In last week's parashah, Yehudah told Yaakov, הימים כל לך וחטאתי, "I'll have sinned before you forever" (43:9). He said this regarding if he fails to bring Binyomin back home. Forever means eternity in this world and the next world (see Rashi and Baal HaTurim).
When the ruler of Mitzrayim (Yosef) said Binyamin must stay on as a slave, Yehudah realized that his entire future — this world and the next world — was at stake. But he didn’t lose hope. יהודה אליו ויגש, Yehudah courageously pleaded with the Egyptian ruler and did whatever he could to save Binyamin.
We must learn from Yehudah never to lose hope no matter how bleak the situation and to have bitachon that everything will work out well.
The Gemara (Brachos 10.) teaches that Chizkiyahu HaMelech perceived with his ruach hakadosh that he would have bad children (מעלי דלא בנין) so he didn't keep the mitzvah of bearing children. Yeshayah [ben Amotz] HaNavi came to Chizkiyahu and told him, "So says Hashem, say your last wishes to your family, תחיה ולא אתה מת כי, for you will die, and you will not live."
Chizkiyahu said, "Give me your daughter in marriage. Perhaps our combined merits will grant us good children."
Yeshayah HaNavi replied, "It's too late. The decree of your demise has already been sealed."
Chizkiyahu refused to hear that because it is never too late for a Yid. He told Yeshayah, "Son of Amotz, finish your nevuah and leave. I received [a tradition] from my father's father's house: 'Even when a sharp sword is on one's neck, one shouldn’t lose hope...'" He learned from his grandfather that there's always hope. Chizkiyahu had many righteous grandfathers, including Dovid HaMelech, Shlomo HaMelech, and more, but the Gemara doesn’t state which grandfather taught him this lesson.
The Sfas Emes zt'l says he learned it from his grandfather, Yehudah. Yehudah was at the point of losing his Olam HaZeh and Olam HaBa, but he didn’t lose hope. Chizkiyahu was in a similar predicament. The navi told him that he would die in this world and not live in the next world because he didn’t bear children, but he didn’t lose hope. He learned from Yehudah that there's always hope.
The Chazon Ish told Reb Yaakov Kamenetzky zt'l after World War II that we aren't permitted to lose hope and wallow in misery. We must build on top of those ashes. The Chazon Ish told him the following story:
A businessman in Kovna would borrow money, buy merchandise at the fair, and sell it for a profit. With the money he earned, he would pay off his debts and live off the profits. When all the merchandise was sold, he would repeat the process. Once, he was ill, so he asked his wife to run the business for him. She knew exactly what to do. She borrowed money and traveled to the fair, but unfortunately, she lost the money somewhere near the fair. Distressed, she went from booth to booth, asking the merchants and customers whether they found her money. Eventually, someone admitted that he had found the money, "However," he said, "I'm not returning it. I'm not wealthy; I need the money, and I'm not obligated to return it! In a place where most merchants are goyim, we have permission to assume that the owner of the money gave up on ever seeing the money again. This is called יאוש. And when there's yeush, there's no obligation to return the money."
She brought him to a din Torah before Reb Yitzchak Elchanan Spector zt'l. Reb Yitzchak Elchanan ruled that the money must be returned to the woman. He explained, "The money doesn’t belong to the wife; it belongs to her husband. Therefore, technically, only the husband can have yeush. But he didn’t even know that the money was lost. So, he never had yeush, thus the money must be returned."
The Chazon Ish was implying that our lives belong to Hashem, thus we can't have yeush. Therefore, despite the devastation of the war, we must carry on. Reb Yaakov followed the Chazon Ish's counsel, as we know from his many accomplishments on American soil, to revive the spark of Torah.
We should also learn never to lose hope, not in spiritual matters – such as success in Torah, nor regarding essential material achievements. We must always remember that there's hope because Hashem can do anything.
The Belzer Rav zt'l arrived in Eretz Yisrael after the Holocaust, and he visited the Imrei Emes zt'l. The Imrei Emes said, "The Torah (45:14) tells us that Binyamin cried for the churban that would happen on Yosef's portion, and Yosef cried for the churbanos that would happen on Binyamin's portion. Why didn't they simply cry over their own churban? The answer is that that we should cry over the churban of others, but we shouldn't cry over our own churban. We must focus on rebuilding the future without crying over the past."
It states in last week's parashah (Bereishis 42:2) ושברו שמה רדו במצרים שבר יש כי שמעתי הנה ויאמר נמות ולא ונחיה משם לנו, "[Yaakov] said, 'Behold I have heard that there are provisions in Mitzrayim. Go down there and purchase for us from there, that we may live and not die.'"
The Beis Aharon says that שבר means hope, as in (Tehillim 146:5) אלקיו 'ה על ִבְרוֹׂש, "whose hope is in Hashem, his G-d." For every במצרים, trouble, שבר, trust in Hashem.
It states (45:27) יוסף שלח אשר העגלות את וירא אביהם יעקב רוח ותחי אתו לשאת, "When he saw the wagons that Yosef had sent to transport him, then the spirit of their father Yaakov was revived."
The Shem MiShmuel says that עגלות can mean wheels. They go down, but then they go up again. Yaakov understood the message. There are hard times, but they will pass, and good times will come.
It states (45:4) ויגשו אלי נא גשו אחיו אל יוסף ויאמר מצרימה אתי מכרתם אשר אחיכם יוסף אני ויאמר, "Yosef said to his brothers, 'Come close to me if you please,' and they came close. And he said, "I am Yosef, your bother – it is me, whom you sold into Mitzrayim."
Rashi writes, "He saw them moving back. Yosef said, 'Now my brothers are embarrassed.' He called them with kind words, and he showed them that he was circumcised."
The Yismach Yisrael zt'l asks, how did the circumcision prove that Yosef was their brother? Aren’t Arabs and Givonim also circumcised?
The truth is, they should have suspected for a while that the leader of Mitzrayim was Yosef. It was universal knowledge that the leader of Mitzrayim was once a slave, and probably the brothers knew this, as well. But they didn't put two and two together to consider that perhaps the person they were speaking to was Yosef!
They were also aware that Yosef knew information about their family. It states (Bereishis 43:33) כצערתו והצעיר כבכרתו הבכר לפניו וישבו רעהו אל איש האנשים ויתמהו, which means that when they ate a meal with Yosef, Yosef had them sit according to their age, and they were astonished.
Rashi writes, "Yosef hit his goblet and called: 'Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah, Yissaschar, and Zevulen are the children of the same mother. They should sit in this order, the order they were born.' Yosef did this for all the brothers. When he came to Binyamin, he said, 'He doesn't have a mother, and I don't have a mother,' so Binyamin sat next to him." He knew their ages, he knew their names, he knew about their family, and yet, they didn't suspect that maybe he was Yosef.
It is shocking. As the Midrash says, "Everyone is like the blind until Hakadosh Baruch Hu opens their eyes." It wasn't time for them to know, so they didn't know. They so much wanted to find Yosef. The Midrash says that a moment after they sold Yosef, they regretted what they did and were prepared to redeem him for all the money in the world. When they came to Mitzrayim, they entered through ten entrances, hoping that perhaps one of them would find Yosef. Finding him was constantly on their conscience, and they even had the clues to suspect that the leader of Mitzrayim was Yosef, but it didn’t cross their mind because it wasn't bashert. The time wasn't right. When the time for them to know arrived, Yosef showed them that he had milah, and they knew for sure that this was Yosef. If Yosef had shown them yesterday or an hour before, they still wouldn't recognize him. But when the time came, everything made sense to them.
This is a reminder that we should never lose hope. Chazal (Pesachim 52) states, "There are seven things that are concealed from people..." and one of them is הנחמה יום, the day that his distress and problems will be resolved. We don't have to lose hope. When the destined day comes, everything will be resolved.
It states in this week's parashah, האחד ויצא טרף טרף ואומר מאתי (44:28). Reb Moshe'le Baal Teshuvah zt'l explained, מאתי האחד ויצא, when I forget the One Hashem, then I say, טרף טרף, that there's no hope. But when I remember Hashem, I know that there's always hope.
It states (Bereishis 44:28) אך ואמר מאתי האחד ויצא טרף טרף. Maharitz Dushinsky zt'l explains, מאתי האחד ויצא, when I forget the אחד, Hashem, when I forget that everything is from Hashem, טרף טרף אך, I became מטורף, confused and worried.
Reb Yosef Shwartz was in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. He tried to appear healthy at the "Selections" so he would be sent to the right, but he was sent to the left. This problem saved his life. The Americans were approaching, and to conceal their atrocities, the Nazis sent all people who were sent to the right on a death march. Most of them died. The people sent to the left survived because the Americans arrived before they could assassinate them.
So, when something seems bad, one can discover afterwards that it was the best for him. And even when we don't see it, we believe it is so. And there is never a reason to lose hope.
