Last week, at the end of Parashat Vayishlach, we learned all the descendants of Esav: aluf this and aluf that, a lot of names for each tribe of Esav. An aluf is the leader of the family, the leader of the tribe. And after such a long list, and before it a list of the Yishmaelim, a person wonders whether Am Yisrael will be able to hold their own if those people come to attack us, as they did so many times in history.
That question is not only ours; Yaakov Avinu also wondered in his heart how he would survive the enormous population that would come to attack him. And this is what Rashi says: right away the Torah begins, vayeshev Yaakov b’eretz megurei aviv b’eretz Canaan, eileh toldot Yaakov Yosef. What does it come to say? Don’t worry about it; Yosef is coming, and he will be able to take on all of these people.
Rashi gives a very interesting parable: הַפִּשְׁתָּנִי הַזֶּה נִכְנְסוּ גְמַלָּיו טְעוּנִים פִּשְׁתָּן, הַפֶּחָמִי תָמַהּ אָנָה יִכָּנֵס כָּל הַפִּשְׁתָּן הַזֶּה? הָיָה פִּקֵּחַ אֶחָד מֵשִׁיב לוֹ נִצּוֹץ אֶחָד יוֹצֵא מִמַּפּוּחַ שֶׁלְּךָ שֶׁשּׂוֹרֵף אֶת כֻּלּוֹ. A flax merchant brought camel after camel loaded with flax into the small shop of a blacksmith. They were coming in by the masses, and the blacksmith wondered: how can the small space of my shop hold all this merchandise coming my way? A wise man there told him: don’t worry. One spark from your bellows will burn all of it.
The flax merchant represents the enemy nations, and Am Yisrael is represented by the blacksmith, or more precisely, Yosef. As Rashi continues, נִצּוֹץ יוֹצֵא מִיּוֹסֵף שֶׁמְּכַלֶּה וְשׂוֹרֵף אֶת כֻּלָּם: as soon as Yosef comes along, with one little spark that comes out of Yosef, everything is taken care of.
We really do sometimes wonder that very question: how can Am Yisrael hold out against all these nations that come to harass us? Just like the merchant comes with all his camels full of flax into the shop, coming to invade the blacksmith’s space and throw him out of his place. The answer is one spark: a spark of kedushah, a spark of Torah, and right away everything coming to overturn us burns.
And if you look carefully at events that happened recently, you’ll see exactly that. All the nations surrounding the small country of Israel, all the countries trying to choke Am Yisrael, were completely devastated by one spark. One spark: a Mossad agent sitting behind a computer in his office pressed the button, and all those beepers blew up in Lebanon. It created a domino effect: not only Lebanon was devastated, but afterwards Syria, Iran, and needless to say Gaza, all the surrounding countries that came to destroy Am Yisrael. This is the power of the kedushah of Am Yisrael, the power of Yosef. Shabbat Shalom.
Based on Rabbi Shay Tahan’s class “Vayeshev. The Spark That Ignited The Beepers” (Parashat Vayeshev): watch the class.
