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Vayeishev 5775
Tzadik V'Rah Lo
Two travelers each prepared themselves a rucksack with
food and then set out on their trek to the next town. After walking for a few
hours they decided to stop for a lunch. One of them had taken along three
loaves of bread for the journey while the other one was only carrying two
loaves of bread with him. While they were about to eat they were joined by a
third person who explained that he didn’t have any food with him and enquired
whether it would be possible to partake from their food. They readily agreed to
share their bread with the stranger, and they cut up the loaves and ate. After
the guest had finished eating his share, he stood up, thanked them for allowing
him to partake from their meal and handed them five coins to pay for his share
and before they had a chance to ask his intentions he disappeared. They started
arguing how much money each one of them should receive. The one that brought
along the three loaves felt that he should get three of the coins and his
partner only two; while the other one claimed that they had divided up their
food therefore they should divide up the money equally. As they were unable to
come to any sort of agreement, the only thing left to agree about was to take
their case to a judge and accept his ruling. They stood before the judge and each
party laid out their claim to the money. The judge listened carefully to both
sides, questioned them and then handed down his verdict. They looked at each
other in dismay not believing what they had just heard, sure that either he had
misunderstood the situation or maybe he was showing early signs of senility or alzheimer.
The judge ruled that the person that had three loaves should receive four of
the coins while the other person will receive the remaining coin. They tried
explaining, arguing, cajoling, but to no avail, the judge wasn’t willing to
budge even a centimeter. Seeing no way forward with their saga and positive
that this judge lacked common sense or understanding of the law they turned to
the Ibn Ezra for help. They started berating the judge, and began to
question how had Hashem had allowed such a stupid illogical person to
achieve such an important position. After the Ibn Ezra had heard both
sides he turned the parties and asked them one simple question "Did you
all eat an equal share of the loaves?", to which they answered
"Yes". He then exclaimed loudly, "You think you understand
Divine calculations and therefore have the authority to question Hashem's decisions
when you can't even work out simple equations. The judge was 100 percent correct
in his judgment; the fault lies with you two. Now let me explain to you the
verdict. You told me that you all ate an equal portion of the loaves. The only
way to achieve this is if each of the loaves were divided into three equal
pieces. Therefore the person that brought along the three loaves ended up with
nine pieces, while the one who brought two breads has six pieces, together
making it 15 pieces of bread. We can therefore conclude that each one of you must
have eaten five pieces of bread. The person that had three loaves ate five of
his pieces and gave the stranger the four remaining pieces, while his friend
ate five of his own pieces giving the remaining piece to the stranger, thus the
person who gave away four pieces deserves to be rewarded with four coins and
the other one deserves only one coin, and that is what my dear friend the judge
awarded to each of you". They both left the Ibn Ezra with the
mouths hanging wide open after coming to the realisation that what sometimes
might seem unfair, illogical and sometimes even cruel, often there is a very
simple explanation and more to the matter than meets the naked eye.
We often
wonder to ourselves why is it that righteous and pious people seem to experience
much suffering and hardships during their lives, while on the other hand some
of the wicked and evil people seem to lead happy, content and successful lives.
Yacov wished to live out his days in peace after so many years of tribulation,
first being persecuted by his brother Esau and then his father-in-law Lavan
swindling him, and then the abduction of his daughter Dinah. He
now desired to settle down in tranquility but the anguish of Yosef's kidnapping
pounced upon him. Though the righteous seek serenity, Hashem says
"Are the righteous not satisfied with what awaits them in the World to
Come that they expect to live at ease in This World too. We can reasonably
assume that Yacov didn’t wish to sit on his laurels, lounging in the sun
with a cocktail in his hands, rather he wanted to use his days for the service
of Hashem, however we are not able to fathom nor understand Divine
calculations; we have to realise that what we see isn’t always the entire
picture and we shouldn’t question it nor try to comprehend it because it is all
above our grasp as we are mere mortals.
Yosef was
taken down to Egypt and sold as a slave to Potiphar. After being in the
household for a year and becoming successful in his work, the lady of the house
set eyes on him and tried to entice him in every possible way to sin with her; using
threats, humiliation, varying her dress and offering money but to no avail as Yosef
had no intention to commit adultery. Then there came an opportune day, a
festival where all the members of the family went to give gratitude to their
idol and she feigned illness in order to stay at home and subdue Yosef to
consort with her. Yosef overcame the temptation and escaped. Yosef was
sure that by not yielding to the Evil Inclination and escaping from the
clutches of his master's wife, Hashem would compensate him accordingly
and hopefully this saga will come to an end and he will now be allowed to
return home to his father's open arms. However a surprise lay in store for him
and instead of being sent to his freedom he descended to an even lower ranking and
he ended up residing in the local jail which was no more than a pit under the
ground. He had to wait for any sort of reward for 12 years, however once the reward
came it was definitely worth waiting for because being thrown in the prison is eventually
what led to him being appointed viceroy of Egypt. A person will always receive
the remuneration that he deserves in spite of the situation looking as though it
will only get worse, but it might just take time to reach the person; sometimes
we imagine the righteous person and his future looks bleak, let us not forget
the lesson that Yosef himself learnt from this episode; nobody is ever
denied their reward, he might only receive it far into the future or only in
the World to Come.
We don’t
understand the Heavenly calculations; however we must have belief and faith
that all our acts are recorded in Heaven and we will be rewarded greatly for
them, however we mustn’t allow ourselves to become disheartened if we see
others suffering as their reward in the World to Come will now become even more
substantial due to their hardships.
Good Shabbos,
Shloime Mannes.
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