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Vayeshev - What is done in the darkness, will be brought to light 

11/20/2013

3 Comments

 
Picture
At the start of this week’s Parsha Yosef goes to check on his brothers. His siblings feel the purpose of Yosef's trip is not altruistic and he is just looking to spy on them. Eventually the brothers throw Yosef in to a pit.

Reuven secretly desires to take Yosef out of the pit but his rescue plan is sidetracked when Yosef is sold. Reuven could have never conceived that this ordeal was going to be read and studied every year and his behavior in this situation would be recorded for all of eternity. If he did, he would have acted very differently.

 If Reuven knew that this is how he would be remembered and immortalized he would have ran in to the pit and and brought Yosef out on his shoulders. In life we don’t know when the significant moments are going to occur, they are concealed by their mundane nature.

One of my favorite types of T.V. series are hidden camera shows. Punk'd, Candid Camera and recently a show called What Would You Do ? All these shows have the same formula. An unknowing subject is engaged in a situation and their reaction is documented and analyzed. The key ingredient in this formula is that the show involves hidden cameras and regular situations. The hidden camera is a concealment that creates a revelation. All the shows reveal the inner character of the person who was unaware of the hidden cameras and thought that they were just involved in a "small" moment.

Later in the parsha Yosef ends up incarcerated . This is a low point in his life. Yosef is isolated from his family, in an Egyptian jail for a crime he did not commit, and he still inquires about the welfare of the other prisoners. This behavior indicates that the first time Yosef went to look after his brothers he had pure intentions. Yosef genuinely cares about his brother and the inmates and everyone in the world.  Yosef is called a Tzadik, a righteous man. His behavior gives us a window in to what it means to be righteous.

Last year a picture of Larry Deprimo, a cop buying a homeless man boots went viral when a tourist snapped a picture of the act of kindness on her camera phone, the next day Deprimo was on the cover of the New York Post. Recently a picture of Isaac Theil, a religious Jew,  letting another man sleep on his shoulder on the train got millions of views across the world. Many commented that this man’s activity, the simple kindness of letting another human sleep on him without saying a word, restored their faith in God and mankind. Because he did not say anything when the other man leaned on him, Isaac Thiel's praise was spoken by others around the world. They called him a Tzadik.

One aspect of being truly righteous is how we treat people when we don’t know we are being watched. Every day the paper contains bad news about people doing things they hope are never uncovered but eventually are revealed in a very public light. Rarely do we get the read about the  inverse, when someone does a good deed privately  and it is made very public.

One year on Chanukah someone called my house and asked for my father, I told the caller my Dad was busy. He then asked me to give him a message he said , tell your father  "Thanks for buying me Chanukah candels". Hearing this was the best Chanukah present I could ever receive.   Sometimes our actions which are seemingly hidden and done in the dark are the very things that  reveal a great deal of light.   


3 Comments
Dee
11/20/2013 01:07:27 pm

This is just what you are talking about- A Dairy Queen employee saw a visually impaired customer drop $20 on the floor and a woman in line in back of hiim picked it up and put it in her purse. The DQ employee asked the woman to give the money back and when she said no asked her to leave. The DQ employee then took $20 out of his own pocket to return to the visually impaired customer.

Now its been covered by the news, customers are coming to tell the employee he did a great job and give him $20 tips. Warren Buffet, the owner of DQ even called the employee to tell him he is a role model.

http://www.theeverlastinggopstoppers.com/2013/11/blind-man-drops-20-woman-puts-purse-watch/

Reply
Esther
11/21/2013 04:16:45 am

B"H
Thank you for your post. Reuven indeed would have acted differently had he known that his inaction -or his cowardice- would be recorded for posterity. Yehudah would have treated the prostitute differently had he known that Tamar was carrying not only his twins after the death of his two sons, but also that she was his daughter in law. The world is full of if this and if that. What if I had been kinder, gentler, humbler? You mention that what is done in darkness will be brought to light. This is such an appropriate statement as we approach Chanukah! On Rosh Chodesh Kislev we had a 'hybrid' eclipse, which is a very unusual event. I'll leave the astronomical definition to whomever wishes to look it up. But it happened right at the start of the month of Kislev for the world to see. It is as if the celestial bodies are reacting already to the concealment and revelation that you mention in your Parsha thoughts. The moon covering part of the sun, the moon's silhouette marked clearly with the sun as its backdrop. A partial concealment of a huge star by a small celestial body revealing itself to the world. A contrast between the darkness of the night -the moon- and the brightness of the day with the sun. Taking this a bit further, if you don't mind Dan, the darkness of millenia of years of suffering in exile and just perhaps, one good deed at a time for the world to commit to: the revelation of a small nation represented by the moon, its light and virtue that not even the sun can ever conceal again. Light triumphs over darkness this Kislev. Shabbat Shalom.

Reply
ez
11/25/2013 09:54:30 pm

I don't think the story was recorded in great depth for us to come to any conclusions about Reuven. Just because shindler didn't fight against the nazis openly doesn't change the fact that he was a hero, and think about all the lives he couldn't save because he was at risk himself. Who knows if Reuven tried to go back and help his brother privately, lets keep in mind that his brothers tried to kill him and left him for dead, what would stop them from doing that to someone that tries to confront them? Why risk the loves of two good men when there's a chance Yosef could take care of himself?

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