Mei HaShiloach, Volume I, Genesis, Vayeshev/מי השלוח·חלק א·ספר בראשית·וישב

1“And Yaakov dwelled ….” (Bereshit, 37:1)“And Yaakov shall return, and be quiet and contented, and none shall disturb him” (Yirmiya, 30:10). “And it shall be afterwards I will pour out my spirit … your elders shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions” (Joel, 3:1). All the actions done in the world seem to be the actions of flesh and blood, but ideas and thoughts seem to come from God. But in these Parshiot God teaches us that it is the actions are in the hands of God and thoughts come from man, and all the actions that man does are only those that he is given leave to do, as it is written in the Gemara (Berachot, 33b), “all is in the hands of Heaven.” So the performance of a commandment or the opposite is in the hands of God, and only occasionally does He make the performance of a commandment dependent on man.We find in the Gemara (Sotah, 10a), “on the incident of Yehuda and Tamar, where he said, ‘she is more righteous than I,’ ‘than I,’ ‘mimeni,’ also means ‘from Me.’ Our Rabbis interpreted this to mean that a Divine voice came out of heaven to say that the whole incident came forth from Me.” It is said concerning the dreams of Yosef haTsaddik that they were inconsequential daydreams (that thoughts are really from the side of man), and truly his brothers gave him this response when he told them his dream. When Yaakov Avinu dreamed his dream en route to Lavan, he investigated it and taught all the depth within it to the tribes, and they studied it, each time receiving new Torah insights into its nature, for so many deep Torah insights are contained in this dream.So when Yosef haTsaddik said to them that he also dreamed dreams as precious as his father’s, they answered him, “will you surely rule over us?” For how could you resemble our father, for is not our father in a state of awe and cleaving to God all day long, and for this God shows him the depths of the Torah in his dreams, for he is cleaving God even in his sleep. But you are not on this level, so all your dreams are inconsequential fancies, and through your desire for greatness and status you dream these dreams, for you have no greatness from the qualities of the fear of God or humility.Yaakov Avinu, on the other hand, was constantly engaging in Divine service through these qualities—fear—meaning that he saw how God watches over everything, as it is written (Tehilim, 33:14), “from Your dwelling place you watch” and “he does not sleep” (Tehilim, 121:4). And humility—meaning he did not find himself superior to any part of creation, for “the superiority of a man over a beast is naught.” This, “naught” ayin in Hebrew, means that even though that truly from God’s point of view there is a difference between man and beast, from man’s point of view there is no (ain) distinction. This is “and Yaakov dwelled in the land of his father’s sojourning,” signifying fear (Zohar Bereshit 180a), and the continuation, “in the land of Canaan,” means humility. (The name Canaan is similar to the word for humility or submissiveness, c’niya.) And as the Midrash says, “he asked to live in peace.”This particular kind of peace occurs when a man conducts himself in a way as to remove himself and to guard himself from all doubt and all evil action. Concerning this, God told him that as long as man is connected to his body, it is not possible to reach the highest levels of self-guarding, fear, and humility. This is because God desires the actions of man, and in this world one must conduct himself with love, which means to act in ways that are not in the highest state of refinement. This is the formulation of the verse in Yirmiya, “and Yaakov returned [shav],” similar to “He restores [yeshovev] my soul,” in the delight of the Torah. “And be quiet,” meaning on the level of Shabbat, “and strangers shall stand and tend your sheep,” (Yesahya, 61:5). “And content,” meaning in thought, not to fear from wars and transient events. “And none shall disturb you,” meaning that even in your sleep you shall cleave to God, and not to fear, for nothing shall cause you to withdraw from God. This was the accusation of the tribes against Yosef haTsaddik. He too conducted himself in the attribute of fear. On this it says in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba, 84:8), “the light of his face was similar to Yaakov,” meaning that he delved deeply into these two attributes of fear and humility, in order that he could proceed in confidence. Thus it was said of him, “he was the son of his old age,” meaning that just as Yaakov Avinu conducted himself according to the attributes of Yitzchak Avinu, namely fear, so too did Yosef conduct himself with this attribute, and with humility, just like his father.For this reason God was also exacting with Yosef haTsaddik down to a hairsbreadth, for even though these attributes are good, one still needs to trust in God, for the actions done on the part of man are not an everlasting structure. Even though Yosef guarded himself greatly, and from him emerged all the kings of Israel who were called great, as it says in the Midrash (Bereshit Rabba, 84:14), “It was the custom of great men to wear sackcloth [to suffer], for Yehoram dressed in sackcloth,” yet still, it is said of them (Kings 1, 11:39), “yet not all the days.” This means that (even through all their suffering) an everlasting structure was not to be in their portion, but rather in the portion of Yehuda. Even though he (Yosef) acted so his righteousness would stand in the world throughout the 6,000 years (until the redemption), still, the everlasting structure was the portion of Yehuda. And Yosef haTsaddik continually voiced the complaint—why is it that God causes all the actions of my brother Yehuda to succeed, yet with me, the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting down to a hairsbreadth?So, in an answer to his query, God showed him the example of the wine steward and the baker. Every king has two attendants, one a wine steward and the other a baker. Truly, with the wine steward, if the king finds a fly in his cup it is not proper to punish him, for what could he do? The fly is an independent living creature, and if once the cup has been passed to the king the fly decides to land into the cup, then it is not possible to guard from it. Yet with the baker, if there is a pebble in the bread, isn’t it his fault, for the pebble is not a living being and he could have prevented it? In this God shows Yosef that he corresponds to the baker, for God established him in a bright and clean place over against Eisav, in order that Eisav would not have any room for accusation. This is why established Yosef against him, clean in all respects, as it is written (Ovadiah, 1:18), “and the house of Yosef is a flame [and the house of Eisav straw … and they shall devour them].” He gave him strength to be able to overcome all his desires. Then if some impure aspect comes to him from without, it is counted against him as a crime. Only out of God’s love for Yosef did He put another man in his place, and kill the baker, as it is written (Yesahya, 43:4), “and I will give men in your place.” From this he understood the matter.Yehuda corresponds to the wine steward, for King David is called “the King’s jester” (Zohar Shemot, 107a), and the songs of David are sung over the wine libation offerings. Truly, with Yehuda, concerning the incident with Tamar and all the happenings of the tribe of Yehuda similar to this, God instilled them with such a great power of desire that it was not even within their power to overcome it. As it is explained (Bereshit Rabba, 85:9), “the angel in charge of desire forced him.” Therefore it was not his fault that he could not overpower his inclination to evil. This is the meaning of “the King’s jester,” meaning that he lets God win over him, as King David said (Tehilim, 51:6), “in order that You should be shown right in Your word,” let whoever it pleases You to be right, You or I.

2This is as it is said (Yesahya, 11:13), “Efriam shall not be jealous of Yehuda, and Yehuda shall not distress Efriam.” These two tribes were always opposing each other, for the force of life which God gave to Efriam (from Yosef) was of the nature that it always looked to every action regarding its judgment and law, without moving from it. Therefore, when the writings warn Israel against sinning, then the aim of the Torah will be to say (Amos, 5:6), “lest the house of Yosef should prevail like fire,” that they should take care that there is no opposition to their actions. The root of life for Yehuda, however, is to look to God regarding the course of every action. Even though he sees where the judgment leans, still he looks to God in order to see the depth of the truth of the matter. It could be that even though the judgment is true according to the claims of the plaintiffs, yet still it is not at the deepest level of truth, for fear that one would make a false claim.This is as we find (Nedarim, 25a) in the case of Rava’s cane. (One had not paid another a debt, and the other asserted that he had paid it. They told him to swear on a Torah scroll, and before doing so, he said to his lender, “hold my cane,” inside of which he had hidden the amount owed. He then swore on the Torah that all the money he owed he had paid to his hand. Which, of course, only he could know was true. The lender was furious at the apparent false oath and broke the cane, the money spilling onto the floor.) So it is with all matters, and this is the root of life for Yehuda, to look to God in everything and not to act simply in a way that is accepted or habitual. Even though yesterday he acted in such a way, yet anyhow, today he does not want to rely on his former response, only that God should illuminate His will into him anew. This matter sometimes necessitates even doing something against the law, for, “it is a time to do for God, the Torah has been suspended” (Tehilim, 119:126). In this way these two tribes oppose each other. Of the future it is said that, “Efriam will not be jealous of Yehuda, and Yehuda will not distress Efriam.” Then Efriam will not accuse Yehuda for the times when he goes outside of the law. He will not trouble him over this, because God will show Efriam the intentions of Yehuda, that his intentions are for the sake of Heaven and not for his own benefit. Then, of itself, there will be peace between them.

3“And Yaakov returned to the land of his father’s sojourning, in the land of Canaan.” (Bereshit, 37:1)In this Parsha we find the first fine spiritual birrurs (birrurim) that occurred internally within Israel. Avraham Avinu was the root of the attribute of love, for he separated out all the kinds of love in the world that were not love solely given over to God’s will. Yitzchak Avinu was already refined in this attribute, for he was born from Avraham Avinu after he had refined himself with all such birrurs. So his attribute was only to refine fear, that is, to disencumber fear from any variety that is not the fear of God alone. With Yaakov Avinu, these two attributes were already well refined, and all of his dealings were in the attribute of tiferet—beauty (balance, splendor), termed the “middle bolt,” (See Shemot, 36:33) to arrange fear in its proper place and time, and so too with love. In the days of Avraham Avinu the depth of the preciousness of the Jewish people was not yet clearly recognized, and also in the days of Yitzchak, therefore they had to refine themselves from the attributes of the nations and to separate themselves from their power. This was not so with Yaakov Avinu, who had the twelve tribes of Yeshurun, who were all in their proper place, and not one deviated from God’s will. Here, all his efforts were to refine them among themselves, to clarify who would come first and who would come after. This too caused Yaakov Avinu suffering, for he asserted that Yosef was the chosen one. Yosef also thought this. These are the fine internal birurim that occurred within Israel, and will be explained further.

5“Let us go and sell him to the Ishmaelites ….” (Bereshit, 37:27)The tribes had first sentenced him to death, since he had spoken of their evils to their father. In their view this sin was in the very root of his life, God forbid, for creating a separation between them and their father was in their eyes akin to separating the Holy One, blessed be He, from the community of Israel, the Shekhina. At that time Yaakov was the “Tsaddik Yesod Olam,” the righteous one who is the foundation of the world, on whom the entire world rests, and he was the place where God revealed himself in this world, and they were at that time all of Israel. They were all included in the word “One” in Shema Yisroel, Echad (alef, 1; het, 8; dalet, 4). One was Yaakov; eight were the eight children of Leah and Rachel; and four were the four children of the handmaids. They understood that Yosef wanted to separate this unification. Only Yehuda in his wisdom said that the judgment was not arbitrated in this way. Maybe he is good and we are mistaken about him. In that case we should not do anything about him, and only let God make it clear concerning him, and if he is good in his root then certainly God will rescue him from all sin and he will not be lost in exile. So therefore God refined him, purifying his soul through the incident with the wife of Potiphar. For the brit of the foreskin corresponds to the brit of the tongue (Sefer Yetsira, 1:43), and when he emerged refined from this, then he was also refined and clean concerning the loshan horah (evil speech) of which his brothers had suspected him.