Doomsday Speaker: Parashat Vayigash

0:01Oh, you're a doomsday speaker. Why are you so negative? So what if it's been terrible for the last couple of years? Things are gonna turn around. You gotta be positive. And then Yosef tells them, go bring my father and everyone here because there's gonna be a famine for another five years. It's already been two years. There's going to be a famine for another five years. Now, if Yosef was coming to synagogues today, if Yosef was on YouTube today, if Yosef was on national television today, if Yosef was anywhere today saying to people, "Ladies and gentlemen, there's going to be a famine for another five years," people would boo him off the stage. Why? Oh, you're a doomsday speaker. Why so negative? So what if it's been terrible for the last couple of years? Things are going to turn around. You've got to be positive. You've got to be optimistic that, you know, if you think good, good things will happen. No. You have to have a reason to think good. You have to have some type of valid reason that justifies the good that you think. But if you're just...

1:29Looking blindly optimistic, get ready to declare bankruptcy, both spiritually, financially, and otherwise. Why? You can't just think that things are going to work out without actually having a valid reason. And you say, yeah, well, I work hard. Many people work hard. It doesn't mean they're going to succeed. Well, I try. Many people try. You know, I want to be optimistic. So what if you want to be optimistic? Your personal desire to be optimistic doesn't mean anything. Oh, I have an idea! That's because I have hope that God will help me. That's nice that you have hope that God will help you, but why should He? Why should He help you? Well, He's God. Exactly. Why should He help you? You have a problem. You have a tragedy. Two thousand people were murdered in a single day in Israel. We're now at war. We've been telling the public that we're winning for the last two months. But in reality, nothing has changed. Terrorism still goes on. Missiles are still being shot. The world hates us even more than they did on October 6th.

2:53Why should things change? Why should God help you? Did you change anything? Has anything changed? Over these last couple of months, the problems have skyrocketed. For God to help you because if God brought you the wrath, a punishment, a terrible situation. You lost your money. You lost somebody you love. You lost whatever it is that you lost. That's causing you to cry crocodile tears. The Torah tells you that this will continue; horrible things will follow these horrible steps that you have now. Why? Because that's the decree. He said, "No, no, why are you so negative? Why are you such a doomsday speaker?" I'm not a doomsday speaker; I'm telling you what the Torah says. Yosef HaTzaddik says, "There's been two years of famine and five more years to go." Are you going to call him a doomsday speaker? If you're gonna say, "Well, God will help me," don't you think the tribes could have said the same thing? They were much more righteous than you: Yehudah, Shimon, Naftali, Binyamin, Yaakov Avinu. They could have said, "No, God will help us." But they didn't.

4:11why they knew there was a decree, they knew that something had to be done. But they also knew that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the tools to deal with it. What we must do when there's an evil decree in the world is blow the shofar. That's what the psak of the Rambam says. When the tragedy hits Am Yisrael, we have to blow the shofar to wake up all of the spiritually sleeping people to make them realize: You want the decree to change? You must change. Not change your sleeping habits, your diet, or your clothes. No, no, change your whole life and make sure that HaKadosh Baruch Hu and His Torah become your number one priority. That "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad" means something to you. And not just something you saw or say once in a blue moon. If you want the decree to change, then you, my friend, have to change. You can't just say, I want to be optimistic. You can't just say, oh, think good and good things will happen. It doesn't work that way.

5:29It would have worked that way, the brothers would have said, "Oh, five years. Come on, Yosef. No, come on. You're a tzaddik. Now we're friends again. Everything's going to change." The decree was over after two years. Finished. Now, even though the same Chachamim say that the other five years that Yosef mentioned were going to happen, it wasn't another five years. When Yaakov eventually arrived, apparently the decree ended. But some Chachamim say, no, it actually lasts another five years. How do we know? Look at what the rest of the parasha says, which is that you have to distribute the food, you have to buy the land from the people, the whole process of what happened in the second half of the parasha. Either way, Yaakov didn't just say, you know what, let me just stay home and I'll go visit. Once in a while, I'll visit you. No, no. He said, wait, we don't have any food. My son's over there. He can help us. I'm going. Why? That's the right thing to do. Doomsday speaker, I'm listening. Why? Because he's speaking real. He's speaking the truth. We are meant to be a light unto the nations, not to follow their misguided practices. Remember, every Jew has to remember...

6:46that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless. It's a zilzul, disrespect to the Torah, and could lead to chillul Hashem, desecration of God's name. Stick to our holy Torah and our own holidays. That's the path of a true Jew.