Reply To: Short & Sweet

Vayigash: Touch Base

After Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he has a special reunion with Binyomin; they cry on each other’s shoulders, and Yosef gives Binyomin five sets of clothing. Rashi quotes Medrashim that they they were crying over the churban, and the clothes were a hint to the story of Purim. But what do these other stories of galus have to do with Yosef?

At the age of 17, Yosef was left alone in a decadent culture that was the opposite of everything he’d learned in his father’s house. But he never forgot who he was: a son of Yaakov, and a son of Hashem. When he was about to sin in Mitzrayim, he saws his fathers face in the window, and he asked himself “how can I betray my loyalty to Hashem”?

Just like Yosef, the only way that the Jews were able to survive all of our exiles was by never forgetting who we are. We are Jews, the children of the Avos and Imahos, the chosen people of Hashem.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום