Parashas Vayigash, Part 2: Shema as Protection and Devotion in Mitzrayim

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. The Maharal says a different pshat, rabosai. The Maharal says that the reading of Kriyas Shema here is not halachic, but the reading of Kriyas Shema here is symbolic. It's not the halacha was mechayev that he should read Kriyas Shema here and now. It was a siman, it was a sign. It was a symbolic thing that he read Kriyas Shema. He sees his son. He sees his son. Yosef, he reads Kriyas Shema. It's not the chiyuv Kriyas Shema, the halachic chiyuv of Kriyas Shema, but it's the Kriyas Shema that we find that people say at different situations. There's a beautiful pshat from the Charkover Rebbe. He says that Yaakov Avinu sees Yosef and he realizes that he's going to stay in Mitzrayim. You know about Mitzrayim, the fear that Yaakov Avinu had to live in Mitzrayim. He didn't want to go. Hashem told him to go, because Mitzrayim is tamei. Mitzrayim is not pure. It's a bad, it's a bad sviva. When someone is confronted— With a sakana of doing an aveira, what are the three things he has to do? The Gemara says three things, which are a solution and eitzah. The first thing is, yikra Kriyas Shema. If someone is poga boi menuval, the yetzer is trying to get you, the first, ah, now do you like it? Beautiful pshat. You have to read what? You have to read Kriyas Shema. The second thing you have to do is learn Torah. And the third thing is what? Think of the day of death. Let's read the pesukim inside. Let's read. Yom HaMaves says the pasuk, Vayeshev Yehudah shalach lefanav. The first thing he did was what? Set up a yeshiva. Before he even goes down, remember I asked you, why did he have to set the yeshiva? He'll go there, he'll put up a yeshiva. The teretz is, he put up a protection, a method of protection before he went down to Mitzrayim, not to be mushpa from Mitzrayim. He had a whole system to protect him. What's the system? First, the yeshiva. And then when he comes down to Mitzrayim, he reads Kriyas Shema. And what's the next pasuk? Vayomer Yisrael el Yosef, Amusah hapa'am. Huh? Beautiful, beautiful pshat. Amusah hapa'am means, ready to die. He was maskir Yom HaMaves. All three, because otherwise the question is great. You see your son, so you have to mention the fact that you're going to die now. You're ready to die. That's the first thing that comes out of your mouth: Vayomer, amusah. Now I could die. He wants to say he was being maskim, starting off the entry to Mitzrayim with the three things that protect you from all the tumah, from all the aveiros from around. But the Maharal says a little bit deeper. The Maharal says that actually, the Kriyas Shema that he read had to do with the love that he now has and is now re-experiencing with his son. You know, there's an interesting Taz which I'd like to point out. What part of Kriyas Shema did he read? So if you take a look, the lashon of the Rashi, the Chazal, ah, it says that he was what? Reading Shema. He was reading Shema. Pashut, simply, it means he was reading the entire Shema. There's an interesting Taz. The Taz says in Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, siman סמך ו', se'if katan aleph, he asks a question. According to the Rosh, that holds that you're allowed to stop middle Kriyas Shema for respect of someone who deserves respect, for example, a rebbi, for example, a father, you're allowed to stop bein haprakim.

You're allowed to stop in the middle of Kriyas Shema. So Yaakov Avinu was mechuyiv in kavod of Yosef as the melech, as we see later in Parshas Vayechi that he gets up and he stands in respect for the king, the melech, because malchus is mechayev that you should be mechabed, kavod of the malchus. So why is he not stopping in the middle of Kriyas Shema? You're supposed to stop if there are kavod for someone who you're supposed to honor. You're supposed to stop. So why is Yaakov not stopping? He's not even talking. He didn't have to say anything. He could have hugged him and kissed him. So the Taz says a teretz that he actually was not saying the entire Kriyas Shema. At this juncture that Rashi is talking about, that he said Kriyas Shema, he's talking about pasuk rishon. He was talking about the middle of the first pasuk: Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem... and there you don't stop. There you don't stop. L'choira, it would imply that he was not really reading the entire Kriyas Shema, unless you say he happened to be in the first pasuk, that's why he didn't stop. And as soon as he finishes that first pasuk, maybe he did stop. Maybe he did stop to kiss Yosef. The only thing is, that first pasuk took quite a while, mistama. Yaakov Avinu, mistama, was a heilige tzaddik, and the first pasuk of Kriyas Shema took a very long time. I mean, otherwise it could have taken a second, right? He could have said, Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad, all right, and then kiss his son. The fact that he was oisek in the first pasuk and he didn't kiss his son maybe took a very long time, and that's why he doesn't kiss his son. But we could come and say that maybe he didn't say the first pasuk because of the chiyuv of Kriyas Shema. But he said it because of what? He said it because of the chiyuv of saying Shema at certain times during a person's life. I even saw there mefarshim that say an interesting thing, that Yaakov Avinu was afraid, amus hapam, that right now he might pass away from so much simcha. Sometimes when a person's overwhelmed, his heart can't take it. Mameila he said Kriyas Shema. Interesting. You hear, rabosai? Very interesting. Amus hapam, so he was oisek, so that's why he was saying Kriyas Shema. I saw many acharonim say like this. It wasn't the Kriyas Shema chiyuv that he said Shema Yisrael. He said Shema Yisrael because Shema Yisrael, at this particular moment, there was something that moved him to say Shema Yisrael. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.