Hashem’s guiding our every step is a reality that we must recognize as much as we possibly could; because it is the reality of life... yet sometimes HaKadosh Baruch Hu allows us to see it more clearly and feel it more keenly....
The “Zichron Avinoam Divrei Torah” have within them a distinct Siyata DiShmaya. Finding new ideas each and every week that I have not shared previously, and putting them together in time for Thursday morning at the crack of dawn (I was late this week) is, baruch Hashem, a holy, very privileged, but challenging avodah, and HaKadosh Baruch Hu has walked me through it each week for the past 19 and a half years; halevai vaiter b’ezras Hashem....
This week I was looking in my notes to find a vort I thought was in Vayigash, but lo and behold, it was not there.... After davening and searching, I found the vort in the Be’er Yosef on Parashas Vayishlach, but still with absolutely zero connection to Parashas Vayigash. I was about to search for another vort when Hashem Yisbarach inspired me to just give one look in my notes on Vayishlach... lo and behold, on the bottom of the page I referenced how my Rebbi Rav Moshe Lieber connects it to Vayigash.... I felt a kiss from Hashem; to have the vort with my Rebbi zt’l making the connection was just too good to be true baruch Hashem....
The Torah tells us in Parashas Vayishlach that Yaakov Avinu told Esav that he lived with Lavan, and he has an ox and a donkey. Chazal explain that Yaakov was hinting to many things here. Living with Lavan hinted at the fact that he kept all the 613v mitzvos even though he lived among reshaim (garti and taryag have the same letters), while the ox and donkey refer to the fact that he fathered Yosef and Yissachar.
Rav Yosef Tzvi Salant zt’l (the Be’er Yosef) asks: Did Esav really understand the hints and references Yaakov was suggesting? And did they mean much to Esav? The Be’er Yosef explains incredibly from the Zohar:
Tzaddikim are always standing in front of Hashem. Even when they are speaking to a rasha, they are simultaneously really speaking to Hashem! (Yaakov’s bowing to Esav was not to Esav! It was to Hashem!) When Yaakov told Esav that he lived with Lavan and had an ox and a donkey, he was trying to tell Esav that he was just a ger and that the berachos had not been fulfilled in him, for look how little he has. But simultaneously he was also talking to Hashem! And to Hashem he was davening with all his heart to be saved. And to Hashem he was saying that he kept all the mitzvos while in the house of Lavan... and to Hashem he was showing his precious children, Yosef and Yissachar, hinted to in the words ox and donkey, hoping that they would truly be a merit for him!
In a similar vein, Rav Salant connects this to Esther as well. When she stood in front of Achashverosh, she was really standing in front of Hashem. So much so that when Achashverosh asked her, point blank, who is the one who wants to destroy her people, she pointed to Achashverosh himself! For in her mind, she was truly showing Hashem the real culprit (and a malach pushed her hand to point to Haman!).
Comes my beloved Rebbi, Rav Moshe Lieber zt’l, and he adds (Torah Treasury) referencing the Gaon above (I believe this last vort is my Rebbi’s very own, for I’m quite sure that he once revealed to me that when he writes the words “zekan Aharon” at the end of a vort, it is hinting to he himself), that when Yehudah approached Yosef, he actually was simultaneously approaching HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself (ויגש אליו — to him, literally refers to Yosef, but it can also refer to Hashem Himself), pleading to Hashem for his life both in This World and the next. For tzaddikim are always standing in front of Hashem...
B’Siyata DiShmaya.
