A Yid from Eretz Yisrael found himself at his daughter’s bedside in a hospital in America. They had hoped she was in remission, but the illness had returned, accompanied by travels, travails, and a personal exile across the ocean. The hospital was located at a distance of an hour and a half’s travel to Lakewood, the closest Jewish community.
The people of the community hosted him graciously, but still...he was far away from his home and his family, far away from an established Jewish community, far away from his normal routine, sitting near his suffering child and hoping for her recovery. I spoke to him on the phone; he sounded like the nicest person in the world. He told me a vort, then another, and made jokes like someone for whom life is going great.
“How do you cope?” I ask him. “What gives you the strength to be so happy?”
“Do you remember Yosef Hatzaddik?” he replies. “The Torah says he was an ‘Ish matzliach,’ a ‘successful man.’ I ask you, what does successful mean? Someone is considered spiritually successful if he succeeds in his Torah learning, makes a siyum haShas, or establishes institutions for Torah learning and tefillah. He might also become a rosh yeshivah or a major mashpiah, or perhaps he was zocheh to delve deeply into a certain sugya and to publish a sefer.
“A person can also be materially successful. He might be a big businessman, own his own apartment, buy several apartments, or spearhead a company that brings in millions. A materially successful person can even be someone who covers his expenses each month and leaves some money over for savings. Isn’t this someone we would call a successful man?
“But when Yosef was at the height of spiritual success, learning with his father, he was not called an ‘ish matzliach.’ Nor was he called this when he was at height of material success, second only to the king. When did he merit this description? After Potiphar bought him as a slave. Then, while in the lowest state, far away from his family and going through difficult nisyonos, cut off from contact with any form of Yiddishkeit, at that point the Torah tells us, ‘And Yosef was a successful man.’
“A slave has no independent mind. He is subservient to his master. This is the worst possible situation for a person to be in, but he is ‘successful,’ because Hashem is with him. He doesn’t lose his bitachon, and he davens and places his hopes in Hashem all the time. This is called success. This is called a successful man.
“Right now I’m so far away from everything familiar to me, but Hashem is with me! So tell me, is it possible for me not to be happy?”
Gut Shabbat
Pinchas Shefer
Parshas Va'eira -Bo 5784 ■ Issue 156
