December 18, 2020
A Blessing on the Vaccine
Miketz, 5781
One time a man came to Reb Zusha in tears. His father had recently died and he was bothered by a recurring dream he kept having. Every night his father kept appearing to him in a dream and telling him that he should convert out of Judaism.
This man was surprised and extremely disturbed by this dream, so he went to Reb Zusha and said: “Rebbe, can you please help me understand what this dream means?”
Reb Zusha said to him: “You need to go at once and dig up the grave where your father is buried. I am certain that you will find that there are trinkets from a different religion that are somehow buried in the same grave with your father.”
Indeed that is what happened. The man ran and dug up the grave at once. He discovered that when they were burying his father a person’s ring had fallen into the grave and on this ring was engraved an image from a different religion.
The world was amazed by this incredible dream and the matter was brought to the attention of the great Vilna Gaon. In those days the Vilna Gaon and the Chassidic Masters were unfortunately in a bitter dispute as they did not hold each other in high regard. In this instance the Vilna Gaon was shocked to hear the story. Reb Zusha was not known for his great scholarship. The Vilna Gaon said: “There is a source for the idea of checking the grave in this instance. This source comes from the Jerusalem Talmud. But this is an obscure text and I have no idea how Reb Zusha is aware of this source!”
When the Vilna Gaon’s remarks were brought to Reb Zusha, Reb Zusha said: “I will admit that I have not seen this passage in the Jerusalem Talmud. However, what I have seen is the source for the Jerusalem Talmud itself!”
This Chassidic tale reflects the idea that dreams contain powerful spiritual information and that the interpreter of the dream has the ability to help harness that spirituality by having direct insight into the ways of Hashem.
In our parasha we see this same belief that dreams are filled with a spiritual message as Yosef demonstrates his greatness by interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh. Pharaoh in turn recognizes that Yosef’s greatness is divinely inspired by saying: “So Pharaoh said to Yosef, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is none so discerning and wise as you” (41:39).
In our Haftorah we see a variation of this concept. The passage we read for the Haftorah begins with I Kings 3:15 and tells a story of Shlomo Hamelekh sitting in judgment of two women each claiming a single child as their own. Immediately prior to the passage we are told that Hashem visits King Shlomo in a dream: “Hashem appeared to Shlomo in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask, what shall I grant you?’” (3:5). Shlomo responds that he asks for Hashem to make him wise (3:9) and Hashem promises that there never will be anyone as wise as Shlomo (3:12).
In the context of Shlomo asking Hashem to make him wise we are then told the story that we read as our Haftorah. Many commentaries assume that the reason why this passage is chosen as our Haftorah is because of this connection to dreams—Yosef interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and Shlomo becomes wise as a result of Hashem granting him wisdom in a dream. There are other obvious connections. Both Shlomo and Yosef are reported to be the wisest men in the land (I Kings 3:9-14; Genesis 41:38-39). Both marry into Egyptian royalty. (I Kings 3:1; Genesis 41:44). But there is another connection—a much deeper connection--between these two passages.
The story we read for the Haftorah is a classic story that many of us heard as children. It tells the story of Shlomo’s great wisdom. Here is the passage:
Then Solomon awoke: it was a dream! He went to Jerusalem, stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented offerings of well-being; and he made a banquet for all his courtiers. Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The first woman said, “Please, my lord! This woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. On the third day after I was delivered, this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone; there was no one else with us in the house, just the two of us in the house. During the night this woman’s child died, because she lay on it. She arose in the night and took my son from my side while your maidservant was asleep, and laid him in her bosom; and she laid her dead son in my bosom. When I arose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, it was not the son I had borne.” The other woman spoke up, “No, the live one is my son, and the dead one is yours!” But the first insisted, “No, the dead boy is yours; mine is the live one!” And they went on arguing before the king. The king said, “One says, ‘This is my son, the live one, and the dead one is yours’; and the other says, ‘No, the dead boy is yours, mine is the live one.’ So the king gave the order, “Fetch me a sword.” A sword was brought before the king, and the king said, “Cut the live child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.” But the woman whose son was the live one pleaded with the king, for she was overcome with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she cried, “give her the live child; only don’t kill it!” The other insisted, “It shall be neither yours nor mine; cut it in two!” Then the king spoke up. “Give the live child to her,” he said, “and do not put it to death; she is its mother.” When all Israel heard the decision that the king had rendered, they stood in awe of the king; for they saw that he possessed divine wisdom to execute justice. (3:15-4:1).
This story demonstrates Shlomo’s great wisdom. He was able to discern the true mother by threatening to split the baby in half. But we wonder: how did Shlomo know? Was threatening to split the baby in half with a sword really his only way of knowing the righteous party or did he have insight into the true mother from a different clue?
The Maggid of Dubnow explains that Shlomo knew who the true mother was even before he threatened to split the baby in half. He only used the threat of splitting the baby in order to convince the public of the correctness of his insight. According to the Maggid, Shlomo was able to identify the mother via two clues in the way the women spoke.
First, a crucial distinction between the two women is that one mother mentioned the live baby first while the other mother mentioned the dead baby first. As the verse states: “The other woman spoke up, ‘No, the live one is my son, and the dead one is yours!’ But the first insisted, ‘No, the dead boy is yours; mine is the live one!’”
The Maggid of Dubnow points out that Shlomo understood that the mother whose child was already dead was not at all actually interested in the living baby. Her focus was only on making sure that the other woman would also be denied happiness. That’s why she begins her speech with the words “the dead boy.” In contrast, the mother of the living baby was intently focused on keeping her son alive, so her first words were, “the live one is my son.”
A second clue is the way each woman referred to the living child. The mother of the live baby used the word, “zeh,” as in “this one is my child. The imposter did not use the word, “zeh.” Instead, the imposter says, “no, the dead one is yours.” The difference is that the real mother is focused on keeping her son alive, while the imposter is just focused on denying the other woman her baby (cited in Maayana Shel Torah, volume 1, 194).
The message of the story goes beyond a mother and her love for child. Through our actions we can demonstrate if we are like the true mother of the baby or the imposter. Do we desire our own success or do we –Gd forbid—resent the success of others? Do we wish for life or death for the world? Are we so embittered with life that we resent the success of others? Do we truly rejoice upon learning of the success of others?
These basic questions serve as a strong connection between the Haftorah and the story of Yosef. Yosef is initially sold into slavery because his brothers are jealous of him and his dreams (37:11). However, in our parasha we see the redemption of the brothers when they are able to overcome sibling jealousy and their resentment of Yosef’s greatness.
Proof for this comes when Yosef’s brothers finally bring Binyamin down to Egypt per Yosef’s request and Yosef showered extra attention upon Binyamin by giving him extra portions:
“Portions were served them from his table; but Benjamin’s portion was several times that of anyone else” (43:34).
The verse then concludes: “they drink their fill with him.”
Rashi explains that the Torah highlights that they drank that day with Binyamin because from the day Yosef was sold neither the brothers nor Yosef had allowed themselves to drink even a drop of wine: “from the day they sold him they had not drunk wine nor had he drunk wine. That day, however, they drank wine.” Prior to that the brothers and Yosef were all in mourning for many years over the breakdown of their family and so they had refused to drink wine.
It is understandable why Yosef would break out from his period of mourning and drink wine on this day. For the first time in many years he was seeing his long lost brother, Binyamin. This was indeed cause for great celebration. However, why would his brothers break their tradition of not drinking wine? From their perspective they were still missing their brother Yosef and mourning his loss so there should not have been any cause for joy.
Explains the Kav Chen that the brothers made an exception and allowed them selves to drink wine that day because they saw that their brother Binyamin had been given extra portions from Yosef. Rather than being resentful of Binyamin they fully rejoiced in his success. They allowed themselves to drink wine because they truly felt that Binyamin’s success as much as it would have been their own success. (This interpretation appears in Kav Chen -- cited in Maayanah Shel Torah, volume 1, 191).
This is the challenge that we must take upon ourselves in order to reach spiritual greatness. Not everyone can reach the great level of rejoicing completely in the happiness of others—although that is a beautiful level to strive for. But at a minimum we must be very careful not to resent the success of others. Such an attribute is a spiritual disaster that we must avoid at all costs.
This week we have an opportunity to fully rejoice in the success and happiness of others. Our country experienced a scientific miracle this week as the first people began to receive a vaccination. There will surely be a long line in the coming months as people wait for the vaccine and not everyone can receive the vaccine first. Even though barely anyone has been vaccinated so far, it is a cause for great celebration for all of us. We should all be rejoicing in the front line healthcare workers whose lives are being protected by receiving their vaccinations this week. Their joy and safety and security should be our joy and safety and security. In addition to our being happy for their getting the vaccine, we should all mark this special week as a great moment of turning point for our world.
Our scientists and their entire support team deserve enormous credit for getting this vaccine ready in order to save many, many lives. But ultimately we must always thank Hashem. It feels spiritually appropriate to mark this special week with a blessing. Even though most of us have not yet been vaccinated we should all rejoice for the vaccine coming to our area and for those who have now been vaccinated. For this reason it is fitting for our entire community to recite the blessing of shehechiyanu right before Kabbalat Shabbat this week. Please join us on our pre-Shabbat zoom as we thank Hashem from the bottom of our hearts and recite the shehechiyanu blessing as a community.
Shmuel Herzfeld
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You can now watch a YOUTUBE recording of Rabbi Herzfeld’s D'var Torah:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5oUrlaX6ko&feature=youtu.be
