Mechiras Yosef: The Danger of Kinah and the Power of Rachmanus

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. Parshas Vayechi, the coming parsha. One of the episodes that stands out, not only because of the tremendous story, storyline, but how we've suffered because of this story for so many doros, and that is Mechiras Yosef. Mechiras Yosef. That's one of the yesodos, yesodos, that we need to understand, that our whole past, present, and future is based on this Mechiras Yosef, the galus. On a simple level, the inyan of the mechirah brought them to Mitzrayim. That's what we see. But if you look at the sefarim, it seems that continuously the galusin, they're all tied to Mechiras Yosef. Even Chanukah, which is coming up, b'ezras Hashem, is also tied to Mechiras Yosef in the sefarim. For example, it's brought down in Acharonim, the seudah that Yosef made for the brothers was a seudas Chanukah. And there was a raya that there's this inyan of seudah Chanukah. It's a whole question: is there a seudah on Chanukah? Yes, no. The Bach, Acharonim, Toveach tevach v'hachein is Chanukah, the osiyos of Toveach tevach v'hachein that Yosef said. You take the last letters, you'll have Chanukah. Chanukah, Yosef, which means that it's a theme which comes up over again and over again in all the galus and in all the tzaros we have: mechiras Yosef. What is mechiras Yosef? How do we understand? How should we take mechiras Yosef? To read it on a simple level, it would be impossible. It's impossible to understand it, because even for simple people, for regular people, this would be a travesty which is unacceptable. Who takes their brother and sells him? First wants to kill him and then sell him? The chapela. We're not talking about regular people. We're talking about the Shivtei Kah. I think it's important to be makdim, as an introduction before we talk about mechiras Yosef, a Chazal. Chazal tell us, If the rishonim are k'malachim, anu k'bnei adam. Im rishonim k'bnei adam, anu k'chamorim. Do Chazal want to break our self-esteem? Is that what Chazal want? Are Chazal trying to tell us, as they say in the Varde, shiflus ha'adam? They're trying to tell us how low we are, that you should think of yourself mamash like a chamor. I don't think a person should think he's a chamor. I don't think that's what Chazal's intentions were. I think what Chazal are trying to tell us, maybe eipshat, that we can give in these words of the Chazal is as follows: that if you look at the Rishonim, the earliers, as malachim, they can't do an aveirah; they're untouchable. Then you could talk as if you're a ben adam understanding a malach. You ever see when a person talks about an angel? He knows it's above him. He knows it's out of his league, so to speak. But im Rishonim kivnei adam, if you're going to talk about them like people, trying to understand what chesaron they had, what aveirah they did, Chazal is saying you should look at it like a chaver. Imagine two chaverim talking to each other: Hey, look what that guy did over there. I have no idea what the guy did because it's completely not in their brain, in the capacity of their brain to understand what an adam does. So we're trying to say if you talk about them like malachim, then you could talk like an adam talks about a malach. But when we come to sugyos, so to speak, events where we have to talk about them as ben adam, that they did something wrong.

Something that has to... We should understand that it's like a chamor talking about an adam, which means that there is no way, there is no way to even—it's like talking through the eyes of a chamor. You don't understand what you're saying even. Imagine, we don't even have a havanah and understandingly connection who Reb Chaim Ozer was, who the Imrei Emes was. Then the Befarim, the Goyen, Tannaim, Amoraim, Rishonim—we're all the way back to the Shivtei Kah. There's nothing for us to even talk about, anu kechamorim. Yet, we need to discuss mechiras Yosef. We need to understand mechiras Yosef. There should be lessons that can be learned from mechiras Yosef. So what could be the lessons for anu kechamorim to take from mechiras Yosef, from the act of Rishonim heim k'malachim? How does it apply? The acts of Rishonim sheheim k'malachim apply to us, anu kechamorim. What are we to take from it? So the truth is, on mechiras Yosef, the mefarshim say that the kavanah was l'shem Shamayim. A lot of—especially in the Chassidishe Torah—there's a lot about the inyan of... yeah, it was lishmah, it was kavanah of taking from the father the ruchniyus. That's one mahalach. If you want to go with more of a mahalach of halachah, they felt the halachah there, right? The Siforno says that he was a rodef. He kept on bringing back to them dibasam ra. He was bringing back the bad to the father, so he was a rodef. And al rodef, it's, haba l'hargachashkim l'hargo. We see that the beis din, which the Eibishter was part of that beis din, paskened that. So either way we look at it, it's k'malachim. There's something which is beyond us, and it's not within, so to speak, adam, that it's as if man erred. It was a mistake of man. These people were on a much higher level, and everything they did was al פי הלכה, bedikduk halacha. As a matter of fact, Chazal tell us, al tirgzu baderech. What's baderech? So it's learned out from Yosef, that when Yosef sent back the brothers, he told them, al tirgzu baderech. We darshen with that, al tisasku bedvar halacha. Don't be osek in what halacha they'd be osek in. So many mefarshim say that they would be osek to redo the sugya of the mechirah. Now that they see that the mechirah was wrong, now that they see that they made a mistake in the mechirah, the whole way back they would go back to the ketzois and the Nesivos and the Reb Boruch Ber to figure out where they went wrong in the lomdus and the halacha, in the pilpul. So Yosef tells them, al tirgzu baderech. The point what I'm trying to bring out: don't think that these people, every act that they took, was not al פי הלכה, was not worked out with the utmost to the final detail of the halacha. To the point that when they saw that there might be a mistake, Yosef has to tell them. I always think to myself, could you imagine on the way back from such a trip, when they find out it's Yosef? You know what they should be talking about? Like, wow, it's our brother, as if it would be a news story, right? If something like this would happen, all we would talk about is... and then we would talk about the future plans. We have to go, we have to move, and the family, right? There would be so much. No, that's not what they would talk about. Yosef has to tell them, Al tirgezu baderech. Don't learn, don't go back into the halachah, al tisasku b'dvar halachah. We're not talking about regular people. We're not talking about people who it was about them and their lives. No, it was about Torah. It was about the halachah. And yet still we find there was a mechiras Yosef, which we have to accept was a mistake. And it was a mistake to the point that it caused asarah harugei malchus and all the future and all the galusin that came after this. Like I told you, are tied into mechiras Yosef. So what is it? What is the mistake? How do we fill in the blank? What is the mistake? And does it apply to us? You know, sometimes.

And I've heard this expression used before: certain tzaddikim's aveiros will be mitzvahs for us. It's a nusach that's used in the sefarim. The aveiros of this tzaddik would be for us a mitzvah. Chassidus sefarim, they write that the Rebbe said he wanted to daven behind the chozeh. He wanted to stand behind the chozeh when he davens. Why? Whatever tefillah the chozeh throws out, he'll dump it in the back because it's not a good feel; he wants that. For him it's good. Whatever is considered garbage — that's not the right word I'm looking for — psoles, all right, let's use that word. Whatever is considered psoles for him, for us would be a diamond. You know, by Avraham Avinu it says, Zevel pardesav shel Avraham v'lo kesef v'zahav shel Avimelech. This is what it is. Sometimes the zevel pardesav of the tzaddikim would be diamonds and gold for us. So who knows if we, in this situation, I don't even know what would it be, a mitzvah? Who knows what would be considered it. Which means if the tzaddikim so-called did an aveirah, maybe the word aveirah has to be substituted with the word mitzvah. You're talking about great people. So what is the answer? They did a what? Aveirah of what? What did they do? And therefore the question is, how does it apply to us? What is the lesson that should be learned for us? So, habaisai, I believe that there's an interesting Ramban. Ramban speaks in Parshas Miketz. The Ramban says, Vayomru ish el achiv, aval asheimim anachnu al achinu asher ra'inu tzaras nafsho, b'hischan'no eileinu v'lo shamanu, al kein ba'ah aleinu hatzarah hazos. Says the Ramban that they started to realize here that they did something wrong. Here, for the first time, it's starting to dawn on them there's something wrong. Asheimim anachnu, it's our fault. But what? Al achinu? Yes, it has something to do with Yosef, that we sold him? No, that's not what it says in the pasuk. In the pasuk it says, asher ra'inu tzaras nafsho, b'hischan'no eileinu v'lo shamanu, al kein ba'ah aleinu hatzarah hazos. Says the Ramban, even here, they're not taking responsibility for the mechirah. They still don't believe that the mechirah is what the problem is. They should have said, Asheimim anachnu al achinu, because we did the mechirah. Says the Ramban, that's not the problem. The problem is something else, as we'll soon discuss later, a lack of rachmanus. So you see how far it goes, that even when presented in front of them that they might be wrong, they still don't believe, and they still can't come to the fact that the mechirah might be a problem. They have to look for something else. They were so convinced. They were so convinced they were right. We spoke about this in the past. When the shevatim come and they see Yosef, Yosef tells them, Ani Yosef, od avi chai, and they couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe it. You know, they came down to look for Yosef. They came to look for him. They knew he's there. Yet, in the back of their minds, they should have remembered the chalom, the dream, something. And then when they come in front of this person, all the events, let alone the fact that he looks exactly like the father. Imagine someone looks exactly like your father walks into the door. All right, he's wearing a beard. Yeah, but you should at some point think to yourself, It's my father. Something's wrong. It doesn't dawn on them. It doesn't dawn on them. So, gevaldige vort from the Chida, we've said it in the past. Ha'od avi chai. Why does he ask, Ha'od avi chai? It's a pasuk, he was giving them mussar, Ha'od avi chai. He says, they kept on claiming the father was alive. Yosef had a question: if the father's alive, how could they not recognize me? Maybe the father died twenty-something years ago. There's no such a thing.

Pictures and videos and cameras and other... so they didn't remember what the father looked like. That's what the Chiddah says. He's asking them, wait a minute, you're telling me he's alive. How do you not recognize me? I look exactly like him. A splitting image. One said a vort that the zivugunim shel Yaakov was nireh lo. Chazal say that before Yosef was ready to do the aveirah, Potiphar, what stopped him was that the zivugunim shel Aviv nireh lo bechalom, bechalom. Chazal say it came to him in a window. Sefarim, they speak about the window. Why the window? There's groise inyanim in the window. The shiur is not meant to be a Kabbalah shiur, so we'll talk about it maybe a different time. But I always understood pashut pshat in the window. Maybe I saw it in other places over the years, I don't remember. Maybe it says someone else's vort. Either way, it's a gevaldige vort. A chalom is always like a mirror. It has reflection. He looked in the mirror, so to speak, the chalom, and he saw himself. I look like my father. How can I do the aveirah? Nireh lo, because they all asked the kasha, what do you mean? The father came to Yosef. What's the big deal? How come if I do an aveirah and my father doesn't come to me, so then you can't consider me the same chayiv as a... Yosef had a special siyata dishmaya. It's mashma if the father would have come to him, he would have done the aveirah. So, you know, he had a free—he had siyata dishmaya that I don't have. Yosef HaTzadik, my father came to me and then stopped me from doing it. I'd also stop. So the teretz, of course, is, father didn't come; he brought up his father. That's what it means. It doesn't mean it's not the father came, but nirah loi, which means he brought up the remembrance of his father. The way we're learning, it's even gargishmak, because it actually wasn't even his father. He looked at himself, and he said, Yosef, Mr. Yankiv's a kind. How could you do it? Mr. Yankiv's a kind. What are you doing? You look like your father, which is a tremendous lesson. A Yid goes, he wants to go where he shouldn't go, do what he shouldn't do. He should think to himself, Ich bin the Chiyankiv Avinu's a kind. I look like Yankiv Avinu. When you look, the yikarei bahem shmi v'shem avosai. We spoke about this many times, that the bracha to Ephraim and Menashe is v'yikarei bahem, that when you see them, you should be able to read in them that they're the tatte zakin, they're the tatte zakin. V'yikarei bahem shmi, dos is Yankiv's a kind, dos is Yankiv's. And we could talk a great deal about this at the end of the shiur. And what was the taina, the mechirah, the rachmanus, as the Ramban says? The taina was that it's not Yankiv's a kind, that Klal Yisroel, what a Yid is, it's about rachmanus. This is not Yankiv's a kind. V'yikarei bahem shmi. When you look at them, you could see, Shmi, this is my kind. The people call, yikari bohem. Shmi v'shem avosai. I always say that's the word also pshat. Yosef, Yankiv loves Yosef. Why? Ki ben zekunim hu lo. What does it mean, ki ben zekunim hu lo? I always want to patsh. Zekunim is a zeide. He's a ben who will be one day a zeide. A Yiddishe zeide, ben zekunim. Yedel kind has a grandfather to look up to. Ki ben zekunim hu lo. Echad ha'ben was kein zayn a zeide. He's ready to be a zeide in Klal Yisroel. Ki ben zekunim hu lo. Al kol panim, nirsa lo. He saw himself that he looked like his father. He saw himself that he is the most yuknoi shel aviv. Un bemeila, how could he do this aveira? That's pshat, ha'oid avi chai. And the pshat is that they couldn't see all this. How could they not see this? What? Ale balimuses speak. Negius, negius, negius. When you don't want to see something, when you believe something, the thing could be right in front of you.

You won't get it. You won't catch it. You won't see it. Mechiras Yosef, the Alter says, Torah tells me clearly what mechiras Yosef is. Vayikanu bo echav, they had kinah. It says clearly in the Torah. The Torah specifically tells us where it came from. Yidden zogn, the shoresh, from where it stamt, it comes from kinah. So then what's the sugya? Say baalei mussar, the Alter, the Roshon, Alter of Slabodka. You can't identify it. You can't. It's called jealousy, a dakus. Dakus. It's subliminal. It's something which is so adin, it's something which is so that you can't even detect it. You can't even detect it. Chapela. The shevatim were convinced all the years, even when they were confronted seeing Yosef, that they're right. And the teretz is, when there's kinah, you don't see anything. You start believing in your kinah. It's just the way it is. The Rosh, in Orchos Chaim, writes, Ein trufah l'kinah. There's no trufah for it. You can't heal kinah. It's one of the things that the Rishonim say, it's almost impossible to heal. And you know why? Because it's not detectable. I like to call it the silent killer. It's a silent killer. You never know. A mensch walks around, he looks normal, he sounds normal, he can even look like he's a gadol hador, a tzaddik, a tzaddik. Inside, he's something. I always use the expression, rekev atzamos kina. It's called rekev atzamos. Why atzamos? An etzem is from within. It's a tiph in the beinah. It's a tiph in the beinah. Kina is not something a guy can walk around and he looks like he's a, I wish, a tzaddik yisod olam. But in the beinah, rekev, it's rotting away inside like a silent killer, inside the bones, in the marrow. Esmachtona achareis haganze churb. The Shvatim, begadlusam, they believed what they were doing, but it had dakus. My zeide always used to say, a nusach, and I have come to learn over the years that 99.9 percent of what he said and the nuschaos he used was either from Slabodka or from Mir, it was right out of the yeshivas and the chadarim of Mussar. The zeide, flegt iberzogn. My zeide used to say, a mensch is far a mensch. That was an expression he used to use all the time. A mensch is far a mensch. Appropriate in our sugya in mechiras Yosef. A mensch is far a mensch. The point is that somewhere, and some, a person could analyze and see that there's something over there which is adam. You know, Kelem was about the midah of emes, a very makpid on emes. My zeide used to say over, in Kelem they had a mahalach that if you asked them if it's raining, he wouldn't say yes or no. He would say, when I was outside, it was either yes or no raining, right? Whatever it was. Because how do I know it's raining? Maybe it stopped raining. A guy would come from the outside. Maybe in this minute or two it stopped raining. Rabbi, say, we can't even live like this, because, like I said, in Rishonim, kibnei adam, anu kechamorim. We can't even begin to start taking apart our words of azah oifen. Zeh eida tamali begezog pshat. As I used to say over, you notice by Rivka, Rivka says, To you I'll give to drink, v'gam ligmalecha eshav. I will draw the water. So the mefarshim speak, why did—so, you know, why does he change the lashon? So they say it's a derech eretz. The man, you don't put the man in the same thing like, I give you and your camel to drink, so you to drink, your camel. There's a lot. We've spoken about it in the past. Zeh dafke ibezogin, because of the midas ha'emes. Do I know she's going to drink? It's expression in English: you can bring the animal to the water, but you can't make it drink, right? That's as much as you could do. You want to drink, so I can say you'll probably drink. But by the camel, I can only say eshav. I'll draw the water; will drink. Midas ha'emes, right? So it's brought down one of the stories that bring out kelim. What is kelim?

Talmud Torah in Kelm was burning. It was burning. Talmud Torah doesn't mean yeshiva. Today, Talmud Torah means cheder. Then it meant the kolel. In Kelm, Talmud Torah means the yeshiva gedolah and the kolel, people running. So I think it was Rav Danil Meishivitz, I believe it was him, that asked one of the kolel guys, Tell me, you see the beis medrash is burning down. What are you thinking? He said, What am I thinking? Churban Beis Hashem. What are you talking about? Churban habayis. Shreklach. And Danil said, Come on, come on, give me the real, real. Come on, dig deep. He said, I see the Talmud Torah burning. Okay, maybe I don't feel as bad, you know, as I'm claiming. He said, No, I want you to dig deeper. So he goes, What do you mean? He says, I know. Listen, deep down there's somewhere a feeling that you think to yourself, for the next two weeks you don't have to come to kolel. You have a vacation. So admit it, that that's really what's going on inside your heart. Admit it. Learn to be emes, to know exactly what's going in your heart. There's one ayoda of a feeling of, This is a big story, it's a big thing, it's, I go to my house, I don't have to go to yeshiva now for two weeks, I'm gonna get paid anyway. This is the midah of emes. And if this is what the baalei mussar 200 years, 150 years ago used to take apart in action, Torah is taking apart. Dakus, dakus, dakus, dakus, dakus, dakus, dakus. Hey, kind of, there's a kinah, there's something there. The Torah is telling us. Now you can ask me, then why you talk about it if it's אינו כחמירא, it has nothing to do with us? This is almost from a different planet. Talking, Chazal chareid, and I'm sure people are listening to this shiur thinking, What do you want from me? Tell me, what do I have from all this? So I'll tell you what we can take out from this. A mensch is far a mensch, you're right. There was a whole history of mussar that people used to work on themselves to figure out the penimi, the nekudah penimi, what really is driving the person, driving his actions. The Kotzker used to say, Hakol l'shem Shamayim. Al taf mitol l'shem... afilu you're l'shem Shamayim, you have to do l'shem Shamayim. Everything has to, even including it is l'shem Shamayim, should be l'shem Shamayim. Yeah. L'shem Shamayim. What drives the l'shem Shamayim? You're right. Are we holding at a madreigah that we could analyze it and therefore not do it? Also not. But I think there's another part of the lesson of a mensch is far a mensch, and the dakus, the dakus of a middah. I'll tell you what it is. When we deal with others, understand how a mensch is far a mensch. You never know what core of sensitivity you're touching. You never know. A person thinks, I'm doing the right thing, I'm helping the person, I'm doing for the... right? Gevaldig, megedik, huh? Who knows how you're hurting the other person, how the person's being affected. Midos are complicated. A mensch is farkt a mensch. People are people. And I'll explain to you why I'm saying this. It's another big part of the mechiras Yosef. This is the nekudah that I just mentioned to you. Mechiras Yosef is not just the brothers who were insensitive, as we soon will see, to Yosef, or they were insensitive to themselves to not really catch that it was kinah, but there was an insensitivity from the father's part. That kavavinu that caused mechiras Yosef. It's a Gemara, the first Gemara in Shabbos. The Gemara in Shabbos daf yud tells us that a person should never be meshaneh bein bein habanim. You can't show privilege one over the other, because Yaakov Avinu did this with two slayim. The Gemara says even two slayim, it's not much, it was just two slayim worth, that he gave him an extra with silk. This is what it caused. Now, people, for some reason, when they say over the Gemara, they think that he got the ksones pasim, Yosef, and the brothers got nothing. That's not what it is. Rashi clearly says not that way. Rashi says they all got new suits for him.

So to speak. Now, so his had extra two. Rashi's wondering, Rashi being from Rabbi Yitzchak, halevi a question: wait a minute, how could it be that it's only two? What, I mean, if this was not the same material as this, this was a better material, for example it was milas. Rashi says it was silk. Yosef's was silk. So automatically it's more than two. Tell me, could you have a difference between a polyester suit and a wool suit, two dollars? Could it make sense there could be a two-dollar difference? How about that? It can't be such a thing. So you're laughing, what do I want? It's Rashi. Rashi himself asks this kasha. He brings from Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi, Shamati, he says, miRabbi Yitzchak, miTalmidei Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi. Says Rashi, it can't be that the actual coat was different. Everybody got the same. Everybody got zayden kapotes. Everybody got it. One got around his arm, Yosef. I knew the Chassidish oylem that's sitting here will say right away, shtarkes. Yes, I know shtarkes was two milim. It was two sloyim here, and that caused the whole difference. The same kapote, the same with the flowers and everything. Einam shtarkes, einam shtarkes. No. It's not Rashi had to say. Ta Rashi. You see what a piece around the arm could do. And that's what Chazal's saying, it's not much. Chazal trying to say that it wasn't much, and still it caused all this tzaros. Who are we talking about? Yankiv thought to himself, they don't care, and I have another cheshbon for you. Maybe Yosef is a yasom. Did you ever think about that? Maybe Yosef is a yasom. If chas v'shalom a person—his mother died. If chas v'shalom a person has ten children, avada there are no maalos to give. I always thought to myself, what do you want? You shouldn't—it's halacha to treat the yesomim better. It's rachmanus al them. It's muzdach, it's no maalah zach. And Chazal say he still made a mistake, because you have to treat—why? This yesod miltachtach. A mensch is not a mensch. And it's a one-time thing. Why Yosef? And it gets worse and worse and worse, al chalomosav, al dvarav. Everything that Yosef said, that was it. They couldn't hear one word. They couldn't hear nothing till the end, all the way till they saw him, and nothing. Why? Ki oisei ahav Aviv. Tell me something: is it Yosef's fault, ki oisei ahav Aviv? What are you blaming him for? I mean, you're not talking about babies. You're not talking about brother fights that we have. We're talking about Gedolei Yisrael. They don't chap that it's not his fault. They don't get it that it's not his fault. They don't get it. Ki oisei ahav Aviv. So what does that have to do with you? What does that mean? What does that have to do with Yosef? And the teretz is—see, you're right, but it says Vayasifu, but the pasuk says clearly it started off Ki oisei ahav Aviv. They hated him for that. What are you hating him for that for? And the teretz is, kinah and sinah has no explanation. There's nothing to explain. It is what it is. A mensch is farkt a mensch. It starts with a kernel and it festers. I always say pshat, at the end of davening we have an interesting nusach. Ashkenaz doesn't say it. Sefard says it. And because of that, I think it's very hard for me to find peirush. I can't find any of the yeshiva sefarim that talk about this nusach, because it's not by the yeshivas. They don't use this nusach. It bothered me all the years. Loisale kinas adam alai, v'lo kinasi al acheirim. Why the word sa'ale? It shouldn't come upon me. What does upon me? I mean, just say I shouldn't be mekaneh, and others shouldn't be mekaneh me. What does lo ta'ale, what does sa'ale mean? Coming on. Loisale, it shouldn't come on me. So all the years I've understood it, when I daven, I try to understand when I'm davening, I always understood that the pshat is ayin hara. Kinah means really another way of saying ayin hara, and we're davening we shouldn't have. So loisale an ayin hara comes on me, and I shouldn't give that it should come on my ayin hara on the other person. I'm davening l'sa'ale that the ayin hara shouldn't come on, come upon, okay? Ayin hara could come upon. That's the word sa'ale. Over the years I've come to...

Think of another pshat, and especially in light of the shiur that we're giving, I've come to realize that maybe this is the pshat. The word saleh is another way of saying nis'oir, me'oir kinah, me'oir sin. It's about nis'oirus. You know where it starts as a kinah? When it's nis'oir. When it's nis'oir, the moment that it comes. After that, you don't even detect it. It becomes part of—you believe your kinah, that it's part of life. We're asking the Eibishter it shouldn't be nis'oir. Says, I'm machlichas v'chalilah lachas. You can't have it start, because once it starts, it's nebach. We're asking for the Eibishter, lo yisaleh. It shouldn't even come. It shouldn't come up. It shouldn't be nis'oir, because kinah is such that when it begins, it festers. It grows. It spreads. So the bakasha to the Eibishter is, lo yisaleh kinas adam alai v'lo kinasi al acheirim. This, rabosai, is mechiras Yosef in light of where the chisaron was, why they're shuldig, so to speak. Why are they responsible? And the answer is because with all the l'shem Shamayim, there was a kinah there. There was a sinah there. There was something there, deep down, which caused sinah, which caused sinah. There's a meyridike vort. I'd like to share with you. I have such a naf in this vort, because meiredik, meiredik vort. There's a Medrash Pliah. Medrash Pliah: Lechu v'nargeihu. Let's go and let's kill him, zogt Medrash Pliah, u'nikatzer b'Birchas Hamazon. We'll kill him, and we'll make Birchas Hamazon short. That's why it's called a Medrash Pliah. Anybody has any ideas how to connect the two? Maritz, Chidushei HaRim. The Maritz was Reb Dushinsky. He was the Gadol Eretz Yisrael, the Rav of Eretz Yisrael, Dushinsky, Gedolim. Today the grandson is the Dushinsky Rebbe. But actually the name is Dushinsky, and his zeide was an adam gadol, had an yad, the greatest, greatest gedolim of Yerushalayim. He said pshat like this: You notice half the benching is thanking the Eibishter. The other half talks about the fact that we don't have the Beis Hamikdash. U'vnei Yerushalayim ir hakodesh. Then we have, because of Beitar, harugei Beitar, that because there was a churban, they went and they killed Beitar, right? They believed that they're going to kill Yosef, they're uprooting the sinas chinam in Klal Yisrael, u'nikatzer b'Birchas Hamazon. Lechu v'nargeihu, lechu v'nargeihu. Let's go and kill Yosef. You hear how far it goes? They're looking at Yosef: Yosef, you're the sinas chinamnik. All the musar shmuzen that we're going to speak about mechiras Yosef, these shivtei Kah believe fakert, it's Yosef gar. You know, there's a very famous story that every baal mussar must know. Any maggid shiur, any person that gives shiurim, mussar shmuzen has to know this. Whenever you give mussar, you can have a certain guy in mind. That guy never thinks it's about him. The story is that a person once gave a shmuz, and he had a specific guy in mind. The person, after the shmuz, comes over to the rav, to the maggid shiur, to the baal mussar, the mashgiach, Rebbe, I can't get over how you know my friend so well. Moiridik. How did you know him and all his... with all his chisronos? Tim. This is Adam, das a mentch, you hear? The shivtei Kah, who at some point, you have to say there was a sinas chinam here. They believed that fakert, they're uprooting sinas chinam by getting rid of Yosef. Half of a fella, you hear? When the Torah is telling...

That every time you get rid of your sinas chinam, you better make sure that you're not the one who's doing the sinas chinam. There's a very famous vort from Zeiden zechain levracha. Pasuk says, Elokim yevakeish es nirdaf. So pashut it means, yevakeish, He searches out to help the nirdaf. Elokim yevakeish means the nirdaf, everybody is dumping on him, so to speak. So the Ribono Shel Olam digs in to help him. Yevakeish. He searches him to stand by him. Zeide, like the Ibn Ezra says, not every guy walks around saying he's the nirdaf. He has to mention chachmas, maschif, and he's the nirdaf. Elokim yevakeish, who the real nirdaf is. So the Ribono Shel Olam is going to get down to the bottom of it, who's the nirdaf. In life, the rodef k'meinen es gadol nirdaf. The rodef k'meinen es gadol nirdaf. And to a certain nekudah, das is geven again, under kichamoirim, I'm not—again, we have to be careful that we understand that this is almost no shayches to our hanhaga, but there was a nekudah of kinah, the Torah is me'id, and that nekudah of kinah was, mita halacha, that he's a rodef. And that's Elokim yevakeish es nirdaf. Das is der sugya from the parsha, Elokim yevakeish es nirdaf, this parsha. This Chabei Sai is on the tzad that we discussed the mechiras Yosef as a chisaron in sinas chinam. Dahainu, there was a nekudah, hidden nekudah, a subliminal, undetected nekudah of kin'ah. The Ramban, I told you from the beginning of the shiur, is mashma whole different mahalach. The fact that they said, Aval asheimim anachnu al achinu asher ra'inu tzaras nafsho b'hischaneno eileinu v'lo shamanu, says the Ramban it's not the mechirah, but it's the hachzarius that we did such a thing. On the mechirah, it's not such a big chet; that's the lashon he uses. Chashuv l'machzarus l'oinesh gadol yoser min hamechirah. Now there's two ways to learn this Ramban. The mechirah was no good, but the hachzarius was worse. Well, maybe the whole Ramban means, they're still not holding that the mechirah is a problem. The mechirah was whatever the mechirah was, and whatever it was was al pi daas Torah, whatever the cheshbonim, but still, hachzarius. Ki haya acheihem b'saram mischaneh u'misnapel lifneihem, v'lo yerachamu. Says the Ramban, v'hakasuv lo siper shozeh. Why does the Torah not talk about it, not mention that? Zogt the Ramban, or the pshat is, says the Ramban, pashut. It's pashut like that. I don't have to speak out that he begged for his life, because it's pashut. Who would not beg for his life? Says the Ramban, haya mipnei shehadavar yadua b'teva, that when somebody, especially if it's your brothers, is trying to kill you or to sell you, you'd stand there begging by him. Now, I don't know why the Ramban doesn't quote the mefurash in the Midrash. The Midrash says clearly that that's what happened. Ramban makes it sound like it's a davar pashut here. The Midrash speaks out clearly that Yosef stood by the legs of his brothers, and he begged them, pulling at their pins, the hem of their pants. He was pulling at the hem of their pants, saying, I'm your brother. Don't sell me. Have rachmanus on me. It's Midrashim. So either the Ramban just means to say this, but why did the Torah not write it? Pshat, we don't know. We taka don't know. I'm sure he knew the Midrashim. But why would the Torah not write it? The Torah says it's a davar pashut. It's a davar pashut that that's what happened. Then he says another meirdikah zach, the Ramban, and over the years, this Ramban resonated with me that there's a big yesod here. Sater heilige Ramban: Oy sheyirtza hakasuv lekatzer b'sur chainam. Torah wanted to fatter it. Torah wanted to cover it over. So the mechirah, that's written. This, this is already—can't write this. Hear what it is? The dachzarius sheboi is azeifel elger. It's so much more worse than the mechirah that the Torah...

I have to cover it over. And I always think to myself, the goyim, especially we see by the Sarugei Malchus, talk about, Hu mechiras Yosef. Could you imagine if they also knew the chelek of the Achzarius sheboi? Could you imagine if that's what came out into the world, so to speak, that's what went out into press, into the Velt's media? I'm saying at the hera, beisai, that they knew of mechirah, and more than that, they knew mechirah ba'dalayim, that we know. That they know. And that the Torah tells us it's in the haftorah, Al michram b'kesef tzaddik, v'evyon ba'avur na'alayim. And that they knew, because you see clearly that when the Sarugei Malchus, the melech tells them, You sold Yosef for a pair of shoes. So the bizayon sheboi, that came out into the open. But this, this can't come out into the open here. This, this can't be. This had to be l'katzer b'serchanam. Then he says a third pshat, that the derech hamikra is l'katzer. Okay. Three pshatim the Ramban says. Now, rabosai, the inyan of the Achzarius is worse than the mechirah. Vos meynt dos? What does it mean that Achzarius is worse than the mechirah? A Yid is a rachman. A Yid, if he doesn't have rachmanus, er is nisht kein Yid. The Rambam codifies this halacha, not stam, it's Chazal, that this is the—today everybody knows—a beautiful sefer, Uma... The middah of the umah Yisraelis is, by shonim, Rachmanim, gomlei chasadim. You deserve a gevaldige yasher koach for that beautiful niggun. Rachmanim, ... for Avraham Avinu. Beautiful. All right? Rachmanim, by shonim, gomlei... This is the umah, simanei umah Yisrael, yeah. But lahalacha, the Rambam brings a halacha that if a person shows lack of—it's a she'eilah boitin achar yichusoi. The Rambam in Hilchos Matnos Aniyim, perek yud, halacha beis, says clearly, V'nasan lach rachamim v'rachamecha. A Yid has rachmanus; ach alach has to have rachmanus. And if he doesn't, boitkin achar yichusoi. Perhaps there's something wrong. Maybe something else got mixed in there. A Yid means that he's a rachman. That's what a Yid means. And if he doesn't have rachmanus, is in gantzen opgefregt. In gantzen opgefregt. He's completely—that he's not a Yid. The mahus, the DNA of a Yid. You know, what is a Yid? Let's talk, vos a Yid is. This is a discussion that I talk to the talmidim all the time. Know what it means: Mi k'amcha Yisrael goy echad ba'aretz. What does it mean? What makes us different than the rest of the world? So I'll tell you: Yisrael v'Oraisa v'Kudsha Brich Hu chad hu. We are chelek Eloka mima'al. We're Yisrael. Ve'ra'aysom, the Kutche Brichu, and I'm not going to go into all the sefarim, so to speak, literature upon literature, the sefarim, especially the sefer Chassidus and sefer Kabbalah, that the Yid is mamish a shtick of the Eibishter and the Torah. Tell me, what is the name that the Eibishter is called? Rachmana. Rachmana litzlan, Rachmana shziv, Rachmana. What is the Torah called? Rachmana. Chazal, whenever they say Rachmana amar, the Torah. The Yid, which is a combination of Yisrael ve'ra'ayso, is the mahus of it, is Rachmana. It has to be that way. You know, every time we talk about the Eibishter's rachmanus, we say am. For example, Verachem amoi beyom din. Rachem al amcha Yisrael. Am Yisrael means rachmanus. The midah keneged midah means Rachem, and that's what he's saying, al amcha. How do we become amcha? Through the rachmanus.

It's not that this is siman that we're Bnei Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, which is also true. It's even more than that. It's a siman that we're amcha. That's the pshat of the ... It's not only that the fact that there's simanei Yisrael, that we're simanim that we're Bnei Avraham, Yitzchak—no, it's simanei Yisrael, of amcha Yisrael, because we have the middos of the Ribono Shel Olam. There's a very famous Gemara in Shabbos. The Gemara says, Ketapuach ba'atzei hayaar, ken dodi bein habanos is Klal Yisrael by Matan Torah. How is it Klal Yisrael by Matan Torah? Because just like an apple, that the leaf grows before the fruit, the leaf grows and then the fruit grows afterwards, so too Klal Yisrael said naaseh before nishma. Gemara in Shabbos. Fregt Tosafos a kasha: the pasuk is not talking about Klal Yisrael. The pasuk is talking about the Eibishter. Ketapuach ba'atzei hayaar is talking about the Ribono Shel Olam. Zogt Tosafos, yes, but since we're the children of the Eibishter, meila the pasuk of ketapuach, which is talking about the Eibishter, is us too. I always say the line from here, from Tosafos, we learn the apples don't fall far from the tree, that this is the taste, this is the mekor. We are a mini of the Ribono Shel Olam. Kedoshim tihyu, ki kadosh ani Hashem Elokeichem, because I am, and therefore you could be also. And that's what velachta bidrachav means. So in which nekudah is rachmanim? It's amchaf. It's a siman that we're the amchaf of Yisrael. Because am Yisrael, v'erais, v'kudsha brich hu chad, and it's all rachmana d'Ribono Shel Olam, rachmana d'Oraisa. It's all about rachmanus. It's interesting. When Yosef stops the, let's call it the word charade, so to speak, with the brothers, and he starts to say, I'm Yosef, the pasuk says clearly, how does it end? It ends because it was nichmeru rachamav. The pasuk says, oh... the pasuk says clearly. So first you see the way the brothers, they were trying to be me'orer the rachamim. It's interesting, they were trying to be me'orer the rachamim of Yosef, that he's one child, and if he dies... they're trying to reach the rachamim. Says the pasuk... trying to find the pasuk here, a minute. This pasuk should be here. It says clearly, the pasuk says that... no, the pasuk says clearly that Yosef, it was nichmeru rachamav al echav. One second, maybe, right? It should be right. One second. No, the pasuk says it clearly, that he was nichmeru rachamav, the rachamim of Yosef. Ah, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. Vayomer Yosef, ki nichmeru rachav el achiv. Perek mem gimmel, pasuk lamed. Now it's interesting. It says, lo yuchal l'hisapek, he couldn't control himself. Chazal tell us, the way the pasuk is mashma, he got angry at them the minute he saw them, and he decided he's going to teach them a lesson. Actually, that's not what happened. If you look at the pasuk, it says that he recognized them. Vayar Yosef es echav, vayakirem, vayisnaker aleihem, vayedaber itam kashos, vayomer aleihem meayin basem. Says Rashi, what does it mean, vayakir Yosef es echav? The pasuk continues, he says, k'shemasru b'yado, hikah shem echav, richem aleihem. He had rachmanus on them. K'shenaflu b'yadam linek...

V'heim lo hikiruhu, k'shenaflu b'yadam lenigbo'achfo. Yosef had rachmanus on them right away. So what's the vayisnaker? Vayisnaker means either he made himself like he's nochri. Vayisnaker means gemacht. The word vayis, the taf is supposed to connotate that it was made, even though b'etzem it wasn't. That's many Rishonim learn like this. The Baal HaTurim brings down that it was Gavriel who came and forced him to do all this. It's from פירוש בעל הטורים. U'vikesh l'kabel b'seiver panim yafos. U'va malach shematzi to'eh, v'hizkiro miyad vayisnaker aleihem. U'lekach kasuv achar vayaker loshon yachid. And then he says, vayisnaker b'gematria al yedei haYish Gavriel. Yata maaseh. You think Yosef, his first reaction—what was his first reaction? He had rachmanus on his brothers. His first reaction was fakert, because that's what Yosef was. Nor vos, the malach Gavriel, a malach from Shamayim, came and said, No, no, no, you can't do this. You can't do this. There was a cheshbon, the Ribono Shel Olam wanted it to work out with the whole that they should get a shtikel mussar, and they should be misaken by bringing Binyamin and having rachmanus on the father and Binyamin. Don't forget there were two things: they didn't have rachmanus not on their father when they sold Yosef, and not on a brother. So the tikkun for it is what? That they had to show rachmanus for the father, they had to show rachmanus to a brother. So Gavriel came and held back Yosef and says, Don't, don't, don't. And Yosef was holding himself back, because b'etzem, what is Yosef? Yosef is nichmeru rachma alecha. That's what he was, because he was a Yid. That's who Yosef was. You know, I always think to myself, asarah harugei malchus, good, they have to die, asarah harugei malchus. But why all the achzariyus? It's mind-boggling. It's something, you know, I always speak out. Ashreichem Yisrael, k'she'atem oylim, ein umah oleh mikem. K'she'atem yordim, ein umah yoredes. There's nobody that goes down as much as you. So the mefarshim ask, so what's the ashreichem, that when you fall, nobody falls like you? That's ashreichem, that you should be happy and praiseworthy, praising. So many years ago I told you a pshat, that even when you're yordim, look where you go. You don't go too far. K'she'atem oylim, nobody goes up as high as you. But when you're yordim, no nation even still comes to you, because you're still shtei techem, and Yidden are still sach echer. Mida goyim gas. That's תמיד פתאי. K'she'atem yordim, even when you're in a matzav of yeridah, you're still nowhere in the vicinity of what a goy is, the best, the best of the goy. K'she'atem yordim, ein umah, no umah could even reach where you're yoredes. Baalei mussar speak that this is a siman that the Ribono Shel Olam feared the world, because take a look, when you're oleh, unbelievable, a pop of the world, and when you're yored, the type of hanhagah that the world has with you. It's chutz miderech hateva. Make limbs out of people, use their teeth. Ein umah yoredes, no nation falls like you. So it's a siman that the Ribono Shel Olam פחד. You have a special hanhagah. I've mentioned to you many times, imagine a guy gets a patch from his father in shul. Why? He's jumping on the tables, the kid gets a patch, he's jumping, he's running, he's making noise. Okay. The kid comes back to the father and he says, Pa? Ta? Or Abba, whatever it is, I don't understand. See, my friend David, he did the same thing, even worse. Why are you hitting me? Why don't you hit him? I got the ta'ina, huh? Tata קוקט אים, מיין קינד, עס נישט מיין זון. He's not my child. He's not my child. You're my child. When the Eibishter gives patch, it's a siman that. Otherwise there's no shaychus to him. So do aveiros, do aveiros, as long as it doesn't turn into zdon, to the amount that it's mamish nishchasar.

Mameila. The limud that I'm trying to bring out is that this achzarius is sometimes shelo k'derech hateva. That's not what the world does. What the world does is, you kill, you shoot, you have whatever it has to. But then to go and make such crazy achzarius, and we elaborate and we emphasize this achzarius by the asarah harugei malchus. Why? Good, there was a mechiras Yosef, yes, and there has to be an onesh, so you put to death the ten tzaddikim. Why all the achzarius accompanying the misa? So I always thought to myself a few answers. One of them could be Yosef, the tzaar. He's talking about 22 years of tzaar. They tortured Yosef, so to speak, for 22 years. They tortured the father. So it's not just you die and your misa. There's yisurim. You have to midah k'neged midah, which is a lesson in life, Rabbi Yisai. You never know. You never know, az mitzaltap, what goes into the cheshbon could be the tzaar also. The tzaar could also go into the cheshbon. Az medaf optzoln, vos me tut op far yenem, what you do against another person, the payment might be with on every part of what you've done, tzaar and yisurim included. Or maybe we could say there was chilul Hashem involved. We know that chilul Hashem, there's really no kaparah. You need yisurim and you need misah. Maybe the chilul Hashem of a brother. Being sold by his brothers needs yisurim as well as misa. It's another teretz I've thought about all through the years. But then I thought maybe the pshat is very poshut with this Ramban. The mechir wasn't even the issue; the achzarius was the issue. Therefore, the punishment was not even a misa; it was the achzarius. And this is a Rabbeinu Yonah. In Shaar Gimel, os lamed-vav, Rabbeinu Yonah writes clearly, Lo yisametz es yadcha, lo sikpotz es yadcha me'ani, that you're not allowed to be an achzar, and it's the worst thing, says the Rabbeinu Yonah. And the payment, the punishment, is ra me'od. And he brings the Chazal, Kol hamerachem al habriyos, merachamim alav min hashamayim; kol hamechazer, if someone's an achzari al habriyos, there'll be an achzari on him min hashamayim. And could be the lesson is from this, from the asarah harugei malchus, that it wasn't only that they were put to death, but there was an achzarius as well. Baal haYad is a rachman, and Yosef is pushing this rachmanus, and he's holding himself back on every word that he speaks. He's holding himself back because be'etzem he is a rachman, ki nichmeru rachmav al echav. I want to show you what it means, rachmanus of a Yid. I told you years ago a story that I heard from my father. My father told me that he once went with my zeide to a hospital to visit a choleh. The person was more or less healthy to leave the hospital. But before he left, the zeide decided that he's going to go visit him. They came to him, they spoke to him. Then my father excused himself for a few minutes because he had to put a quarter in the meter of the car, get a ticket. Open the door a little bit, a little bit open the door a little bit. I'm hot, a little bit. You know, it's one thing to sit and listen, another thing to give a shiur for an overnight. So, by the time my father came back, he sees my zeide standing outside the room, crying. My father thought I left you for a few minutes only. What happened? Did something happen to this person in the last few minutes? So my zeide... So my father was wondering what happened in these last few minutes, just moments that I was gone. So my zeide said no.

Oh, it's not about the person that we visited. It's not, he's not, Baruch Hashem, okay. But I was waiting for you, and as I was, while I was waiting, they brought in a person who was in a major accident, and he was in such bad shape, and he was in so much yissurim, I just couldn't take to see it, so I started to cry. It's not about the choleh we came to visit. It's someone that they brought in in a critical state. Good. They leave, and as they leave, they pass by the intensive care unit, and my zeide says, You see, that's the guy that they brought in. My father looks. He sees a guy with a long chup — Yiddish zach for a chup. He had a ponytail in the back to the floor. He had tattoos, mirosho v'ad kaf raglo. He was a biker, and he obviously was wild on the bike, and he got into a major accident. So he turns to the zeide and he says, On him you're crying? Of him? Father told me that the entire day the zeide didn't speak to him. My father — the zeide didn't talk to him the rest of the day. Hayitacheh, a Yid, you're a Jew. How do you not respond with rachmanus on a tzelem Elokim? What's wrong with you? My grandfather was taken back. This, you're my son? What's wrong with you? My child should react that way? What are you— And I always wondered, wow, that's an unbelievable story. Do others believe that? Do others think like that? And I found Reb Yerucham in Parshas Miketz on the topic of why Yosef is feeding, and he's helping out Mitzrayim. What's he helping out, feeding Mitzrayim? So he goes through the inyan of tzelem Elokim and how it means to have rachmanus on others, and he writes something unbelievable, a saba kadisha. I wish we had, if you have Reb Yerucham, I'd love to quote the words word for word. Sorry, you want to get me Reb Yerucham? Das Torah. Das Torah, okay. Reb Yerucham writes that the saba Mikelam— Said that when he sees the goyim go to church and they travel and they spend their time Sundays, his heart goes out for them, rachmanus. He's merachem on them. Such a rachmanus. They have no life. They have no eibishter. And Reb Yerucham writes, Gam li yesh k'tzas hergesh b'zeh. Here, Reb Yerucham was a big baal mussar, so he didn't want to write clearly, I feel the same way. No, it's like from Kelm, you have to make sure exactly what you really feel. I also, says Reb Yerucham, I also have a little bit of a hergesh, a feeling in this topic. And he writes, it's unbelievable that when I see a goy being mechalel Shabbos, my heart goes out for him. And even though he has no Shabbos, the goy, more than that, he's not allowed to keep Shabbos. But what kind of a life is it without Shabbos? So Reb Yerucham writes, Rachmanus, this guy, what does he have already? What? He goes to Florida, vos hot er shain? He goes to the Giants game on a Sunday, vos hot er mench? What does he have? We have a Shabbos, a rachmanus of him, but he doesn't have a Shabbos. Reb Yerucham, the gedolei hamashgichim, speaks from the alter from Kelm. He had rachmanus on who? On a goy, on a Christian in a church. Clear, open words in the Daas Torah of Reb Yerucham in Parshas Miketz. He would say, Rachmanus? Who do you have rachmanus on? What are you talking about? A Yid is a rachmon. Oy, Yid is a rachman. And they use the words a rachmanis. It's not just words, rabosai. You know what he's saying? Dos is Yiddishkeit. The word a rachmanis is a word which defines what an attitude and a response of a Yid is always. Yadus is a rachmanis. It's a big rachmanis. And on who? I'm going to tell you a story about a chacham Avadi, which nobody knows. I've got it from my shveren shviger, my father-in-law and mother-in-law from France, and they heard it directly from the chief rabbi of France, Rav Sitruk. Sheyarich Hashem yamav, yishev arichas yamim, yihyeh b'gesund. Rav Sitruk told my in-laws the following story about Rav Ovadia, Chacham Ovadia zichrono tzaddik livracha. It's the exact same point that we're speaking about. Exact same. Brings out exactly that.

The theme of the shmooze that we're bringing out: the head bishop in France, the Galach, the head Galach of France, is a Yid. His mother was a Jewish woman, and during the war he was taken by a goyishe family, and after the war, and then he became a Christian minister, and he became the head Galach, head priest in France. He got sick and he was ready to die. Rav Citruk went to Chacham Ovadia and asked him, as chief rabbi, they're going to let me in, should I say with him vidui? He's a Yid. Unbelievable question. Say with him vidui. Chacham Ovadia paskened, yes, say with him vidui. And if you can't get him to say vidui, at least Shema Yisrael. Let him die by one saying, Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Rav Citruk took the psak halacha and he said he's going to do exactly how he was told. He met with this Galach, he met with this priest. Unfortunately, he couldn't find the opportunity to do it with him. It didn't go. He was trying to get the right to get him to do it. It didn't go. He came back to Rav Ovadia, and Rav Ovadia asked him, Nu, what happened? He says, I couldn't do it. I couldn't get him to say even Shema Yisrael. Chacham Ovadia began to cry. He began, Rachmanus, I have mercy on him. What awaits this person in the next world? Had he only once said, Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. He'd has rachmanus. Rachmanus, when someone is lost. What is kiruv rechokim? It bothers. You have rachmanus on the person. Rachmanus, the guy is lost. It's rachmanus on him. There's a ma'aseh from the Steipler. The Steipler wrote an encyclopedic piece of work, Moiridike sefer, Steipler. The Steipler attributed his gadlus baTorah to an incident. He was the rosh kollel of the kollel in his town. The people in the town did not want the kollel. It was soinei Torah; they didn't want it. But they couldn't get the kollel out of the town. Some people wanted it, even though there was mostly didn't want, but there were still people backing the kollel. So there was one person in town that came up with an idea, a plan, a scheme, that he's going to take the woman who cleans the kollel, the mesharses, a Jewish woman, offer her house, money, insurance for health. If she takes a libel, if she puts out a libel on the Steipler, at night when he stays late to learn, she'll run out and say that the Steipler tried to do an aveirah with her. And thus, it'll take the whole public opinion of the town against the kollel, and they'll be able to officially close. The plan was to close the kollel with this. Ma'aseh nevolah that they planned on doing. The woman, she was a simple woman. Money is money. Life, you know, how much did she make already by cleaning the keil? Pennies. This was an opportunity, so she did it. No, it was a tremendous chil Hashem. The word in the street that the Steipler, and most believed it, and the keil suffered terribly because of it. The Steipler didn't say one word, kept on learning, and the people in the keil, of the administration of the keil, they didn't believe it. They knew the Steipler was a malach, a tzaddik, but the keil suffered terribly for years. Of course, this guy wasn't marich yamim, nor did his money have much mazel, and so he lost both his life and his money. The woman was stuck now because there was nobody to pay her. He promised, but so what? You know, tiftchu b'divim. It doesn't work that way. You know, the Eibishter runs the world. So she had no choice because she was in dire straits. She had no money and she was suffering. She built up the pride within her, the courage to go ask the Steipler if he could take her back, and she'll walk around saying, telling everybody there was a lie and the whole thing never happened and it was only done for the money. She's willing to do that if the Steipler could find it in his heart.

To let her come back, to let her come back. The Steichemed responded, Yes, you can come back, you can get back your job, but on one condition: you don't talk about it. Don't bring the story up again, because if you bring it up again, then the chilul Hashem rehashes itself. Just let it go. It's years ago. It died away and finished. Said the Steichemed, at that moment, niftchu lo shaarei hashamayim. The gates of Shamayim opened to him, and oitzros of Torah came into his head. And because of this, he was zocheh to write the Steichemed. Everybody, when they bring this maaseh, they say, b'schus of the Kiddush Hashem Shamayim. He didn't want the name of Hashem to be desecrated, and he told her not to repeat. I believe it begins with the rachmanus that he had, to be able to overlook what she did to him and have rachmanus on a woman who was broken. She was a simple woman. This, rabosai, is the Yid, the Yid, the rachman, the rachmanus. And this rachmanus is the DNA, so to speak, of what a Yid is all about. It's the DNA of what a Yid is all about. We find, B'nefola yifchal tismach. Haman tells this to Mordechai, B'nefola yifchal tismach. Who are we talking about? Haman. Haman. So maybe you could come and say that it's taka not applied to Haman, but Haman applied it to himself. No, pashut, Shabbos Gemara, it applies to Haman as well. Why is it a b'foel, yivchal tismach? So maybe you could come and say the Eibishter is the person that—it's not the person, but the Eibishter is the one that makes the yeshuah. So don't be proud like, like, Kofti mikol achsadim. There's a lot of zechusim that you use up when your enemy falls. Well, maybe it's actually because of rachmanus. A Yid is a rachman, and a rachmanus means, b'nafal oyivcha al tismach. And this, rabosai, could be the lesson that we could take from Mechiras Yosef. Not the mechirah, because the mechirah maybe is way above us, but the nichmeru rachmav, the fact that we have to have rachmanus, the fact—what, vayischananei eleinu. He begged. You know, rabosai, I don't know if you realize how many times people beg us, and we just not pay attention to it. I'll give you a few examples, and you'll realize what I'm talking about. How many times we see tzedakah on the wall, Na, l'spalel, please, we beg of you to daven for so-and-so. We look at it, we say, Ach, rachmanus, we give a, you know, tefach we're a Yid, we feel bad, and we walk away. The Torah tells us, bischananei eleinu v'lo shamanu b'kolo. How do you listen to someone begging you to daven and you don't listen? How do you not pay attention to that? You know, you read the newspapers, rabosai. How many times— We open up a newspaper and we find people take out pages of ads: Please daven for so-and-so. We look at it, and then we go to the next page where it says that a sheitel is with so-and-so, and then you can go buy yourself a sheitel. Again, a mensch is parta mensch. I got it. What happened to the bischanei leinu v'lo shamanu b'kolei? What happened to that? You open up a newspaper where a guy is begging you, begging you, Please, just daven for me. And we look at it, we see it, and it doesn't—we don't do it. Are we abusing? Are we being over on the bischanei leinu v'lo shamanu b'kolei? I want to tell you a maiseh, and with this I'll end. Gerer yeshiva was Rav Sankevitch, Reb Chanoch Henoch Sankevitch, under the Beis Yisroel. The Gerer, when they started the yeshivas again in Eretz Yisroel, the Rosh Yeshiva was Reb Chanoch Henoch Sankevitch. He was a tremendous, brilliant talmid chacham. He was a good friend of my zeide; my zeide loved him. He would travel all over the world collecting money for Gerer yeshiva. Erev Yom Kippur, the day before, he was by my zeide. He visited my zeide. Not Yom Kippur.

My Zaidy cried, which was normal, but he cried more than normal. He cried more than he would regularly normally cry. My father told me that he went over and asked him, Tata, what are you crying? Is there something we don't know? Maybe you're not well. You're not telling us. Is there something? So he goes, No, you know, Rav Sonchevich was here, right? You remember? Yeah. Remember I went out to the taxi, to Bagleyt, and he went from there to Brazil. He flew the day before Yom Kippur from Kennedy, so he stopped over by the Zayde in Queens, Kennedy, and he went from there to Brazil. I went to the car. Remember, he rolled up his window and he told me something. I'll tell you what he told me. He told me, Ravalkin, I don't feel well. Please daven for me. And I did that. ... We have to mamish put ourselves. And I think he meant this, beschaneni. When a Yid asks us something, the rachmanus of another Yid is to respond. And therefore I davened in such a way, ... Yom Kippur. Rav Sonchevich, ... was niftar the day after Yom Kippur. ... But the lesson of the story is, a Yid is a beschaneni and a shamanu. And it can be many things. It can be in tefillah, rabosai, and it can be when a person's hurting. We call out to our friends. You got to pick up on it. To ignore it and to not pay attention, and to not pay attention to it could be a chisaron of beschaneni v'lo shamanu b'kolo. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.