Vayeshev 1988

In the Torah portion Vayaishev we learn how Joseph's brothers hate him and sell him eventually to Egypt.  The rabbis say that one of the reasons why the brothers hated Joseph was that Joseph told them that they had to change, that times were different, that new times were coming, that unless they changed they would not be able to maintain their moral integrity. They did not want to listen to him.  That is why Joseph had dreams about sheaves.  They were shepherds.  They were not farmers.  They were not really concerned about the sun and the moon and the sheaves.  They were concerned only about their sheep, but Joseph told them that times were changing, that they had to change, but they told him they had been doing what they had been doing for 20, 30, 40 years.  They did not want to change.  They did not have to change.  Joseph was the person who was causing them to lose their moral integrity because he wanted them to change and they did not want to change.
The rabbis tell us that Chanukah, too, is about change, that initially
the Jewish people welcomed the Greek culture.  After all, Alexander the
Great was good to them.  They even agreed to name all their children who
were born in a particular year Alexander after Alexander the Great.  They
translated the Torah into Greek.  They welcomed Greek philosophy and Greek
science, etc.  There are over 3,000 Greek words in the Talmud and the Mishnah,
but that had to change because the Greek culture kept demanding more and
more.  When Antiochus came he said, "Put an idol in the Temple." After
all, you could argue, this idol was just a beautiful statue and would increase
the aesthetics of the synagogue, and why do you have to keep kosher anyway?
It is what goes out of your mouth that counts, not what goes into your
mouth.  And what is all this other business about circumcision?  That mutilates
the body.  Shabbos can be used to pursue such other wonderful, delightful,
cultural events.  Why do you have to keep Shabbos by going to shul?  The

Maccabees had to arise and say, "Stop.  We have to change.  We cannot keep acculturating and assimilating to the Greek culture this way.  If we continue to do so, we will not be Jews anymore.”
The rabbis also tell us that we light candles five times in Judaism, and each time we light a candle in Judaism it signifies a change.  They tell us what is it that we must know and do in order to justify change?  What is it that would cause us to want to change?  When is change good and when is change bad?  The first time we light a candle is Erev Pesach when we search for chometz.  The night before Pesach we search for chometz throughout the whole house.  This, of course, signifies not only a physical search but a spiritual search.  We are supposed to search our own souls and see how we can eliminate the chometz from it, how we can elevate ourselves spiritually.  We must ask about any change in Judaism, does it increase the spirituality of the Jew or does it decrease the spirituality of the Jew?  Are we changing in order to be more materialistic, in order to shirk spiritual responsibilities, or are we changing in order to increase spiritual responsibilities?
The second time we light a candle in Judaism is on Shabbos when we light the Shabbos candles.  The second criteria is, are the changes beneficial for the family?  Are they good for the family?  Do they strengthen the family or do they weaken the family?  Unfortunately, in our day we see that many of the changes that have been instituted in Jewish life have actually weakened the family, where we talk about alternative life styles, where the family is no longer the life style, where children are an option not a necessity.  These are bad changes, not good changes.  These changes are not changes that Judaism would not approve of.  There are many other changes, too, which lessen spirituality, which do not add to spirituality.

The third time we light a candle in Judaism is on the holiday of Chanukah when we once again reassert Jewish pride.  Therefore, the Chanukah candles must be lit in a public place.  We have to put them in a window nowadays. We have to publicize the miracle because we have to feel we are as good as everyone else in the world.  We cannot have a Jewish inferiority complex where we want to change our noses and our names, etc., that Chanukah proclaims that Judaism is worth fighting for, that Judaism has a message that the world still needs, that we have to be proud of ourselves and proud of our heritage.  Unfortunately, there were many changes that were made in Judaism which proclaimed that Judaism was inferior, that we were not really up to snuff with the culture around us.  This, of course, would be bad changes, that any change which allows us to reassert Jewish pride should be considered a good change.
Also, we light a candle for Havdallah, a multi-wick candle in which we
again state that if change increases Jewish knowledge, then it is good.
When do we light Havdallah?  When we do say the Havdallah in the Shmone
Esre?  We say the Havdallah in the Shmone Esre when it has to do with knowledge,
that we can change when it is going to increase Jewish knowledge, when
the Jewish people are going to be more knowledgeable about their customs.
We light the Havdallah when Shabbos is over and we are ready to enter the
weekday world.  Can we carry the Jewish message better into the workday
world, into the secular world by this added knowledge?  If we can, then it is a wonderful change.
The last time we light a candle is when somebody dies.  Will we leave children behind who are better educated, who are Jewishly cognizant so that they want to remember us in a Jewish way?  Do the changes that we implement today implement Jewish education?  Do they increase Jewish identification?

Do they make our children more Jewish?  Unfortunately, today we see that many people want change but these changes do not add spirituality to Jewish life.  They do not strengthen the family.  They do not add to Jewish pride. They do not add to Jewish knowledge, and they do not insure that your children will continue to want to be Jews.  When we contemplate change we should look and see if these elements are present.  Are Jews being more spiritual by them?  Are we aligning ourselves with those Jews who believe in family and want to have children?  Are we aligning ourselves with those Jews who are more proud of their heritage, who want to increase their Jewish knowledge, or are we pushing changes that will decrease Jewish knowledge and commitment? Many times it happens that change in one generation is good and proper, but in another generation it becomes detrimental.  When the Ghassidim burst on the scene a little over 200 years ago, their changes were beneficial then.  They were right.  They were banned by the organized Jewish community in 1772, a terrible ban went out not to have anything to do with them, not to intermarry with them, but they were the spiritual flowering of Judaism, but later, however, their changes became frozen and today their changes are not necessarily positive.  It is similar to a person who bought some food and after it was in the refrigerator for 2 weeks her friend told her to throw it out.  She said, "I am not going to throw it out.  Ifm going to keep it.  It was good when I bought it and it is good now."  Sometimes these changes are good for their generation but for succeeding generations they are no longer good.  If she keeps that food in the refrigerator she is going to get sick.  Many changes, even changes that were made 20, 30, 40 years ago are not obsolete.  We must now counteract them.  We must now make other changes that will make our religion and our principles more appealing and more relevant to our young.  This does not mean to change our core of beliefs.  This means to change those things which only surround our beliefs.  For example, today all synagogues in America are organized

with a sisterhood, men's club, youth groups just like the Methodists and Presbyterians, but this does not affect the core of Jewish belief.  Many times there were certain changes that were made 20, 30, 40 years ago that seemed right at the time, but now they are detrimental to Jewish continuity. They do not strengthen Jewish spirituality.  They do not strengthen the family, Jewish pride, Jewish knowledge.  They do not assure that our children will be Jews.  Therefore, we have to look to other changes.  Unfortunately, there are people who stay frozen in the past and cannot see the challenges of the future.
That is what happened to Joseph's brothers.  They said, "We have to stay
the way we are.  We do not want to change any little bit."  Of course,
what happened?  Because they did not change they violated all the Jewish
principles.  They did not add to Jewish spirituality.  In fact, the next
thing we read about after Joseph is sold because he was disrupting their
stability, disrupting their moral integrity, was that Judah went to a prostitute.
They did not increase Jewish family.  AFter Joseph was sold the family
fell apart.  The father went into deep mourning.  The brothers could not
talk to each other.  They did not increase Jewish pride.  We see later
on when they came down to Egypt that they were the first to prostrate themselves
before Pharaoh.  Joseph told them not to act phat way.  They did not increase
Jewish knowledge, because they were afraid to confront the text anymore
which told them they had done wrong by selling their brother to Egypt,
just as today there are many people who say, "Oh, my child does not have
to be a rabbi.  Therefore, he does not have to increase his Jewish knowledge."
They are afraid of Jewish knowledge because perhaps this knowledge will
tell them they cannot do certain things they want to do.  In fact, when
it comes to change we have to look carefully at whether or not the change
we made in the past are still adding to Jewish spirituality, are still

adding to strengthening the family.  Are they still adding to Jewish pride and Jewish knowledge?  If they are not, then we have to change again and add other things or subtract things to make sure these elements are present, that Jewish spirituality, Jewish family, Jewish pride, and Jewish knowledge are strengthened.  If we will do this, then of course Judaism will endure for many, many generations.  If not, we will end up as Joseph's brothers did frozen in the past which destroys us.
I am reminded of the story of the young woman who tried to get her mother to have a cataract operation.  Finally she succeeded.  She brought her home from the hospital and wheeled her in front of her big picture window which overlooked a beautiful lake with mountains in the background and a forest in front of the mountains and said, "Mother, can you see?  Do you see anything different now?“  The mother replied, "Don't you ever dust?" This, of course, is a change which was not looked for and a result which was not wanted.  When we make change, let us make sure that they meet the right criteria so that Judaism will flourish and grow forever.