Parashat Vayigash 5777
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in this week's parsha the emotional reunion between Yaakov and Yosef. The Torah states that when Yosef saw his father (Chapter 46, Pasuk 29), Vayipol al Tzavarav, Vayevk al Tzavarav Od. He, Yosef, fell on his father's neck and he wept on his father's neck excessively. Rashi comments on this pasuk, but Yaakov wasn't crying nor did he kiss Yosef. Rather, explains Rashi, Yaakov was saying Keriyas Shema while Yosef was crying.
How could it be that at such a poignant moment Yaakov stopped to recite Keriyas Shema? The Maharal explains in the Gur Aryeh on Rashi that the reason Yaakov Avinu recited Keriyas Shema is because precisely at such an emotional moment he wanted to focus himself on connecting with Gd. The love he was feeling towards Yosef needed to be directed towards a greater love and appreciation for Hashem.
The Sfas Emes explains the well-known words of the Maharal on a deeper level. He teaches that Yaakov Avinu was actually afraid that were he to direct the intense love he was feeling at that moment towards Yosef, he would forget the need to express love towards Hashem. By saying Keriyas Shema and acknowledging that his love and thanksgiving needed to be focused towards Hashem, he was negating the notion of feeling love towards physical objects and physical beings in this world devoid of any connection to Gd.
He compares the point of the Maharal to the Gemara in Brachos 35A. The Gemara brings a contradiction between two pasukim. One pasuk states (Tehillim, Chapter 24, Pasuk 1), L'Hashem Ha'Aretz U'Meloah, To Hashem belongs the earth and all within it. And another pasuk states (Tehillim, Chapter 115, Pasuk 16), Hashamayim Shamayim L'Hashem, V'Ha'Aretz Nasan Livnei Adam, the heavens belong to Hashem and the earth He gave to mankind. The Gemara answers, before one makes a bracha, everything on earth belongs to Hashem. But after one makes a bracha, then the earth and everything in it belongs to man.
The Sfas Emes asks on this Gemara, and after one makes a bracha it belongs to man? Doesn’t everything in the world still belong to Hashem even after man makes a bracha?
The Sfas Emes explains the Gemara in a similar manner to what the Maharal comments on our parsha. Man is able to partake in enjoying the fruit after he acknowledges that the fruit and everything else in the world comes from Hashem. By making a bracha beforehand, he is preventing the act of eating from being totally physical and infuses it with an element of holiness as well. It's man's to eat as long as he acknowledges beforehand that even though he may eat it's not really his.
The Torah only commands us to make a bracha after we eat, Bircas Hamazon. We must give thanks to Hashem for giving us our food. The same Gemara in Brachos a few lines earlier attempts to derive the need to make a bracha before eating food through a Kal Va'Chomer. If when one is satiated he makes a bracha, surely when he is hungry he makes a bracha. The Sfas Emes learns the meaning of the Kal Va'Chomer that it's more logical to say a blessing at the very beginning, before one even eats the food. While he is still hungry and before he begins the process of eating it's essential that he clarifies that everything in the world comes from Hashem. He must do this before he gets immersed in the pleasure and forgets where the good in the world comes from.
This is also what Yaakov Avinu was doing when he said Keriyas Shema upon reuniting with his son Yosef. Immediately upon seeing Yosef, Yaakov stopped and said a bracha; he gave thanks and expressed his true love and appreciation to Hashem. Our emphasis on the physical is diminished when we realize that everything comes from Gd.
Good Shabbos
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