blood was being demanded from them. True, they did not at the time understand the deeper meaning of what was happening and what was being said, but the words were inspired by G-d even though He had not revealed their full meaning to the brothers. The mystical dimension of Joseph’s historical mission was that he acted in the capacity of forerunner – not only in the story related in our parsha, - but also in the distant future when he will be killed performing a similar mission and his blood will be avenged. This is what he told his brothers when he said: “Now not you have sent me here but G-d, who has placed me in the position of father to Pharaoh.” Let us now concentrate on the meaning of the last words in that verse. We will then understand how Joseph’s mission resulted in the development of Jacob as a clan into a nation. Joseph meant that G-d had appointed him to be Pharaoh’s ‘father’ in the sense of being his spiritual representative. This is the significance of Joseph riding in the “second chariot.” We have described Egypt as the “naked area” of the earth. Since Joseph was loyal to the Holy Covenant with G-d because he should have been the issue of his father’s first ever drop of semen, he was meant to be the ruler there, and he was supposed to take the place of the spiritual representation of Egypt. Joseph was first sold as a slave to the Egyptians, this in turn made an imprint on the Jewish people’s future, and they too became slaves in Egypt. Later on they left Egypt as free men. G-d executed judgments on the gods of Egypt, i.e. their spiritual representative in Heaven. Israel saw their spiritual representative dead on the beaches of the sea (Exodus 14, 30). Had this not occurred, we might still be enslaved to the Egyptians. The reason why Joseph has to be dispatched in the future before the arrival of the Messiah ben Dovid is because he is the natural enemy of Esau inasmuch as he is his exact opposite. Esau is full of the pollutants of the serpent, Joseph, on the other hand, was singularly fee of that pollution, as we have explained. As soon as the kingdom of the Messiah will be established, the remarkable feature will be that his former enemies will make peace with him, i.e. the kelipah will then be purified, and all the Gentile nations will acknowledge the truth. That is the day when G-d and His name will be One. Even the erstwhile nachash (snake) will be turned into Choshen, (breastplate of the High Priest) [nachash and choshen have the same Hebrew letters]. The color red, which typified Esau, will turn while, completely pure. This is the deeper significance of the kingdom of David, which at first glance does not appear to have been rooted in holiness. Simply consider Yehudah’s involvement with Tamar whom he thought to be a harlot; or, if you will, think about Ruth, a descendant of an incestuous union between Lot and his daughter. Even Ruth’s joining Boaz at night was not exactly the act of a model of chastity that we would have expected. If all these precedents did not disqualify David from becoming the role model of the eventual Messiah, we need not marvel at the eventual purification of those descendants of Esau who will still exist when the Messiah will be crowned king. All these apparently accidental happenings were part of G-d’s plan. The tortuous developments which led to the emergence of David and eventually to the Messiah are an example of how eventually all the chitzoniut, people and forces outside the realm of holiness, will be turned “outside in,” and be restored to their original sacred root. |
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Ascent of Safed
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