Maghen Abraham - Thoughts From Mayer Sasson

"And he sent Yehudah before him to Yosef….." (46,28)

The past and the future

On the words "And he sent Yehudah before him to Yosef so that he should direct him…" Rashi explains that Yakov sent Yehudah before him to prepare a House of Study from which Torah directives would be given to the Jews.

We must understand, from all the Tribes, why did Yakov specifically send Yehuda to Yosef?

First we will explain that said in the Parsha of Vayetze concerning the birth of Yosef, "And G-d remembered Rachel… and she bare a son and she said "G-d has taken away my shame" –  - אסף אלקים את חרפתי. "And she called his name Yosef saying – May G-d give me yet another son." - ותקרא את שמו יוסף לאמר "יוסף ה' לי בן אחר".  Our Sages wondered: At first it seems that Rachel wanted to call her son Asaf; why did she call him Yosef at the end?

We can explain this according to the how the Chozeh of Lublin related to the birth of Yehuda: "And she conceived again and bare a son and said "This time I thank G-d….she called his name Judah and she left off bearing."  We must understand why the Torah emphasizes that after Laya had thanked G-d and called her son Yehuda, she stopped having children.

We learn a great important foundation from here: Whenever a Jew thanks G-d for the past he must also immediately request for the future –for if not he causes the abundance of good that he receives from Heaven to stop coming. Therefore, when Laya gave birth to Yehuda and said "this time I thank G-d", she thanked only on the past and did not ask for the future as well, she "left off bearing".

Therefore, the Tanna Ben Azai said that when a person wants to thank G-d for the good he gave him he should "thank for the past and shout for the future".

Now we can understand why Rachel called her son Yosef and not Asaf; for in addition to the thankfulness for the past, Rachel also prayed for the future "May G-d give me yet another son"; and indeed she later merited to give birth to Binyamin.

And now we can understand why Yakov sent specifically Yehuda to Yosef. Soon Bnei Yisrael were to begin the exile of Egypt as decreed in the Brit ben Habitarim. G-d wanted to teach his children a way of serving Him- when G-d will perform miracles for them and redeem them from Egypt, together with their prayers they should also include the idea of Yosef - asking for the future; they should also ask for the future that G-d continue performing miracles and redeem His children with a total true Redemption, Amen.

And in fact when G-d took the Children of Israel out of Egypt they thanked Him at the Song of the Sea for His taking them out of Egypt but they also asked for the future:  "You bring them home and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance" – they asked for the total redemption in the Future when G-d will build the Beit Hamikdash and bring it down all built from Heaven- and then His Kingdom will be revealed in the entire world forever, speedily in our days, Amen.

SHABBAT SHALOM!!