“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Vayigash – Asarah b’Teves
10 Teves 5784/ December 22, 2023
LIFE’S CLIFFHANGERS
One of the great techniques of drama is to use a cliffhanger. When the
power of suspense is harnessed, it ensures that the reader/viewer will stay
tuned to find out what happens next. All good serials - books, magazines or
shows use a cliffhanger to ensure interest in the next segment.
While the holy Torah is not a history book, it does relate stories. Those
stories are meant to guide us and teach us about contemporary living.
There is no greater cliffhanger in the Torah than between the parshios of
Miketz and Vayigash. At the end of Parshas Miketz, the chalice of the Egyptian
vizier has been found in Binyamin’s sack. The vizier tells the brothers that
they are all free to go, save for the culprit himself. And then?
We wait a week before we read about the dramatic crescendo of the story
wherein Yehuda poignantly addresses the vizier, before Yosef reveals his true
identity to his brothers.
Every year when the ba’al korei completes Parshas Miketz by reading the
words Yosef says to the brothers, “And you, go up in peace to your father,” I
feel like an elementary school child who begs his teacher not to stop reading.
The parshios that detail the saga and journeys of Yosef, provide us with
incredible lessons of faith, resilience, reconciliation and patience. We want
life to be clear and easy but, more often than not, it’s anything but that.
In the words of my rebbe, Rabbi Berel Wein, “Life is like a piece of
chewing gum. There’s a little bit of flavor but most of the time it’s just
chew, chew, chew.”
It’s surely not by chance that Parshas Miketz concludes at such a
dramatic moment. Much of life is spent in cliffhanger moments: A young man or
woman waiting for his/her shidduch, one who is ill and hoping to regain his
health, a person looking for a job or waiting for his big break to become
successful, a young couple hoping and waiting to have a child, parents
struggling with the chinuch of their children, spouses and children who live in
broken homes, etc.
At present, the entire Jewish people are collectively in a cliffhanger
state. While we mourn the past and current losses, we are also anxious and
unsure about the future. Thousands of families are displaced, living for months
in hotels far from their homes. Families and friends of soldiers and captives
live in a state of constant anxiety.
At times the tension can feel unbearable. Being able to plunge ahead is a
mark of true greatness.
Part of the challenge is that such greatness is not recognized by others.
Others don’t see it but for those whose lives are at a cliffhanger juncture it
can be heroic for them just to get through their day. That’s why it is vital
that those in such situations recognize how valuable their own efforts are.
In the Torah, from when
they arrive in Egypt to procure food, Yosef’s brothers lives are like a
cliffhanger. They do not understand what is happening to them and do not know
how things will proceed.
Yosef is given the title of hatzaddik, because he maintained his
integrity despite all the travails he endured. If there was ever someone living
a ‘cliffhanger life’, it was Yosef.
The test of greatness is how one handles such moments, even more than how
he conducts himself when life is smooth sailing.
Easy &
Meaningful Fast
Shabbat Shalom
& Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani
and Chani Staum
