RabbiO
הרב יונה בן זכריה
D’var Torah – דבר תורה
Vayigash - ויגש
צפנת פענח
What is it? No, it is not some tongue twister you should try to say ten times fast, nor is it the appetizer on the menu last night that you did not order because you didn’t know how to pronounce it. It is a name, an Egyptian name. It is the name bestowed upon a of man now approaching forty who, through a combination of luck – some might call it divine providence - intelligence, talent and skill has risen from the bottom rung of society to the highest levels of prestige and power in Egypt.
He seems to have it made – the big house, the great job, the private chariot – the Bronze Age equivalent of the Rolls Royce. He’s married well – to an Egyptian girl, the daughter of a well connected Egyptian priest and he has two sons. Yes, he seems to have it all. He seems to have found everything he needs……except for one thing, one small detail – somewhere along the way he has lost himself. A man who has made his reputation interpreting the dreams of others has forgotten his own dreams or, at best, has become tone deaf to them.
It is not, perhaps, coincidental, that, until he is given a name by Pharaoh, this man who entered Egypt under less than desirable circumstances is never referred to by the Egyptians by a name, only by such terms as “a Hebrew man” “a Hebrew slave” “a Hebrew lad”. Nor can it be called a coincidence that when his first son was born, that son was given a name that means” to forget”.
But all that is about to change.
In tomorrow’s Torah portion, the cat and mouse game initiated by this man, directed at his brothers, brothers who he had not seen for more than twenty years until unexpectedly they had come to Egypt during a time of famine to buy food, reaches its climax. His brothers have not recognized him. To this point they have seen only צפנת פענח, the identity that their brother has wrapped himself in. Who else is there for them to see? For their brother is the person he has created himself to be. But then, meeting with his brothers, comes a moment of high drama and raw emotion. The blurting out of a recognition that he no longer can hide from his brothers or from himself.
אני יוסף
Two simple words in Hebrew, spoken to his brothers, three in English translation. Simple words that have probably not been spoken or even thought of for at least a decade - “I am Joseph.”
The brothers have found Joseph, Joseph has found them and he has found himself.
We are not immune to the same patterns that enmeshed Joseph. We live in a world in which it becomes easy to live in the moment, to know what we have and what we are, but not so easy to recognize who we are and who we have needed, and still need, to be to truly be ourselves.
I saw a coffee cup with this advice – Life is not about finding yourself. It is about creating yourself. The cup was wrong. Well, what do you expect from a coffee cup? Until and unless one finds oneself, knows oneself, one cannot create a life that is authentic. Until that moment like Joseph that one recognizes oneself and embraces who one is, at best the life one is living can be compared to a magnificently constructed house that is built without a foundation to support it.
As for myself, as I stand before you on this Erev Shabbat, my actual 70th birthday, it does not take a great deal of wisdom or insight to appreciate that the road ahead of me, absent my living to 140, is without doubt shorter than the road behind me. But there is still road ahead of me, there are still dreams to dream, dreams to be rediscovered and dreams to be accomplished.
Cato the Elder –not a Jew – began his study of Greek at the age of eighty. He was asked why he had undertaken this massive task when he was so old. His response was that it was the youngest age he had left. Then he went back to his studying.
Bonnie Ware, a nurse who surveyed patients with terminal illnesses, found that the number one regret of those dying as they looked back at their lives was, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” That regret was deepened by the knowledge that the failure to fulfill so many of their dreams was caused by the choices they had made or the choices that they had failed to make.
There is a story told about Zusha of Hannipoli, one of the early Hasidic masters.. Zusha was laying on his deathbed surrounded by his disciples. He was crying and no one could comfort him. One student asked his rabbi, "Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham." Zusha answered, "When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?' Why didn't I fulfill my potential, why didn't I follow the path that could have been mine."
Or, in what might be considered a more contemporary way of putting it – Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
My prayer for us all is this - May we all dream dreams. May our dreams be worthy of us. May we be worthy of our dreams. May we be true to ourselves and may we work to bring all our dreams to reality.
And let us say “Amen.”
Vayigash - ויגש
צפנת פענח
What is it? No, it is not some tongue twister you should try to say ten times fast, nor is it the appetizer on the menu last night that you did not order because you didn’t know how to pronounce it. It is a name, an Egyptian name. It is the name bestowed upon a of man now approaching forty who, through a combination of luck – some might call it divine providence - intelligence, talent and skill has risen from the bottom rung of society to the highest levels of prestige and power in Egypt.
He seems to have it made – the big house, the great job, the private chariot – the Bronze Age equivalent of the Rolls Royce. He’s married well – to an Egyptian girl, the daughter of a well connected Egyptian priest and he has two sons. Yes, he seems to have it all. He seems to have found everything he needs……except for one thing, one small detail – somewhere along the way he has lost himself. A man who has made his reputation interpreting the dreams of others has forgotten his own dreams or, at best, has become tone deaf to them.
It is not, perhaps, coincidental, that, until he is given a name by Pharaoh, this man who entered Egypt under less than desirable circumstances is never referred to by the Egyptians by a name, only by such terms as “a Hebrew man” “a Hebrew slave” “a Hebrew lad”. Nor can it be called a coincidence that when his first son was born, that son was given a name that means” to forget”.
But all that is about to change.
In tomorrow’s Torah portion, the cat and mouse game initiated by this man, directed at his brothers, brothers who he had not seen for more than twenty years until unexpectedly they had come to Egypt during a time of famine to buy food, reaches its climax. His brothers have not recognized him. To this point they have seen only צפנת פענח, the identity that their brother has wrapped himself in. Who else is there for them to see? For their brother is the person he has created himself to be. But then, meeting with his brothers, comes a moment of high drama and raw emotion. The blurting out of a recognition that he no longer can hide from his brothers or from himself.
אני יוסף
Two simple words in Hebrew, spoken to his brothers, three in English translation. Simple words that have probably not been spoken or even thought of for at least a decade - “I am Joseph.”
The brothers have found Joseph, Joseph has found them and he has found himself.
We are not immune to the same patterns that enmeshed Joseph. We live in a world in which it becomes easy to live in the moment, to know what we have and what we are, but not so easy to recognize who we are and who we have needed, and still need, to be to truly be ourselves.
I saw a coffee cup with this advice – Life is not about finding yourself. It is about creating yourself. The cup was wrong. Well, what do you expect from a coffee cup? Until and unless one finds oneself, knows oneself, one cannot create a life that is authentic. Until that moment like Joseph that one recognizes oneself and embraces who one is, at best the life one is living can be compared to a magnificently constructed house that is built without a foundation to support it.
As for myself, as I stand before you on this Erev Shabbat, my actual 70th birthday, it does not take a great deal of wisdom or insight to appreciate that the road ahead of me, absent my living to 140, is without doubt shorter than the road behind me. But there is still road ahead of me, there are still dreams to dream, dreams to be rediscovered and dreams to be accomplished.
Cato the Elder –not a Jew – began his study of Greek at the age of eighty. He was asked why he had undertaken this massive task when he was so old. His response was that it was the youngest age he had left. Then he went back to his studying.
Bonnie Ware, a nurse who surveyed patients with terminal illnesses, found that the number one regret of those dying as they looked back at their lives was, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” That regret was deepened by the knowledge that the failure to fulfill so many of their dreams was caused by the choices they had made or the choices that they had failed to make.
There is a story told about Zusha of Hannipoli, one of the early Hasidic masters.. Zusha was laying on his deathbed surrounded by his disciples. He was crying and no one could comfort him. One student asked his rabbi, "Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses and as kind as Abraham." Zusha answered, "When I pass from this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?' Why didn't I fulfill my potential, why didn't I follow the path that could have been mine."
Or, in what might be considered a more contemporary way of putting it – Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
My prayer for us all is this - May we all dream dreams. May our dreams be worthy of us. May we be worthy of our dreams. May we be true to ourselves and may we work to bring all our dreams to reality.
And let us say “Amen.”
