Podcasts about breishit

What is the meaning of the blessing of Ephraim and Menashe? What can the last segment and conclusion of the stories of Breishit teach us about the Jewish nation and ourselves? All this and more on this week's Ponderings on the Parsha!

What is the meaning of the famous dream of the latter? What are the recurring themes in Breishit? All this and more in this week's Ponderings on the Parsha! 

How is the double portion calculated - two times a portion that all the other brothers get or two-thirds of the whole property? The answer is derived from several verses and the Gemara explains why all are necessary. Many of the proofs are from Yosef's double portion.  Why did Yaakov take the double portion from Reuven and give it to Yosef? First, it should have been given to Rachel's son, (as is derived from Breishit 37:2), but Leah was worthy that her son be the firstborn because she pleaded for mercy. However, on account of Rachel's tzniut, it was returned to her son. To explain the mercy of Leah and the tzniut of Rachel, the Gemara elaborates in great detail on the story of how Yaakov wanted to marry Rachel but ended up first marrying Leah.  A braita describes various things of which the firstborn receives a double portion and the Gemara explains each case.

How is the double portion calculated - two times a portion that all the other brothers get or two-thirds of the whole property? The answer is derived from several verses and the Gemara explains why all are necessary. Many of the proofs are from Yosef's double portion.  Why did Yaakov take the double portion from Reuven and give it to Yosef? First, it should have been given to Rachel's son, (as is derived from Breishit 37:2), but Leah was worthy that her son be the firstborn because she pleaded for mercy. However, on account of Rachel's tzniut, it was returned to her son. To explain the mercy of Leah and the tzniut of Rachel, the Gemara elaborates in great detail on the story of how Yaakov wanted to marry Rachel but ended up first marrying Leah.  A braita describes various things of which the firstborn receives a double portion and the Gemara explains each case.

Rabbi Matt Shapiro explores this week's Torah reading through the lens of Parenting. Special Guest: Rabbi Matt Shapiro.

What is the meaning of the word Breishit? Why are there two seemingly contradictory stories of the creation of man? What is the meaning of Shabbat? All this and more in this week's Ponderings on the Parsha. 

This week's conversation with Rachel Sharansky Danziger opens our Breishit Series titled, 'These are our Heroes,' which explores a central figure from each parsha, asking our guests what is meaningful, inspiring, powerful, challenging, and thought-provoking about their behaviors. This week, Rachel explores mankind's highs and lows in the parsha. This week's episode has been sponsored by Dora Richter in memory of her mother, Chaya Rachel bat Shmuel Dov Hakohen, whose 50th yahrzeit is on the 3rd of Tishei.

In this conversation with Dr. Yael Ziegler we discuss the Torah of R. Mordechai Sabato on this week's parsha and the special role the land of Israel and Gan Eden play at the Torah's beginning and end. Chazak, chazak, v'nitchazek! This week's podcast is sponsored by Sara Averick and Jose Rosenfeld in memory of Sara's Aunt Rose. Stay tuned for the upcoming Breishit series titled, "These Are Our Heroes" where we explore what moves, inspires, and challenges our guests about the wide array of epic figures in the book of Breishit.

This week's learning is sponsored by Debbie Pershan in loving memory of her mother Shirley Kaufman on her yahrzeit. Today’s daf is sponsored by Hadran Women of LI in honor of the aliyah of our amazing and talented leader and co-learner Gita Neufeld and the birth of a granddaughter - we wish you lots of  mazal on this newest addition and know that you will lead her in the ways of daf yomi as she grows up. We also wish you hatzlacha on making this amazing, long-awaited, move to Eretz Yisrael - as long as you know that this does not let you off the hook for planning and organizing our Long Island siyums! The narrative of the Job story is explained in detail including the Satan's convincing of God to test Job and Job's reaction to the situation. Some explain that he was firm in his belief and others claim he had serious complaints against God. Is having a daughter seen as a blessing or not? Can this be learned from the last chapter of Iyov? There are different opinions regarding this issue. One source is brought to show that the debate is tannitic as the verse that Avraham was blessed "bakol" (Breishit 24:1) is interpreted in seven different ways, three relating to the issue of having daughters.

This week's learning is sponsored by Debbie Pershan in loving memory of her mother Shirley Kaufman on her yahrzeit. Today’s daf is sponsored by Hadran Women of LI in honor of the aliyah of our amazing and talented leader and co-learner Gita Neufeld and the birth of a granddaughter - we wish you lots of  mazal on this newest addition and know that you will lead her in the ways of daf yomi as she grows up. We also wish you hatzlacha on making this amazing, long-awaited, move to Eretz Yisrael - as long as you know that this does not let you off the hook for planning and organizing our Long Island siyums! The narrative of the Job story is explained in detail including the Satan's convincing of God to test Job and Job's reaction to the situation. Some explain that he was firm in his belief and others claim he had serious complaints against God. Is having a daughter seen as a blessing or not? Can this be learned from the last chapter of Iyov? There are different opinions regarding this issue. One source is brought to show that the debate is tannitic as the verse that Avraham was blessed "bakol" (Breishit 24:1) is interpreted in seven different ways, three relating to the issue of having daughters.

What is the meaning of the blessing of Ephraim and Menashe? What can the last segment and conclusion of stories of Breishit teach us about the Jewish nation and ourselves? All this and more on this week's Ponderings on the Parsha!

What is the meaning of the famous dream of the latter? What are the recurring themes in Breishit? All this and more in this week's Ponderings on the Parsha! 

And Hashem said to Avram, “Go (to) (for) yourself, from your land, from your birth place, from your father's house, to the land that I will show you. (Breishit 12:1) Go,yourself,' A hint to him, 'When you will be 100 years old (30+20+30+20), then I will make you a great nation.' For then Isaac will be born. Baal HaTurim G'd did not tell Abraham if he was meant to set out on his journey immediately or if he should wait till He would specify the exact location He wanted Abraham to move to. This ambiguity was part of the test to which G'd subjected Abraham. G'd also hintedthat He would show Abraham the whole of the land of Israel by broadening his field of vision, etc, as we know from 13,14: 'lift your eyes from where you are and look northward, southward,eastward, and westward. Or_HaChaim

Parashat Breishit, by Agnes.

What is the meaning of the word Breishit? Why are there two seemingly contradictory stories of the creation of man? What is the meaning of Shabbat? All this and more in this week's Ponderings on the Parsha. 

In this special episode for Sukkot we speak with David Curwin, who recently published Kohelet: A Map to Eden, about some of the ideas he explores in his new book. Dr. Yosefa (Fogel) Wruble returns in one week as our weekly podcast host where she and her guests will explore the theme of Chosenness and Choices in the book of Breishit.

What is the meaning of the blessing of Ephraim and Menashe? What can the last segment and conclusion of stories of Breishit teach us about the Jewish nation and ourselves? All this and more on this week's Ponderings on the Parsha!

What is the meaning of the famous dream of the latter? What are the recurring themes in Breishit? All this and more in this week's Ponderings on the Parsha!

In this conversation with Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner, author of Wrestling Jacob: Deception, Identity, and Freudian Slips in Genesis, we unpack some of the underlying complexities inherent in Yaakov's relationship with his parents and the behavior patterns that develop after he steals Esav's blessing. This week's episode is dedicated in honour of Rabbi Zev Lewis by his family on occasion of his 87th birthday. Mazal tov! Our episodes on the book of Breishit focus on family and interpersonal dynamics. These conversations are candid, insightful, and respectful. We aim not to psychoanalyze the biblical figures, but to learn from them as we stumble through our own beautifully messy lives.

In this episode with returning guest Shayna Goldberg (Episode 12), we discuss the different relationship dynamics displayed by the patriarchs and matriarchs in the book of Bereishit and their relevance to modern dynamics of emotional intimacy. Our episodes on the book of Breishit focus on family and interpersonal dynamics. These conversations are candid, insightful, and respectful. We aim not to psychoanalyze the biblical figures, but to learn from them as we stumble through our own beautifully messy lives.

In this deep and thought-provoking conversation with Matan lecturer Dr. Tanya White, we speak about the ethical, religious, and familial ramifications of Avraham's near sacrifice of his son. For more from Dr. Tanya White on this idea, see her TOI blog post: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-akedah-the-sacrifice-of-conscience/ Our episodes on the book of Breishit focus on family and interpersonal dynamics. These conversations are candid, insightful, and respectful. We aim not to psychoanalyze the biblical figures, but to learn from them as we stumble through our own beautifully messy lives.

Marriage Is Not A Union, It's A Reunion How were Adam and Eve really created, and why? The unspoken truth about human beings. (Parshat Breishit)

The three portion of Breishit, Noach and Lech lecha

What is the meaning of the word Breishit? Why are there two seemingly contradictory stories of the creation of man? What is the meaning of Shabbat? All this and more in this week's Ponderings on the Parsha.

Rav Milston - Shiur Klali: Breishit 5783

On the 2nd yartzeit of Rabbi & Rebbetzin Mandelbaum we are honored to continue their legacy with Rav Ari Cutler taking over and teaching weekly insights into the Parsha.

Rav Rick Schindelheim shares insights into the relationship between Torah and science.

Parashat Nasso is named for the opening command to count the members of the family of Gershon, Levi's oldest son. The commentators ask why Gershon is counted second, when he is the first born. In this week's episode we study their responses, and explore how this process serves as a corrective for the sibling rivalry that abounds in Breishit.

Series: Be'erot, Love & Relationship with God.     Episode Transcript: So, I'm drawn to continue developing certain access in our relationship with HKB"H which is the access way which is Yosef.  And, just to recontextualize ourselves, again and again and again, and I take no responsibility for what happens every time I recontextualize, because every time it comes out to be somewhat different context.  But the primary context which we've been exploring is, I would say, sort of an overall picture of life with G-d as "in-breath, out-breath."  That kind of became clear as we learned towards the end of our year, that, really, in a sense, if there's an overarching framework for our ongoing interaction with the divine, its most intimate expression and presence is in our breath.  And I was blessed to find that the Admor HaZaken actually says this.  As with most things that I find, I found it quite by chance; I was actually looking for something else and got an incorrect reference to a place where he discusses this, at the end of Parshas Miketz.  And he says something like that. Ok.  That's for my purposes.  You people, I don't know if it matters to you.  To me it matters.  In any case, so the – to Nachama Sheina it matters!  In any case, it's there.  And the most important thing for us, I would say, in that context, was this realization that G-d has a two-fold plan for us, so to speak, and that is that we learn how to let go and to be in Him and return to Him and his Oneness, and how we then are called upon to take for ourselves and breathe in and be real and alive, here, with all that that implies.  And an expression of this, which I'm not sure that we explored together, is something that we do every day in saying Shema Yisrael.  And that is Shema Yisrael, HaShem Elokeinu HaShem echad, is the sort of, letting go into the Oneness of G-d, that there is no other than Him, to the point in which I disappear into that.  And then, we're called back by a calling of love, in V'ahavta et HaShem Elokeicha, etc, b'chol levavcha, u'bchol nafshecha, u'bchol meodeicha.  That is very real and present in terms of I sense myself, I'm alive, I'm loving.  And, in being a lover, so one is probably going to experience the most intense presence of one's own self.  If you think about it, there's really no emotive experience as intensely personal and enlivening, exciting, "it's me, here" than love.  That excitement is actually described in that pasuk, in b'chol levavcha, b'chol nafshecha, u'bchol meodeicha.  Each one of those is very, very personal.  Your heart, Your soul, your might.  So we explored that pasuk but I think we haven't really brought out this element of it being very, very personal.  V'ahavta et HaShem Elokeicha.  He's your G-d.  As opposed to in the Shema Yisrael, Shema Yisrael, HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem Echad.  You have to access His Oneness by joining with others.  He's our G-d.  In the V'ahavta, so it doesn't become v'ahavtem et HaShem Elokeichem.  It should have, grammatically, continued the same format of, we're talking to the klal.  But no.  When you talk about love, so, then, it's very personal.  In vahaya im shemoa so then it becomes klal, but that's for reasons that have to do with something that we're not exploring right now. So, in fact, there's a calling here to – so to speak – come down, come back, after the Shema Yisrael, HaShem Elokeinu, HaShem echad. And the b'chol nafshecha, requires of you – in a sense – and b'chol levavcha and b'chol meodecha requires of you a very intense realization of personhood.  It's something like – I was just thinking about this – it's something like, the way the rabbis say it, you should be willing to give up your yetzer hara .  To G-d.  You should be willing to give up your life to G-d.  You should be willing to give up all of your meod to G-d.  And we explored this a lot, around David HaMelech, the meod especially, and Yaakov Avinu, if you remember.  But b'chol nafshecha, which is Yitzhak, is, in a sense, a calling that you be very alive.  In other words, if you're being told to give your life to G-d, and even if it's to the point of someone taking your life, so, if it's not for real, intense, meaningful, developed, so then, how much meaning does it have to give up your life to G-d if your life is really just a shambles that you don't relate to with any seriousness.  Really.  I say this with that kind of harshness 'cause I actually got this from my wife when we were going out; I remember, in a marvelous moment, I told her, like, I want to give myself over to her.  She looked at me and she said "who do you think you are?"  Like, "so what?"  No, it was something which I think was right in place, in other words, there's a certain gaiva , there's a certain ga'ava that comes with "I'm giving myself over," like "who are you? What have you made yourself into?  What have you become?  What is this 'give yourself over,' have you really built something of a self such that to give it over in love would be a meaningful act?"  Anyhow,  I can be amused by it now.  But the sense of that in the pasuk is very strong, to me, v'ahavta et HaShem Elokeicha  … b'chol nafshecha, it really means that, make something of yourself.  And in that, then, giving it over to HKB"H and being drawn towards Him, yesh b'ze.  Of course, everyone is something; I don't mean to belittle anyone.  And everyone has their own context for defining what it means to be a realized human being; everyone has a totally different context.  It's not like, if you're not a yuppy lawyer on Wall Street, though I don't know if that's even a very honorable place to be, right now, but, whatever, that's not what I'm talking about "being something."  It can be in any, any context.  But the point is that I've worked, I've realized something.  So this is just another illustration, I guess, of this "in-breath, out-breath" of letting go and coming back, which is the primary framework of so much of what we've spoken.  And it actually is the beginning of a pasuk which we explored greatly as our map, and that that is the pasuk which says Kol Dodi dofek.  Pitchi li achoti, ra'ayati, yonati, tamati.  Now, we spent a lot of time on the end of the pasuk, on achoti, ra'ayati, yonati, tamati.  But I neglected to inform us that the beginning of the pasuk is everything that I just spoke about.  Because the literal meaning of kol dodi dofek is that "I hear the sound of my lover pounding."  Or beating.  And, knocking on the door.  So, the word that's chosen is a word which actually is the word for the heartbeat.  So, I feel my lover pounding, I feel my lover beating.  That's like a whole other level of intimacy with this bringing-in, letting-go, bringing-in, letting-go, which is all the time going on in our hearts.  And, so then when that creates the actual framework for then the achoti, ra'ayati, yonati, tamati that we spent so much time in exploring.  I just wanted to give that over, and that was really our context, and we [saw with?] through Avraham many, many different aspects of Avraham as achoti, and many, many aspects of Yitzhak as , many aspects of Yitzhak as ra'ayati, and many aspects of Yaakov as tamati, primarily as the tam.  And then we saw him as the ta'om in mirroring reality, and that is the ta'om in experiencing the beauty of reality, and that's pretty much where we were last time.  And the beauty and the relationship with beauty cacha lo b'olamo.  I simply just reflected and mirrored it.  And, yonati, which is the, is a connector, which is the connection of Yosef.  And, today, is yesod, yesod sh'b'hod; it's one of the days of Yosef, as they appear, the the sfirat Ha'omer.  So today and next week too, we'll touch upon him and what he brings as the yona.  We're on board? I just want to point something else out just briefly: tamati is actually, plays a dual role.  Because it's, it is a ta'om, it is a twin.  So tamati comes after ra'ayati, and then there's yonati, and then, in a sense, there's another tamati, which isn't in the pasuk, but the malchut is the yona coming in to the tama.  I don't know how much these structures matter to you people, but if they do, just so you understand that the malchut is also a ta'am.  Tiferet and malchut, would you like me to explain that a little, or is that…  You don't need that, right?  That's for me, just to have it all worked out. ”If you want." I see. OK. I'll put it in as a footnote. I don't need to say it.  But it works very beautifully, for those who like these kinds of structures.  Meital, do you want to ask a question? "... בהתחלה של המשפט, של קול דודי דופק ... שבעצם היא ה[?] לו, לא? כאילו, זה שהדלת פתוחה וצריך להגיד לה "תפתחי," זה ה[13:34:5 ?] שומע. נשאיר את זה, בטמיעה. כן. So, we'll sing a little first, and then we'll connect to something in Yosef HaTzadik as the yonah.  And we'll be looking at some psukim also from Breishit. [14:16 -  18:52, nigun] The first time that the word Yosef, or mosif, yosaf appears in the Torah, is by Yosef. He's the first appearance of there being something which is an addition.  That is experienced as an addition, and is actually waiting for the next level to happen.  Yosef is a son who's born to a woman who's been awaiting her child in great anticipation and anxiety.  And, when he's finally born, so the only thing that she can say is yosif li ben acher. That G-d should grant that I should have another child.  And so, Yosef is actually born into a reality in which he is – so to speak – nothing of his own.  He's only there as one who is – in a sense – a passageway for something else to appear.  As names are, so his name actually then really defines for him what it is that his life is now going to be composed of, and that is that he's going to be a pathway and a passageway for the next son.  For the next son: yosif li ben acher.  And, indeed, we find this characteristic of Yosef that he's always stepping out and going beyond; he's always the one who is in movement to a place that is beyond himself.  And his very mode of revelation or recognition  to his brothers, for instance, when he literally exposes himself to them, so, the way in which he identifies himself to them is by showing them that he has a brit mila, that they were having difficulty in the meeting with him, and for all kinds of reasons, obviously including their embarrassment over what they had done, and so, that's how he indicates to them – we can just leave the physicality of it aside – but he's like, actually, indicating to them that he's not someone who is stuck inside of a box; basically, an orla is an enclosure, an orla is a [block?], an orla is a box.  "I'm not.  And I reach out to you. " And in that reaching out, so he then, is able to meet them.  So, I'm just kinda looking, I'm interested in looking at the encasing of Yosef's prime moments, so in his life, he's the one who's passing on to, and the passageway towards.  And the one, therefore, who is always focused on to make contact.  If you look at the way Rachel actually names him, so she says two things: she says, not only about him that yosif li ben acher,  but she says another thing too, and that is asaf Elohim et cherpati.  That G-d has gathered in my shame.  In giving me this child.  Asaf HaShem et cherpati.  As Rashi explains, "I was a despised and disparaged woman who was barren.  And people were saying about me that I would be lost to a Eisav if I couldn't bring a child to Yaakov."  So, then when she calls him his name, so the word ”Yosef" includes both this aspect of asaf – that my cherpa has been gathered in – and also this aspect of Yosef, that there's another child who's going to be added to me.  Yosif HaShem li ben acher.   This is a very, very deep thing about Yosef, and it teaches us – if we begin with his name – it teaches us that he actually lives on two different elements that are reflected through him.  One is the prevention of shame, the end of shame.  Or, the act takes away the shame and disparagement of another.  His being born relieved his mother of her lowliness, of her embarrassment.  And the other is that he's a pathway for others to appear.  And these are mamash, as we're going to see, the two aspects of the way of yesod.  Because, what Yosef does, through his entire life, is he defines situations in which people's disparagement and dimunition [should say: diminution!], their cherpa is relieved.  And they are given a place of significance and honor.  And we'll see how that works with him.  And, on the other hand, he does it – so to speak – completely selflessly.  In which he's simply a passageway for other things to appear.  And for the other to appear in his fullness. It's not, perhaps, the way we're used to recognizing him, and so I want to give illustrations from stories about him, and the way he lives with his brothers and deals with the tremendous challenges which he deals with.  But before we get there I just want to point out a few other things about how he functions in people's lives.  I would say one of the big functions that Yosef has, is he shakes things up.  He doesn't leave things as they are!  And they way where that happens, most significantly, I would say, in the story in the Chumash, is when Yosef actually undoes Yaakov's plan leshev b'shalvah.  For instance, right, in the beginning of Parshas Vayeshev after Yaakov's gone through all the stuff he's gone through, so, the rabbis say, vyeshev Yaakov b'eretz megurei aviv; he's come back home, everything should really be for good now, and for comfort, and he can finally be complacent with what he has, so that the rabbis really pick up the tenor of the verse vyeshev Yaakov b'eretz megurei aviv in the place his Dad had lived too.  Yeah, it's like, "come back home," come back into the bosom of his parents.  You know, he's done with all that being out there stuff.   And then, ele toldot Yaakov, Yosef.  And then, here come the generations of Yaakov.  Who are the generations of Yaakov?  Or, who are the unfoldings and the birthings of Yaakov?  Yosef. Yeah, what about the other 11 sons and daughter that he has?  No, the toldot of Yaakov are Yosef.  And, in fact, the rabbis have all kinds of issues around how to interpret that verse.  But, we can suffice it to say that the birthing of Yaakov – whatever you mean by that – the unfolding of Yaakov are through Yosef.  But the point is, the unfolding of Yaakov come through Yosef.  And what Yosef does, in his rather, what would you call it, brazen and adolescent way, is, he shakes everything up.  That's really what he does.  He's the roeh et chatzav b'tzoen, he's out there with his brothers, v'hu na'ar; he's a youth.  You know you're in trouble; you've got an adolescent in the house.  They're going to shake things up; that's just what they do.  The very word itself, naar, actually, means to "shake off," hitna'ari, lhitna'er is to shake off.  They don't stay put.  That's the primary drive.  And his impact for Yaakov is to shake things up.  And then from there, Rashi says, Kafatz alav rogzo shel Yosef.  You thought that you were now going to be sitting complacent?  Let me show you what life is really about.  I'm going to basically "sic" Yosef on you.   Kafatz alav rogzo shel Yosef,  Yosef and all of the "shake up" that Yosef is, is now going to shake everything up for you.  So Yaakov doesn't get a minute of peace.  Because of Yosef.  He's like the essence and element of adolescence.  That really is a transition point that is not for itself.  The adolescents know that; they tell you that too!  Like, they're always saying "it's a very close experience for me right now."  They're always saying to you "don't worry; I'll do teshuva later. Don't worry; I'll make it up later. Let me have fun now!"  But that "nowness" is excused by their living always in a consciousness that this is just a passage point.  "I'm just passing through, in my being now a ben 17 shana.  In my being 17 years old.  That's all I am; it's just a passageway."  So,  that becomes the whole starting point of the story of Yaakov's final chapter in his life, which is the beginning of the real making of the Jewish people.  So, that's just another illustration of his being the one who shakes things up.  But, another thing that is about Yosef is in his being a pathway and a channel for things; so Yosef is also quite powerfully the one is the dreamer.  And, here, is a sense of dreaming which belongs exactly there, because, a person who dreams a real dream, on a certain level has an experience of his life as being  one in which things are being channeled through him.  [31:48.7 ?] dream comes.  You know, there's a lot of psychological overlay that we have, and that Chazal also have, about how dreams can be manipulated, and dreams can actually just be an expression of what you think of yourself, etc.  And, in a profound sense, that has to do with the dynamic relationship between what we choose and who we are and what we are sent here to do and what is being channeled through us.  And that complex interaction – we'll have to save it for another time – but, right now I just want to appreciate how a person whose whole reality is yosif li ben acher is all and there's something else coming, is going to be a great dreamer:  there's something else coming!  Right?  I'm not staying where things are, and my experience of it also is something which is really sort of flowing through me. It's not like – in telling his brothers – it's not like he's standing up to them and taunting them with it: it's just the way it is.  It's not something that I'm choosing; it's not something that I'm making.  It's just the way it is.  And it's being passed through me.  So that also makes him not only available to his own dreams, but, actually, therefore makes him available to other people's dreams.  Because a person who is a dreamer is also one who is able to connect to the place of dreaming in a selfless way.  The more caught up you are in your own opinions, predispositions, prejudgments, etc., so the less you're going to be able to interpret someone else's dream.  You can't hear their dream if you're concerned with yourself.  But when you become a channel, so then you can hear their dream and hear what its real message is.  And so he's able to be a poter chalomot.  By the way, the vocalization in Hebrew, which is called a cholam, is actually written – it seems to me – like a dreamer.  A cholam is written like a vav with a dot on top of it.  That's a cholam.  It's like, an opening to something which is a super-consciousness, or an opening which is something which is that ball is going to now come down and [34:31.6 noise blocks word] the vav.  Yosef, as yesod is a shuruk, according to the kabala. Which is also a vav with a dot alongside it.  And in that you really get a very strong sense about the difference between Yosef and Yaakov. Shuruk.  Yosef, and Yaakov are the cholom and the shuruk.  Yaakov is the first dreamer in the Torah.  But Yosef is the first one who relates his dreams.  In other words, his dreaming, he views or experiences as something which needs to be given out. Yaakov doesn't relate his dream to anyone.  He just sees the malachim olim v'yordim and HaShem nitzav alav, but Yosef shares his dreams.  And in sharing his dreams he becomes the revelation of what the real yesod is, as the one who can dream from above and have it pass through him and then passed on to another.  Not only does it get passed on to another, but it becomes realized in the external reality.  He's also the only one who we have among the Avot whose dream becomes manifest.  These are very powerful things.  It's not happenstance that all these should be involved with him.  And he therefore also is one who is always relating to reality as something which is being dreamed into another realization – another level of realization.  There's another aspect of Yosef and [the?] yesod, which is that he is the man of peace.  Which also sounds really, uh, not characteristic of him in the sense that he seems to stir up so much trouble.  But, in fact, his father sends him to his brothers on a very profound mission, one which apparently he was not able to accomplish in his life.  And that is, after all this trouble-making, and all of this problematic, he tells Yosef Lech na u're'eh et shlom acheicha. Go now and see the peace of your brothers.  And anyone who looks at the Chumash for the word shalom will discover that its first appearance is here.  Now that's an important word!  And in the kabala yesod is shalom.  Apparently only Yosef is going to be the only one who is able to bring about the shalom achav.  And at great sacrifice to himself.  'Cause it's obvious to anyone reading the story, Yosef is quite well aware of what his brothers think of him; certainly his father is also quite well aware of what the brothers think of him.  And so to send him to where the brothers are – I mean now, really, lech na u're'eh et shlom acheicha – just find out how they're doing?  I mean, you're going to send your beloved son of Rachel out there to find out how they're doing?  There are no servants around?  There's no one else to take care of this?  And, he's sent, and his whole task becomes from then on the fulfillment of his father's request of lech na u're'eh et shlom acheicha . The coalescing point of that is again, when he exposes himself to his brothers, if you listen carefully to what he basically tells them has come about by virtue of all that's taken place, so Yosef tells them after he's taken them through all that he's taken them through, so he gets everyone out of the room, and then he starts to cry.  And Yosef tells his brothers, it says, "I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?"  So, his brothers, they couldn't answer him; they were too afraid – nivhalu mipanav.  So then Yosef says to his brothers, Gishu na elai.  "Come close to me."  And then he says Ani Yosef achichem.  "I am Yosef your brother."  Sh'machartem oti Mitzrayma.  Then they were able to speak to him.  So basically what Yosef had done is he's shifted the declaration of Ani Yosef, which throws them away, "Is my father still alive?" which excludes them, to "I am Yosef your brother."  In a sense that this is what all of this has been about, is making Yosef your brother.  So this element of Yosef, as the seeker of peace, becomes, it's first success, so to speak, is when he exposes himself to them and reveals to them that he has really been here as Yosef their brother.  Not as Yosef, his father's only son.  But he, he, in a sense, needed to have taught them that, in order to accomplish what it was that his father sent him out to do, which was exactly that.  Which was lech na u're'eh et shlom acheicha.  "Go and find the peace of your brothers."  And going to find the peace of your brothers has been really what the entire story was about, that is, this other power of yesod.  Which clearly has to do with connecting with what is beyond and finding it as being part of the greater whole.  And that is really what shalom does, right?  When we're in a situation in which there are things which seem to be, so to speak, excluded from the circle, excluded from the possibility of inclusion, so making peace with them, so to speak, is bringing them inside.  Bringing them into the circle.  Bringing them into brotherhood.  And, it's very profoundly related to this kind of an experiencing life as there being something  else which is waiting, which is beyond, which I am aspiring towards, looking forward to, longing for.  Which is Yosef's power.  So these are – I'm just kinda giving us, because it's a little bit  new, I want to give us some of the – before you can paint a picture you need to begin to draw the lines.  So these are some of the elements of who Yosef is, as asaf li et cherpati; he's the one who protects from shame. Yosif li ben acher ; he's the one who's a channel-way for new things to come.  And, he's the man of peace – of shalom – which is going to be creating the interconnection between this "I relieve you of your shame" and "I come as a channel for something new."  And it has to do with relating to that which is outside oneself in a way, in a path, of honor, and of desire, for that connection.  So, what I'd like to do is seek illustrations for us of this in [?] stories, like we saw, in Avraham, in Yitzhak and in Yaakov.  One thing which is another starting point, which is, sort of the easiest way to begin, especially if we're going to be talking about yesod, which means "foundation," is how Yaakov responds to Yosef when he's born.  It's quite fascinating.  Because the rabbis say that as soon as Yosef was born, so, how does Yaakov respond?  We already heard how Rachel responds.  She's the one who calls him by his name.  So all that we heard now was Rachel's experience of Yosef, of who he is.  But Yaakov, kasher yalda Rachel et Yosef, when Rachel gave birth to Yosef, v'yomer Yaakov el Avraham 'shalcheni v'elcha el mekomi u'le'artzi.'  I'm getting' outta here.  Send me away.  So you see how perfect this is;  Yosef has now been born, so Yaakov's immediate response to Yosef is "I'm going out; I'm not staying where I am.  I'm coming now to connect to new possibilities and new realities, which weren't there before."  So this aspect of Yosef becomes reflected there, and Rashi says on that, he says, "well, what actually became possible for Yaakov now, was to go back to Eretz Yisrael, because now he can meet Eisav."  And his meeting of Eisav is mishenolad sitno shel Eisav – now the one who is actually who stands in opposition to Eisav – I'm now able to go back.  As it says, and it's a very important verse about Yosef, and it says in Ovadia the prophet,  v'haya  beit Yaakov esh, that Beit Yaakov is a fire, and Beit Yosef is a lahava: Beit Yosef is a flame.  U'beit Eisav l'kash.  And the house of Eisav is straw.  Esh b'lo lahava ein lo sholet lo merachok. A fire without a flame, doesn't reach out.  Now that there's Yosef, so now the fire will reach out, as a flame.  Now, whatever we do with  the particular relationship that Yaakov is concerned with right now, which is with his brother Eisav, which would take us into great complexity in terms of the relationship between Yosef and Eisav, which perhaps we'll touch upon in the not-too-distant future, but the point is there's an image now.  You see, now, I'm looking for a picture.  That we can have and we can walk with, with Yosef. Yosef's primary depiction in Yaakov's mind is of a flame.  Yosef is the flame.  Now this is particularly exciting for me on the day which is yesod sh'bhod.  Because hod is all about the fire.  We just saw that on Lag B'Omer, I hope.  Which is hod sheb'od, or – everyone lighting fires.  We talked about this once, way back when.  We were talking about Aharon HaKohen, and the power of hod which is a power of fire.  Remember that?  We did. Ok.  In any case, we'll get back to it.  No, I like it when people don't remember what I said – then I get to say it again! But, we'll put it aside right now, and just point out that with hod being the fire, so Yosef is the flame.  I'm just orienting us in terms of the particular time we're sitting in right now, which is the flame of the fire.  That's yesod sh'b'hod.  In any case, you see that Yaakov's experience of Yosef right away is that, if I have been the fire, so now you can be the flame.  Right?  Which, again, is this image of him reaching out and touching that which is beyond him.  There's another aspect of that also.  That is, like a fire is, never satisfied with what is, so is Yosef; in other words, Yosef is going out and he's burning everything up.  He's a fire-maker.  He'll light other people's fires, and that's what he does.  On all levels.  He's like the song "Come on baby, Light my Fire?"  Right?  Is mamash a Yosef song, it's a – you know, I expect you to light my fire!  That's what it is.  But this aspect of lighting other people's fires, which is the aspect of Yosef, is also, on another level, his ongoing and constant renewal . I fire doesn't stay still for a number of reasons, but one of them is that a flame is not a constant.  By its very definition – and this is what makes it so hard to hold on --what is fire anyway?  Well, fire is simply the releasing of the energy which is contained.  It's the opening up of potentialities which are contained within this and opening it up.  And then the flame is reaching that [50:49 ?] and doing it to someone else.  It's this— perhaps I should clarify the image, we're perhaps used to fire as being a destructive thing – but when we relate to fire as a constructive thing, so basically what fire is doing, the very process of the fire is that, what's happening, is there are these tremendous potentialities which are contained within the thing which is about to be ignited of energy, which is being held in a particular form, it's true, and we like that form.  Like this table, or this room.  Or our bodies, or whatever it might be that's about to be lit on fire.  But when it's lit on fire, so this tremendous energies which are pent up inside, that material which now become released into light!  So that actually what has been shown by the fire are these tremendous possibilities which have been laying latent so to speak within this piece of wood.  It's just a darn piece of wood, right? Which is, you know, useful for us as it is, and we want to hold it in its place so that it should continue to function here and serve our needs in this current condition.  But if this table is going to become something else, its quickest way to becoming something else is to light it on fire.  And then its energy will be released, which will find, eventually, when it slows down to the right speed or whatever, will find eventually a path to becoming rematerialized.  And whatever ashes are left will find their way back into the ground, and be grown again into a plant and be eaten by an animal and go through a different path and serve a different function in G-d's great cosmos, in a way which will never be lost, because there is the law of the conservation of energy and, really, of matter.  It's all conserved within.  But what will happen and is, and enough being a table!  Bam! Turn you into something else and release these energies which are within you.  So, this flame then becomes not only a reaching out to touch another in a way in which they've become touched, but in a way in which they become realized.  And awakened to their possibilities and their potentialities.  This is really, in a sense, what a dreamer does.  Not only about the flame, the fire that they have inside, which is really what all of our dreams our, a dreaming fire inside, like "what's your dream?  Do you want to hear my dream?"  Yeah, like, what would it be if we had all the money in the world you needed, and all the help you could possibly imagine, and all the circumstances that would make it possible, "tell me your dream!"  If there were no conditions on it, "wow! really? Like to talk?" "Yeah!"  That's, you know, when you touch that in the right way, that's when you start seeing people light up.  And they light up because their fire starts to burn.  That's really what happens!  But that kind of a lit fire is something which we can sort of generate sometimes in ourselves, but it really gets lit by another, and it can really truthfully only be lit by another who is himself also a dreamer.  So Yosef is also the one who has the power to light other people's fires.  That kind of a lighting, in the way he contacts other people, he also causes them to dream.  I really believe that it's because Yosef was around that Pharaoh had his dreams.  It's because Yosef was around that those people in the prison had their dreams.  Whenever Yosef is around people start to dream.  And their fires starts to burn and to open up.  It's great to be around people like that.  They can also become very disconcerting, because [they? You?] can become very frustrated about all the dreams and the minimal realization sometimes of those dreams.  But those are the people, who, if you want to be in a place of transition, of moving from one place to another, which is the place of yesod and its depth, when you're letting go of the current form: so then you want to be touched by someone who's going to light your fire.  And this Yosef does; he's the aspect of the fire which is the burning, which is able to light other people's fires.  What happens to Eisav, who is the exact opposite of a dreamer, is that he just burns up and dissipates.  But if he's attached to someone with whom there's going to be a real relationship so then that real relationship will become one in which that person becomes ignited and alive and just a burning fire and a flame.  With all those potentialities released.  So, this very beautiful image of Yosef also then becomes an image for us in his function as someone – and it's almost ironic – but as someone who can bring people peace.  Bring peace among people.  And, you actually can hear this in Yosef's voice, when, at the very end of his interaction with his brothers, when he finally accomplishes what his father has contracted him to do, bring peace to this family, bring peace to this house, bring peace to these brothers, so, Yosef actually says to them this image.  In other words, this is his own self-awareness, his own self-consciousness which is something that Yaakov is aware of.  And it happens, after Yaakov leaves the scene and dies, so then the brothers come to Yosef in fear.  And they come to Yosef and they say to him, basically they say to him a – it's not exactly the truth.  They say to him, you know, before Dad died, so he commanded something which we were supposed to pass on to you.  (This is in Chapter 50 verse 15 on.)  And, he said, "Tell Yosef the following, 'Please forgive your brothers for all of the evil that they did to you, 'cause they have caused you great harm.  Now, please forgive them, these servants of the Lord of your father.'"  And Yosef cried as they spoke to him.  And then they go and they fall before him, and they say "we are now your slaves."  And Yosef says to them "don't be afraid.  Am I instead of G-d? What you thought was going to be evil G-d has turned into good, in order to do to you all that He has done so that I should be able to bring you life."   This is a great opportunity to see Yosef in his own personal conception and how a man of yesod actually experiences himself in life.  "Now, don't be afraid; I will continue to provide you with all that you need, as the giver of life," which is who Yosef is.  So, the verse goes on, and then says, "And he calmed them, and he spoke to their hearts."  Ok.  He calmed them.  And he consoled them.  But how is he speaking to their hearts?  So, the Chachamim wonder, how, well, what was he saying to their hearts?  So, listen to what he said to them, he said to them things that would sit well in their hearts.  And said to them, "you know, 10 candles can't put out 1 candle, so how could 1 candle put out 10?"  That's it.  It's from the Talmud in Megilla.  10 candles, they cannot put out 1 candle, so – I'll make it a little more explicit now – so could 1 candle put out 10?  And then they're done.  Now, what is the meaning of that? What is he saying?  "See you [are?] 10 candles.  You couldn't put out one candle, could you?  'Cause you know what happens?  When 10 candles try to put out 1 candle?  The flame just gets bigger.  So could 1 candle put out 10?  You tried to harm me, to destroy me, but instead my light became greater.  Were I to come against you, would I be able to destroy you?  Your light would only become greater!"  What a perfect image!  [Of?] someone whose whole experience of life is as a flame.  "The only thing that I could possibly do" – he experiences others that way also – "the only thing that I could possibly do? In coming in contact with you?  Is to be a flame that would light your fire even brighter.  Because you too are fires that are burning."  And that's exactly what G-d did – it's just the perfect image – exactly what G-d did: "everything that you thought was going to be evil to me, [?] the contact that you were having with me that you thought was going to undo me, all it did was light my fire.  I could never have burned this brightly if it hadn't been for all that you caused me.  I could never have been the Yosef who would bring food to the entire planet, who would bring a whole new reality into being, who would really be the source for this people now going into an exile which will produce them into becoming the consciousness on the planet of the One G-d.  It wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for what you did to me, throwing me down into the dark pit.  Throwing me down into the dark pit. And all those places of darkness were just ways in which my fire was being lit even brighter."  It's mamash – can you imagine experiencing all others like that?  You wouldn't want anything but relationship, because everyone you come in contact with is simply another piece of the flame that's going to be lighting you even more brightly.  And every contact you have with them is going to be nothing but igniting [1:02:55.9 everything?] more brightly.  This is a total consciousness in which there's nothing but the continued growth and bringing out of potentialities which lay embedded in our environment and in our arena of living, which is just contact with [that?] is lighting it even brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter.  So he mamash speaks to them, and these are his final words to his brothers, that's the end.  This is basically where Breishit ends.  He's done.  These are his last words.  And then it says "and Yosef lived 110 years."  And that was it; and he saw more children, etc., etc.  The story's over.  This is the end of Breishit.  This is the end of the book, which the Tikkunei Zohar says is the book of brit esh.  Of the Covenant of Fire.  It's the first rewriting of the first word of the Torah breishit, whose letters are brit esh. The brit esh of Sefer Breishit ends with Yosef making a covenant of fire.  And if you thought a covenant of fire is something which sounds destructive and threatening, no!  Well, that would depend really, on the way in which you live it!  Because if you live it as something "I must hold on to the forms I have; I've gotta hold tight on to being a table.  That's what I am!  That's my identity!  I can't give that up!" so then your meeting with someone like that is gonna be shvirat hakelim.  It's going to be breaking your vessels and you might not survive it and you might not like people like that, and, in fact, that's the kind of person – you know what?  If what your commitment is to is to reality "just as it is," to making structures that hold things in place, you don't want a dreamer around.  You don't want a flame-guy around.  He's a troublemaker.  And, in fact, the entire interrelationship between Yosef and his brothers is largely defined by their chieftain, who is Yehuda, who is the man, who is the one, who is entrusted, really, with creating a structure, creating a kingdom.  Creating something that's going to hold all this together. In fact, when Yosef meets them, so he meets – his father sends him out – he meets a man who's standing near Shechem, and he asks him, the man asks him "what are you looking for?"  And so, he says, "well, I'm looking for my brothers."  Very poignant verse.  "I'm looking for my brothers."  So he says, "well, they've gone to Dotan."  So you know what Rashi says?   On that – they've gone to Dotan.  They've gone to da'at.  They've become religious.  Better be careful.  Religious not in the – religious in the real meaning of the term.  You know, like, they keep the rules.  They're keeping-the-rules people.  They're the ones who guard the givens.  So, understand what you're getting into, Yosef.  And in fact, as soon as they see him the first thing they say is [tone of dismay] "here he comes.  The dreamer. He's the one we want to get rid of.  He's the one who's going to shake things up."  So their first experience of this flame is not a particularly positive one.  And causes them to become content to murder him.  And then to sell him into slavery.  This is not a simple matter.  Nor is it a – it's like not a simple matter in our relationship with others, nor is it a simple matter in our relationship within ourselves.  We're always are faced, struggling, with the flame of reaching out in to the farther regions, and what happens when we do that, and what happens when others touch us there.  But the world of Yosef and the world of yesod will be one which is convinced and committed to that the other one being touched will burst into a most glorious fire, which will then allow a re-embodying on an even higher and more enlightened form.  This becomes also, the aspect of Yosef not only [in his? as a?] flame, but also in his – there's another piece here – in his making peace.  His making shalom.  So now we've got this little piece of the "scope" of Yosef.  So I want to tell you something which is like one of the simplest things in life, about how we do that with others.  And I'm going to say this in the simplest way, really what happens, the way to light another person's fire, is by believing in them.  Believing in them.  Being committed to them.  That's Yosef's reliability, his ne'emanut.  That's why Yosef would never come between, in a relationship, between a man and a woman, between a husband and a wife.  That's why his primary test and transition and transformation comes by virtue of the question of relationship.  And the honoring of relationship.  Because in his honoring relationship he defines it all. So. [long pause to collect thoughts] There's like, 4 different avenues. You know what's the opposite of a person who's like this?  Who's a flame?  Who's always seeking contact with what's out there, because he just keeps adding fire – there's more and more fire?  The opposite of this is, mamash, like, an enlightener.  I think on a certain level they're also, like Yosef is, in as much as they're involved in relation and connecting, they're kinda lonely.  Alone.  A person who has a lot of dreams that way can become very much alone.  Yosef is actually n'zir eichav, he stands apart from his brothers.  But there are two ways of standing apart.  And this is something else that Yosef seeks to teach his brothers.  That big scene, when Yosef first meets them, he does something like totally weird.  And that is that – I'm talking about now when Yosef meets his brothers for the first time when they've come to Egypt to collect food.  So that whole story begins with the famine coming, and then it says that (in the beginning of chapter 42) v'yar Yaakov ki yesh shever b'Mitzrayim .  This is kind of a funny word.  Shever in Hebrew means "food," or something that's going to be sold.  But shever also means breakage.  A mashber is a catastrophe in which there's been breakage.  And a mashber is also where when a woman gives birth.  The birthing stone is called the mashber.  So Yaakov sees there's a shever in Mitzrayim.  Very, very laden word.  And he tells his children lama titra'u.  Which literally means "How come you're just standing around looking at yourselves?"  How come you're just standing there and looking at yourselves?  He says, "I heard that there's shever in Mitrayim."  Now, at the beginning of the chapter it said Yaakov saw that there's shever in Mitrayim.  He's seen it.  But he tells them "I've heard it."  Ok.  That there's shever in Mitrayim.  "Go down there and get us some food, so we'll live and not die."  So the brothers go down and there's some very, very rich elements here in this story – and  they come before Yosef.  Yosef, of course, he recognizes them, but they didn't recognize him.  And then he starts to talk to them.  And what he says to them is, after he remembers his dream, what he says to them is "you're spies.  You're spies.  You've come to see the erva, the indecent exposure, the shame of this land.  Basically you've come here to seek out the weak points of this land.  So that you can take advantage of it."  So they say to him "no, no, no: that's not true!  We've come to get food!  We're all the sons of one father.  All the sons of one man.  We're really being honest with you.  We are brothers.  We're not slaves [meant "spies?"]."  So Yosef says to them "Uh-uh-uh. – [goes back and changes slaves to spies] "We're brothers, we're not spies."  So Yosef says "uhhh, you're spies."  "no, no!  We're brothers!"  "No, you are spies."  I mean, you'd think that there should be a little guy on the side who says well, I mean, brothers can be spies!  It's not as if they're in an argument!  About something.  But apparently, they are!  "Either you're spies, or you're brothers.  You know what?  You go back and you bring that other brother of yours, and you prove to me that you're brothers!"  "Huh?  How's that going to prove that we're not spies?"  Well, doesn't matter, right?  Now that, is totally "out there."  Unless Yosef is actually teaching them something about two different paths in living, and they are the path of the flame.  And, what is really the opposite of the path of the flame, in terms of personal expression, and that is the path of the spy.  Because the spy is the advantage-taker.  The spy has absolutely no interest in you and your marvelous potentialities and your flame that waits to be exposed.  And, as my mother would say[1:17:41.6 ahnes g'matuch???] like, a hole in the head.  Doesn't care about any of that.  What a spy cares about is one thing only, and that is "what advantage can I take of this situation?"  A spy stands completely outside the relationship.  Cannot enter a relationship. That's when spies fall, right? That's always the tension in the spy flicks, is he going to fall for the girl, or is he not going to fall for the girl?  If he falls for the girl so then his cover is going to be blown.  Right?  If he really falls in love with her.  'Cause spies cannot fall in love.  'Cause once a spy has fallen in love so he becomes your brother.  He becomes connected.  And then he's in trouble.  The only way for you to be able to live as an advantage-taker, is to live outside:  standing and spying the situation out.  The only thing you're looking for is erva, and it's a sexual term also.  You're just looking for the advantage taking.  "No, no, we're brothers!"  Almost as if, subconsciously, they recognize what the conversation is about.  Right?  "We're brothers, we're not spies," he's like mamash got them in it.  That "you're spies."  Because Yosef is the man who's there to teach them brotherhood.  Which he will in the end.  He's the one who's there to teach them the opposite of blockage, of orlah.  He's the one who's there to teach them what it really means to contact life, and what it means to really contact life is to be committed to life in a way that all you are there for is for the igniting of it so that it become more and more enlightened.  That it become more and more realized.  That's the only reason to be here, is to bring life to become more and more enlightened and more and more realized.  Is to light it on fire!  The last thing to do, that a spy wants, is to light it on fire, because all the spy is there for is to see things as they are and to discover their weakness, so that advantage can be taken of them.  Rather than they be given the opportunity to live in their own freedom and expression. [1:19:53.6?] mamash speaking to people that Yaakov described at the very beginning, which was lama titra'u?  All you people are looking at is yourselves.  It's the reflexive in Hebrew.  For looking.  What do you mean to look "at yourselves?"  It's completely the opposite of someone who's looking to contact reality in a way in which is going to be adding light and adding enlightenment for both of us!  When one candle touches another it's for both of us.  But it's only for both of us if we do it in a selfless way.  Because if all you're after is that your light should be greater, so then you become a spy.  How can I get the most out of this situation?  How can I get the most out of you?  But if you're living in the situation and the relationship in which it's not about "how can I get the most out of you," it's about how can we both become a greater light, and that's the only way we can become a greater light.  And this is a secret which we all forget as we move through life; this is the great secret of living:   the only way that I'm going to become fully expressed is by being committed to your full expression.  That's, it's won't happen any other way because when I lose that commitment to your full expression, so then all I have is myself!  I won't become more!  I might become, you know, more of myself!  But I won't become truly more; there will not be any Yosef.  There will not be any tosefet.  And the pathway to that is in this great belief in the other.  The great emuna and the great ne'emanut to what they have to bring.  The great connection to that place which is that burning flame that's inside them.  And this is so marvelously so that, to be standing there espying the advantage, is to be precisely the opposite of that one who touches the flame of the other.  It's dangerous for that other one.  To become alive.  It's dangerous for that other one to – so to speak – to give birth.  The erva and the [? 1:22:11.4] aspect of it is very, very profound there.  This is why, also, Yosef and his reflection on that, with them, so he reveals this aspect of them to them  and that begins their process of tikkun of moving from being meraglim to becoming achim, [?] achim.  You can see how strongly it would be that the last thing in the world that Yosef would want would be to shame another.  To expose their cherpa, to expose their erva.  And we all have it.  But the last thing in the world that Yosef would want would be to shame another.  The other aspect of Yosef that we've been talking about, which we just started to touch, again, is asaf et cherpati  -- that he's "gathered in my shame."  And, that's [what] Rachel says.  So you know there's a story that seems to be completely out of place in the Chumash, in the context of Yosef, and that is the story of Yehuda and Tamar.  Because after Yosef is sold into slavery and before we are given the whole story of Yosef and his standing up to the temptation of eshet Potifar, so we have the story of Yehuda, in a sense, not standing up to the temptation.  Of a whore.  And in that we're actually meeting a kind of a clear juxtaposition, which is, in a sense, preparation for the story of Yosef and Potifar's wife, by seeing what's the nature of the behavior of the man who represents – sort of – the "rules," the institutionalization of things, the solidity of things?  The king.  What happens to him?  And, of all the pain around that story, what happens to him is, in a sense – it's not quite the same, obviously as an eshet ish – but, you know, it doesn't particularly reflect well, that story.  Whatever we're going to do to it to soften it.  And, the story is actually about a very particular series of events.  We can't ignore that this woman Tamar, who was married to Yehuda's child, actually becomes the subject of the first, well, not the first, the subject of a sexual behavior which is attempting to prevent her from becoming pregnant.  And that's what the Chumash describes, that she doesn't have children because the man with her is not giving her seed.  The, one of the sons of Yehuda, is called Er, which means "awake," and the other is Onan, which basically means "caught up in his own power."  On, in Hebrew, is "power."  Caught up in his own power.  Onan is.  That becomes, in Hebrew, actually the word – oneinut – is the word for masturbastion.  It's completely self-contained.  So this is who she's married to.  These are the children of Yehuda.  Not a very pretty picture.  And there's a third son, whose name is She'la, which actually means in Hebrew "Shel La," that he's for her.  But Yehuda doesn't give her him.  And, I guess, he doesn't really know what's going on in the bedroom maybe, but he does know that he's had two boys who died, married to this woman, doesn' t bode well for the 3rd one.  So, the answer is, in the meantime, "no."  Now, you know the way of the Torah is that a person who's not had a child, so someone from the family, in the Torah later, the brother, is supposed to have a child by the woman.  So these boys have died and the brothers are supposed to take her, and have a child by her.  So, that doesn't happen, and so she seduces Yehuda.  That's the encapsulated story.  But, then interesting things start to happen.  And especially in our context.  She, when she's discovered to be pregnant, is taken out to be burned.  So, in her being taken out because she is considered to have been, on some level, been an adulteress.    'Cause she's supposed be waiting for this other boy Shela.  So, on her way out, it says v'hie mutzeit  -- she has been taken out --v'amra -- and she said – this is all in Ch. 38 of Breishit – so she's taken out and she says the following crucial words: v'hie mutzeit, v'hie shalcha el chamiha l'emor, 'l'ish asher eleh lo, anochi ha'ra .  She sends to her father-in-law what he had given her as a guarantee that he'll pay for the znut, and says to him "the man to whom this belongs, he's the one who I have become pregnant from."  So Yehuda recognizes it, and he admits that it's from him.  "She is more righteous than I am," tzadka mimeni.  And lo n'tatiha l'Sheila bni.  That "I was wrong in not giving her to my son Shela."  V'lo yasaf od l'da'ata. And he didn't have any more relation with her, or, some say, he never stopped having connection with her.  Yosef's back in the picture.  V'lo Yasaf.  Putting that aside, so what happened here?  So the rabbis say a most amazing thing.  The rabbis say, "she's been sent out to be burned," right?  OK.  V'hie mutzeit actually in Hebrew has a sound to it of hatzata, which means she's actually been lit on fire.  And she doesn't simply declare to everyone "you all see what this is?  You all see it?  You all recognize what it is, right?  You know who this belongs to; it's got his name on it; it's his chotam.  This belongs to Yehuda, my father –in- law!"  That would have saved her life!  I mean, immediately they would have taken her off the fire-pier and looked in to it.  But instead of exposing him, she sends it to him: let him decide.  So, it almost sounds like she sends it to him in a box.  You know, like "you open it up, you take a look at it and you decide what you're going to do with this."  So the rabbis say, "what was going on here; why didn't she just say to everyone what had happened?"  Lo ratzta lehalbin panav.  She didn't want to expose his cherpa.  She didn't want to shame him.  V'lomar mimcha ani meuberet.  And say "I'm pregnant from you."  She didn't want to "whiten his face."  Ela l'ish asher eleh lo amra.  Im yodeh m'atzmo yodeh, v'im lav, yisrafuni.  V'al albin panav. "If he admits, good.  If he doesn't admit, let them burn me.  It shouldn't be that I should whiten his face, and shame him."  Mi kan amru Rashi then goes on and says, which is actually somewhat uncharacteristic of him, because you don't need to say this now in order to finish off explaining: from here the rabbis learn "better that a person throw himself into the burning furnace rather than shame another person in public."  And, in fact, there's a story in Masechet Ketubot of a man who did that.  Are you familiar?  About Rabbe Zera, he used to give tzedaka to a neighbor and once the neighbor wanted to see who it was, so he opened the door when Rebbe Zera was fiddling with the money, and he started chasing Rebbe Zera.  Rebbe Zera ran away because he didn't want him to actually see who it was and be embarrassed by him; he ran home and he jumped into the oven.  Which, thank G-d, his wife jumped into first to protect him, because his wife didn't get burned.  But he would have gotten burned.  Which the Gemara then develops into a whole thing about why his wife was superior to him in terms of being protected from the burning.  But the point is the rabbis actually take this very literally.  That it's better to burn up rather than to, I guess, get someone else "hot in the face," you know, that they should burn.  With shame.  Now, this is amazing because this is the other aspect of Yosef, right?  This is asaf li et cherpati, this is Yosef is the one who protects people from shame. "Ah," you say, "this isn't about Yosef; this is about Tamar."  But this story is embedded in the teaching which is now being taught to Yehuda, who is the antithesis of Yosef.  And her name Tamar actually reveals her as being the feminine form of Yosef.  That's why lo yasaf l'da'ata.  Because we have a verse which says tzadik k'tamar yifrach.  Which is a Yosef verse.  Tzadik – which is Yosef.  He's called The Tzadik.  So:  blossoms like a tamar.  But he's the tamar who is – it's just that Yehuda has met Yosef in the feminine form.  And the whole teaching, really, that she gives over to him, is: "not shame another."  Not shame another.  "See, I thought you were making so many correlations about Yosef earlier that were so connected to Dinah." So, we'll wait with your ideas about that; I just want to have this here, that that not shaming him was an expression of his root of asaf et cherpati.  Of to not shame another.  Tov, bezrat HaShem from there I want us to continue today – we've been exploring a lot of yosif li ben acher , and the power, in a sense, of Yosef's fertility.  He's so fertile that he's turning everyone else on and making them become more of what they were before.  That's like the primary, that's the feature of Yosef as the flame.  Who's there as setting people on fire in a way in which they become more.  In which they're mosif.  In which they – in a sense – birth themselves into becoming more than what they were before.  That's his tremendous power of fertility which is his great blessing – one of his great blessings.  But the antithesis of that is to shame a person, to make them feel like nothing, to make them, like, go away, to make them be worthless in their own eyes.  To basically burn them in the way of destructive burning.  So, the image that the rabbis uncover in the verse is "you got a choice: to burn a person up or, if you're in a situation where you're going to shame them, or to  get out of the way and let yourself be burned."  Better to let yourself be burned than to burn another.  That's a total Yosef perspective.  You're really only here to be bringing other people's fire out, so if you're going to douse that, better that you should be burned than that they should be.  That's the aspect of the selflessness of it.  But the great teaching in that becomes this very, very powerful teaching which is a teaching about what is called ona'at dvarim.  Ona'at dvarim is the rabbis description of what it means to shame another person and belittle them. And, b'ezrat HaShem we're going to explore that next time, this idea of asaf li et cherpati, and from there we'll see the very, very deep connection to yonati.  Let's leave it at that.  Any questions, contributions? "My question was just, one of the descriptions of Yosef was, I felt, very, very [? Dinah?]. … interesting [?] Tamar.  Just like, exposing out of the box, and like, um, like the concept of protecting from shame, like, she really like, I don't know if it was exposing a shame or like, also shaking things up.  And yesod, and all those different…" Those are all connections to Dinah, you mean?  We knew that; Chazal say that explicitly, "Really?' but [??] I wasn't exploring that. "I was really struck by, I mean, you obviously definitely like addressed it, and yet I also thought there was so much there, around the paradox of what you're saying about who Yosef is, in terms of bringing peace and in terms of, just the paradox, really, that's there because he seems to be stirring things up in a way.  I mean, yeah, you talked about it.  You talked about it, it's so…" Yeah, I think it's really important for us to have clarity on the distinction between shalva , which is to be – nu, what's the word – to be content, and shalom.  You see, peace actually is from the Hebrew word, which is not shalom, it's shalva. 'Cause peace, in Hebrew, is pius, which means, basically, to "make do with."  Like lehafis da'ato shel mishehu.  Lefayes oto is to calm him down so that we can get on with the business of the day.  Peace is a Eisavian concept.  In that sense, which is basically what they call in Hebrew: sheket tasiyati, that there should be "factory quiet."  There must be some kind of phrase like that in English [ literally "manufactured peace" though the sense is changed in Hebrew].  Keep things moving calmly. Business as usual.  Business as usual, keep the people content, satisfy the masses, don't get involved in new ideas, revolutionary people, keep the underdogs underdogs, but give them enough to keep them satisfied so that they don't start any revolutions, etc., etc.: that's peace!  That's peace.  That's a perfect picture of peace.  And it's an Eisavian concept.  This helps us with the sense of like, Eisav gets burned up by Yosef; there's no place for him, because Eisav is completely asui, he's born already done.  He's basically the guy who's "made it."  He's already hairy.  When he comes out his mother's womb!  He's got nothing to do with birthing.  He's so, like, anti-birthing that the rabbis say "he tore Rivka's womb as he came out."  He may even needed to have been born by a caesarian birth.  Whatever.  In any case, he created caesarian birth.  That's what Caesars did; they're Eisavian.  But the point is that he's totally not there, totally asui.  And the point about Eisav is that he stands in total opposite and Yehuda, who has connections with Eisav and that's later revealed more deeply in David, who's ruddy.  It says he's admoni; he's ruddy, right?  The malchut can very easily fall into that kind of a sense of peace.  In my opinion that's exactly what we're living right now; we're living through a period in which the malchut of Israel has become totally set on "peace," on pius.  Which has nothing to do with shalom; totally nothing to do with shalom.  It has everything to do with just kind of holding things as they are, not letting things get out of order and get out of hand.  Shalom is an entirely different concept.  Shalom is very dynamic, because shalom always involves – there's another level, which we're aiming towards, which we're aspiring to, which is what's called the makif.  Which is the light which is beyond.  The makifim belong to the world of Yosef.  'Cause he speaks to what is the next stage.  That kind of shlemut, this is a whole other picture.  So, only when you recognize what shalom  is can you respect Yosef as the shalom maker, not as the peace maker.  He's not a peace-maker at all; he's the shalom maker, and in being a shalom maker he comes from that perception of life as "my candle when it touches your candle there will be greater light.  But I need your light.  To be there, glowing.  And if you are unwilling for that, and, instead of being light you've become iced-over, so then, you'll just melt away."  That's the kash of Eisav.  The only way for Yaakov and his dynamism, which is the dynamic of creation, which is the Jewish people, the only way for that dynamic – we're always the revolutionaries; that's just the way the Jewish people are.  We're always the revolutionaries out on the barricades.  The only way for that, for me to go back to Eretz Yisrael is to burn out the Eisavian.  Only then will I be able to be there.  Right. "I totally thank you, and I've lots [to be?] thinking about in personal terms, in terms of, like, facing conflict, like, if somebody says "I'm your brother," I mean, he says 'I'm your brother, the one who you sold to Egypt.'  Like, this statement of, you know, you focus on the connection of 'I'm your brother,' but, like, it necessarily, he has to say 'the one you sold to Egypt,' like, he reminds them, like 'you did this wrong!'  And it's about, I see it more as also li

Study Guide Rosh Hashanah 10 Today's daf is sponsored by Heather (Hadar) Stone in honor of her daughter, Hila bat Hadar ve’Yehezkel on her commission as a second lieutenant in the IDF Education command. "So proud of you and your accomplishments. Can’t wait to see where you lead next." And by Jordana Hyman "to our amazing daughter, Prielle Hyman Borowski, on her giyus today. We are bursting with pride and excitement as you begin your service. May Hashem protect you and bless you always, with your fellow soldiers. With love, Mum and Dad." A braita explains that if a tree was planted 30 thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, it will be counted as its second year on the first of Tishrei. However, the fruits are still considered orla after the third year until the 15th of Shvat (of the fourth year) if they budded before then. And the same holds true for laws of neta revai on the fifth year. Does the braita not work with Rabbi Meir's opinion that even a day counts as a year when determining that an animal is a 3-year old bull (required for sacrifices that are to be brought with a bull), because the braita required thirty days? Perhaps one could distinguish between the end of a count (when the bull begins his third year - where one day counts) and the beginning of the count (planted before Rosh Hashanah - where one day would not count). The Gemara rejects this distinction based on a woman who is a Niddah who on the last day requires a complete day but on the first day, even a part of the day counts as a whole day. If the braita does not like Rabbi Meir, by default, it must hold like Rabbi Elazar who holds that the bull needs one month into its third year to be considered a bull. However, that is also difficult as then the braita should require 60 days - 30 for the tree to take root and 30 for it to be considered its own year. A braita is brought with different opinions regarding how much time is needed to take root - 30 days, 3 days or two weeks. None of the opinions match the original braita which seems to require no time for taking root, if in fact the thirty days are based on Rabbi Elazar. The braita is then explained according to Rabbi Meir who requires only one day for the year and thirty for it to take root. Why, then, does the braita not say 31? The thirtieth day counts for both. Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Elazar both derive their opinions from the same verse from Breishit 8:13 about when the waters of the flood dried - in the 601st year on the first day of the first month. Each one uses it to prove his opinion. A braita is brought with a debate about whether the world was created on the first of Nissan or Tishrei. Various other events are given a date as well.  

Study Guide Rosh Hashanah 10 Today's daf is sponsored by Heather (Hadar) Stone in honor of her daughter, Hila bat Hadar ve’Yehezkel on her commission as a second lieutenant in the IDF Education command. "So proud of you and your accomplishments. Can’t wait to see where you lead next." And by Jordana Hyman "to our amazing daughter, Prielle Hyman Borowski, on her giyus today. We are bursting with pride and excitement as you begin your service. May Hashem protect you and bless you always, with your fellow soldiers. With love, Mum and Dad." A braita explains that if a tree was planted 30 thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, it will be counted as its second year on the first of Tishrei. However, the fruits are still considered orla after the third year until the 15th of Shvat (of the fourth year) if they budded before then. And the same holds true for laws of neta revai on the fifth year. Does the braita not work with Rabbi Meir's opinion that even a day counts as a year when determining that an animal is a 3-year old bull (required for sacrifices that are to be brought with a bull), because the braita required thirty days? Perhaps one could distinguish between the end of a count (when the bull begins his third year - where one day counts) and the beginning of the count (planted before Rosh Hashanah - where one day would not count). The Gemara rejects this distinction based on a woman who is a Niddah who on the last day requires a complete day but on the first day, even a part of the day counts as a whole day. If the braita does not like Rabbi Meir, by default, it must hold like Rabbi Elazar who holds that the bull needs one month into its third year to be considered a bull. However, that is also difficult as then the braita should require 60 days - 30 for the tree to take root and 30 for it to be considered its own year. A braita is brought with different opinions regarding how much time is needed to take root - 30 days, 3 days or two weeks. None of the opinions match the original braita which seems to require no time for taking root, if in fact the thirty days are based on Rabbi Elazar. The braita is then explained according to Rabbi Meir who requires only one day for the year and thirty for it to take root. Why, then, does the braita not say 31? The thirtieth day counts for both. Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Elazar both derive their opinions from the same verse from Breishit 8:13 about when the waters of the flood dried - in the 601st year on the first day of the first month. Each one uses it to prove his opinion. A braita is brought with a debate about whether the world was created on the first of Nissan or Tishrei. Various other events are given a date as well.  

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On the surface, the story of Kayin and Hevel seems like a simple story of ruthless murder, and punishment. However, upon close examination of the language and rabbinic sources, the moral ambiguity of the story becomes clear. In this episode we touch on the points of moral complexity, and study a midrash that portrays Kayin not as the first murderer, but as the first person to do teshuva.

My Brother's Keeper. What is the deeper meaning to this well known statement in the Torah?

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Enjoy this week's short parsha shiur on Parshat Shoftim given by Rabbanit Surale Rosen, "The Calf That Ties Devarim and Breishit Together."

Actress, neuroscientist, and New York Times best selling author Mayim Bialik joins Raviv and Rabbi Adam for the very first chapter of the Torah, Breishit, to interpret and unpack the beginning of creation. What do we make of a narrative that starts with two opposing, incompatible stories, and what does it mean for our upcoming journey?

In this episode, Rav David Bar-Hayim explores the true meaning of the word "bereishith" and "bara", and takes an in-depth look into the creation of the world. Originally uploaded to YouTube on February 28, 2017. For sponsorship opportunities and all other inquiries, please email office@machonshilo.org

We will study the tabernacle of Moses as it relates to it being a spiritual blueprint of the heavenly tabernacle and the various levels of holiness in the Kingdom of the God of Israel. We will begin this teaching by looking at the purpose of creation. The first word in the bible is Breishit. The first letter is the letter bet. In the Hebrew picture language a bet represents a house. The first two letters together is bar, which means son. So we see that the purpose of creation was that the Father created a house for his son. The tabernacle is the house of the God of Israel. The earthly tabernacle was patterned after the heavenly tabernacle. Yeshua came to earth to dwell (tabernacle) with his people. Solomon’s temple was patterned after heaven’s temple. We are to teach the pattern of God’s house to his people. Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. Ezekiel 43:10 There was one doorway into the tabernacle, through the eastern gate. Passover is the door “out of Egypt”. Yeshua is the only door to salvation and into the Kingdom of the God of Israel. The brazen altar in the outer courtyard of the tabernacle represents the sacrifice that Yeshua made in dying on the tree for our sins. Are these teachings a blessing to you? Please make a donation: http://www.hebrootsradio.com/give/ For more Eddie Chumney teachings and beautiful worship music, visit us at our internet streaming radio station http://hebrootsradio.com/. Please visit our home page at: http://hebroots.org/

The book of Breishit concludes with a stunning scene between Yosef and his brothers. In this episode we will explore the significance of their final encounter as a family unit, and how Yosef is able to redeem his family's painful past.

When Hashem tells Avraham to leave his home and embark on a journey, Avraham is told “lech lecha me'artzecha u'mimoladitcha...” (Breishit 12:1). This directive is conspicuously odd. Avraham is told where to leave from, but he is not told his destination. What kind of journey lacks a destination? --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/shmuel-reichman/support

New Kishroni Hour Parshat Breishit 2019 by JRoot Radio

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The Jewish sages teach that the “world was created for the Mashiach”. When you look closely at the first word in the bible, Breishit, and break it down into component parts you will see at the deeper spiritual (sod) meaning the following: Bet= house Bar= son Brit = covenant Reishit = beginning/first Israel is called the beginning (Jeremiah 2:3). The Torah is called the beginning (Proverbs 8:22). Yeshua the Messiah is called the beginning (John 1:1-2). So they were all ONE in the beginning. The world was created for the sake of Israel, Torah and the Messiah. The world was created because the Father wanted to have a house for His son, and He went into covenant with “the beginning” in order to build that house. For more Eddie Chumney teachings and beautiful worship music, visit us at our internet streaming radio station www.hebrootsradio.com. Please visit our home page at: http://hebroots.org/

We dive deep into the mysterious verse, " And God said, 'Let us make the human in our image, after our likeness.'" (Genesis 1:26)Who is "Us?" With whom is God speaking? Ancient interpretations reveal a deep understanding of human nature.

The inaugural episode of an exciting new podcast from YCT, The Pastoral Parsha with Dr. Michelle Friedman. Dr. Friedman is a psychiatrist and the Sharon and Steven Lieberman Chair of Pastoral Counseling at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. In this podcast, Dr. Friedman brings her experience and expertise to the study of the weekly Torah portion through a mental health lens.

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