The Torah is a book of living, positive lessons. Every idea, indeed every word is filled with purpose and optimism that is possible to live with, and find direction and depth.
But this week's portion seems to be an exception; it doesn't seem to contain even one happy message .... only tragedies from beginning to end.
It begins with Josef, the beloved son of Jacob, being unjustly hated, sentenced to death and finally sold as a slave by his own brothers. Then it continues with him being falsely charged with rape and sentenced to life imprisonment in a festering Egyptian prison.
And it ends by telling us that Josef's last hope for freedom; the king's wine-master “did not remember Josef and totally forgot him" (40:23).
What positive lessons can we learn from all this?
To understand here is a story:
Once upon a time there was a fabulously rich man who we will call Mr. Farbes who had everything in life but joy. He was always miserable and he couldn’t understand why.
He went to doctors, took up music, sports, hobbies, dancing went traveling tried meditation and natural treatments but nothing seemed to help, he was bored and depressed.
Finally he found a wise rabbi who gave him advice that made sense.
"Your problem" the rabbi said, "is that you don’t trust G-d and you never give charity. You live totally for yourself that's why you are miserable. If you want to be happy give to help others."
Here was an idea he hadn't thought of! He would give charity and finally he would be happy, or at least not sad!
But he discovered that it wasn't so simple. Giving away money was an entirely new world to him and he didn't know where to begin. His first realization was that there are fakers. At first he gave to whoever requested but when he began interrogating some of the people that looked poor he realized that they really weren't.
If he gave to undeserving people, he would not have given charity at all. But on the other hand, he had to give or he would go crazy. There must be some why to find out who is REALLY needy.
Suddenly he hit on an idea: He would give only to people that had lost all hope. THAT, he concluded, was real poverty.
So he put on his coat and began going around to places that unfortunates were found; hospitals, orphanages, jails, barrooms, slums searching for the hopeless; but had no success at all.
He met people with problems, diseases, debts, enemies, he met homeless, penniless, jobless, helpless but no hopeless. Everyone he spoke to had some hope in life.
He was getting desperate. He had to figure out a way to give money, his depression was overcoming him.
Then, one cold, rainy evening as he was aimlessly walking down some side street he heard moaning coming from the direction of the junkyard and he excitedly walked in that direction.
There sitting on a dung heap was a man covered with boils in ragged clothes moaning like Job.
"What happened to you?" Farbes asked in wide eyed anticipation. "Ayyyi" the man replied rocking back and forth and holding his head in his hands. "I lost everything, everything!! Ooy! My money, my job, my house, friends, family; everything!! And now these boils!! Ayyyi!!"
"Tell me;" asked the rich man excitedly, "do you still have hope?"
"Hope?" he replied. "What do you mean by that? Do I have hope???"
"You know", said the rich man, "hope that things will get better."
"Of course I have hope!" the poor man looked at him wide eyed and replied, "As long as I'm on the ground and the ground isn't on me, I have hope. G-d will help. Ayyyy!!! Listen! In the graveyard there's no hope! Go to the graveyard!"
Now Farbes was really desperate. Would he be doomed to a life of misery? Was there no way he could give money?
Suddenly it occurred to him... He would take the man's advice! He would go to the graveyard and put his money there!
He knew it was foolish, a long shot, and it wasn't exactly giving charity either. But he wanted to feel better. That was his goal; to be rid of this melancholy... at least it was giving! And for sure the money wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. And if it didn't work, he could always dig it back up and try somewhere else.
So that very night at midnight he stealthily snuck into the local cemetery with a sack of dollars and a shovel, picked a grave at random, dug a hole, threw the money in, covered it up and left as secretively as he entered.
And it worked!!! As soon as he got home, he felt better. It was as though a stone had been lifted from his heart. It didn't make any sense but what did he care; finally, he was happy! It worked!!
Time passed and Farbes forgot the graveyard incident but as fate would have it, his wheel of fortune took a spin for the worse. His businesses went sour. He made some bad decisions and small losses brought bigger ones. He was plagued with setback after setback until five years later he was actually in debt and desperately in need of cash.
Suddenly he remembered the buried money.
It was his last hope. That night he once again furtively crept into the same graveyard carrying the same shovel and sack, found the grave where he had buried the money and began digging as quietly and quickly as possible in the eerie dim moonlight. A cold wind shook his bones as it whistled through the trees, he would really be glad to get out of here. In another minute he would be ...
"HANDS UP! Police!! Hands UP!!" boomed the voice behind him. "Put 'em up an' keep 'em up! "
Farbes' knees began shaking and he almost fell over from fright. " Now turn around slowly." The voice boomed again.
He turned to see a huge gun pointed at him with a policeman behind it.
"Robbing the dead ehhh? How low can you get! pheh! Now turn around again, hands behind your back!!" said the policeman as he handcuffed poor Farbes.
He tried answer but he was trembling so uncontrollably all he could say was "No... BBBut.. I just." In minutes he was on his way to jail.
A week later he was standing before the judge, a broken man. What once was a wealthy businessman was now a penniless, dingy criminal fresh from a dirty prison cell. The only comfort he had were the words of that man on the dung heap years ago "As long as I'm on the ground and the ground isn't on me, I have hope." Maybe there was hope.
The officer spoke.
"Your honor, I caught him red handed. He was digging with a shovel, digging in the graveyard trying to steal from the dead. He even brought that bag to put the gold teeth and rings he found into."
"What do you have to say for yourself Mr. Farbes?" The Judge turned to him.
"Your honor. I wasn’t stealing. You see, years ago I buried some money there to get happy. That is, I had to give charity because a wise man told me to look for someone with no hope .." Farbes looked at the Judge to see if he what he was saying was making sense.
"Yes, continue,” said the Judge. "Or are you finished?"
"No! No!" Farbes continued. "Well, a man in the garbage, covered with boils told me to go to the graveyard. So I went there and buried the money and now I need it back again."
"Excuse me your honor” exclaimed the policeman in amazement “That is the most confused lie I ever heard! Do you believe that?! The man is mad!!!"
"Yes, I believe him" Said the Judge emphatically "Release him, he's innocent!"
"What, your honor?!" said the policeman not believing his ears.
"I said release him. Release him immediately, please. "
As the bewildered policeman began opening the handcuffs, the Judge turned to the equally bewildered Farbes and asked. "Do you recognize me?"
Farbes tried but he couldn't figure out what the Judge was talking about. He stared and squinted, tilted his head here and there but with no luck.
"I'm the man you saw in the dump five years ago" he announced with a smile. I was the one who told you to go to the graveyard. That is how I know you're telling the truth! See, I told you to trust in G-d and never give up hope!"
The story seems a bit farfetched; to go from a leper on a pile of garbage to a respected judge. Or is it? In fact, it's less fantastic than what we are reading this week about Josef; a convicted criminal who overnight rose to become King of Egypt by explaining a dream.
And both stories teach the same message: The only way to really change the world for the good is by having trust in the Creator and helping others; and the deeper the trust, the greater the change.
G-d purposely created the world in a way that it seems that He isn’t here. But in fact He is infinitely close and caring.
This week's story of Josef teaches us that even when it SEEMS that G-d is distant (or non-existent) it is only to arouse our trust ("Bitachon") in Him.
There are two types of trust; first that even what seems bad is really for the good (like a person trusts a doctor to operate).
But an even deeper trust is that when there seems to be no hope other than to trust in G-d and that trust ITSELF will make things even better than before.
In other words the unusual tribulations that Josef had to bear were in order to arouse his unusual trust in G-d. And that very trust was what brought his miraculous release, rise to power, and eventual saving of the entire world from famine (as we will see in next week's section).
This is of utmost importance to us today. The Lubavitcher Rebbe said that Moshiach has arrived, all we have to do is open our eyes, it all depends on us, the only thing remaining it to welcome him, and every moment of our lives should be devoted only to this.
Even when it seems G-d is far and Moshiach seems infinitely far away, this week's Torah chapter teaches us that it is precisely our trust and faith that will change the situation.
... And as the Rebbe said repeatedly; this should happen at any moment.
We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish service, hopes, prayers and suffering. Now just one more good deed, word of even thought, if done with JOY can bring ....
MOSHIACH NOW!!!
Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel
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