Torah

Don’t show favoritism to your children – Parashat VaYeshev

Parashat HaShavua

וישב יעקב …   Ya’akov was settled in the land of his father…”  We would expect some kind of “happily ever after” story from here, but that is far from the case. “These are the generations of Ya’akov…” We would expect there to be a listing of children, grandchildren, etc., like in every other place where this phrase is used in the Torah. Instead the only name mentioned is Yosef, 17 years old, and behaving like a kid, and bringing reports of his brother’s bad behavior to his father. Did Ya’akov scold him for it?

All we know is that Ya’akov loved Yosef more than all the other sons because he was like the “youngest child of his old age,” the one that everyone dotes on and spoils. And Ya’akov didn’t keep this love a secret. He made him a special striped garment. The brothers saw that Yosef was the favorite, and they hated him for it. They couldn’t even speak civilly to him. One thing led to another, and the brothers sold him to slavery in Egypt, which eventually led to the whole family going down to Egypt, and eventually becoming slaves there.

The Rabbis in the Gemara (Shabbat 10b) identify this favoritism of Ya’akov as the cause of the nation of Israel going into exile in Egypt. “A person should never distinguish one of his sons from among the other sons by giving him preferential treatment. As, due to the weight of two sela of fine wool that Ya’akov gave to Yosef, beyond what he gave the rest of his sons, in making him the striped coat, his brothers became jealous of him and the matter unfolded and our forefathers descended to Egypt.”

So even though there were many factors leading to our exile in Egypt, many different causes, the Sages focus in on this one act of Ya’akov giving Yosef a small gift that showed his favoritism that led down the road to disaster.

Beginnings

Talmud, Torah

New beginnings. I am starting this website because I want to expand my reach to bring more Torah into the world. My title “Talmud 101” is based on the dictum: ואינו דומה שונה פרקו מאה פעמים לשונה פרקו מאה ואחד[חגיגה ט:]  “There is no comparison between someone who learns a piece of Torah 100 times to one who learns it 101 times.

I am using this website to start to put Torah out into the world to make it available to more and more people. And I am offering my services as a teacher of Talmud to help those who want to learn how to learn the Talmud.

There is a methodology to the Talmud, but it is not so apparent at first. The Talmud starts in the middle, and expects that you know everything else except for the subject at hand. It’s almost as if the editors of the Talmud wanted to keep things a secret. Yeshivot seem to operate the same way. They toss the Talmidim into the Sea of the Talmud and expect them to swim. There is not much attention given to the methodology of the debate and logic of the Gemara.

My teacher Rav Mordechai Goldstein ז”ל was a firm believer in teaching the methodology, mainly with Derech Tevunot of the Ramchal, Darkei HaTalmud of Rav Yitzchak Kanfanton. I will be presenting these sefarim, and others in how to analyze and understand the methodology of the Talmud. Stay tuned.