ON THE PARSHA
          Parshas VaYigash

          by Dovid Lipman, Jerusalem


The World Of The Supernatural

     (46:27) "Seventy." Rashi brings the Midrash which fills
in the missing one of the "seventy souls", namely Yocheved,
who was "born on the border" (Rashi on pasuk 15). R' Yonasan
Eyebeshitz explains that there was an important Providential
reason for Yocheved to be born on the border of Egypt. There
is a principle that Hashem, to prove the powerlessness of
Klal Yisrael's enemies, brings their downfall through means
that arise within that very enemy's midst. (For example,
the Jews were saved on Purim through Esther, who had gained
power within Achashverosh and Haman's own palace.) Not only
was Moshe, who would bring Egypt its downfall, raised in the
royal palace, Yocheved, his mother, needed to be Egyptian
born. However, she couldn't be simply born in Egypt, for the
"seventy souls" who descended to Egypt are counterparts to
the seventy nations, and Yocheved herself was the counterpart
of Egypt, so she had to be able to be counted among the
seventy who "came to Egypt". The solution? "On the border"!

A Time To Laugh

     (47:5) "Your father and brothers have come to you." Why
did Par'o make such a redundant statement? Well, he had just
asked the brothers "What do you do?" and gotten a long answer
about how they were shepherds, and should be put in Goshen, to
avoid the Egyptians' hatred of shepherds. So Par'o recalled
how Yoseif had told him the meaning of his dreams, along with
an elaborate plan of action. "I see this is a thing in your
family," Par'o was observing, "I ask a simple question and you
give me advice. You Israelis are all alike."

Worthy Of Note

     (45:22) "and five changes of clothes." The gemara (Meg. 17)
points out that Yoseif seems to be repeating Yaakov's crucial
mistake of favoritism. It answers that the five changes of
clothes were to hint to the five types of clothes Mordechai
(Binyamin's descendant) was honored with when he gained power
in Shushan. R' Chaim Kanievsky notes that this doesn't really
solve the favoritism problem, so he adds that the pasuk hints
to the answer by writing "chalifos" (changes) with a Vav by
the brothers' clothes, but without, by Binyamin's. This shows
that Binyamin's were of much lower quality, and totaled an
equal value to each one of the brothers'. So Yoseif, to hint
to Mordechai, gave an equivalent gift to Binyamin, but in a
different form.

From the Gemara

     (45:3) Chagigah 4 - If the rebuke of Yoseif (even just the
fact that he COULD have rebuked them - MaHarsha) affected the
brothers so much that they could not even speak, imagine how
overwhelming it will be when we are brought before Hashem
himself to be rebuked for our misdeeds!
     (46:2) Berachos 13a - One may not call Avraham "Avram",
since Hashem said his name was to be changed, but we may call
Yaakov "Yaakov" (not only Yisrael) becuase Hashem himself used
the old name, even after the renaming.
     (47:14) Pesachim 119a - Yoseif gathered the money of the
whole world to Egypt. Egypt and Eretz C'na'an we see from this
pasuk, and also "the whole world came to Egypt", as we see from
the earlier pasuk (41:57).

Rare And Unusual Words

     (46:28) "L'horos" Rashi brings two explanations: to lead
the way in the settlement, and to set up a house of learning
from which halacha would emanate. Both versions indicate the
relationship of this word to Torah, which means "direction",
our directions for living from Hashem.