Beshalach, Yud Shvat 5785 - "Vayikach Moshe Es Atzmos Yosef" - the avodah of Yosef and his essence

00:01 There was a chossid named Reb Simcha Gorodetsky. Reb Simcha Gorodetsky was a chossid deeply connected to the Rebbe Rashab, the Frierdiker Rebbe, and the Rebbe, the leader of our generation. He had studied at Tomchei Temimim. Later, during the difficult years in Russia, he was among those who showed extraordinary self-sacrifice in their work for Jewish education, Yiddishkeit, and Tomchei Temimim. These were years when harsh decrees were imposed against Torah study itself, the observance of mitzvos, and the education of children. In later years he was arrested and imprisoned, and he endured terrible suffering in Russia. Only after many years was he able to leave Russia, much later than other chassidim, and he spent his final years in Eretz Yisroel. The story involving Reb Simcha Gorodetsky took place in the early years of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s leadership, around 5680–5681, after the passing of the Rebbe Rashab. The Rebbe Rashab passed away on 2 Nissan 5680, and the Frierdiker Rebbe then became the leader and Rebbe. Those were extremely difficult years, materially and spiritually, on every front. There was famine, there was nothing to eat, and the government imposed very harsh decrees against Torah study and education. Everything demanded tremendous self-sacrifice. Reb Simcha was a shadar, a shliach d’rabbanan, on behalf of the Rebbe. The Frierdiker Rebbe chose him to travel between the towns and collect money for Tomchei Temimim and maamad funds. That was his role.

01:49 He collected the money and traveled between the towns, and he would also collect the pidyonos and bring them to the Frierdiker Rebbe in Rostov. The Frierdiker Rebbe lived in Rostov in those years, and that was where Reb Simcha would come to see him. He traveled constantly back and forth between the surrounding towns, working with self-sacrifice for the educational institutions and all the other causes for which the Frierdiker Rebbe devoted himself. He would bring the money to the Rebbe, traveling back and forth in this way. Once, he returned from a trip with pidyonos and money for several purposes. The Frierdiker Rebbe very much wanted to thank him for his efforts. On that occasion, he sat with him for several hours, speaking with him about the circumstances of the people in the towns and places he had visited, while Reb Simcha gave him a report. As they sat together, the Frierdiker Rebbe told him that, as a token of thanks for all he had done, he would allow him to remain in the room while he received people for yechidus. The Frierdiker Rebbe was about to receive visitors.

03:33 People had come from near and far for yechidus to ask for help with their concerns. The Frierdiker Rebbe told Reb Simcha to stand at the side of the room. That way, he could be present for at least some of the yechidus meetings without disturbing them. Naturally, he felt this was an extraordinary gesture of closeness, and he went to a corner of the room and sat down. The meetings began. First, a fairly elderly chossid whom he did not know came in. He looked like a rabbi, a chossid, an important man. He entered and said, “Rebbe, I’ve finished.” The Frierdiker Rebbe said, “Yes, yes, yes,” and he left. After him came a younger man. He looked more modern, with a small kippah and no beard—a Jew with a more modern appearance. He came in and said, “Rebbe, it’s me,” and fainted. The gabbaim immediately came and revived him, and then he left. After that, a third man entered. He, too, looked like an important person. He was not a Chabad chossid, and it seemed he had come from another country, or at any rate from somewhere else. He brought a note with several questions. The Frierdiker Rebbe…

05:27 answered one question, then another, then another, but apparently did not answer one of them. The man asked, “Rebbe, what about the fifth question?” The Frierdiker Rebbe said to him, “What do you think, that I’m blind? I saw the other four, but I didn’t answer this one?” The chossid did not understand and thought the Frierdiker Rebbe had misunderstood him. “No, I mean, Rebbe, there’s another question here.” The Frierdiker Rebbe said to him, “Do you think I’m mute, that I can’t… deaf, sorry, deaf.” In any event, that was how the yechidus ended, and the man left. After the three meetings, the Frierdiker Rebbe said to Reb Simcha, “If you like, you can go out now and speak with the people.” Reb Simcha was very curious and eager to understand what had happened. He had no idea what had taken place: who the first man was, who the second was, or who the third was. He decided to find out the details. For several days he went around looking for all these people, and in time he learned from each of them what had happened. That was how the Rebbe’s greatness was revealed to him. He relates that he met the elderly chossid, the first man to enter, who told him what it was all about.

07:05 The man told him: “I was a Tomim who studied in Lubavitch years ago, one of the early Temimim. Later I married and started a family. Once, I was in yechidus with the Rebbe Rashab, and he told me to travel to Georgia, I believe, or to one of the distant countries in the Caucasus region, around Russia, and work there on matters of Yiddishkeit: to attend to the community, build it up and strengthen it, teach Torah—whatever was needed. He sent me there on shlichus to work with the community. It was not easy; perhaps I didn’t like the idea, but when you go on shlichus, you go. And of course, when the Rebbe tells you to go, you go. I took my family with me and asked the Rebbe how long I should stay there. The Rebbe Rashab told me, ‘You’ll receive a sign that your shlichus is ending when the sign comes.’” So the chossid went to that distant country. While there, he attended to the community, gave Torah classes, and strengthened Yiddishkeit, fear of Heaven, and the observance of halachah. That was his life in that community. It was a remote community. For a chossid, a Lubavitcher chossid, it was… there was no Chabad there, but there were Jews, and he worked with

08:32 the people there. Another year passed, and then another, but still no sign came. When 5680 arrived and the Rebbe Rashab passed away, the chossid went to the Frierdiker Rebbe to ask whether he could end his shlichus. Perhaps this was the sign: the Rebbe had passed away; perhaps the time had come to conclude the shlichus. But the Frierdiker Rebbe said, “No, a sign will still come. In the meantime, you must go back.” So he returned to where he had been living and continued his work for Yiddishkeit. Some time passed. One day, a Jew whom none of the community members knew knocked on the door. He had come from somewhere else and was looking for work and a place to stay. The rabbi welcomed him, gave him something to eat, and helped him settle in, as they say, find work, and so on. One day, that Jew was sitting with the rabbi when the postman suddenly arrived and put down several letters. The chossid looked and saw that one of them was from the Frierdiker Rebbe. His eyes lit up—it was a Yom Tov in the middle of the day. Chassidim know that when a letter arrives from the Rebbe, it is a Yom Tov.

10:02 It is a great joy. He immediately put on his kapote, his sirtuk, fastened his gartel, and went to wash his hands. The Rebbe had sent a letter, and he opened it and read what was written there. As it happened, the Jew who had come to him, that stranger who had arrived in the town, was right there in the shul where they were sitting. He saw the change in the rabbi, how happy he was, and how warmly he read the Rebbe’s letter. He was very curious to know what it was about. The rabbi finished reading, and the man could also see some tension on his face. He asked, “Tell me, what is it about?” The rabbi told him, “The Frierdiker Rebbe wrote me a letter. He said a woman had come to him whose husband had disappeared. She is looking for her husband and doesn’t know where he is, or even whether he is alive, or what she should do. She is terribly worried. The Frierdiker Rebbe writes to me: perhaps this Jew has come to your country; there’s no way to know.” He gave him the name and whatever details he could, so that perhaps they could find out. At that, the man turned pale, because it turned out that it was him—

11:34 This was the Jew who had hidden there—the Jew the Rebbe was looking for, whose wife had come to the Rebbe and said she did not know where her husband was. When he saw this, he became very agitated: “Even here, the Rebbe knows where I am.” He burst into tears and was stirred to profound teshuvah. He told the rabbi that he had been angry with his wife, and over time many doubts about faith and Jewish life had arisen in him. He had difficulties both materially and spiritually. He drifted further and further from Torah and mitzvos until he decided to leave everything and run away. That was how he had come there and disappeared. Now he saw that he could not run away. For the first time, he saw genuine Divine providence: how Hakadosh Boruch Hu guides the world, had led him here, and had called and searched for him. And the Rebbe, with his illuminating eyes, had found him here. It broke him completely. He was moved to teshuvah and began setting aside time to study Gemara, and to learn some more Torah and Chassidus to strengthen his faith. He and his family renewed their relationship, and together they decided to travel to the Rebbe. The rabbi, with Jews like these. The rabbi understood that it was possible

13:03 This was the entire mission of that chossid—the reason he had come here and lived here all those years: to bring this Jew back. He took it as a sign that he had nothing more to do here. His mission was complete, and he could return to where he had been before. The Jew wanted to travel to the Rebbe. After all, it was clear that the Rebbe had brought him out of the valley of the shadow of death, restored his faith and reunited him with his family, so that he could once again live with his wife and children as he should. But what he noticed was that when this Jew arrived, the elderly chossid went in first and asked the Rebbe whether he still had a mission here. That was his question. And the Rebbe told him, “Yes, yes, yes, he may return now. He has permission; he has lived here for several years and has completed his mission.” Then it became clear who the second Jew was: the Jew who had drifted away and had been stirred to teshuvah and remorse. He went in to thank the Rebbe. And the third Jew—that was a story about a Jew who had several matters that—

14:18 He wanted to ask the Frierdiker Rebbe about them. There was also a personal matter: he had a wife, and she had been [unclear] for years, and afterward he wanted to marry her again. He was unsure whether to do so, and he came to ask the Rebbe. That was the fifth question: whether to marry or not to marry. The Frierdiker Rebbe did not answer him, not the first time or the second, until he understood that he would not receive an answer about it. It later emerged that the woman was no longer [unclear], because she had passed away. Yes, she was no longer alive. The Frierdiker Rebbe did not want to tell him, so as not to cause him pain, but he already knew what had happened and that marrying her was no longer possible. In this he saw the Rebbe’s ruach hakodesh, who the Rebbe was, and so on and so forth. This is a story told by Reb Shmerl Gorodetsky, who worked hand in hand with the Frierdiker Rebbe during the early years of the travels. In the weekly parsha, Parshas Beshalach, the parsha of the Song at the Sea, we find at the beginning: “And it came to pass when Pharaoh sent the people away, that G-d did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines.” The Torah tells us what happened during the Exodus from Egypt: Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not lead them through the land of the Philistines. They could have gone straight to the Land of Israel, but “lest the people reconsider when they see war and return to Egypt.”

15:43 That is why He did not want to lead them through the land of the Philistines. It then says: “And G-d led the people around by way of the wilderness toward the Reed Sea, and the Children of Israel went up armed from the land of Egypt.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu led them through the wilderness, and they went armed. “Armed” means equipped with weapons. Later it says: “And Moshe took Yosef’s remains with him.” Moshe took Yosef’s remains with him. What do we learn from this verse? We will see in a moment. “And Moshe took Yosef’s remains with him.” The verse itself does say, “For he had made them swear.” Yosef had made them take an oath, saying: When you leave Egypt, take my remains with you. Fine, there was indeed an oath. But what is the relevance of that here? Why does the Torah tell us this specifically here, in this part of the account? How does it fit here, and what is its place in the parsha? This is the question the Kli Yakar asks: Why, when the Torah describes the Exodus from Egypt, does it tell us precisely here that “Moshe took Yosef’s remains with him”? What is the connection between these matters? The Kli Yakar offers several explanations. In one of them, he says that it continues the subject of “armed.” As Rashi says, “armed” means equipped with weapons. What were the Jews’ weapons?

17:07 As we will see later in the Chumash, the Jews’ weapons were the holy Ark. The Gemara says that two arks traveled with them: the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Tablets and went out to every war, traveling before them in the camp—“Arise, Hashem, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You”—and Yosef’s coffin, which traveled alongside the Ark. People asked: What are these two arks doing together? And they answered: “The one in this fulfilled what is written in that.” In other words, when anyone from the nations of the world saw the two arks traveling with the Jews, they were told that this was Yosef’s coffin, and that Yosef had fulfilled the mitzvos, the Ten Commandments. That, then, is the connection: “The Children of Israel went up armed from the land of Egypt”—the Jews left Egypt armed, equipped with weapons. What weapons? The Torah. But they did not yet have the Torah; they did not yet have the Tablets, since this was before the Giving of the Torah. That is why the verse says, “And Moshe took Yosef’s remains.” Yosef’s remains were in a coffin, and because “the one in this fulfilled what is written in that”—the Ten Commandments—Yosef and his strengths could help the Jews be armed, so they would not be intimidated by the nations of the world or by any of the difficulties they would encounter along the way. There is another teaching.

18:27 The Kli Yakar says that this provided the merit for the Splitting of the Sea. After all, the Midrash quotes the verse: “The sea saw and fled; the Jordan turned back.” The merit for the Splitting of the Sea came from Yosef Hatzaddik, from Yosef’s coffin. “The sea saw and fled”—what does “saw” mean? It saw Yosef’s coffin. The sea saw the coffin of Yosef Hatzaddik, who had guarded the covenant in every respect, and that brought about “the sea saw and fled.” This, then, is the sequence of events: how does the parsha proceed here? The Children of Israel arrive at the Reed Sea, and Yosef’s coffin was with them so they could cross the sea. That is why the verse says earlier, “And Moshe took Yosef’s remains.” These are two wonderful explanations given by the Kli Yakar. The Rebbe once said at a farbrengen, forty years from [unclear], and we are now in the days close to the great and holy day of Yud Shvat, the day of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s histalkus, the day of his hilula. The Rebbe spoke once, yes, [unclear] the beginning of the Rebbe’s leadership. Around 5750, forty years, at farbrengens connected with Yud Shvat—Shabbos Va’eira, Shabbos, uh, Shabbos Beshalach, the Shabbosos connected with the great and holy day, the day of the hilula—the Rebbe once spoke about Yosef. And that is the first name

19:55 of the Frierdiker Rebbe, the previous Rebbe. The Rebbe says that we see Yosef’s role here: Yosef appears in the parsha both at its beginning and at its end. At the beginning of the parsha: “And Moshe took Yosef’s remains with him.” And at the end of the parsha—the war against Amalek. Who led the war against Amalek? Yehoshua bin Nun. For Yehoshua bin Nun was descended from Yosef, from the tribe of Yosef, the tribe of Ephraim; he was one of Yosef’s descendants. The war against Amalek was waged through Yehoshua bin Nun, as it says in the Midrash: through Yosef, because “the house of Yaakov shall be fire, the house of Yosef a flame, and the house of Eisav straw.” In other words, Yosef has the flame that burns Eisav’s straw. That is why he could wage war against Amalek. That is why Moshe Rabbeinu said, “Choose men for us”—they had to be Moshe’s men, but the war had to be led specifically by Yehoshua, because he came from Yosef and could burn Amalek. So Yosef appears both at the beginning of the parsha and at its end. The Rebbe offered another explanation of this, a new, profound and wonderful explanation. Listen closely: this is directly relevant to serving Hashem, to what we learn from the events involving the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe, and to what needs to be done today—what we learn from Yosef. And the Rebbe raises another question: the phrase used here is “Yosef’s remains.” What is the significance of that phrase here? What does it mean?

21:27 One can ask a simple question, and the commentators offer many explanations for it: Why does it say here “the bones of Yosef”? True, Yosef himself spoke of his bones in Parshas Vayechi, but he said that prophetically. Here, though, it could have said, “Moshe took Yosef”—that is [unclear] of Yosef; it sounds better. Why “the bones of Yosef” here? The explanation is that “the bones of Yosef” is also connected to the word atzmiyus, “essence.” That is the connection between the ideas appearing specifically here in these verses. First of all, atzamos, “bones,” and atzmiyus, “essence”: the bones express the strength of the body. That is what an etzem, a bone, is. The word etzem is related to atzmiyus. It is the body’s strength and firmness. So when we say “the bones of Yosef,” we mean Yosef’s strength, Yosef’s inner fortitude. What are these verses about? They speak of Hashem leading the Jewish people through the desert. The Jewish people have to pass through “the great and terrifying desert, with its snakes, fiery serpents and scorpions, and its thirst where there is no water,” a place “where no person had dwelt.” They have to cross that desert both physically and spiritually. And the Jewish people have to transform the desert, to make it all deeply permeated with Torah. As is known, the Alter Rebbe explained several times in Likkutei Torah that the Jewish people’s journey through the desert of the nations was preparation for the journey of the Jewish people in every generation and every era through “the great and terrifying desert” of exile, [unclear].

23:01 The Jewish people, throughout the world, are to transform the entire vast world, the desert of the nations, into a garden—“I have come into My garden, My bridal chamber”—a garden for the Master of the world. And that began right here and now. “G-d led the people around by way of the desert.” Moshe Rabbeinu saw that the Jewish people were not entering Eretz Yisroel immediately; they still had to travel through the desert. This was preparation for the entire journey through the darkness of exile, through a spiritual desert: going to a place with spiritual “snakes, fiery serpents and scorpions,” with “thirst where there is no water”—“water refers to nothing other than Torah”—in the spiritual sense, and with all that the desert represents. “No person had dwelt there”: adam, a person, alludes to “I will resemble the One Above.” There is no revelation of G-dliness there, no Judaism, no Torah and mitzvos. And the Jewish people have to go there and make it a dwelling place. How can that be done? It is hard work. After all, one could sit in the tent of Torah. Why get involved with such a dark world, with such bitter things, with such darkness? That is the desert. About this the Torah says, “Moshe took the bones of Yosef.” He took Yosef’s essence. What is Yosef’s essence? It is contained in his name. The name Yosef—as the verse says in Parshas Vayishlach, in Parshas Vayeitzei, sorry. Why did Rachel name him Yosef? Because she said, “May Hashem add for me another son.” The simple meaning is that she wanted another child, Binyamin. But why does it say “another”? “May Hashem add for me a son”—why “another son”? Because on this,

24:39 the Tzemach Tzedek explains in Or HaTorah that the meaning is to turn an “other” into a “son.” The mission of Yosef HaTzaddik in this world is contained in his name. As the holy Baal Shem Tov says, a person’s name contains their soul and the purpose of what they must do in this world. Yosef was called Yosef because his purpose, his aim and his mission in the world were to turn an “other” into a “son.” That is why Yosef went down to Egypt and was in “the nakedness of the land”: his entire being and his entire mission were to be in a place of “otherness”—a place utterly foreign, cut off from G-dliness, from Judaism, from holiness—and to reveal the inner core of that “other” and turn him into a son to his Father, a child of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is Yosef’s purpose, expressed in his name, and we can see that Yosef already did exactly that. He alone went down to Egypt, to “the nakedness of the land.” He was completely separated from his parents and family and went to a foreign land. He devoted himself to this, and as the Torah tells us, while Yosef was in Egypt he changed his entire surroundings, bringing holiness into them, and so on. This must stir every Jew; this is Yosef’s essence. A Jew cannot sit in the beis midrash, in the world of Torah, shut himself away in the yeshiva and kollel, and say, “As long as I’m all right, I’m going to study.” The moment a Jew knows that there is another Jew lost in the desert, a Jew lost in Egypt, a Jew lost in “the nakedness of the land” and absorbed into it, he discovers Yosef’s essence within himself. And we find in Tehillim that the entire Jewish people are called Yosef: “You who lead Yosef like a flock”; “Is Ephraim a precious son to Me?” Jews are called by the names Yosef and Ephraim because this is the purpose: “For G-d has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” When a Jew is in exile, in a place where Hashem’s name is not mentioned, and we encounter a Jew who has become absorbed into that place, we cannot sit in the beis midrash and forget about what is happening out there, telling ourselves, “I study Torah; what does this have to do with me?” Right away, in the parsha of the Exodus from Egypt, the Torah says, “When Pharaoh sent the people away”—what

26:48 does Moshe Rabbeinu do? “Moshe took the bones of Yosef.” He took the bones of Yosef HaTzaddik with him into and through the desert. He travels through the desert with Yosef, with Yosef’s strength within his soul, bringing about a revolution in the desert, turning it into a paradise, freeing people from the darkness of exile, illuminating souls and bringing Jews closer. That is our mission. And likewise Yehoshua bin Nun, at the end of the parsha, in the war against Amalek. About Amalek it says, “those who lagged behind you.” Amalek was able to attack because some Jews were outside the camp. When the Jews were inside the camp, within the cloud, Amalek could not reach them, as Rashi explains. But there were “those who lagged behind you,” whom the cloud had expelled, and they did not travel with the rest through the desert; then Amalek reached them. One might think: Why was it necessary to go out to them? They took the very best people—“Choose men for us,” those who feared sin, as Rashi says—good Jews, Torah Jews, who sat within the cloud, and they came to Moshe Rabbeinu. But Yehoshua bin Nun says: No, we must go out of the cloud and fight Amalek. Why? To bring back the Jews from among “those who lagged behind you.” That is Yosef’s purpose. Yehoshua bin Nun, a descendant of Yosef HaTzaddik, takes upon himself Yosef HaTzaddik’s strength, the bones of Yosef, and takes the “other” and turns him into a “son.” “May Hashem add for me another son”—to turn an “other” into a “son.” This is the lesson we learn here, as we stand in the days of Yud Shvat, the days of Basi Legani, as we find in the maamarim of these days. And this was the teaching expressed in the conduct of the Frierdiker Rebbe, as we stand at the end of exile, in the era of ikvesa deMeshicha, the footsteps of Moshiach.

28:35 In this doubled and redoubled darkness, when we see, Heaven forbid, how many Jews are distant and disconnected from Judaism, what is the way forward? It is as the Rebbe, as our Rebbeim, taught us, beginning with the Frierdiker Rebbe, for whom we saw in the time of exile that this was one of his strongest concerns. He traveled from place to place, from one country to another, then came to America, and [unclear] sent out shluchim. And this was expressed with even greater force and vigor by the Rebbe, the leader of our generation: a Jew’s task is to take the bones of Yosef with him. We must take the lesson from Yosef HaTzaddik, go out into the world, reach every part of it and look for a Jew who is in the desert. We must learn from Yosef to take an “other,” bring him close despite all the difficulties, and turn him into a “son.” And if you argue, “What [unclear] with one mitzvah, with putting on tefillin just once? What good will it do?” The answer is: No. A Jew must know that we cannot tell how deeply we affect another Jew. [unclear]. From the moment you ignite the spark, you cannot know how far it will go. One mitzvah leads to another. He puts on tefillin once, and his soul already begins to burn, his soul begins to blaze, the light within him has been lit. He will want another mitzvah and another, until he reaches a complete teshuvah,

29:57 and he will bring others closer and establish families of G-d-fearing, observant Jews. And even if not, one mitzvah is a mitzvah in its own right. As the Rambam says in Hilchos Teshuvah, a person “tips the balance for himself and the entire world toward merit, and brings salvation and deliverance to himself and to them.” This is what we learn from the weekly parsha, Parshas Beshalach, the parsha that speaks of the Exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the sea and the Geulah: this is the path by which we go toward the Geulah. A Jew must know that he has to take the bones of Yosef with him—the lesson from Yosef, the bones of Yosef, Yosef’s essence—in order to go out [unclear] from the Amaleks, from Amalek’s coldness, from all these things, and go out into the street to look for a Jew, help him put on tefillin, tell him about tzitzis, share a word of Torah with him and ignite his soul. That is why the soul descended below. And through this, may we very soon merit the true light, “the Children of Israel going out with an uplifted hand,” the true and complete Geulah, and “Hashem will reign forever and ever.” Shabbos Parshas Shirah.