Vayeshev 1986

In the Torah portion Vayeshev we learn about Joseph and his dreams.  We learn how Joseph's dreams elicited jealousy and hatred from his brothers.  We learn that until Joseph was able to listen to the dreams of others he did not amount to anything.  It was only after he listened to the dreams of the butler and baker and interpreted them correctly was he, himself, elevated after a period of time to greatness.  It is not enough just to have dreams.  We have to be sensitive to the dreams of others in order to amount to anything.
The question, though, can be asked, why did Joseph tell his brothers his dreams? After all, it says in the text, itself, before he told them the dreams, that the brothers saw that his father loved him more than all the other brothers, and they hated him, and they were not able to speak peacefully with him.  In other words, Joseph, himself, especially after his father gave him the coat of many colors, was cognizant of the fact that the brothers could not speak with him in peace.  Why did he then tell them the dream? Even if he was insensitive to their gestures and feelings, he should himself have realized by the way they were talking to him that he could only exacerbate the situation by telling them him dreams.  What's more, you all know that today is Shabbos Chanukah.  Chanukah is a wonderful holiday, yet Chanukah does not have a separate tractate in the Talmud.  Every other Jewish holiday has a separate tractate.  Even the rabbinic holiday, Purim, has a separate tractate.  Why doesn't rabbinic holiday Chanukah have a separate tractate? Finally, we have the

question, why is it that Chanukah is celebrated for eight days?
After all, the oil should have burned naturally for one day.  The miracle was only that the oil lasted for seven more days.  The first day was natural.  Chanukah, then, should really only be celebrated for seven days and not eight days.  Why then do we light the menorah for eight days.
It seems to me that the answers to these questions are interwoven,  Why was it that Joseph did not realize that by telling his dreams to his brothers he would cause them to become even more jealous and hate him even more? The answer is that Joseph really realized that that would happen.  He was fully cognizant of the fact that his brothers could not speak to him peacefully.  He was cognizant of the fact that his brothers hated him.  The text even says that, but he felt he had to tell his brothers the dreams, not just one dream but both dreams, the dream not only about the sheaves but also the dream about the stars and the moon and the sun bowing down to him.  He had to tell these dreams, he felt, because G-d had communicated this message to him,   Regardless of the consequences, he had to tell the brothers these dreams.
This brings us, of course, to an important problem in life, and that is, even if you are 100% right, should you implement your

ideals regardless of the uproar that you will cause because you
know that you are right and G-d will always stand beside you, After all, that was what Joseph probably felt,  G-d had showed him these dreams.  Therefore, G-d must stand behind him and G-d will make sure that no harm could come to him because of these dreams.  We all know that in life you can be right and still suffer.  We know in life that you could be doing 100% the right thing, but yet stir up the anger and hatred of people around you. Just because you know the truth does not mean that you can always implement it without regard to the sensitivities of those with, whom you are dealing.
Why didn't the rabbis include a special tractate in the Talmud for Chanukah? The answer, I believe, is because the rabbis were afraid of Chanukah.  Chanukah talked about a rebellion, of a desperate group of people against religious persecution.  The Maccabees had to revolt.  They had no choice.  If they would not have revolted, there would be no Judaism.  Antiochus had banned the study of Torah, bris milah, the celebration of Shabbos, Rosh Chodesh.  If anyone had a Torah in their house, they would be immediately killed.  They had no choice,  They had to revolt immediately.  However, their example inflamed others later on to also revolt, and these other people were not in the same desperate position that the Maccabees were.  The Maccabees had no

other choice,  They were like the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto or
the Jews in Israel in 1948.  They had to fight.  There are Jews even today in Israel who will not fight to protect Israel.  The Arabs will then be able to wipe us out.  The rabbis were afraid of the example of the Maccabees because the Maccabees said, "Because we are right, because we are fighting for the right, G-d will help us and aid us and we can take desperate means to achieve our goals," and they were victorious.  They won. However, 200 years later, in the year 66, when the Jewish people revolted they were not in the same position.  True, the Romans were oppressing them, but they still had religious liberty. Their situation was not 100% desperate.  They should have negotiated.  They should have used other means.  The rabbis were not happy with the revolt, and, sure enough, they were crushed and over a million Jews were killed.  Just 70 years later, also relying on the Maccabeean example that if you are right and you have right on your side you are able to pick up arms and G-d will always aid you, but G-d will not always aid you.  G-d has His own purposes.  G-d knows what He is doing in the universe, and we do not know what He is doing.  We cannot rely on the fact that we are right to ensure our victory.  In the time of Bar Kochba the Jewish people revolted again based only on a rumor that a pagan temple was going to be built on the site of the Temple.  They should have negotiated.  They should not have revolted again.

They did and 600,000 Jews were killed.  Joseph had to learn that
it just is not enough that you know that you are right.  You also have to apply the truths that you have learned with reason,  G-d has told us, "Yes, there are things wrong in the world, and you should fix them.  Don't do it without regard for the feelings of others, without regard for the consequences.  Use reason in implementing My tasks,"
That's why in Joseph's dreams about the sheaves, we see that Joseph had to do things,  He had to act.  He had to be a person who applied the teachings and the meaning of the dream to real life,  It says, "And behold we were making sheaves in the midst of the field, and my sheep got up,"  In other words, his sheep did something.  "And behold your sheep is surrounded by sheaves and bowed down to mine."  Joseph just was not to sit and allow the truth and right and the promise that had been given in the dream to occur.  He had to act.  He had to act with reason and understanding.  G-d tells us that we have responsibility to implement His teachings in the world, and He has promised to help us, but He has only promised to help us if we use reason.  Just doing things, even if they are the right things, but doing them in the wrong manner or without the use of reason is counterproductive.  Joseph suffered, his family suffered, everybody suffered because Joseph was insensitive to this

teaching.  Yes, we can't stop G-d's plans from occurring.  The
Jews were destined to go down to Egypt, but they did not have to go down this way, with Joseph going as a slave, the brothers coming during the famine, the father suffering for 22 years because he thought Joseph was dead.  We can't frustrate G-d's will.  However, unless we apply G-d's will with understanding we will suffer.
That's, too, why we celebrate Chanukah for eight days and not seven days.  After all, shouldn't we really celebrate for seven days? The first day the oil should have lasted one day.  It was natural and not a miracle.  However, we celebrate Chanukah for eight days to teach us that it is a miracle when people can determine whether a situation is such a desperate situation like during the time of the Maccabees and in which you have to use violence and force and revolt, or whether the situation can be dealt with with other means.  Violence and revolt and war are only a last resort.  It was also a tribute to the Maccabees that they could make this distinction.  It was a tribute to them that they have the courage and strength to make such a daring exploit.
We must always remember that when we apply our teachings of our relgion to life we must do it with understanding even though we

are 100% right.  This, I think, is what happened to the Reagan
administration.  They thought their policies 100% right so, therefore, they felt they were entitled to use any means they could.  Didn't they realize everything would come out in the end? Didn't they realize that secrets cannot be kept forever in a democracy? Didn't they realize that by keeping Congress in the dark, by circumventing the law, they would just create a worse situation in the end, where there would be no help given at all to those people they wanted to help? We must realize that even if we think we are right, even if we know we are right, like Joseph knew he was right because G-d appeared to him through his dreams, yet we must still implement the content of G-d's teachings with reason, and not just feel that because we are right G-d will come to our aid.  When we do anything in life we must do it with reason.  We must do it based upon considered calculations, not just upon emotion and knowing 0-6 is with us.
I am reminded of the story of a professor who gave a test.  After 50 minutes he collected the papers.  There was still a student in the corner working.  He said, "Don't you know that time is up?" The student was flipping a coin in the air and said, "Give me a few more minutes.  Give me a few more minutes."  The professor said, "What are you doing?"  The student replied, "Checking my answers."  That's no way to get high marks on a test, and that is no way to live life.  We must live life based on reason and knowledge.  We cannot base life on the fact that we know we are right.  We also have to apply the teachings of our faith to life with reason.

In the Torah portion Vayeshev and in the Haphtorah to this Torah portion in the Book of Amos we learn about the problem of power. Power is a very difficult problem. As Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." That is why in this country we have such an inefficient form of government. We have the separation of powers. We have the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, and they are many times in conflict. This was done purposely so power should never be concentrated in a very few hands, so no tyrant should ever arise over America. Power is very seductive because a person can use power in such a way that he feels he is being very righteous and using the power well when actually he is misusing the power, especially when his use of the power does not benefit himself personally. That is why so many leaders end up doing terrible things because they are not benefitting personally from their use of power. They are doing things for the good of their country, for the good of their family, for the good of an institution. They are personally not benefitting but they misuse power and they harm and hurt people.  I am sure the Nazis in Germany did not feel they were doing anything wrong when they wiped out our people during the Holocaust because they believed they were saving Germany by exterminating the Jews. Look what the Communists did. The Communists felt they were saving the world by starving to death six million people in the Ukraine. They felt they were entitled to use the power they had because they, personally, were not benefitting. They were, in effect, reshaping mankind and making a better society. Power is a very seductive thing, and people use power wrongly many times.
Amos speaks out against the rich who have concentrated all the power in their hands, and they have become very self-righteous and holier-than-thou.

When people have nothing to eat and they would take a piece of fruit or venison the rich people would become self-righteous and yell at them that they were stealing and breaking the Ten Commandments. Power is a very seductive thing, and economic power is also a very terrible thing because eventually if wealth is not redistributed periodically then it concentrates in the hands of a very few people, and these people then, of course, feel they can do anything they want to protect their property. This, of course, is what is happening today in South America, and, unfortunately, I am afraid that unless we are careful it can happen in the United States in a very short time, too, perhaps within the next 100 years. The rich are getting richer all the time. This means that they then feel they can impose their will on the poor. After all, they are special people. They have been entrusted with all this wealth so judges should listen to them. Justice is not even handed. They feel they can impose all sorts of conditions on the poor and the helpless and the weak.
Amos rails against this type of attitude. Justice must be for the poor, too, and wealth must be redistributed periodically so that people can have a sense of independence and not be tied as a serf to their master. We learn that these problems caused the downfall of the northern kingdom of Israel. Perhaps the greatest act of justice in the United States was the Homestead Act enacted under Abraham Lincoln where everyone was assured 640 acres of land. This meant people had an economic base. Wealth was redistributed. That is, of course, why we must pay taxes, inheritance taxes, etc. People do not realize this. They do not realize power corrupts, and people do not even see they are corrupted because of their power.
This also applies in interpersonal relationships as well. How many times do

we see that one spouse manipulates another, or we see institutions fall apart because people are not willing to share power? Many times they are brilliant people who know how to use all sorts of tricks and strategems to get their way. The people upon whom they work these strategies many times are not smart enough to counteract these people. They know they are doing things they do not want to do, and they know they have been tricked, but they do not know how to counteract these strategisms so many times they just stay away from these people. And, of course, how many shuls have closed because one man insists upon being president for 30 or 40 years and the other people, since they have no access to power, leave? And how often does it happen that families break up because of the misuse of power?
In the Torah Vayeshev we learn about this misuse of power. We learn how Jacob misused his power by favoring one son over another, and we learn about Joseph, who was a very talented, intelligent, insightful person, but he misused his power. He brought back all sorts of tattletales against his brothers to his father. His brothers knew he was smarter and more talented and more insightful than they were, but Joseph was not content just to have this known in a modest way. He insisted upon telling his brothers his dreams, how all their sheaves would bow down to his sheaves, how the sun and moon and stars were all going to bow down to him. They looked at him and said, "Joseph, are you planning to rule over us,“ and they hated him for this. Joseph flaunted his talents and his intelligence. He misused his power. Of course, the brothers were not blameless either, because later on they planned to kill Joseph. When Joseph went to see them not far from Schem they conspired to kill him.  It was 10 against one.  If it would not be that at the last minute Judah convinced them not to they would have killed him.  Instead they sold him as a slave to Egypt.

At the end of the Torah portion we once again learn about the misuse of power. We learn that when Joseph resisted the amorous advances of his master's wife she became so angry that she had him put in prison.  She misused her power because he would not consent to what she wanted him to do, and he was put into prison for no reason. Later on the butler misused his power when Joseph helped him and asked him if he would not reciprocate the favor and help Joseph, the butler said he would but then he did not. Many people misuse their power and this, of course, is a very difficult thing to know: how to use power.
The only person who really comes off well in this Torah portion is Judah, and we learn how he came off well in a sordid incident. Judah had married a Canaanite woman and had 3 sons. His oldest son married a woman named Tamar. He died shortly after they were married. According to the custom in those days, if a woman died childless she was to marry the next brother so she did, but that brother, too, died. There was a third brother who was supposed to marry her, but he was too young so she waited for him. Then when it was time for him to marry her Judah delayed. After all, he was afraid. After this time Judah's own wife died. He then went subsequently to shear his sheep and he was lonely and saw a prostitute at the crossroads, and he went to her. He did not know this prostitute was his daughter-in-law, Tamar.  She normally was not a prostitute, but she was determined to get pregnant from this family.  She was veiled, and Judah left his signet ring and his staff with her as a pledge. The next morning he was to her a sheep. He did send a sheep but she was no longer there. A few months later he learned that she had become pregnant. This, of course, was an affront to the family honor.  She was brought before him to be judged in public for her offense.  She was to be very severely punished, but, before sentence was
Rabbi Joseph Radinsky
pronounced, she presented the staff and signet ring and said, "The man who owns these, he is responsible for my pregnancy." When Judah looked at the staff and signet ring he realized they were his and he said, "She is more righteous than I," and, therefore, she was not punished. Judah knew how to use power. He could have covered up. He could have had her punished and saved his reputation and not shamed himself in public, but he did not because he knew that that was not the way to use power. That would be an abuse of power, and, because he knew how to use power, because he knew how to be responsible in its use, he was chosen to be the political leader of Israel. Joseph, who was smarter than he was, who was more talented than he was, who was more insightful than him, was not chosen to be the leader of the Jewish people because he did not know how to use power.
In order to use power we have to know how to use it responsibly, and, of course, that is what a great part of Jewish education is about.  It teaches how to use power responsibly.  So many people do not know how to use power, and they justify their misuse of power by saying they are not doing it for themselves but for their family, their company, their synagogue, their country. This is wrong. Power must always be exercised responsibly. We can see that many presidents of the United States, too, got into trouble because they did not know how to exercise power responsibly. They felt that since they had the power they could do anything they wanted, but you cannot. Amos teaches us in his prophecies that a nation must watch out that they do not misuse their power, that they do not stamp on the poor and the needy and the homeless, but they must help them because if they misuse their power then G-d's protection will be lifted from us.
I am reminded of the story they tell about what happened about 10 or 15

years ago in Quebec when the French movement was very strong there, and an English speaking lawyer came before the judge and said, "Judge, I don't know what I can do. The plaintiff is French, the prosecutor is French, all the members of the jury are French. I'm afraid I can't get a fair trial." The judge looked at him and said, "Sacre bleu, I think you have a problem." The misuse of power is a bad thing. We must always learn how to use power correctly otherwise no matter what our gifts, what our talents, what our intelligence, we will end up creating strife and not create the kind of society we want. Let us hope and pray that we will learn to use our power wisely.