Vayeishev: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful insight for the weekly parsha 'Vayeishev': "And his brothers were jealous of him" - a story about just how much jealousy corrupts. Delivered at the conclusion of the shiur of Rabbi…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 In the weekly parsha we read, “His brothers were jealous of him.” Yosef’s brothers were jealous of him. There’s a Yiddish expression, “a feyg in noz.” What does that mean? A fig in the nose. When someone has big eyes—he envies everything he sees and wants it for himself—they say about him, “a feyg in noz.” In Hebrew, you’d say “the middle finger,” but in Yiddish, that’s the expression. But what is it? What does a fig in the nose mean?

00:34 Speaker 1 What does that have to do with anything?

00:35 Speaker 2 What does it have to do with this? The Midrash tells of an emperor of Rome who was once walking in the Galilee and saw an elderly Jew planting a fig tree. The emperor said to him, “Apparently you didn’t work when you were young, so now, in your old age, you’re planting trees. Do you think you’ll still be around to eat its fruit?” The Jew said to him, “When I came into the world, my father had left me some fruit trees. So I, too, am leaving trees for my children. And with Hashem’s help, I hope to eat from these trees myself.” The emperor said, “When they bear fruit, bring me some.” He said, “All right.” Years passed. Thank G-d, this Jew lived a long life. The trees bore fruit, and he remembered that the emperor had told him to bring him some. So he took a basket of fruit and brought it to the emperor. The Roman emperor was in Caesarea. He arrived at the emperor’s palace with the basket. They asked him, “What’s this?” He told them the story: the emperor had asked him to bring the fruit, so here it was. The emperor remembered the story and was very impressed with this Jew. He took the figs and ordered that the man’s basket be filled with gold coins. The Jew came home with a basket full of fruit—gold dinars. His neighbor had big eyes and was jealous of him. His wife said to him, “You see that the emperor likes figs? Bring him figs too, and you’ll get something as well.” So he, too, took a basket of figs, went to the emperor’s palace, and brought him the figs. They asked him, “What’s this?” He said, “I heard the emperor likes figs, so I brought him some.” The emperor called out, “What do I need his figs for?” He ordered them to stand the man at the gate and have everyone who passed take a fig and throw it at his nose. He came home dejected, his head bowed. His

02:43 Speaker 2 wife said, “You’re lucky they were figs and not esrogim.”

02:48 Speaker 1 So there you have it.