VaYigash Excerpts

ויגש

Shabbat Shalom

(45:17) Paroh tells Yosef to bring his family to Egypt and give them some decent living. Like any good leader, Paroh takes credit for something his subordinate already did. Kind of like the Gabai taking credit for every opened ark. Yosef already told them he will give them Goshen as a place to live. Goshen being very similar to Wilmot Hill. Not like our neighborhood where nobody can afford Jewish Day School or dues, or anything other than golfing...Bernie. Sand traps were rampant in Egypt.

Yosef sends his brothers with stuff (45:21-23), Paroh tells him wagons and Yosef seems to add the food and change of clothes. We all know how bad people from the Middle East can smell.

The point is stuff. You send people away with stuff. That is how you make people feel welcome. Even Paroh knows this. When was the last time anybody from this community ever gave somebody stuff? And you wonder why nobody wants to visit. Even at the party for my daughter, there were know party bags. The little girl walked home with nothing....She is in kindergarten. You don't host a party for kids in kindergarten and send them home with no food.

It is derech eretz to give food for the way. You give people an extra bagel with cream cheese. Yosef gave Binaymin a little more...For close family, you give some lox. Is this hard? Tzedah LaDerech. You send people with a little something for the way. Make them comfortable.

He even gives change of clothes. Nobody wants Mark Schwartz's clothes. It is the idea. Yosef gave clean clothes. Fresh clothes. That is how you treat guests...I have to say. The Farmer family's guests are the worst dressed we have ever seen in this shule. Syms maybe....

Your parents give you food. And you say no? Take it. It is our tradition to feed people on their trip...A pickle and deli is not a good thing to pull out on a plane. A cheese sandwhich can work...There is trip food, and then there is food that smells wrong....

Yosef tells his brothers (45:24) Don't get mad on the way...Rashi- don't learn halacha (Jewish law)...it causes too much focus on the way.

Our most knowledgeable Torah scholar in this congregation is the most annoying and angry person.

Let the people read the Torah. Does anybody else here care about the trup/pronunciation?...

The point is to care about the people. Care about the family. Make sure they have something to eat on the way. The Ba'al Koreh (Torah reader) makes a mistake, give him a little snack. Maybe he is hungry, Chaim.

Care makes people feel welcome. Shiurim and Torah classes starts fights...

(45:27) When Yakov saw the stuff Yosef sent, it would seem that he knew it was Yosef and 'The spirit of Yakov their father lived.'

Living is a state of being. He saw that this was his child. The kind of person that overloads people with food and stuff, when they go on a trip. Overloading to the point where you need extra wagons. That is the Jewish way. Yakov sees this and he knows his son is alive...

For all those years, Yakov's spirit was down. Overreacting some might say. Hell, that is what happens to parents. They care. But when he sees that his son cares and his son gives back to the community, he can live again...

Not one person in this community has a happy parent.

***These are excerpts from the sermon. For the sermon in its entirety, come see David Kilimnick perform at the Off The Wall Comedy Basement, in downtown Jerusalem.
David also tours as a Maggid around the world, with very few stories.

Shabbat Shalom