Mikeitz: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful insight for Parshas Mikeitz: "And Yaakov saw that there was grain in Egypt" - why does it say that Yaakov saw that there was grain, shouldn't it have said 'and he heard'…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 In the weekly parsha it says, “Yaakov saw that there was grain in Egypt.” Rashi explains that “Yaakov saw” means Yaakov heard. So why does it say “saw”? Rashi explains that a glimmer of holy vision flashed before him. He saw that there was still something in Egypt connected to him. There’s a well-known story about when the Alter Rebbe was arrested—by the way, today is the fifth night of Chanukah. We especially mark the fifth night because the Alter Rebbe’s second release took place on the fifth night. When he was arrested the first time, before they took him away, the Alter Rebbe managed to say that someone should be sent to Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev to ask him to pray. The messenger left immediately, because the Alter Rebbe had said to go to Berditchev at once. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev asked him, “What is his mother’s name?” But he didn’t know. He had hurried off so quickly that he didn’t know her name. Reb Levi Yitzchak had a Chumash on the table. He opened it, and it opened to “Yaakov saw that there was grain in Egypt.” He said that the Hebrew word for “grain,” shever, is an acronym for Schneur ben Rivkah—and that really was the Alter Rebbe’s mother’s name. But there’s an obvious question: shever could just as easily stand for Shimon ben Rachel. It could stand for other names too. What connects it to the Alter Rebbe? The explanation is that the verse itself was the point. Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev understood that if the Alter Rebbe had been arrested, it was because something had to be brought out of that place. Through the Alter Rebbe’s arrest, the heavenly accusation against Chassidus was nullified, and apparently that was why he had to be in prison. So it wasn’t only the initials spelling Schneur ben Rivkah; it was also that “there was grain in Egypt.”

02:10 Speaker 2 There was a special purpose to his being in prison. It was like Yaakov seeing that there was grain in Egypt, that he needed to bring Yosef out of there. The same applies to Chassidus: precisely because of the imprisonment, the publicizing and spreading of Chassidus afterward was incomparably greater than it had been before the imprisonment. That is the meaning of “there was grain in Egypt.”

02:33 Speaker 1 Good Shabbos.