The Great Tzaddik is an Orphan, Completely Hidden, We Know Nothing About Him | Parshat Vayigash
"And Judah approached him" (Genesis 44:18), The Story of Joseph and His Brothers is a Message for Generations ā Parshat Vayigash from Rabbi Menachem Azulai shlit"a
"I am Joseph." The true tzaddik is revealed. The foundation of the world. Joseph is everything, the root of all, from him all abundance flows to the world. Joseph managed to conceal his light, his power, and Joseph was "handsome in form and appearance" which is an acronym for "orphan". The great tzaddik is an orphan, completely hidden, we know nothing about him (Chumash "Heichal HaBracha").
The Power of Truth
How wonderful is the truth. There is nothing more beautiful than the truth. And how much power it has. A person who walks with the truth will see divine assistance at every step. Why? Because Hashem yearns for truth, and the more truthful a person is, the more the light of Hashem shines upon him.
When Judah approached to present his arguments before Joseph, what did he have to say that had not already been said?
What did he have to innovate, for everyone knew everything.
He simply recounted in detail the entire sequence of events without adding anything new. "But this is the power of truth and its depth. There is no need to innovate anything in it, only to draw it out and present it as it is, everything that has already been said and all that is known. You take and connect one thing to another and present them together, and they are as new, capturing the heart and subduing the listener" (Sefer HaParshiot).
Judah does not despair, even if he sees that everything is closed and there is no opening for salvation. He trusts in the truth, takes it and presents it before Joseph because he knows he has nothing else, only the one and only truth, and from it will come deliverance and salvation.
A person goes through what he goes through, he has ups and downs, suddenly there is some relief and understanding, and he wants to thank Hashem, and elsewhere it is still very difficult for him and he wants to ask Hashem to help him more here, and so he reaches his "hour" at night, in the field, lifts his eyes to the heavens and tells Hashem everything, he does not innovate anything for himself, certainly not for Hashem who sees everything, but it does him good. It makes him happy because it is his truth at that moment and he said it in an orderly way, it organized his mind.
Sometimes a person accuses himself because according to his truth he is flawed and very distant, and through this he despairs and distances himself even more. Is this truth? If it distances you from Hashem, it is not truth! Through truth, one cannot distance. Truth only brings closer. Instead of blaming yourself, strengthen yourself!
You belong to the holy Torah. You belong to Judaism. The study is not going well for you, praying with the proper intention is not going well for you, here you have erred and there you have erred, but you belong to the holy Torah! You have many holy mitzvot! Even if you are not so special, even if you are the simplest Jew, who only lives according to the Torah, you have so many mitzvot, in the simplest things. How you tie and lace your shoes, how you wash your hands when you wake up, or cut your nails, or touch a covered place on your body, you too belong to the service of Hashem! You too have a mission to fulfill!
Every person has a different part in creation that he needs to rectify, and he is responsible for this part, and if he does not do it, no one else will do it in his place, the flaw will remain. And even though there are others more righteous than him, more geniuses than him, they cannot do it in his place. Only he can do it because he received this part in divinity. And he cannot escape from it, this is his rectification, this is his path, this he must rectify.
We want the ultimate truth. We seek the ultimate truth that belongs to us, at this moment and at every moment and every hour. We want to know every moment what Hashem wants from us at that moment, in relation to our mission towards ourselves and towards those around us.
What disturbs us? What confuses us? What distances us from the truth? Our ego, our pride, all the things that make us angry, dissatisfied, strict, deprived. When we struggle with them, neutralize them, succeed in casting them aside, we then merit immense simcha, we merit a touch of that wonderful verse of King David in Psalms "And I will rejoice in Hashem".
Do you want closeness to Hashem? Be a person of truth. Distance yourself from falsehood to the utmost. "Hashem is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth" (Psalms 145).
Falsehood and truth are mixed within us. Just think about how many questions we were asked in one day and we were not precise? How many did we change? How many did we evade? And how many did we answer explicitly incorrectly? And if so in one day, then what about two days... a week... and more than anything we lie to ourselves. That we learn enough, that we know enough, that we are right.
Do we first look at ourselves and our flaws and shortcomings before we attack the other for his flaws and shortcomings? If we looked at ourselves with the eye of truth, we would see that we are not better, we would be able to see the justice of the other as well. Truth is the foundation upon which the entire building stands. Hashem yearns for truth. That we do not exaggerate, that we do not inflate, that we are precise. To the utmost. That we educate the children to speak the truth. That they should not fear our reaction, the parents. Because if they fear, they come to falsehood as our Rebbe says in Sefer HaMiddot "Falsehood comes by accepting fear of people". This is true between parents and children, it is also true between spouses. When one fears the other's reaction, they get used to lying. But when they feel they can tell everything to the other, because even our mistakes are accepted with understanding and forgiveness, then they get used to saying only truth.
Truth is simcha. A person speaks the truth, he immediately feels Hashem. Joseph could not restrain himself any longer and revealed himself to his brothers. I am Joseph. And he adds "And now do not be distressed". Now, when the truth is revealed, there is no more sadness, and no more anger, and no more doubts and no more fears. There is only simcha.
When a person is connected to his truth, he lives in simcha. He knows his level, he does not rise too high. The Torah explicitly warns: Distance yourself from falsehood! Distance yourself from falsehood. Falsehood is such a terrible thing, more than anything. When a person merits to check everything before he speaks it, what a great thing it is!
It is told about the holy Shlah that he had a student who would not utter a single word from his mouth without thinking and checking if it was absolute truth. He would check everything before he said it. The holy Shlah asked him how he merited such a degree of truth that was ingrained in his very bones? The student told him, he and all his brothers received this trait from their father, who always warned them, to speak only truth. And so he would stipulate with them. If it happened that you did something not good, broke, destroyed, committed a sin God forbid, etc., anything ā come and tell me the truth, and I will not punish you! And not only will I not punish you, but I will forgive you completely, and I will give you a reward for telling the truth, and I will also help you fix what you ruined. On the other hand - pay attention! If I ever catch you lying, any lie, for any reason, I will punish you with such severe punishments, and I will not forgive it at all! Because the most important thing is, that you always speak only the truth! And so, they got used to always speaking only truth!
A person in darkness, he feels bad, he has completely lost simcha, what advice does our Rebbe give him? To speak a word of truth. Some true sentence "Father, have mercy". "Father, I can't take it anymore". "Master of the World", until when"?
There are descents in life, but Hashem promises us that even in the descents He is with us, sees us, feels us, accompanies us, does not leave us for a moment. From the parsha: "I will go down with you to Egypt and I will also surely bring you up again" (Genesis 46:4). And it is brought in the holy books that in this verse is hinted all the ascents and descents that a person goes through. And if he remembers that Hashem is with him every second, even when he is in the peak of darkness, if he remembers then it becomes easier for him. Then he begins to understand that everything is Hashem's mercy, who wants to bring him closer to Him, that everything happens to heal him, to rectify, to purify, to cleanse, to purify, that is the only purpose of the sufferings he goes through. That is the truth.
Everything stands on truth. This is the foundation of the Torah, this is the foundation of emunah, this is the foundation of the entire world. Truth. From here everything is built. And what is the truth? That Hashem does everything.
Joseph tries to calm his brothers: "It was not you who sent me here, but Hashem" (Genesis 45:8). It was not you who sent me to Egypt. Hashem sent me. Relax. Hashem does everything. And not only does Hashem do everything, everything is for the good! "For Hashem sent me before you to preserve life" (Genesis 45:5) so that I could provide for you during the years of famine.
We came here to understand that there is a Master of the world and He determines everything and does everything and everything we merit to do, it is because He gives us the strength to do it. That is the truth. The opposite of this is the falsehood of "My strength and the might of my hand have made me this wealth". When a person understands this truth, he frequently turns to Hashem and asks Hashem to help him with everything.
We forget, Joseph did not forget. Even when he was 12 years in prison and even when he was 80 years king over all of Egypt, he constantly remembers Hashem and mentions Hashem.
And how is it that a person succeeds even without turning to Hashem? Even without praying? Such a person loses all connection with the Creator and lacks the delight and simcha that one who believes and is attached to Hashem has. This is in this world, and who knows what he loses God forbid from his portion in the World to Come.
"Truth is something we mention at least three times a day: "Truth, our King, there is none besides Him" ā without Hashem I am nothing. Anyone who wants the truth must do a soul-searching and ask himself: Can I do anything without Hashem? Can I succeed in anything without Hashem? The answer is no! If so, what is in my hand to do? Only to pray for everything, and to thank for everything. And as in the physical, so in the spiritual. Every spiritual level, everything is from Hashem. And every spiritual failure and deficiency - because more prayer is needed, more desire, apparently the vessel you built to receive the abundance is not yet complete" (He who blesses His people Israel with peace)
When Joseph decides to reveal his identity to his brothers, he commands "Remove everyone from me", I want to remain alone with my brothers. Only when everyone leaves does he say: "I am Joseph"!!! Why? What is the reason he removed everyone? Rashi explains: Lest his brothers be embarrassed by those present, therefore he removed them. This is the beauty of Judaism. The main thing is not to harm, not to shame, to preserve the dignity of the other. The main thing is to forgive. Like Joseph the tzaddik. Despite everything his brothers did to him, stripping his clothes from him, hardening their hearts to his cries and pleas, throwing him into a pit full of snakes and scorpions, he forgives. "I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt". Why did he add "your brother"? Isn't it enough to say I am Joseph? Rather, he wanted to say, even though you sold me into Egypt, I remain your brother, there is no resentment in my heart, no anger, no hatred.
Between a person and his fellow is above all, this is the truth of Judaism. It is said in the name of the holy Baal Shem Tov that it is worthwhile for a person to live eighty years, to do, even once, a good deed for a Jew, even a physical good, even a small good, almost worthless, insignificant. Even it will be recorded in the book of memories. We need to relate to others, to shine a face to them, to draw them close, to pray for them, to make them happy, at least what we can, and what we cannot, then at least in the heart.
It is told about Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz zt"l, the mashgiach of the Mir Yeshiva, who traveled by train, and at the moment the car doors locked, one glove slipped from his hand out the window and fell onto the platform. Rabbi Yerucham could not manage to get off the train and take the glove, because the train had already started moving, and in a split-second decision, he removed the first glove... since he himself could no longer enjoy and use one glove, but at least now someone who finds both gloves together can enjoy and use them.
The great love that Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri, the elder of the kabbalists, zy"a, had is hard to understand. He would pray at the Kotel during Sukkot and from the sukkah to the Kotel it would take him an hour, because they would approach him for blessings, and he at 90, 100, would bless each one, shine a face to each one. After his death, dozens of volumes full of names and requests were found, and his son recounted that everyone who came to him, he would write down their name, the date they came, and the request. For what? So that he could pray for them again and again. Such love for Israel he had that it is impossible to describe.
Unity, love, and peace, this is what Hashem wants from us. The story of Joseph and his brothers is a message for generations, it is a story that comes to teach us how not to hold a grudge, how to forgive, how to judge favorably, and even to love those who erred and harmed us.