Yosef and Yehudah: The Tzaddik and the Ba’al T’shuvah
Shlomo Carlebach
Let me ask you, sweetest friends, how did King David conquer Jerusalem? Everybody knows that Jerusalem belongs to King David — it’s his personal property, did you know that? Ir Dovid — Sukkos Dovid hanofales. Why is Jerusalem King David’s own property? The answer is very simple. Everybody knew that — you know, the seven nations who occupied all of Israel — and then the Chiti Yevusi [Hittites, Jebusites] — they were such strong warriors, and they were living on that hill where Jerusalem is, and you couldn’t get close. You know, they were waiting for two hundred, for three hundred years in Israel after Y’hoshua, and nobody conquered Jerusalem. And do you know? Everybody knows — Hoshanah Rabbah, the seventh day of Sukkos, is the day of King David — right? If you remember. Why is this day, the seventh day of Sukkos — you know what happened on that Hoshanah Rabbah? King David decided, “I am going to take Yerushalayim all by myself.” One man — all by himself. Because really, if you trust God — does it matter to God if one man is going or if a thousand people are going? It’s the same thing, right? Hoshanah Rabbah, King David walked up to Yerushalayim, and he conquered the whole city, right? That’s a king, right? The king is not somebody who says, “Listen folks, let’s go. I want you to be killed, and I am sitting in my office, and I’m directing traffic.” Right? For that you don’t have to be Dovid HaMelekh, right?
So you see, I want you to know that two people who carried the burden of all of Israel on their shoulders — already: Yosef and Yehudah. You see, Yosef says, “Okay, you can go home.” So all the brothers say, “No, we’ll all be slaves instead of Binyomin.” Yehudah stands up, and he says, “I want to be the slave.” That means two people stood up, and they said, “We want to do it for all of you.” This is two kings, right? This is a king!
And maybe some of you know, according to the tradition, it’s called, “Ma’an malka? Rabbonim.” “Who are the great kings? Our teachers.” Why is it? Why is a real holy teacher supposed to be a king? (Always a king, hopefully.) It’s not someone who puts it on you, right? A real holy king is someone who says, “I’ll do it for you. I’ll take it off you.” L’chaim, l’chaim. [drinks some more milk].
So you see? Let me ask you something else. Why did Joseph tell the dream to his brothers? He couldn’t control himself? Why, he was a yenta — or was he in analysis, and one of his brothers was a psychiatrist, you know? I mean, what was going on there? The answer is very simple. You know, Joseph knew one thing. If I am supposed to be the slave — if I wanna do it — the saddest thing in the world is I have to separate myself a little bit from my brothers. You know? I have to go by myself, right?
So Joseph knew one thing: the moment I tell this dream to my brothers, they’ll be angry at me. But can you imagine? — I have to tell you one more thing, which is so beautiful and so heartbreaking. Let me ask you — what happened at that moment when the brothers saw Joseph? Were they laughing? Were they smiling at each other, you know, we’re finally getting rid of this disgusting Joseph? Without getting involved — because I have to daven Mincha — for whatever reason they decided they have to sell him as a slave, what do you think was going on at that moment? [Long pause.]
I want you to know something. Imagine you’d be up in heaven, right? Can you imagine if someone would have recorded the crying of the Jews when we went into exile? When the Holy Temple was destroyed when we went into exile? Can you just imagine it? Can you imagine the sounds of the crying? It does not compare to the crying of the holy tribes.
And here I want to share with you something which is so holy, that I just have to tell you, and I think if some of you remember — maybe Adina [Elana Friedman] remembers it. Okay, there are these two kings in the world. Joseph is the King of all the Tzaddikim, Joseph is the King of all the people who never did wrong in their life — and Yehudah is the King of all the people who went wrong — everything they did in their life is wrong. And they have the strength to fix it, right?
You see, Yosef is the one who gives you the strength not to do wrong, to keep yourself going all the time, and Yehudah is the one who gives you strength to fix it. And we need both, right? Those two kings [are] the pillars of all of Israel.
Now listen to this — and remind me to come back to it, because we have to daven Mincha. I just want to tell you this. Okay, the brothers decide — basically it was Yehudah’s decision — we have to sell him as a slave. Because they say like this: “We don’t know if he is a Tzaddik or not. We don’t know who he is. We give him a chance. If he goes to Egypt, and he remains a Jew, and he remains holy, he’s one of us.” Right? “If gets lost, then he wasn’t for real.” Right? Okay, they’re picking up Yosef from the pit, and they’re telling him, “Yosef, this is our decision. If you are real, if you are one of the holy tribes — ” You see, without getting involved, you know, they thought he is not one of the twelve tribes. Because if you’re one of the twelve tribes, how can you separate yourself from your brothers? How can you separate yourself from your brothers, right? And they didn’t know that he’s only separating himself because he wants to take off the burden of being a slave [from them]. But anyway, that’s what it was.
They said, “If you’re one of us, you’ll make it. But if you get lost — so you get lost.” I want you to visualize — it’s the deepest, deepest depths. But again, it’s so holy, it’s awesome even to think of it. How do you think the brothers said good-bye to Yosef? How do you think the brothers said good-bye to Yosef, right? Because deep down, can you imagine how much — how much love do you think was between the brothers and the house of Jacob? Unbearable, right? It was so deep and so holy, we have no concept, right?
Let me ask you, do you think, really, without knowing the depths, do you think there was jealousy between Rachel and Leah? Remind me to talk about it later. There [were] never two sisters in the world who loved each other more than Rachel and Leah, right? The deepest love, like Moshe and Aharon, right? Because everybody knows, Moshe and Aharon fixed the sin of Cain among men, and Rachel and Leah fixing jealousy between women and hatred between women until Mashiach is coming, right? The two pillars — Moshe and Aaron, Rochel and Leah.
Okay, the brothers saying good-bye to Yosef. Okay, so Yehudah, who’s the king, right? He says to Yosef, “Okay, we’re selling you as a slave, and you’ll have to prove yourself, if you remain a Tzaddik or not.” So you know what Yosef says to Yehudah? He says to Yehudah, “My holy brother, please bless me I should make it.” Right? “Bless me to be a Tzaddik.” Now listen to this unbelievable thing: Yehudah blessed Yosef to be a Tzaddik. And you know why Yosef remained a Tzaddik? Because of the blessing of Yehudah, right?
What do you think Yehudah says to Yosef? ‘Cause he’s selling his brother as a slave, as much as he knows “I have to do it,” so Yehudah says to Yosef, “Please bless me I should do t’shuva.” Right? So Yosef blessed Yehudah to do t’shuva, right? And Yehudah blessed Yosef to be a Tzaddik. Right? It’s mind-blowing. Mind-blowing is not the word, right? So the two pillars of Yiddishkeit, the Tzaddik and the Ba’al T’shuvah — they blessed each other. It’s unbelievable! Yosef is only a Tzaddik because of the blessing of Yehudah, and Yehudah is a Tzaddik because of the blessing of Yosef.
And you know, I want you to know something. L’chaim [sips]. You know — [someone stifles a sneeze] God bless you. [And again] God bless you. What’s the holiness of the holy wall? You know what’s so strange? It’s a broken wall. And yet, you can see with an unclear prophecy the holy Temple, right? When you stand there, you see, mamesh, the Beis HaMikdash, right? But again, if you would see the Beis HaMikdash clear, it wouldn’t be so deep. Because behind all the brokenness — like on a dream level — you see the Beis HaMikdash — therefore, it’s so holy. Right?
I have to tell you just one more beautiful thing. When was the day that the wife of Potiphera mamesh really made it strong with Yosef — she says, [either] you do it, or I take you to prison. Which day was that? Everybody knows, it was Rosh HaShanah. But listen to this unbelievable thing. It was in the morning ’cause everybody — it was a whole big thing — it was a little thing in their pagan temple — and Yosef stayed home. Okay, I want to — [responding to someone's importunity] I’ll daven in a minute — I want to share this with you. [Hebrew quotation] — it says, “he saw his father’s face.” [Sotah 36b] What — he saw his father eating breakfast? They [had been] living together. He saw his father waking up? What moment did he see? Which moment was revealed to Yosef? Which moment he saw his father? So the answer is very simple. He saw his father blowing the shofar.
You know, friends, I don’t know if you have ever seen mamash Tzaddikim. I had the privilege of seeing the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I saw the Bobover Rebbe, I saw mamesh Tzaddikim the way they looked before they blow the shofar, right? When you remember that, it’s something else, right? So I want you to know, Joseph went into prison on Rosh HaShanah, and everybody knows, he came out on Rosh HaShanah. L’chaim, l’chaim [he drinks again].
You know, the Ropshitzer says the portions of the winter wear heavy furs — you know? It’s all covered up. It’s all covered up. And it’s such a privilege — you know, it’s very crazy. Before Mashiach is coming, in our generation, really, we have such holy books; it’s getting more and more open to us, and it’s really more and more accessible to us — the deepest depths of the Torah, right? Let’s say twenty years ago, nobody was sitting in Santa Rosa talking about Yehudah and Yosef, right? L’chaim.
[This the end of Part Two. May the tears that we shed over the Joseph story be transformed into drops of rain to moisten the parched land of Israel, fill her rivers, lakes, and streams, her reservoirs and aquifers. — RG]
From the series, Reb Shlomo at Congregation Beth Ami, 4676 Mayette Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 . Sunday, November 30, 1980 (22 Kislev, 5741), Parashat Miketz. (Two days before Chanukah, the week of Parashat Miketz.)
Recorded and transcribed by Reuven Goldfarb.
Transcription dedicated to the complete refuah of Yitzchak ben Leah — Jerry Strauss, Shlomo’s great friend and supporter — who organized the concert and learning at which these teachings were given over.
Copyright held by the estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
