Parshah Summary – P’shat
Joseph’s imprisonment finally ends when Pharaoh dreams of seven fat cows that are swallowed up by seven lean cows, and then of seven fat ears of grain swallowed by seven lean ears. Joseph interprets the dreams to mean that seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of hunger, and advises Pharaoh to store grain during the plentiful years. Pharaoh is pleased with Joseph’s advice and appoints him governor of Egypt. Joseph marries Asnat, daughter of Potiphar, and they have two sons, Menasheh and Ephraim.
In time, as the famine spreads throughout the region, food can be obtained only in Egypt. Ten of Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt to purchase grain; the youngest, Benjamin, stays home, for Jacob fears for his safety. Joseph recognizes his brothers, but they do not recognize him; he accuses them of being spies, insists that they bring Benjamin to prove that they are who they say they are, and imprisons Shimon as a hostage. Later, they discover that the money they paid for their provisions has been mysteriously returned to them. Jacob agrees to send Benjamin only after Judah assumes personal responsibility for him. This time Joseph receives them kindly, releases Shimon, and invites them to dinner at his home. But then he plants his special silver goblet in Benjamin’s sack. When the brothers set out for home the next morning, they are pursued, searched, and arrested when the goblet is discovered. Joseph offers to set them free and retain only Benjamin as his slave.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיְהִ֕י מִקֵּ֖ץ שְׁנָתַ֣יִם יָמִ֑ים וּפַרְעֹ֣ה חֹלֵ֔ם וְהִנֵּ֖ה עֹמֵ֥ד עַל־הַיְאֹֽר׃ And it was at the end of two years to the day, Pharaoh dreamed, and behold – he was standing by the Nile… - Bereisheet (Genesis) 41:1, Parshat Mikeitz
Rabbi Elazar fell ill. His teacher Rabbi Yoḥanan came to visit and found him lying in a dark room, so he uncovered his arm, which miraculously beamed forth light and illuminated the whole house. Then he could see that Rabbi Elazar was weeping. He asked, “Why do you cry? If it is because you did not study enough Torah, we have learned: One who brings a substantial sacrifice and one who brings a meager sacrifice have equal merit, as long as one directs their heart toward Heaven. If it is because of your great poverty, we have learned: not every person merits to eat off of two tables. And if you are crying over the deaths of your children, this is the bone of my tenth son.”
Rabbi Elazar replied, “I am not crying over my misfortune, but rather, over this beauty of yours that will decompose in the earth.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him, “Over this, it is certainly appropriate to cry.” And they both broke down and cried together. - Talmud, Berakhot 5b In the story, Rabbi Yoḥanan considered three possible reasons for Rabbi Elazar’s sorrow: self-judgment (not learning enough), self-lack (poverty) and the sorrow of loss (the deaths of his children). He then offers consolation for each possible reason. But when Rabbi Elazar reveals the true reason, that Rabbi Yoḥanan’s beauty will turn to dust, Rabbi Yoḥanan approves, and they both share the sorrow. הֲבֵ֤ל הֲבָלִים֙ אָמַ֣ר קֹהֶ֔לֶת הֲבֵ֥ל הֲבָלִ֖ים הַכֹּ֥ל הָֽבֶל׃ “Vanity of Vanities,” said The Preacher, “Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.” - Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 1:2 The fact of change and the temporary nature of all things is the beginning of King Solomon’s treatise on human existence as well. And yet, despite the dark tone of his book, he does, in fact, supply a solution: כֹּ֠ל אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּמְצָ֧א יָֽדְךָ֛ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת בְּכֹחֲךָ֖ עֲשֵׂ֑ה... Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might… In other words, the solution to the sorrow of the havel is: don’t put your energy and focus on the future, but on the task of the moment; that is, be present. This is the essence of meditation. תִּמְצָ֧א יָֽדְךָ֛ לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת – your hand finds to do… Furthermore, meditation is not philosophical concept; it is completely practical – it is the application of awareness and focus on whatever we are doing, Now. וַיְהִ֕י מִקֵּ֖ץ שְׁנָתַ֣יִם יָמִ֑ים – And it was at the end of two years to the day… Mikeitz means “at the end” – referring to the end of a two-year period after which Pharaoh had the dream about the cows וַיִּיקַ֖ץ פַּרְעֹֽה – Pharaoh awakened… But when Pharaoh wakes up from his dream, the same word is used again in a different form: Vayikatz Paro, hinting: to “awaken” is for our “dream” of the future to come to an end. For most of us, there is no awareness of dreaming while we’re dreaming; it’s only in waking up that we realize, “Oh, it was only a dream.” We say, “Only a dream” because it has no external reality; it is just an experience generated by the mind. Then, when we wake up, we become aware of what is actually going on. Life is real, and unlike the dream, there are real consequences in the world external to your mind. And yet, as King Solomon seeks to correct, there is also the waking dream of life, the illusion of permanence to things. When we wake up from this illusion, it can be a big disappointment. Like the weeping of the rabbis and the overall dark tone of Ecclesiastes, the function of the dream was to provide comfort גַּלְיֵיהּ לִדְרָעֵיהּ וּנְפַל נְהוֹרָא – he exposed his arm, and light filled the house… But, there is a deeper dimension to waking up which is hinted at by both Solomon’s advice and the “illuminating arm” of Jewish meditation in action. Right now, your awareness perceives the richness of this moment – the activity and movement, the objects and beings in space, the sense of your body, your feelings and your thoughts. Ordinarily, you perceive some things as external to you, such as these words right now, and some things as internal to you, such as your thoughts. There are physical things “out there,” and emotional and mental things “in here.” But notice: everything in your perception, from the ground under your feet to the clouds in the sky to the feelings in your gut, are all nothing but consciousness, exactly like a dream. This recognition means that when you judge people, or complain, or in any way resist the truth of whatever arises in the moment, you’re actually resisting yourself – you’re creating a split within yourself, which creates a sense of being not whole, of being incomplete. And that’s the dream – that’s the illusion – we tend to think that we need something “out there” to change in order to feel whole or complete “in here.” Just like the gaunt and hungry cows who eat up the full cows, we will never satisfied if we’re constantly “pulling away” from ourselves, creating an inner split. But when we awaken to realize that everything “out there” is always only perceived “in here,” then we can relax and accept everything in our experience as forms of our own being. When we do that, our consciousness that has become split in two can merge back into oneness, bringing that sense of inner duality to an end. And this is the deeper reason why the word for “awaken” is also the word for “ending” – קץ katz – because it is an end to inner duality. It’s also an end to the mental creation of time, because in Presence, there is no longer any journey toward wholeness or fulfilment; Wholeness is simply what we are when we stop pulling ourselves apart. And they both broke down and cried together… And yet, paradoxically, it is the full feeling of our sorrow that grants access to depths of Wholeness beyond all emotion; this is the Portal of א Aleph the leads to the Portal of ג Gimel.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Jacob/Israel and his family settling in Hebron. Joseph is his most beloved son, so he makes him a special multi-colored coat, which sparks jealousy in the other brothers. Joseph then tells his brothers two of his dreams which foretell that he is destined to rule over them, increasing their envy and hatred toward him even more. Shimon and Levi plot to kill him, but Reuven suggests that they throw him into a pit instead, intending to come back later and save him. The brothers strip Joseph of his special coat and throw him into the pit. Later, Judah convinces the other brothers to sell him to a band of passing Ishmaelites. The brothers then smear Joseph’s special coat with the blood of a goat and show it to their father, misleading him to believe that his most beloved son was devoured by a wild beast.
The text then shifts to Judah, who marries and has three sons. The eldest, Er, marries a woman named Tamar, but then he dies. So, Tamar then marries the second son, Onan, but Onan also dies. Judah is reluctant for his third son to marry Tamar, so she disguises herself as a prostitute and seduces Judah instead. Judah hears that his daughter-in-law has become pregnant and accuses her of harlotry, but when Tamar produces the personal objects he left with her as a pledge for payment, he publicly admits that he is the father. Tamar gives birth to twin sons, Peretz (an ancestor of King David) and Zerakh. Joseph is taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, the minister in charge of Pharaoh’s slaughterhouses. God blesses everything Joseph does, and soon he is made overseer of all his master’s property. Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce Joseph, and when Joseph rejects her advances, she tells her husband that the Hebrew slave tried to force himself upon her, and has him thrown into prison. Joseph gains the trust and admiration of his jailers, who appoint him to a position of authority over the other prisoners. During this time, Joseph meets Pharaoh’s chief butler and baker, who were both imprisoned for some offense. They tell Joseph about some disturbing dreams they have been having, which he interprets: in three days, he tells them, the butler will be released and the baker hanged. Joseph asks the butler to intercede on his behalf with Pharaoh. When the predictions are fulfilled, the butler forgets all about Joseph and does nothing for him.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אָהַ֤ב אֶת־יוֹסֵף֙ מִכׇּל־בָּנָ֔יו כִּֽי־בֶן־זְקֻנִ֥ים ה֖וּא ל֑וֹ וְעָ֥שָׂה ל֖וֹ כְּתֹ֥נֶת פַּסִּֽים׃ וַיִּרְא֣וּ אֶחָ֗יו כִּֽי־אֹת֞וֹ אָהַ֤ב אֲבִיהֶם֙ מִכׇּל־אֶחָ֔יו וַֽיִּשְׂנְא֖וּ אֹת֑וֹ וְלֹ֥א יָכְל֖וּ דַּבְּר֥וֹ לְשָׁלֹֽם׃ Now Israel loved Joseph best of all his sons—he was his “child of old age”; and he had made him an ornamented tunic. And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than they, they hated him so that they could not speak a friendly word to him. - Bereisheet (Genesis) 37:4-5, Parshat Vayeishev
Rabbi Nahum of Stepinesht once said of his brother, Rabbi David Moshe of Tchortkov, “My brother is the one spoken of in the verse:
אֲסַפְּרָ֗ה אֶֽ֫ל חֹ֥ק יְֽהוָ֗ה אָמַ֘ר אֵלַ֥י בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֝נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ׃ I am obligated to proclaim: The Divine says to me, ‘You are My child, today I give birth to you…’ - Psalm 2:7 “And when my brother chants from the Book of Psalms, Hashem calls to him: ‘David Moshe my son, I am putting the whole world into your hands – now do with it whatever you like.’ Oh, if only Hashem gave the world to me, I would know very well what to do with it! But David Moshe is so faithful a servant that when he gives it back, it is exactly as it was when he received it.” This anecdote of Rabbi Nahum is strange; it seems to say that non-action is a virtue, that one who does nothing to improve the world is better than one who tries to improve the world. How can this be? There is a hint is Joseph’s response to a request for interpreting dreams: הֲל֤וֹא לֵֽאלֹהִים֙ פִּתְרֹנִ֔ים: – Don’t interpretations belong to God? - Bereisheet (Genesis) 40:8 When Joseph is thrown into the dungeon, two prisoners come to him with their disturbing dreams, hoping that Joseph will interpret them. But Joseph clarifies: his ability to see the meanings of their dreams is a gift that comes from beyond; it’s not really his own doing. But what actually is a dream anyway? A dream is an experience we have when we’re sleeping, an experience that seems real when it’s happening, but turns out to be a projection of the mind. Similarly, our waking experiences too are comprehensible only because our minds project onto them a connected narrative. In order to do that, we need to be “asleep” to much of what is going on, so that the mind focus in and piece together a story that makes sense. And, central to that story is character of “I.” From our ordinary state of mind, in which we are mostly asleep, it seems that there is this “I” that does things, that acts on the world, that causes things to happen. But what really is this “I?” The “I” seems discreet and separate, but this is part of the dream, part of the narrative. In reality, everything is part of one unfolding; everything is really only ever different modulations of Existence, of Being, of God. This is the point of meditation: to “wake up” from this dream of the separate “I” into the Oneness that includes all things. And so, on this level, Joseph is saying: Isn’t this dream of life we are having correctly interpreted as the drama of God? Are we not witnessing, right now, the unfolding of the Divine in and as the world? From this point of view, Rabbi David Moshe isn’t being lauded by his brother for not doing anything, but rather for not seeing himself as the doer; he “gives the world back exactly as it was when he received it” – meaning, he gives credit back to God for what happens, just as Joseph does. This is why Joseph is able to endure such extreme hardship without any complaint; he receives everything from the Hands of God, including his own dreams, from which he knows that he will one day attain greatness. This is the foundation of his unwavering persistence through all his hardships; he is like cream, always rising to the top. Because when the world seems to hate him, he still regards himself as beloved by the Root of All Worlds. וְיִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל אָהַ֤ב אֶת־יוֹסֵף֙ – Now Israel loved Joseph… “Israel” means “wrestles” or “strives for God”– in other words, Joseph’s sees through the surface of things to the Divine love underneath, even though his experience of the world seems to be the opposite. וַֽיִּשְׂנְא֖וּ אֹת֑וֹ …וַיִּרְא֣וּ אֶחָ֗יו – And his brothers saw…and they hated him… “Brothers” represents the things and beings in the horizontal dimension of experience – the forms we encounter in time. But “Israel,” the “Father,” represents the vertical dimension of experience – our encounter with Timeless that abides within and as all things. This is the great skill of the spirit that we are called upon to develop: to know the love that flows from Being, even when hatred seems to flow from many beings. And through drawing on that Inexhaustible Love, bring the Eternal into the temporal by persisting in our meditation and in our lives with the undying quality of Netzakh.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Jacob returning home to the land of Canaan after a 20-year stay in Haran. He sends angels ahead of him to meet his brother Esau in hope of a reconciliation, but they return to report that Esau is on the warpath with 400 armed men. Jacob prepares for battle, but also sends Esau a large gift (consisting of hundreds of heads of livestock) to appease him, and then intensely prays for salvation. That night, Jacob sends his family and possessions across the Jabbok River, while he remains behind and encounters a mysterious being with whom he wrestles until daybreak. Jacob suffers a dislocated hip but vanquishes the supernal creature, who bestows upon him the name Yisrael, Israel. When Jacob and Esau finally meet, they break down crying and make peace, hugging and kissing, and then part ways. Jacob purchases a plot of land near Sh’khem, whose crown prince—also called Sh’khem—abducts and violates Jacob’s daughter Dinah. Dinah’s brothers Shimon and Levi avenge the crime by killing all male inhabitants of the city, after rendering them vulnerable by convincing them to circumcise themselves in order to intermarry with them. Jacob admonishes his sons for their violence, and again fearing for his life after what they have done, Jacob and his family flee. Rachel dies while giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, and is buried in a roadside grave near Bethlehem. Jacob arrives in Hebron, to his father Isaac, who later dies at age 180.
Torah of Awakening
:וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לֹ֤א יַֽעֲקֹב֙ יֵֽאָמֵ֥ר עוֹד֙ שִׁמְךָ֔ כִּ֖י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־שָׂרִ֧יתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים וַתּוּכָֽל He said, “No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have wrestled with God and with humans and you have prevailed!” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 32:4, Parshat Vayikhlakh
Once, when Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua of Apt came to visit a certain town to teach, two men competed to have the rabbi stay with them. Both homes were equally roomy and comfortable, and in both households, all the halakhot – the rules of conduct around kashrut and Shabbat – were observed with meticulous exactness. The only difference was that one of the men had a bad reputation for his many love affairs and other self-indulgent habits. Because of this, he thought of himself as a weak and flawed being. But in contrast, the other fellow was perfect in his conduct, and he knew it. He walked around proudly, thoroughly aware of his spotless purity.
The rabbi chose the house of the man with the bad reputation. When asked the reason for his choice, he answered that in the Talmud [Sotah 5a:14], it says: Rabbi Hisda said… “Every person in whom there is arrogance of spirit, the Holy Blessed One says, ‘I and he cannot both dwell in the world.’” “And,” continued the rabbi, “if the Holy Blessed One can’t share space with an arrogant person, then how could I? We read in the Torah, on the other hand, that Hashem: הַשֹּׁכֵ֣ן אִתָּ֔ם בְּת֖וֹךְ טֻמְאֹתָֽם – dwells with them in the midst of their impurity. [Lev. 16:16] And if Hashem takes lodgings there, why shouldn’t I?” The Divine cannot “dwell” with the arrogant person, because their spirituality has become “spoiled.” Like food that has been left out of the fridge, the dangerous “bacteria” of ego has “fed” upon the experience of the spirit and assimilated it into itself. When spirituality is “fresh” – meaning, it is grounded in an attitude of openness and humility, then it serves as nourishment for the soul. If we wish to keep it “fresh,” we must remember: thinking of oneself as “spiritual” and therefore special or superior is a source of arrogance; that’s how spirituality becomes “rotten.” To prevent this tragedy, we need some kind of “preservative.” What is the preservative? Sin! An amazing, radical teaching: Yes, “sin” is, by definition, wrong action. It is not in any way nourishing, just like preservatives in food are not nourishing for the body. And yet, it can actually prevent “rottenness” of the spirit, by helping us to conquer arrogance. After all, what is arrogance really? Arrogance is not merely a positive self-image; it is, rather, entitled expectation. Meditation, on the deepest level, is about dropping all expectation. When we’re successful in that, there can be a genuine coming into the moment, an arrival into the sacred space of the Present. And yet, in that experience, there also can then arise a very subtle form of expectation that creeps in without our even knowing it; this is spiritualized arrogance, the expectation that others should see us as special. And even more importantly, it is the expectation that we are somehow entitled to the spiritual bliss, that now it is ours for good. But if we reflect on our own imperfections, bringing to mind that we have made many errors and aren’t entitled to anything in particular, then we can paradoxically remain connected to the root, even when our branches falter. :וַיִּירָ֧א יַֽעֲקֹ֛ב מְאֹ֖ד וַיֵּ֣צֶר ל֑וֹ וַיַּ֜חַץ אֶת־הָעָ֣ם ...לִשְׁנֵ֥י מַֽחֲנֽוֹת Jacob became very frightened and distressed, so he divided the people who were with him… into two camps. On a metaphorical level, יַּחַץ – dividing – means separating his two different attitudes toward his predicament: part of his wants to simply trust in God, but part of him isn’t sure; he feels insecure. Furthermore, his insecurity is actually the deepest nature of existence: all things, all beings, are completely insecure. Nothing is guaranteed. There may be a deep desire to trust, to believe that we have some kind of Divine protection, but this kind of trust is arrogance; if we’re honest, we must admit that insecurity is the Truth. How can we reconcile the fact of insecurity with the spiritual quality of Trust? :וַיִּוָּתֵ֥ר יַֽעֲקֹ֖ב לְבַדּ֑וֹ וַיֵּֽאָבֵ֥ק אִישׁ֙ עִמּ֔וֹ עַ֖ד עֲל֥וֹת הַשָּֽׁחַר And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the rising of dawn. These two sides of his being wrestled, until the “arising of the dawn” – that is, until illumination occurred. He had done everything he could – he sent gifts to his brother, he split up his camp, he prayed for safety – now it was time to surrender, and in that surrender, to conquer: :וַיֹּ֗אמֶר לֹ֤א יַֽעֲקֹב֙ יֵֽאָמֵ֥ר עוֹד֙ שִׁמְךָ֔ כִּ֖י אִם־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־שָׂרִ֧יתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִ֛ים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁ֖ים וַתּוּכָֽל He said, “No longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have wrestled with (your) Divine (nature) and (your) human (nature), and you have prevailed!” Through his human nature, through his profound insecurity, he reached the true kind of trust – not trust in a particular outcome, but trust in Reality Itself, trust in the moment is as it is, and as it will be. Thus, through his human nature, he reached his Divine nature. This is our potential as well: first, to do everything we can to secure the outcome we want – pray, send gifts, work hard, all of it. But then, let go and trust. Embrace and relax into the insecurity, into the unknown, and into the true and actual security that isn’t about what we want; it’s about connecting with the truth of this moment, beautiful and fragile and tragic and miraculous. And in doing so, faith and uncertainty become one, and there is true peace with What Is; this is the Path of י Yud, of Trust and Simplicity: :וַיָּ֨רָץ עֵשָׂ֤ו לִקְרָאתוֹ֙ וַיְחַבְּקֵ֔הוּ וַיִּפֹּ֥ל עַל־צַוָּארָ֖יו וַֹיִֹשָֹׁקֵֹ֑הֹוֹּ וַיִּבְכּֽוּ And Esau ran to greet him and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept…
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