Category: Oneg Shabbos

אכן נודע הדבר ’ – verily the matter is known’ is understood by Chazal to refer to the rationale for the Golus. משה רבינו is mollified by the knowledge that לשון הרע is endemic. This surely requires our attention.

“And Yaakov lived in the land of Egypt” Rashi asks the famous question that relates to these opening words of our Parsha. Why is this Parsha ‘closed off’?

The Netziv in Ha’amek Dovor explains that Yosef had been driven by a sense of responsibility to oversee the fulfilment of his dreams. By his own design, the brothers had already bowed to him and all that was missing was that Yaakov should now join in too.

The context can be teased out as the story unfolds of the dramatic events. The status and fame of Yaakov Avinu’s family had spread throughout the region. They were known as Ivrim, the characteristic description of the descendants of Avraham . Rashi1 gives two definitions of the word Ivri: they were m’ever ha’nahar from over the river, the other side of the River Euphrates and secondly, m’benei Ever from the children of Ever. What he illuminates is that there was exclusively only one family fulfilling both qualifications, this being Avraham ’s family, the only descendant of Ever who crossed the Euphrates.

Rabbi Friedman authored a sefer, and as is common practice, put out a pile of ten of his seforim on a table in the lobby of a shul, with a money box next to the seforim and a handwritten sign saying “£9 a sefer.” Mr. S. Alec passed by shortly after, and having had a quick look at the seforim, came up with an idea. He took out a pen and crossed out the words “£9 a sefer,” and changed it to read “£10 a sefer.” He then stood back and waited. Over the next half hour, nine other people passed by, viewed the offer, placed £10 each into the money box and took for themselves a sefer. Mr Alec then took the last sefer for himself without paying.

One of the most complex questions in Jewish Thought that is of real relevance to every Jew in their daily lives, is the understanding of the parameters of the Mitzva of Emunah, as it relates to our interactions with the physical world. How much effort ought to be expended in attempting to achieve a desired outcome? Is the concept of a desired outcome itself an appropriate one? Perhaps an expectation of a particular result, is itself inappropriate? Arguably, we just do what we need to, and Hashem should be left to determine the outcome. At what point is our involvement deemed to be excessive, or indeed too minimal? Is there indeed a notion of doing too much or too little?

Life is complicated. From the moment that we awake in the morning there are various different pressures and demands on our time; many distractions and nuisances that get in the way of us fulfilling the days’ tasks. We may ask ourselves, imagine if Hashem had created the world in a way that we are not pulled in all different directions and in a world where we are not constantly being distracted from what is really important in life? Envision our day being occupied primarily with Torah, Mitzvos and acts of Chessed. Our financial worries would be to a minimum.

nd Yitzchak sent Yaakov, and he went to Padan Aram to Lavan the son of Besuel the Arami, the brother of Rivka, the mother of Yaakov and Esav. (Bereishis 28:5)

Burial, Shivah and the end of life are fascinatingly a topic that few of us ever really care to discuss. As we age, we ignore the reality that one day we will have to make serious decisions for some of the people we love and are close to us. If we wait until the last minute to make these far-reaching decisions they become even more difficult and many times more costly.

Avraham Avinu, whose inheritance to his descendants was to be the midda of chessed - loving kindness, certainly sought out each and every opportunity in his long lifetime to perform this mitzva. Yet it is not until he reaches beyond the 100 year milestone that the Torah makes direct mention of this activity.