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Parshas Vayigash - Home Stadium

By Rabbi Zvi Teichman

Posted on 01/02/20

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

Yaakov dispatches Yehuda ahead of him to Goshen, להורות, to direct him.


Yehuda was being entrusted with the mission to set up an appropriate abode for Yaakov.


Rashi though, quotes a Midrash that defines the objective more specifically to establish a בית תלמוד, a house of study, prior to their arrival in Goshen.


Elsewhere we refer to a place of learning as a Yeshiva or Bais Medrash. What is this unusual description of a study hall as a Bais ‘Talmud’? Is it a place designated for the study of Gemara exclusively?


Why indeed is e Gemara entitled the ‘Talmud’, as in Talmud Bavli?


Rabbi Moshe Sherer always carried with him in his wallet a copy of an order, issued November 23, 1940, from the German High Commander I.A. Eckhardt to the German Army of Occupation on Poland.


In this order Eckhardt commands that the Ostjuden, the Eastern European Jews, must not be allowed to escape because they comprise the majority of the rabbis and Talmud teachers. If the ‘Talmud’ Lehrer escapes, warns the Nazi commander, they can bring about the spiritual regeneration of world Jewry, even American Jewry.


What is about the study and teaching of the Talmud that makes us so powerful that even the Nazis feared that strength?


Rashi teaches that the word talmud is not a noun but actually a verb. It is the implementation of a system of logic that the later Tannaim used to decipher the cryptic statements of earlier generation Tannaim, explaining their words and reasonings, and applying it forward. (סוכה כח.)


Yaakov Avinu knew that his children can only survive the descent into Egypt and the long exiles ahead if they possessed the ambition to commit to the traditions of their forbearers, utilizing the power of their intellect to delve into understanding those precedents with an abiding faith that in those secrets lay their might to survive whatever may come their way.


It isn’t just the study of these holy texts that would assure their survival but also the application of that Jewish genius we were bequeathed by our illustrious ancestors in understanding how to live by the lessons of their lives, and the teachings they transmitted that ultimately represent the ‘Word of Hashem’. That alone makes us impregnable to the plots of our enemies to destroy us.


G-d came from Sinai... He brought the fire דת למו, a religion to them from His right hand.


(דברים לג ב)


The letters דת למו are the same as the word תלמוד. (בעה"ט)


The Netziv teaches that its description as ‘fire’ alludes to its nature to begin at one point and expand into a conflagration inspired ideas and laws. Such is the nature of Talmud.


The Chasam Sofer explains the very first verse in Shmos that describes the, באים, ‘coming’ of the family of Yaakov into Egypt in the present tense, although they had arrived much earlier, is to indicate that as long as Yaakov was alive they never really ‘entered’ Egypt; they were ensconced in a virtual environment of Eretz Yisrael that protected them from the impurity surrounding them. Now that he was gone, their commitment waned and they finally - ‘arrived in Egypt’.


As long as they maintained a בית תלמוד, an attitude of immersing themselves totally in the ‘Word of Hashem’ as their sole directive in life, they were in an atmosphere of Eretz Yisrael and impervious to the poisonous Egyptian influences.


Yesterday I believe those of us at MetLife stadium sensed the fire of our beliefs and were transported to another realm far from the physical stadium our bodies occupied.


It was that realization that our secure present and assured future is firmly directed by the generations of ‘Talmudists’ that preceded us, that inspire us in its glowing flame that warmed us against the cold elements that surrounded us.


The moment that struck me more than anything else was observing how upon reaching the Amidah of Mincha, an entire stadium stood up at once, all suddenly turning to face our Holy Land and the Makom HaMikdash, the focus of all our hopes and aspirations.


Putting our backs to the names and numbers of generations of athletes associated with the teams that call this stadium ‘home’, that are etched along the western inner perimeter of the stadium, was to me a remarkable affirmation how we don’t belong here.


Even as we are exiled, we can create, and exist in, an atmosphere of holiness, an aura of holiness that transcends the physical, becoming embraced in the security of Hashem’s right hand.


May we each become ‘Talmudists’ in mining the richness of our traditions that guide our lives,  in recommitting with greater fervor to delve into the mindset of Hashem, the Torah, and especially Gemara, the Talmud, in discovering the brilliance of our relationship with Him, and being deserving of His protective embrace.


May we return to our ‘home’ stadium very soon!


באהבה,


צבי יהודה טייכמאן