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
וַיַּ֨עַן יוֹסֵ֧ף אֶת־פַּרְעֹ֛ה לֵאמֹ֖ר בִּלְעָדָ֑י אֱלֹהִ֕ים יַעֲנֶ֖ה אֶת־שְׁל֥וֹם פַּרְעֹֽה׃ Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is beyond me! God will give Pharaoh peace with an answer.” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 41:16, Parshat Mikeitz
There’s a story of Rabbi Moshe of Sasov, that once during Hanukkah he came into the beit midrash to find some of his students playing checkers. When they saw their rebbe, they were embarrassed and started putting the game away. “No, keep on playing!” said Reb Moshe. “You know, you can learn three important things from the game of checkers: first, you can only make one move at a time. Second, you can only go forward and not backward. And lastly, when you get to the last row, you can move in any direction you want.”
While it’s true that life is complex and there are many steps to accomplishing things, it is also true that, in any given moment, you can only do the step you’re on. This is obvious, and yet because we have the power to envision our next steps, the mind tends to dwell in the imagination of the future. The present is often approached merely as a stepping stone toward something else, and this creates a feeling of separation from this moment, a disconnect from Reality. This in turn can produce a feeling of incompleteness, and a belief that fulfillment lies somewhere in the future. The remedy for this feeling of incompleteness is to remember: “You can only make one move at a time.” Bringing your attention to simply see the “move” you are now making liberates your consciousness from its imprisonment in the world of thought and its imagined future. You can try this right now; simply see; feel how this moment is. But what if, while we are simply seeing and feeling, thoughts of regret arise about the past, pulling us into a painful dwelling on what could have been? Then we must also see this simple truth: “You can only go forward and not backward.” Accepting the past and moving on doesn’t mean you have to somehow push away feelings of regret; that would just be more resistance to the present! Instead, simply see that they are there, feel the feelings; accept whatever thoughts and feelings are arising, and let them dissolve of their own accord. Everything that arises is part of the complete texture of the present – don’t resist. And in this act of simply seeing this moment without resistance, there can be the realization that, in fact, you have arrived – there is nowhere else to go, because you’re always Right Here! At that point, you can “move in any direction you want” – meaning, you can think about the future or the past and not get caught by them, because they all arise in the open space of the Present – the Eternal Now has come to the foreground, as the Presence that permeates all things – this is meditation. This quality of inner freedom is embodied by Yosef. Pharaoh asks him to interpret his disturbing dream, but Yosef says,“Biladai, Elohim Ya-aneh – It is beyond me, but God will answer!” This short phrase is a code for this teaching: Biladai – It is beyond me: Meaning, the future is beyond me; there is only this moment – whatever will be will be. Elohim, God refers to the fact that we cannot go back and change the past; whatever has been is the “Divine Will” – which is another way of saying, it already is. The only right relationship we can have with the past is total surrender; there’s nothing you can do to change it. Finally, ya-aneh – (God) will answer. In other words, see that this, now, is “God’s speech.” This is the ultimate fruit of meditation – the recognition of Divinity everywhere. When we rest in seeing the miracle of this moment, there need not be any strained effort in “trying to be present” or in “letting go of the past” because the movements of the mind are no longer charged, no longer motivated by grabbing after fulfillment. Rather, we become the seeing; or more precisely, we know ourselves as God’s seeing through our eyes. This aspect of meditation, the middah of perception as Divinity, is represented by the letter ayin.
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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 Joseph 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 Reuben suggests that they throw him into a pit instead, intending to come back later and save him. So, 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, Shelah, to also 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 Zerach. 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 on 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 Joseph 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
וַיִּרְא֣וּ אֶחָ֗יו כִּֽי־אֹת֞וֹ אָהַ֤ב אֲבִיהֶם֙ מִכׇּל־אֶחָ֔יו וַֽיִּשְׂנְא֖וּ אֹת֑וֹ When his brothers saw that their father loved him the most, they hated him… - Bereisheet (Genesis) 37:4, Parshat Vayeishev
Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev once saw a man hurrying down the street, bumping into things and knocking people over. The rabbi grabbed him and said, “Why are you rushing so?” “I’m running to make a living!” replied the man as he tried to break free from the rabbi’s grip. “But how do you know that your livelihood is in front of you?” argued the rabbi, “Perhaps it’s behind you, and all you have to do is slow down and let it catch up with you!”
In our rush to escape the discomfort of the present, our hurriedness can sabotage the arrival of a better future. The remedy for that impulse of aggressive hurriedness is twofold – Presence and Planning. “Presence” means intentionally being where we are; it means learning to rest awareness in the truth of the moment, even and especially when it is uncomfortable; this is meditation. “Planning” means living with intention; it means having a clear vision of where you are going. When you know where you’re going, you’re less likely to worry about the temporary discomfort of the moment; it just doesn’t matter that much. You have a long-term plan, so you can fully enjoy the journey and be present. In this way, even though “planning” is aimed at the future, it actually supports connection with the present. וַֽיִּשְׂנְא֖וּ אֹת֑וֹ – They hated him… Israel’s sons are jealous of Joseph for being the most beloved of their father. But instead of trying to appease his brothers, he chooses to irritate them. וַיַּחֲלֹ֤ם יוֹסֵף֙ חֲל֔וֹם וַיַּגֵּ֖ד לְאֶחָ֑יו וַיּוֹסִ֥פוּ ע֖וֹד שְׂנֹ֥א אֹתֽוֹ׃ – Joseph dreamt a dream that he told to his brothers, and their hatred of him increased even more… In Joseph’s first dream, he and his brothers are binding sheaves in a field together, when his brother’s sheaves bow to his sheaf. In the second dream, the sun, moon and eleven stars all bow down to him, implying that one day he would rule over his eleven brothers, father and mother. Why was Joseph unconcerned about upsetting his brothers with these dreams? Some say that Joseph was immature and vain, but people who are immature and vain tend to complain when bad things happen to them. Joseph, on the other hand, never complains. His brothers throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery. When he later rises to be the most trusted and powerful slave in the house of his master, he is framed and thrown in the dungeon. Through all of these calamities, he never once complains, never once gets angry, never even defends himself. Why? Because he trusts his “dreams” and he knows where he is going. Since he knows where he is going, he doesn’t have to fuss much about how he gets there. His brothers are mad at him? No big deal, it will work out. Sold into slavery? There’s an interesting turn. Everything that happens to him is merely a modulation of the present moment. Whatever it is, he is there with it. He sees his north star guiding him into the future, and therefore he is fully in the Now. In fact, his name embodies this quality: יוֹסֵף Yosef, which means “increase.” וַיּוֹסִ֥פוּ ע֖וֹד שְׂנֹ֥א אֹתֽוֹ׃ – Their hatred of him increased (יּוֹסִפוּ like יוֹסֵף) even more… No matter how much his suffering increases, he always bounces back and “increases” toward his goal. He is like cream – always rising to the top, never growing anxious or complaining. He just rides the story of his life, moving steadily toward his destiny. In this week of Shabbat Vayeishev, the Sabbath of Dwelling, let us remember that to be present, we don’t have to give up our dreams for the future. But, we don’t have to run after them either. Instead, let us rest in the intention of where our ship is going, trusting the process. Take the steps you need to actualize your intention, then trust and enjoy the cruise, even when the world seems to be against you. And, if you don’t know yet where you want to go, be present with the not knowing. In the silence of meditation, your dreams will reveal themselves. This quality commitment and persistence is embodied by the sefirah of Netzakh on the Tree of Life – the seventh sefirah which also corresponds to the festival of Hanukkah.
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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 | Jewish Meditation Teaching
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
What is the nature of pleasure? Is pleasure something to be enjoyed and celebrated, or is pleasure a spiritual obstacle? There is a teaching recorded in the Talmud that contains a puzzling dialogue between Moses and Hashem
בִּקֵּשׁ לְהוֹדִיעוֹ דְּרָכָיו שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, וְנָתַן לוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״הוֹדִיעֵנִי נָא אֶת דְּרָכֶיךָ״, אָמַר לְפָנָיו: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם! מִפְּנֵי מָה יֵשׁ צַדִּיק וְטוֹב לוֹ, וְיֵשׁ צַדִּיק וְרַע לוֹ, יֵשׁ רָשָׁע וְטוֹב לוֹ, וְיֵשׁ רָשָׁע וְרַע לוֹ? אָמַר לוֹ: מֹשֶׁה, צַדִּיק וְטוֹב לוֹ — צַדִּיק בֶּן צַדִּיק. צַדִּיק וְרַע לוֹ — צַדִּיק בֶּן רָשָׁע. רָשָׁע וְטוֹב לוֹ — רָשָׁע בֶּן צַדִּיק. רָשָׁע וְרַע לוֹ — רָשָׁע בֶּן רָשָׁע.. (Moses) requested that the ways of the Holy Blessed One be revealed to him, and it was granted it to him, as it is stated: “Show me Your ways and I will know You” (Exodus 33:13). He said, “Master of the Universe! Why is it that there are righteous who prosper, righteous who suffer, wicked who prosper, and wicked who suffer?” (The Divine) replied to him: “Moses, the righteous person who prospers is a child of a righteous person. The righteous person who suffers is a child of a wicked person. The wicked person who prospers is a child of a righteous person. The wicked person who suffers is a child of a wicked person. (Berachot 7a) This teaching (attributed to Rabbi Yohanan in the name of Rabbi Yosei) attempts to answer that old perennial question: if there is Divine justice in the world, why do bad things happen to good people? Why are there bad people who seem to have all the good things? The answer given here is a little baffling – it’s just because of their parents? Not the most satisfying answer. However, a novel interpretation of this passage comes from the renown 19th century rabbi known as the Chasam Sofer. He says that the good person who suffers, called the tzaddik v’ra lo- literally, “righteous and bad for him,” is not one to whom bad things happen. Rather, it is someone who doesn’t know how to receive painful experiences. After all, painful experiences will absolutely happen to all people, regardless of how good or bad they are ethically. The issue is not whether pain will come, it is how we deal with the pain when it does come. That’s why the passage says that the tzaddik v’ra lo is a righteous person with wicked parents. Thet have good intentions, but because they have wicked parents, they don’t learn how to receive pain and not get caught by it; they are still ruled by their impulses, in the same way a wicked person would be. Conversely, the rasha v’tov lo – the wicked person who prospers – doesn’t mean a wicked person to whom good things happen; good experiences are constantly happening to all people, regardless of how good or bad they are ethically (like, for example, our next breath.) Rather, this is someone who may be ethically wicked, but because they have good parents, they have learned the skill of receiving pain without resistance, as well as the skill of cultivating gratitude and appreciation for the all the blessings. The Chasam Sofer is interpreting the Gemara in light of this most fundamental quality of meditation: the simple receiving of this moment as it is – also known as “equanimity.” The main obstacle to equanimity is the impulse to resist and reject our present moment experience. This resistance, in turn, takes two main forms: rejecting or running away from what we don’t want, and longing for or running after what we do want. One common approach to cultivating equanimity is to purposely restrict your enjoyment of pleasure and voluntarily take on a certain amount of pain; this is the path of asceticism. From the ascetic point of view, pleasure is seen as suspect, even immoral, because it leads to weakness of character and dependence on external experience. This is the context within which the pleasure-negative point of view arises in Judaism and in many other traditions. The counterpoint to the ascetic point of view is the Hasidic approach, which came along to counteract the pleasure-negative ideology that became so prevalent in eighteenth century Eastern European Jewry. After all, it is not pleasure itself that is dangerous, but the clinging to and dependence on pleasure that is dangerous. Feeling good is a blessing of life – why should we go against our nature? Put another way, why should we reject the gifts that Hashem gives us? That’s why Hassidism celebrated eating, drinking, dancing, sexuality, and so on, as a means to realize the sacred; the key was the kavanah – the intention – that one brings to pleasure. One time, Rabbi Yisrael of Rizhyn walked into a room where some of his hasidim were drinking together and making merry, and he seemed to look at them with disapproval. “Are you displeased that we are drinking?” one of them asked. “But it is said that when hasidim sit together over their cups, it is just as if they were studying Torah!” “There are many words in the Torah that are holy in one passage, and unholy in another,” replied that rabbi of Rizhyn. “For example, it is written: וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה פְּסָל־לְךָ֛ שְׁנֵֽי־לֻחֹ֥ת אֲבָנִ֖ים – And the Divine said to Moses, ‘carve for yourself two tablets of stone…’ - Exodus 34:1 “And in another place, it says: לֹֽ֣א תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה־לְךָ֥֣ פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ – Do not make for yourself a carved image… Exodus 20:1 “Why is the same word, fesel (“carved”), holy in the first passage and not holy in the second? It is because in the first passage, “yourself” comes after “carved,” and in the second it comes first. And so it is in all that we do: when the self comes after, all is holy; when it comes first, all is not.” In other words, the sacred function of pleasure is to help us transcend ourselves; it is to use the pleasure as a means toward praise and gratitude, to connection with the Source of Blessing, rather than cling to the blessing for the sake of gratification alone. And even deeper, it is to awaken that Presence which is the deepest level of our being, beyond the “self” that craves this and that. After all, there is something essential that we can learn from enjoying pleasure: just as we enjoy pleasure for its own sake, savoring the moment without any future goal, so too we can learn to fully savor the moment as it is, even without any external gratification. We can do this because there is a deeper goodness, a deeper pleasure, that arises from Presence Itself; when we awaken this deeper pleasure, we can see through the ups and downs of transient experience and pierce through to the Oneness of Being, the Divine Ground that knows Itself through our own awareness, through the Living Presence that we are, beneath and beyond the “self” of thoughts, feelings, and changing experiences. 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!” In the parshah, Jacob is pushed into this realization of Oneness through crisis. He is terrified that his brother is coming to kill him and his family. He sends gifts to appease his brother, he prays for salvation, he divides his camp in the hope that some might survive if they are attacked. But then he spends the whole night wrestling with a mysterious being who attacks and injures him. By the time dawn breaks, Jacob is victorious, and the being gives him the name Yisrael, which means “wrestles with Gd.” Then, it says something interesting: וַיִּקְרָ֧א יַעֲקֹ֛ב שֵׁ֥ם הַמָּק֖וֹם פְּנִיאֵ֑ל כִּֽי־רָאִ֤יתִי אֱלֹהִים֙ פָּנִ֣ים אֶל־פָּנִ֔ים וַתִּנָּצֵ֖ל נַפְשִֽׁי׃ Jacob named the place Peniel, because “I have seen the Divine face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”- Gen. 32:31 It is true that it all turns out well for Jacob in the end; his brother forgives him and they hug and weep upon each other’s necks. But this verse comes before he sees his brother; he doesn’t know yet whether his prayers will be answered; he doesn’t know yet whether his brother will forgive him or kill him. And yet he says, וַתִּנָּצֵ֖ל נַפְשִֽׁי – which is usually translated as it is above: “my life has been preserved.” But the word for “my life” – nafshi – literally means “my soul,” not “my life.” In other words, his becoming Yisrael means that he has pierced beyond the “good” and “bad” of his personal experience, to his underlying “soul” – also called Consciousness – his essential being beyond the “self,” beyond ego. He becomes Yisrael because regardless of whether he lives or dies, regardless of whether his prayers are answered or not, he knows now that everything is the Face of the Divine – ra’iti Elohim panim el panim – “I have seen the Divine face to face.” And so this is our task: not to avoid pleasure, and also not to pursue pleasure as the goal, but rather to receive both pleasure and pain with full Presence. Because beneath our transient experience is a deeper pleasure, a pleasure with no opposite, a pleasure that is the nourishment we need now for our essential being. This deeper pleasure is represented by the letter mem, the symbol for water. Just as water takes the shape of any vessel into which it is poured, so too our consciousness can effortlessly take the shape of this moment in which we find ourselves. וְֽהָיָ֗ה כְּעֵץ֮ שָׁת֪וּל עַֽל־פַּלְגֵ֫י מָ֥יִם – And one shall be like a tree planted by streams water… - Psalm 1:3
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