Monday, December 7, 2015

Jealousy

Rabbi Reisman


וינס ויצא החוצה -  Because Yosef ran out and he did not sin he merited as it says in Shemos 13:19 (וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת-עַצְמוֹת יוֹסֵף, עִמּוֹ) that his bones were taken to Eretz Yisrael by none other than Moshe Rabbeinu.

Rav Hutner in the Pachad Yitzchok (I believe on Mamarei Pesach) has an incredible Pshat on the connection between the two. It is a general insight into the Midda of Kin'a, jealousy. In Mishlei 14:30 we find (וּרְקַב עֲצָמוֹת קִנְאָה). Jealousy causes bones to rot more quickly. Even in a living person bones are destroyed by jealousy. There are other bad Middos like Kaas, Sin'a... All the other bad Middos have to do with the flesh of a person, with the part of the person that is not the Atzamos, not the bones. The bones are destroyed mystically in heaven by the Middah of Kin'a. Why is that so?

The Midda of jealousy is when a person sees something and he says I should have that. I belong there. I am here I should be there. I am here, I should be the president, I should be the mayor, I should be the Rosh Yeshiva, I should be the owner of the company. He made a million dollars, I should have made a million dollars, I am smart enough. Kin'a has to do with the Atzmios of a person, with the identity of a person. A person sees his own identity and says what he has is something that I really should have. It is Nogea to the Atzmios of a person. The word Etzem, bone, is connected to Atzmios, to the identity of a person. A person's Koma, his height, his stature, his physical ability to stand and walk is all controlled by the skeleton, his bones. His bones that carry him. The Atzmios of a person is the Etzem. (וּרְקַב עֲצָמוֹת קִנְאָה). When a person is jealous he is unhappy with his Atzmi, with who he is. (וּרְקַב עֲצָמוֹת קִנְאָה).

That is what we find when a Jew (G-d forbid) is Mezaneh with a non-Jew, a woman who is not Jewish. It says Kanaim Pog'im Bo. People with Kin'a attack him. Why? This is because Kin'a is when someone says what you are doing contradicts the Atzmi of who you are. A Jew should have relations with another Jew. A Jewish man with a Jewish woman. When a Jewish man has relations with a non-Jewish woman, he destroys his Atzmios. In a way, a man can become from a Jew to a non-Jew. Once a Jew always a Jew. Except when he has a child G-d forbid from a non-Jewish woman, the child is not Jewish. His own descendent is a non-Jewish descendent. He is destroying his Atzmios, who he is. Kanaim Pog'im Bo is a Stirah to the Midda of Kin'a. When Yosef ran away from this, from having relations with a woman who was not Jewish, he said the Atzmi of who I am is contradicted by this and he ran away. He was Zoche that his Atzamos, his bones were taken up to Eretz Yisrael by Moshe Rabbeinu. It is Nogea to the Atzmi of the person.