Friday, January 6, 2017

Vayigash - Some Fact And Some Fiction - Barack - Joseph - Honoring Parents - I'm Coming

Shalooom sweeetest friends!!!

This dvar Torah should be a zchus for my parents without whom I wouldn't exist, nor would my children and for that I am eternally indebted and grateful. May they have constant good health, prosperity and nachas. 

And lirfuas R' Ovadiah ben Rochel and R' Yehoshua Meir Ben Rochel Soroh and Sara Leah bas Rivka bi-toch shear cholei Yisrael.

As I promised last week I have license to make things up.

So the leader of Egypt is seemingly an Arab man named "Barack Hussein". The brothers come down and he says that he is really not Barack Hussein but "Baruch Hachosson" - He became a chosson and is blessed. The brothers then noticed that he really wasn't black and his wife's name was not "Michal" [Michelle] but Osnat [which today is the name of many chayalot]. To prove his point he said "look - I speak your language" - כי פי המדבר אליכם. I know how to speak Yeshivish. It's mamesh gevalldikkk over here but I do miss mama's kreplach and kneidlach over here. So much Sfardishe food in Egypt." He added "I am Yoisef but English speakers will forever add a "J" to my name and call me Joseph. Then they will add insult to injury and shorten it to Joe. Probably because they also will add a "J" to Poppas name and call him Jacob. And then turn that into Jake". 

The brothers were shocked [even though the SAME EXACT THING HAPPENED last year at this time so what was the surprise?!]. They embraced and we daven mussaf and get to the goal of why many people come to shul in the first place.

Kiddush. 

Anyway, the question is - Why didn't Yosef reveal himself earlier? Also, when Yehuda pleaded his case instead of saying "Hey - my brother was framed!! He never took the goblet", he kept stressing how much anguish it will cause his father if Binyamin is taken away. If Binyamin is guilty - why would "Barack" care about his father's pain??

The answer [suggested by the Kojiklover Gaon] may be that the brothers had to fix their sin of causing Yaakov anguish when they told him that Yosef had been killed. So Yosef was waiting for them to really feel their father's pain and fix this blemish. That is why - min hashomayim - Yehuda appealed to Yosef to take his father's great pain into account. And that is why Yosef only revealed himself after they fixed their sin of hurting their father. 

Then the next ruler of Egypt "who didn't know Barack [i.e. "Yosef"] appeared on the scene. He was a white man from Queens named Donald. Here is a picture:

 Image result for picture donald duck

He will love towers and force the Jews to build him cities with lots of high towers and call them Pisom and Ramses. But that is for a different time. 

Archeologists dug this up:

Image result for picture trump tower

SWEETEST FRIENDS!!!

This is a great time to fix our sins of possibly not honoring our parents enough. Can we say about anyone else on the planet that we owe them our very existence?? Without our parents - where would we be?? WE WOULDN'T!! The Talmud Yerushalmi says that one must honor his parents MORE than one honors Hashem Himself. So we have a religious and moral obligation to accord our parents the maximum honor! So if your parents are alive - think about how to give them pleasure and nachas. And if they are not - do a mitzva, learn a masechta or give a million dollars in their memory [or all 3!!:-)].

Have a blissful Shabbos    

PS - In a week and a half I will be in New York for a week in order to attend a family simcha and hopefully raise the funds necessary for what is necessary. May I be matzliach and may you be matzliach!!!