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Judaism Inward Or Outward? The Great Debate #2

Yosef: Tear Down that Wall; Yehudah: Keep Up that Wall

1 hr 53 min

Class Summary:

On his deathbed Jacob speaks to Joseph: “A charming son is Joseph, a son charming to the eye; the women strode along to see him. They made his life bitter and they quarreled with him; archers despised him.” Rashi explains: “The women of Egypt strode out on the wall to gaze upon his beauty. Of the women, each one strode to a place from which she could catch a glimpse of him.”

What is Jacob trying to bring out? Literally, that Joseph’s beauty was dazzling. Not only was he appealing to any eye that saw him, but even the Egyptian women were enthralled by his figure. They ascended the walls and fortresses of Egypt to be able to gaze at him. But why is this so relevant on the deathbed of Jacob?

There is a remarkable law in Talmud. While when the Temple existed in Jerusalem you can only eat the meat of the sacrifices within the Jerusalem walls, when the Tabernacle stood in Shilo, in Joseph’s territory, you can eat the meat of the offerings as far as the eye could behold the Tabernacle. This law captures the magic and revolution of Joseph which we must appreciate today.

For this we have to understand what was at the root of this conflict in the first family of Israel?  Could it be that a multicolored coat or a favorite son’s share of his father’s affections should generate such profound strife?

Something deeper was at stake. Joseph and Judah (representing the other brothers) embodied two divergent world-views. They possessed different approaches on the meaning of Judaism, which was just beginning to bud, and the place of the Jewish people in society. The conflict still persists in the Jewish world (though in a different form). At last, perhaps, we can create peace between the weltanschauung of Yehudah and Yosef.

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  • Anonymous -5 years ago

    a story

    Thank you once again for a beautiful class. Here's a story that's well connected to the class that I thought I'd share with you or at least remind you because I actually heard this story from your brother.

    It is about a Jew who came to the rebbe and told him that he wants to go to college because he wants to broaden his scope etc

    To which the Rebbe answered him that he first needs to study more in yeshiva.

    And the analogy that the rebbe gave him was that everything that he'll accomplish in life and all the knowledge that he will attain will all be like many circles one broader than the other; however if you try to draw a circle you need to make sure that in the circle the core circle is a perfect circle because of the circle is not a perfect circle than all the circles that you add on to it after will be dramatically imperfect.

    At the support for the maskana at the end of the class that you need both in order to succeed in the world, we have the the hayom yom which says that only through yehudah sholach lfonov - iz vayechi gelebt as the rebbe explains not just in mitzrayim in spite of it but rather the yisroin hooir habo min hachoishech...

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

Class Vayechi

Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • December 20, 2015
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  • 8 Tevet 5776
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  • 3416 views

Leilu Nishmat Reb Eliyahu Tzion ben Reb Chananya Niasoff ז"ל 
And in the merit of our partner in Torah Yigal Yisroel ben Sofia שיחיו 

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