Vayigash-2015

· At the end of Mikeitz, a golden cup was found in Binyomin’s bag – placed there on Yosef’s orders.  The brothers are brought back to Yosef, who says that Binyomin will be held captive while the other brothers can return home.

· Yehuda steps up to Yosef and makes a dramatic and spirited speech of 16 psukim.  Rashi paraphrases the opening words:  “May my words penetrate into your ears”.

· Yehuda describes the situation as he sees it, and says, “I became an Orev – a guarantor - for Binyomin, telling my father, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will have sinned to my father for all time.”  Rashi says this means he’s willing to forfeit his Olam Habah.

· Then he offers to remain as a slave to Yosef as a replacement for Binyomin, so that Binyomin can go free.

· The speech saves the day, Yosef breaks down, and the brothers are re-united.

· The brothers must have been incredibly shocked when they saw that the Viceroy of Egypt was their long lost – presumed dead – brother Yosef.

· In every generation, Hashem requests two things from the Jewish people.

o People should follow the Derech Hashem, and be good and moral people, following Hallachah.

o Good leaders should rise up and lead the generation to establish and implement worthy goals.

· In the generation of the Shvatim, Yehuda rose up to be that leader.

· He established the Midah of leadership for all generations of the Jewish people, through his descendants, Dovid Hamelech, the Kings of Israel, and Moshiach Ben Dovid.

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· A leader must have two qualities:

o To rise and take strategic action when the need arises

o To accept responsibility for his actions.

· Let’s look at how Yehuda established himself as the leader – the Melech - of Klal Yisroel.

· EVENT 1 - After Reuven kept his brothers from killing Yosef.  Reuven suggested that Yosef be thrown into a pit filled with snakes and scorpions.  He did that to buy time, to try to figure out what the next step would be. 

· Yehuda said, “What will we gain if we kill our brother?  Let us sell him to the Yishmaelites.”

· Yehuda rose up and did what needed to be done to save Yosef.

· EVENT 2 – Tamar was Yehuda’s daughter in law, and her husband had died.

· Tamar tricked Yehuda into doing Yibum with her without his knowledge.

· When she became pregnant, Yehuda sentenced her to death.

· Tamar showed the ring, cloak, and staff of the man who had been with her, leaving it up to Yehuda whether to reveal himself as the father.

· Yehuda said, “Tzadkah” – She is righteous, “Memeni”, the child is mine.

· Rashi says, that as a result, “Hashem decreed that it is from the tribe of Yehuda that the kings be established for Israel.”

· Yehuda:

o Rose up and said what needed to be said when the need arose.

o Took responsibility for what he had done.

· EVENT3 - The food that the brothers had bought on their first trip to Egypt ran out.

· They had been told (by Yosef who they didn’t recognize) not to return to Egypt without Binyomin, and this was something that Yaakov did not want to do.

· Reuven says senselessly that if he doesn’t bring back Binyomin, that Yaakov can kill his two sons – a statement that has no effect.

· Yehuda says, “Send Binyomin with me…I will be an Orev – a security – for him.  If I don’t bring him to you…I will have sinned to you for all time.”

· Rashi says dramatically that he was pledging his Olam Haba.

· This was such a dramatic pledge that Yaakov agreed.

· Again Yehuda:

o Rose up and said what needed to be said to accomplish what needed to be done.

o He put the entire responsibility on his own head, pledging his entire Olam Haba.

· EVENT 4 - the beginning of Vayigash, our Parsha, Yehuda steps up to the plate, and eloquently pleads before the Viceroy of Egypt, who he doesn’t know is Yosef.

· He says:  I pledged my Olam Habah to guarantee that Binyomin would return home, I’ll be a slave instead.

· He certainly:

o Stood up and strategically did what needed to be done, and effectively said what needed to be said.

o He took total responsibly, offering to be a substitute slave, and even more dramatically, pledged to give up his entire Olam Habah.

· EVENT 5 - when Yaakov and his family got ready to go down to Mizrayim, the Medresh says that Yehuda went down first in order to set up Yeshivas, because he knew  that their spiritual survival depended on this

· Yehuda went down himself, to take the responsibility to make sure this it got done right.

· Many years later - after the slavery in Mitzrayim, during Yitziat Mitzrayim, the Jews were at the Yom Suf and the Egyptian chariots were thundering towards them, Hashem told Moshe, “This is not a time for prayer, it is a time for action”,

· Nachshon, the leader of the tribe of Yehuda jumped into the Yom Suf and only then did it split.

· He exercised leadership by rising up and doing what needed to be done.

· Leadership is difficult.

· It requires Gevurah, courage, initiative, vigilance, and clarity of thought.

· There is a Medresh that is brought down three times is Shas – Sotah 7b, Makkos 11b, and Baba Kamma 92a – that says that Yehuda paid a terrible price for the pledge he made to Yaakov to bring back Binyomin.

· The Medresh is virtually identical in all three places in Shas, telling how important it is, but I found not one commentary that discusses it – not the Marharsha, nor the Ein Yaakov, or the Ramban.

· The Medresh goes through the four Psukim that Moshe Rabbenu says at the very end of the Torah, in Zos Habrachah, about Yehuda.  The four Psukim are:

o Hearken Hashem to Yehuda’s voice.

o Return him to his people.

o May his hands fight for him.

o And may You be a Helper against his enemies.

· This Medresh is repeated in Sotah, Makkos, and Baba Kamma.

· All those 40 years that the Jews were in the Midbar the bones of Yehuda were detached and rolling around in his coffin, but the skeletal remains of all the other brothers were intact. And this situation continued until Moshe stood in prayer and pleaded for Divine mercy for Yehuda.

· “Hearken, Hashem to Yehuda’s voice”:  Allow Yehuda’s remains to find rest in the coffin. Moshe’s prayer was accepted and Yehuda’s limbs entered their joints.  But still they did not admit Yehuda to the Heavenly academy (Rashi: Where he could engage in Torah discussion with the other sages).

· And so Moses prayed ‘And return him to his people”.  This prayer was also accepted, and Yehuda was admitted to the Heavenly academy.  However he did not know how to debate the law with the Rabbis; he was not yet treated as their spiritual equal. 

· Moses then prayed, ‘May his hands fight for him”, in the battle of Torah, may he be able to engage in Tamudic debate with his peers. 

· This prayer was also accepted.  Still Yehuda could not conclude legal discussions in accordance with the law (Rashi:  He did not merit to have his arguments accepted by the sages in the academy) .

· Moshe then added, “And may You (Hashem) be a Helper against his adversaries”, to enable Yehuda to triumph in deciding the law.

· The Medresh implies that the higher the level of Ruchnius that one achieves in this world determines how actively we can participate in Olam Habah, or whether we will be an observer on the sidelines.

· That should be one incentive for us to accomplish a lot spiritually in this world.

· We see that Yehuda  risked his Olam Habah when he pledged his Olam Habah as Arevus to bring back Binyamin.

· He felt that this was the only way to convince Yaakov.  He felt his role as leader required him to take on this awesome responsibility.

· Yehuda suffered in Shamayim, almost forfeiting his Eternal Life.

· As leader he felt it was up to him to do what had to be done, and it was up to him to take full responsibility to make sure that the mission would be accomplished.

· That is the Gadlus of Yehuda’s leadership. This is why Dovid and all the kings of Israel came from Yehuda, and why Moshiach will come from him.

· This is the leadership that every generation needs and requires.

· There are many phrases that describe this leadership.

· Taking the bull by the horns, meeting the challenge head-on, grasping victory from the jaws of defeat.

· Testing one’s true mettle, true grit, having inner fortitude, being vigilant, rising to the occasion, making the correct moral decisions – and taking action at the point of no return, at the tipping point, at the moment of truth

· When the Jews sinned with the golden calf, Hashem said to Moshe, Leave me alone, ‘your’ people are sinning.

· At that point Moshe Rabenu – on his own – rose up to the occasion and smashed the Luchos.

· Shabbos 87a says that Hashem agreed with his decision, but it was an action that Moshe did on his own, in an act of great leadership, so that the people would get the message about the enormity of the sin that they had just done.

· During the siege of Yerushalayim, Yochanon Ben Zakkai managed to get himself out in a coffin, under the noses of the Biryonim – the empty headed ones – and he managed to have an audience with Vespasian, the Roman  general.

· Yochanon Ben Zakkai praised Vespasian as the next emperor, and just then word was received that indeed the current emperor in Rome had died and Vespasian would be the new emperor.

· In reward, Vespasian granted Yochanon Ben Zakkai three wishes.

· Yochanon Ben Zakai asked for:

o Tain le Yavne ve Chachamechah – grant me Yavne and its Chachamim.

o Don’t kill out the family of Rabbi Gamliel.

o Help Rabbi Tzadok recover from his 40 years of fasting.

· This was an act of leadership that preserved the Jewish people.

· From Yavne the Jewish tradition and Torah were preserved until today.

· But it was not an easy decision.

· Rabbi Akiva complained that he asked for too little.

· On his deathbed, Yochanon Ben Zakkai also wondered if he could have asked for more.

· But he had been concerend that Tefasta Meruba Lo Tefasta – if he asked for too much, he was afraid he wouldn’t have gotten anything at all.

· Leadership is an extremely important quality.

· To whatever extent you have leadership abilities within you, by all means exercise them and contribute your abilities to Klal Yisroel.

· It requires fortitude, insight, moral courage, and Siatah Dishamah.

· Baruch Hashem the Jewish people have had great leaders throughout the ages.

· Think of how many great Torah Leaders we’ve had.

· May Hashem grant us the leadership we need to bring the Geula closer and usher in the days of Moshiach.