Rabbi Frand on Parshas Miketz
These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi
Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah
portion: Tape # 35, Chanukah Issues. Good Shabbos!
"We Rely on Our Father in Heaven": Problem or Solution?
There is an enigmatic Medrash in Shir HaShirim Rabbah on the verse (7:14)
"Hadudaim Nosnu Reach; v'al pesachenu kol megadim; chadashim gam
yeshanim, dodi tsafanti lach."
The Medrash interprets as follows:
- "The 'dudaim' (flowers) gave forth a fragrance" refers to Reuvain
(who gave dudaim to his mother [Bereshis 30:14]).
- "And on our doorsteps all types of fruits" refers to the miracle
of Chanukah.
- "The new and also the old, my Beloved, I have hidden away for
you" refers to the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.
For some reason, the Medrash lumps together in this one verse the dudaim
of Reuvain, the miracle of Chanukah, Torah she'bichsav and Torah
she'ba'al-peh. What do they have to do with each other?
The Medrash (in Vayetzei) says concerning the dudaim of Reuvain "Come and
see the intervention that these flowers of Reuvain accomplished!" (He gave
them to his mother, Leah, who traded them with Rachel who in turn gave up
her night with Yaakov, so that Leah could be with him. That night Leah
conceived Yissocher.) As a result of this action, two great tribes arose
in Israel -- the Tribe of Yissocher and the Tribe of Zevulun, who created
the arch-typical relationship of Yissocher and Zevulun whereby Yissocher
would sit and learn and Zevulun would go out and earn money which would
support both of them. As a result of these two tribes, the Medrash continues,
we have Torah today amongst the Jewish people.
Again, the Medrash refers to the verse in Shir Hashirim -- the 'dudaim'
gave forth fragrance and these flowers are again linked with the
preservation of Torah in Israel. What is the connection?
Rav Reuvain Katz, in the introduction to his sefer "Dudaei Reuvain," says
a beautiful peshat in this Medrash. It could be argued that Yaakov and
his wives knew that there were going to be 12 tribes born to him (Rash"i
points out in a number of places, that they knew that by Divine
Providence, Yaakov was to father 12 tribes). Leah could have, therefore,
taken the attitude, "I'll sit back and whatever will happen, will happen.
If G-d wants me to have X amount of children, it will happen on its own.
I don't have to do anything other than wait for the Hashgocha to make
whatever He wants to happen happen."
But what does the Torah tell us? The Torah tells us that these two
Tribes -- the tribes responsible for the preservation of Torah in Klal
Yisroel -- were created as a result of Leah being pro-active and doing,
rather than being passive and having an attitude of "what will happen
will happen."
The Torah is instructing us that one cannot be passive when it comes to
Torah. One must be an activist! This is a lesson for us -- Torah and
Yiddishkeit will not be made or will not be saved by sitting back with
folded hands. The Dudaim of Reuvain teach us that sometimes a person has
to 'take the bull by its horns'.
This is the link between 'the flowers of Reuvain' and 'Ner Chanukah'.
Had we been living in a period where the Kohanim Gedolim were corrupt,
the Beis HaMikdash was defiled, there were no leaders, there was no
oil.... this would certainly have been a time for despair. What's there
for us to do? If the High Priests are corrupt, what can we do?
But on the contrary, the story and the miracle of Chanukah represent
people that weren't passive, that refused to just allow things to
continue as they were supposedly going. They got up and they did
something. They took the bull by the horns and acted -- just like the
action taken by Leah as recalled by the incident of the 'flowers of
Reuvain'.
Reb Chaim Volozhiner says an interesting peshat on the Mishneh in Sotah
[49b]. The Mishneh lists all the things that will happen at the end of
time -- during the days of the 'footsteps of Moshiach'. The Mishneh says
insolence will increase, inflation will soar, the government will turn to
heresy, there will be no rebuke, the knowledge of scholars will be lost,
those who fear sin will be despised, youth will shame old men, the face
of the generation will be like the face of the dog, etc., etc. Finally
the Mishneh concludes with the words, "And we have no one to rely on,
only on our Father in Heaven".
The simple peshat in the Mishneh is to read "this and this and this will
happen and all we can do is rely on our Father in Heaven". Reb Chaim
Volozhiner interprets otherwise. He says that the concluding phrase "We
have no one to rely on other than our Father in Heaven" is one of the
problems that will by symptomatic of the time of the 'footsteps of
Moshiach'. The attitude "Nebach, there's nothing we can do" is part of
the problem of those days just like the attitude of insolence and
disrespect mentioned earlier in the Mishneh.
People will say "What can I do, I'm only an individual; this is basherte;
we have to rely on G-d". That, according to Reb Chaim Volozhiner is
symptomatic of the problem. What we learn from the 'flowers of Reuvain'
and from 'Ner Chanukah' is that we must act, no matter how bleak the
prospect for success. Only if one is not active and refuses to take
charge of a situation does he in fact have no hope.
Reciting the She'Hechiyanu in Bergen Belsen
Our Parsha begins with the expression "At the end of two years..." This
refers to the time since the incident at the end of last week's Parsha
which concludes with the verse "The chief steward did not remember Yosef.
He forgot him."
The verse at the end of VaYeshev begs for a clarification -- if you don't
remember someone, obviously you forgot. The Bluzheve Rebbe offers this
insight into the verse:
We see, he says, that there is a concept of not remembering and there is
a separate concept of forgetting. There are some things in life that one
can't remember, but that one can't forget either. What is such an event?
The Holocaust. It is too painful to remember, but yet we can never
forget it either. As painful as it is, we must, at times, remember it.
The following incident occurred to the Bluzheve Rebbe himself in Bergen
Belsen on Chanukah during the middle of the Holocaust:
Erev Chanukah had been a particularly grim day in the camp. Many Jews
had been randomly taken out and shot. The bodies were still lying on the
ground as the day ended. The Jews that remained got together, found an
old shoe, made some oil out of shoe polish, made a wick out of threads of
a garment and wanted to light Ner Chanukah.
The Bluzheve Rebbe, being one of the leaders in the camp, proceeded to
light Ner Chanukah and recite the appropriate blessings. He recited the
first blessing "...to kindle the Chanukah candle". Then he made the
second blessing "...who has done miracles for our ancestors in those days
at this time."
Then he came to make the she'hechiyanu ("... who has kept us alive and
sustained us and brought us to this occasion"). Before he made the
she'hechiyanu he paused and hesitated. He looked around and then made
the blessing.
There was a Jew who witnessed this scene and later came to the Rebbe and
said bitterly, "Spira, I understand how you can make the first blessing
and I can understand how you make the second blessing but tell me, Spira,
how can you in this terrible place with dead Jews lying around us make
the she'hechiyanu blessing thanking G-d for keeping us alive and bringing
us to this time?"
The Rebbe looked at the Jew and said "You know, I had the same problem.
But then I looked around and saw that these Jews in these worst of
circumstances, surrounded by death and destruction, got together and
insisted on fulfilling the mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles even in
these horrible conditions. I said to myself for this alone one can and
should make the blessing "she'hechiyanu v'kiyamanu v'higeeyanu lazman
hazeh."
Vocabulary
Torah she'bichsav -- Written Torah
Torah she'ba'al-peh -- Oral Torah
sefer -- book
peshat --interpretation
Hashgocha -- Divine Providence
Ner Chanukah -- Candle of Chanukah (representing events of the Chanukah
miracles and victories)
basherte -- the way G-d wants things to happen (Yiddish)
nebach -- what a shame (Yiddish)
Personalities & Sources:
Rav Reuvain Katz -- Former Rav, Petach Tikvah Israel
Reb Chaim of Volozhin -- (1749-1821), prominent disciple of Vilna Gaon;
founder of the Yeshiva of Volozhin, Lithuania.
Bluzheve Rebbe -- R. Yisroel Spira (1890-1989) miraculously survived the
Holocaust and reestablished a community in Brooklyn, NY
which he led for over 40 years.
This weeks write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi
Yissocher Frand's Commuter Chavrusah Torah Tapes on the weekly Torah
portion (#35). The corresponding halachic portion for tape #35 is:
Chanukah Issues. The other halachic portions for Miketz from the
Commuter Chavrusah Series are:
Also Available: Mesorah / Artscroll has published a collection
of Rabbi Frand's essays. The book is entitled:
and is available through your local Hebrew book store or from
Judaica Express, 1-800-2-BOOKS-1.
