FOR

THE SOURCE OF LIFE IS WITH YOU; IN YOUR LIGHT WE WILL SEE LIGHT.

(Psalms

36:10)

You

shall charge the Israelites that they shall take to you – Israel said: Master

of the Universe! In your light we see light, yet you command us to light

lamps before you!? Rabbi Yitzhak said [it is similar to a parable of] a house

full of lanterns. The master of the house tells his servant, "Light lamps

for us in the courtyard." He said to him, "The whole house is full of

light and you ask me to light lamps in it?" He said to him: "Light

them for the servants, so that they shall give them light." And so He said,

the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the menorah; the

Holy One blessed be He said: I did not command you

regarding the lamps because I have need for the light of flesh and blood [mortals],

but rather so that you might be aware of how beloved you are to me. For it is

written: and Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud

dwelt upon it and God's gory filled the Tabernacle (Shemot

40). And He told them to light lamps before because they were beloved to Him – they

shall take to you – the Holy One blessed be He

said to Moses: It is not that I need a lamp, rather they shall take for you

– for your sake, so that you can find your way when entering and leaving [the

Tabernacle]. What is this like? [The parable of ] a

sighted man and a blind man. When they walked down the road, the sighted man

would help the blind man. When evening came the sighted man said to the blind

man, "Go and light the lamp for us." He told him: "Until now you

led me in the darkness, and I cannot even see myself – and now you tell me to

light the lamp?" The sighted man is the Holy One blessed be He, for it is

written of Him: The eyes of the Lord, that run to and fro through the whole

earth (Zechariah

4:10),

and the blind man is Israel, for it is written of them: We tap a wall like

like in the darkness of night; [we are] in dark places like the dead (Isaiah 59)… The Holy

One blessed be He said to Israel: If you light

lamps before me, I shall give you illumination from the great future light, for

it is said: The Lord shall be an eternal light for you, and your God shall

be your glory (Isaiah

60).

(Tanhuma Tetzave 4)

For

the source of life is with You – Just as the waters of the wellspring

are not exhausted in the way stored water is exhausted, so too life in the

World to come is never ending; it is life that is not followed by death and

light not followed by darkness; that is: By Your light we shall see light.

(ReDaK Psalms 36:10)

On Constructive Defamation

Moshe Meir

The system of relations between Joseph and his brothers was

tangled, shot through with anger and enmity that led to harsh consequences:

… So Joseph went after his brothers, and he found them in Dothan. And they saw

him from afar, and when he had not yet drawn near to them, they plotted against

him to put him to death. So they said one to the other, "Behold, that

dreamer is coming. So now, let us kill him, and we will cast him into one of

the pits, and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him,' and we will see what

will become of his dreams." But Reuben heard, and he saved him from their

hand[s], and he said, "Let us not deal him a deadly blow." And Reuben

said to them, "Do not shed blood! Cast him into this pit, which is in the

desert, but do not lay a hand upon him," in order to save him from their

hand[s], to return him to his father. Now it came to pass when Joseph came to

his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his shirt, of the fine woolen coat which

was upon him. And they took him and cast him into the pit; now the pit was

empty there was no water in it.

The hatred sprung from three causes: Father Jacob's

discriminatory love towards Joseph and the special coat he gave him; Joseph's

dreams; and the defamatory reports Joseph brought to his father regarding his

brothers:

…when Joseph was seventeen years old, being a shepherd, he

was with his brothers with the flocks, and he was a lad, [and was] with the

sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph defamed them

to their father.

The first reason – discrimination – was not dependent upon

Joseph himself and he was not to blame for it. The second reason – the dreams –

sprung from a great soul that yearned for greatness. The third reason – defamation

– seems to be unacceptable behavior. The biblical lexicon explains this

concept in another place. Moses sends the scouts to the land and defines their

mission:

You shall see what [kind of] land it is, and the people who

inhabit it; are they strong or weak? Are there few or many? And what of the

land they inhabit? Is it good or bad? And what of the cities in which they

reside are they in camps or in fortresses? What is the soil like- is it fat or

lean? Are there any trees in it or not? (Bamidbar 13)

The scouts carry out the mission, but are nonetheless

accused of defaming the land:

They told him and said, "We came to the land to which

you sent us, and it is flowing with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However,

the people who inhabit the land are mighty, and the cities are extremely huge

and fortified, and there we saw even the offspring of the giant. The Amalekites dwell in the south land, while the Hittites, the

Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountainous

region. The Canaanites dwell on the coast and alongside the Jordan." Caleb

silenced the people to [hear about] Moses, and he said, "We can surely go

up and take possession of it, for we can indeed overcome it." But the men

who went up with him said, "We are unable to go up against the people, for

they are stronger than we. They defamed the land which they had scouted,

telling the children of Israel, "The

land we passed through to explore is a land that consumes its inhabitants, and

all the people we saw in it are men of stature. There we saw the giants, the

sons of Anak, descended from the giants. In our eyes,

we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.

Why is their report – the fulfillment of their mission – described

as defamation? It seems this is because they strayed from the point of the

report. Sometimes such overstepping is a matter of a word or of a particular

emphasis. If they had said that the Land was flowing with milk and honey and

its inhabitants were powerful, the report would have been objective. The

insertion of the word however [efes]

between the two sections of the report emphasizes the bad part, turning it into

a case of defamation. The evaluation that we are unable to go up against the

people oversteps the report's mandate and becomes defamation. The

exaggeration – in our eyes, we seemed like grasshoppers – oversteps the report's mandate and becomes defamation.

The pretension of knowing how they looked to the local inhabitants – and so

we were in their eyes – oversteps both the report's mandate and the

boundaries of possibility, and becomes defamation.

Joseph has a particular characteristic that finds expression

in his telling tales about his brothers to their father. It is no enough for

Joseph to serve as someone making a report, or even as a dream interpreter – he

always wants to go farther. When he interprets Pharaoh's dreams he also sets

forth an economic plan of his own devising (see Bereishit 41:33). After

interpreting the royal cup-bearer's dream, he adds a request that eventually

leads to his release from prison (see

Bereishit 40:14). Perhaps this character trait informs

his own dreams, which express a longing to break out of his limitations (Bereishit

37).

His father reproves him for his dream's absurd overreaching – shall I and

your mother and your brothers come to prostrate ourselves before you? –

even after his mother has already died and cannot

possibly do this! Nonetheless, Jacob awaited the matter. The brothers

hate Joseph because of his dreams and his words; apparently these were

words relating to the dreams themselves. Perhaps this character trait also found

expression in his defamation of his brothers, which consisted both of a report

as well as of interpretive emphasis and speculation.

This trait is neither good nor evil; they can be directed

towards either. Joseph is a dreamer who oversteps the bounds of the

possible. Sometimes he directs this trait towards evil, but sometimes he

exploits it and its inherent creativity in his struggle for the good.

Taamei HaMikra – Double Meaning

But he refused and he said… my master… The cantillation of the word

And he refused indicates the prohibition of the act and that he was

totally prevented from doing so, for through the notes of the Torah we

understand that which is not overtly recorded, similar to man's movements from

we divine his thoughts.

(Rabeinu Bahaye, Bereishit 49:8)

…meaning that we can understand

that which is not expressly written through the notes which accompany

the text. The rabbi's intention is

to say that a person has facial expressions and vocal nuances, which enables us

to reveal and know something about his mood and mental-spiritual condition;

mimicry and gesticulation of a person, and the shadings of his voice, help us

know what is actually taking place in his inner consciousness.

In the narrative of Joseph and Potifar's

wife who tries to seduce him, he withstands temptation and does not comply. The

Torah expresses his restrained behavior with the term and he refused. The

term is accompanied with the very rare shalshellet

note. The Massorah's assignment of this

particular note to and he refused is hardly accidental. Through it, the massora wanted to let us know that in that situation

Joseph conducted a very difficult struggle, an act involving tremendous

spiritual courage, in order to withstand this test of temptation. Therefore,

great is the merit of Joseph, termed by tradition "Joseph the Righteous,"

who emerged victorious from this conflict. His refusal is not at all a simple

matter; it is he refused to the tune of a shalshellet,

with its melodic line thrice ascending and descending, like a warning siren

accentuating the merit of the Biblical figure who refused, who conquered his

desires, Joseph the dreamer.

(Y. Leibovitz:

Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al Parashat

ha'Shavu'a, p.151)

The grasping man reviles and scorns: An Act of Worship Becomes a Curse and a Desecration

of the Divine Name.

When

Joseph was sent by his father to visit his brothers, they thought about killing

him, for it says They said to one another…let us kill him (Bereishit 37: 19) and they stood and threw him into the pit and

said "let us eat and drink, and afterwards we'll pull him out and kill

him." They ate and drank, and time came to say the grace after meals. Judah said to them: "We are about to kill, and we

are blessing God? We are nothing but scorners!"

What does What do we gain by killing our brother mean? Judah told them: The grasping man reviles and

scorns the Lord rather, come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites

(Bereishit 37: 27).

(Pesikta Rabbati 10)

What Do We Gain? Pragmatic Considerations vs. Ethical Considerations

Rabbi Meir said: The word botzeiya

(grasping) was used only in reference to Judah, for it says: Then Judah said to his brothers, "What do we gain (ma betza)

by killing our brother?" Anyone who blesses Judah reviles and scorns [God], and regarding this it

is said, The grasping man reviles and scorns

the Lord (Psalms 10: 3).

(B.

Sanhedrin 6b)

"In

reference to Judah": For he should have said, "let us return

him to our father", since his brothers hearkened to his words.

(Rashi loc cit)

What do we

gain: Anyone who blesses Judah reviles and scorns, for he saved Joseph with the

words what do we gain, which imply that if there is something to be

gained, we will kill him, and regarding this it says The

grasping man reviles and scorns the Lord.

(Hizkuni – Bereishit 37: 26)

The Order of Priorities of Values in the Halakhah

A) Great is peace…

Rava said: It is

clear to me: [If one has to choose between] his home's [Sabbath] lamp and the Chanuka lamp – his home's lamp takes precedence, because of

his home's [Sabbath] lamp and Kiddush – his home's lamp takes precedence,

because of [the importance of preserving] domestic peace. Rava

asked: What [should be done if one has to choose between] the Chanukah lamp and

Kiddush? Is it that Kiddush takes precedence because it is more frequently

performed, or perhaps the Chanukah lamp takes precedence because it publicizes

the miracle? After he asked, he himself answered: The Hanukah lamp takes precedence,

because it publicizes the miracle.

(Shabbat 23b)

If he had before him [enough money to purchase] a lamp for

his home [the Shabbat lamp], or a candle for Hanukkah, or for Kiddush, the lamp

for his home takes precedence because of peace in his home, for the holy name

was erased in order to bring peace between man and his wife.

Great is peace, for all the Torah was given in order to

bring peace to the world, as is written: Its ways are ways of pleasantness,

and all its paths are peace.

(RaMBaM, Mishneh

Torah,Hilkhot Megillah ve'Hanukkah 4:14)

Rabbi

Shimon bar Yohai said: Great is peace, for all the blessings are included in it – The Lord give His people strength, the Lord bless His people with

peace (Psalms 29).

Hezkiah said two [things]. Hezkiah said: Great is

peace, for all the commandments are written [in the conditional form] if you see (Shemot 23), If you come

upon (Shemot 23), If [a bird's nest]

chances before you (Devarim 22) – if the opportunity to perform a commandment presents

itself, you must take it. Here, however, ask for peace and pursue it (Psalms 34) ask for it

– in your own place; and pursue it – to another place. Hezkiah

said another thing: Great is peace, for in connection with all of the marches

they marched and they camped – they marched in discord and

they camped in discord. When they all reached Mount Sinai they all

formed one encampment. There it is written Israel [singular]

camped there.

It is not written, the Israelites camped [plural] there, but rather Israel camped