Dec. 26, 2024

Parshas Mikeitz: The Liberation of Forgetting and Menashe's Legacy

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Season 1

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Chapters

00:00 - The Significance of Naming Menashe

15:59 - Choosing to Forget

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:34.585
It must have been a funky day that morning in Shul when Y Israelites said Yosef in a loud and assertive declaration Vayikare Shemo Be Yisrael.

00:00:34.585 --> 00:00:39.621
Menashe An interesting name.

00:00:39.621 --> 00:01:06.213
And Yosef in one of the most emotional and happy moments of his life, when he's finally been gifted a Jewish child offspring, has a moment that really will define his inner thoughts, his psyche, his outlook on life.

00:01:06.213 --> 00:01:29.334
We have so many different sources that what name that you give your child whether it's from Zadie or Babi, or from your Rosh Hashiva, or it's just a name that your wife finds to be cute it really does have an effect on the person and can aid him or shut him up, signify certain characteristics in the child.

00:01:29.334 --> 00:01:48.254
But Yosef chose at that moment not a name like Sholem, yisrael, yaakov or Johnny, but Menashe, the first child or, to my knowledge, the first Jewish child that ever received that name.

00:01:48.254 --> 00:01:48.713
Menashe.

00:01:48.713 --> 00:01:49.896
But why?

00:01:49.896 --> 00:01:51.426
Yosef teiches it up.

00:01:51.560 --> 00:01:58.313
Yosef explains to us why he called his child Menashe and what significance that name has to him.

00:01:58.313 --> 00:02:11.735
It says, quote what does Menashe mean?

00:02:11.735 --> 00:02:27.003
It references the fact that God has made me forget my travels and my dad's house, my parental home.

00:02:27.003 --> 00:02:28.006
Interesting name, don't you think?

00:02:28.006 --> 00:02:32.433
The word Noshani glists on the spot.

00:02:32.433 --> 00:02:46.953
41-51 says God has made me forget all my trouble and the troubles that were in my father's house, probably referencing the being sold away and thrown into a pit of vipers.

00:02:46.953 --> 00:02:59.353
The Chitzkuni tells us again this name, menashe also references Ki Noshani is a Lushen of Eshikhecha, a Lushen of forgetting Noshani.

00:02:59.353 --> 00:03:05.586
There's some other commentators that learn a Lushan, like the Evan Ezra of.

00:03:05.586 --> 00:03:12.515
It's a word of Hanani, hanani like compassion, which would be understandable.

00:03:12.515 --> 00:03:27.396
It's a nice name for a child Forgetful, forsaken, ditched, forgotten.

00:03:27.396 --> 00:03:35.706
Short-term memory loss, that's what it means, benasha, to forget.

00:03:35.706 --> 00:03:38.347
It's a rather funny name, don't you think?

00:03:38.347 --> 00:03:56.806
But folks, yosef here is giving us a masterclass on how it is that he accomplished what he did and that the Torah declares, asserts about his life and legacy, that he is the Ishmatzliach, he is the Evin, mosu Aboinim.

00:03:56.806 --> 00:03:58.506
He was the despised one.

00:03:58.506 --> 00:04:05.168
He was thrown out onto the streets by his brothers, but Heisal Ereshpina, he became the cornerstone of Judaism.

00:04:05.168 --> 00:04:08.025
And how did he do it?

00:04:08.025 --> 00:04:10.986
Well, he named his son Menashe.

00:04:10.986 --> 00:04:16.944
Listen here to what incredible lesson Yosef taught us by the naming of his Bechar.

00:04:19.512 --> 00:04:22.581
We don't cite this Sefer often, but it is incredible work.

00:04:22.581 --> 00:04:35.348
The Sefer's title is Haksav HaKabbalah, authored by the great Rebbe Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, lived in the 1800s, died in 1839.

00:04:35.348 --> 00:04:36.894
Around that time.

00:04:36.894 --> 00:04:50.740
Goal of the work is very much to show how Chazal is the most obvious and clearly most straightforward way to interpret the Pesukim.

00:04:50.740 --> 00:04:54.930
He was a big sworn enemy of the Reform movement, hakasava Hakabala.

00:04:54.930 --> 00:04:57.954
It really is an incredible commentary on the entire Pentateuch.

00:04:57.954 --> 00:05:02.221
But listen here to what he says is behind the name Menashe.

00:05:07.355 --> 00:05:09.161
Quote says what does that word mean?

00:05:09.161 --> 00:05:24.646
It means that it is a forsaking, an overlooking, a disregarding that one does before he forgets something.

00:05:24.646 --> 00:05:48.459
At the beginning, you steer away from you disregard, you forsake the matter that you are recalling, you forsake it in your mind and then afterwards then you forget it.

00:05:48.459 --> 00:06:03.581
That comes in as this sort of human capability to forget, but it starts with a in overlooking and a disregarding, a.

00:06:03.581 --> 00:06:15.040
Moving on that at the beginning, yasur v'yazuv adavar mizichrono, the ability to forget, is what Yosef named his child, menashe.

00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:17.415
And think about it.

00:06:17.415 --> 00:06:29.781
Of course Yosef would name his son, the key to his success, as this ability of noshani, that he had to be able to forsake past thoughts, because think about how he spent the beginning of his life.

00:06:29.781 --> 00:06:47.026
It really is two entire different act one and act two's, due to even parts of a play, because the beginning of Yosef's life is nothing more than becoming homeless, thrown onto the streets, disregarded, sold multiple times.

00:06:47.026 --> 00:06:53.696
Just imagine being in a boxcar or in some sort of crate, being sold by a bunch of non-Jews from one place to another.

00:06:53.696 --> 00:07:04.398
You don't even know, as you are changing hands, whose possession you are in, until you finally get down to Egypt and you are now incarcerated, thrown into the bottom depths of prison.

00:07:04.458 --> 00:07:09.264
After, at such a young age, he still has his youthful haircut, a fade down the sides.

00:07:09.264 --> 00:07:10.165
He's a Nair.

00:07:10.165 --> 00:07:11.495
He does Mice and Nairas.

00:07:11.495 --> 00:07:13.458
He's literally still a youth, a teenager.

00:07:13.458 --> 00:07:17.942
He's already attacked by a wild bear that we call Aecius Potiphar.

00:07:17.942 --> 00:07:21.298
He's fought with temptation.

00:07:21.298 --> 00:07:26.721
He's fought with starvation, hunger.

00:07:26.721 --> 00:07:29.639
He has suffered emotionally, physically.

00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:36.863
Who knows what type of therapy we'd want to put this type of child who's been through this type of trauma through in modern times.

00:07:36.863 --> 00:07:40.800
He has had quite the tough upbringing.

00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:45.276
He's had to live through the projects, house to house, sleeping on couches.

00:07:45.276 --> 00:07:48.980
Talk about post-traumatic stress disorder.

00:07:49.350 --> 00:08:09.244
But what does Yosef do as he moves into Act 2, which is filled with peace, filled with malchus luxury, dedicating himself, filled with malchus luxury, dedicating himself to organizing the entire Jewish exodus?

00:08:09.244 --> 00:08:12.331
What does he do?

00:08:12.331 --> 00:08:15.755
He makes a loud declaration, a loud pronouncing of that.

00:08:15.755 --> 00:08:18.860
I have forgotten my past failures.

00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:22.144
I have forgotten the trauma.

00:08:22.144 --> 00:08:42.570
I have chosen to forget, not dwelling, but moving on, unshackling myself from the past, sad, morbid experiences.

00:08:42.570 --> 00:08:49.764
Do not be fooled you have the ability to forget, you have the ability to move on.

00:08:49.764 --> 00:09:05.924
Ya'azov, there's this, as Rabbi Xav HaKabbalah puts it, this ability to ya'azov to forsake a thought, to move on from it, and then, naturally, the body, the brain, works its way of just letting it flutter off into the distance or pass by like clouds.

00:09:05.924 --> 00:09:09.879
Ya'azov, that happens before the Shekecha.

00:09:09.879 --> 00:09:18.076
That's what Yosef did, and that's what he declared, and that's what he said he was going to name his son.

00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:27.332
Think about you get a sort of peek over the wall into Yosef's mind here the Ishmat's Liech.

00:09:27.332 --> 00:09:27.934
What does he do?

00:09:27.934 --> 00:09:28.658
He forgets.

00:09:28.658 --> 00:09:37.164
You know so many times that the seven fallings that we have on our path to the eighth rising and triumph.

00:09:37.164 --> 00:09:50.339
They always get in the way and they don't allow you to, because the eighth time you are so shackled by the past experiences, the trauma, the what if I fail again?

00:09:50.339 --> 00:09:54.620
How could I launch this if in the past this happened?

00:09:54.620 --> 00:10:08.057
How could I move on and forgive that person if they did this to me, and when you do look back at your life, there's a fair amount of skeletons in the closet and some hurtful experiences.

00:10:08.057 --> 00:10:15.005
If you've lived a life that is eventful and you really did get out there.

00:10:16.450 --> 00:10:19.360
What perspective did Yosef take on his past Tsarist?

00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:35.861
To forget it, to identify the memory, perhaps, process the emotions, see it and then move past it, move on?

00:10:35.861 --> 00:10:40.740
I don't know if he needed professional help.

00:10:40.740 --> 00:10:43.095
Don't believe so.

00:10:43.095 --> 00:10:49.115
Not sure if he just reframed it, understood that it was all part of the plan.

00:10:49.115 --> 00:10:58.789
Whatever perspective he took was it meditation, mindfulness?

00:10:58.789 --> 00:10:59.890
However, he dealt with the triggers of this past trauma.

00:10:59.890 --> 00:11:31.075
However, he did it, the Ishmat Sliach Noshani, he forgot and he named his eldest son as he moved into the second chapter of his life breeding children that are robots in the army of Hashem to carry out his will and to organize that when Yaakov and his children should come down to Mitzrayim, everything should be taken care of so that the Jewish people could leave Mitzrayim with wealth and with a big rash, a big ho-hum, a big statement no, shani, I forgot all the past.

00:11:31.075 --> 00:11:34.616
Oh yeah, you threw me in a pit.

00:11:34.616 --> 00:11:37.953
I moved on Vaya'azov, zichrono.

00:11:40.581 --> 00:11:59.975
I remember it was one time when I was in 10th grade that I was on my basketball team and we had decided To go up against the Gateway Crusaders I think that was the team.

00:11:59.975 --> 00:12:05.274
We were playing in their court in our uniforms the blue and yellow.

00:12:05.274 --> 00:12:24.913
I think it was Ref Mike that was ref in that game Me, nehemia, yossi Mati Ike, playing against these rather talented Gentiles and I was the shooting guard or I was supposed to be the shooting guard to watch the ball go through the hoop.

00:12:24.913 --> 00:12:29.308
But that afternoon I had taken nine three-pointers and missed all nine of them.

00:12:29.308 --> 00:12:34.451
And while the game was coming down to one of its final moments, the coach drew up a play that we were down by two.

00:12:34.451 --> 00:12:36.355
We needed a three-pointer to win the game.

00:12:36.355 --> 00:12:40.350
It would be the elevator play, where I would cut to the bottom of the basket and then cut back up.

00:12:40.350 --> 00:12:44.774
The two bigger players would slide in together, closing the elevator doors on my opponent.

00:12:44.774 --> 00:12:55.187
I would skip right through them, catch it on the top of the arc and then turn square up, balance eyes, elbows, follow through and try to drill the three-pointer.

00:12:55.207 --> 00:12:56.530
But on that afternoon I had no interest in taking that shot.

00:12:56.530 --> 00:12:59.615
I said, coach, don't call the play for me, call it for Nehemia, call it for Nick.

00:12:59.615 --> 00:13:01.278
I'm 0 for 9.

00:13:01.278 --> 00:13:07.892
Coach Trent Bazemore, our basketball coach.

00:13:07.892 --> 00:13:20.647
He said, mike, shooters got to shoot and I don't care that you on this afternoon can't even throw a rock into the ocean if you were standing on a boat.

00:13:20.647 --> 00:13:21.548
That's what he said to me.

00:13:21.548 --> 00:13:23.793
Shooters got to shoot.

00:13:23.793 --> 00:13:26.938
Run the play.

00:13:26.938 --> 00:13:29.650
We need you to take the shot.

00:13:31.184 --> 00:13:34.090
I'm not going to tell you how the story went, if I hit it or not.

00:13:34.090 --> 00:13:36.312
You have to reach out and say what's up, did you make it?

00:13:36.312 --> 00:13:39.890
But that's what it has to be.

00:13:39.890 --> 00:13:48.037
You have to be able to live life If you want to be Matsliach to be able to forget that you went 0 for 9.

00:13:48.037 --> 00:13:49.461
Forget that.

00:13:49.461 --> 00:13:52.327
You have not made a bloody shot the entire afternoon.

00:13:52.327 --> 00:13:55.073
Not let it sway your confidence.

00:13:55.073 --> 00:13:58.486
Beat your confidence down into a pulpit.

00:13:58.486 --> 00:13:59.990
Instead, I got the next one.

00:13:59.990 --> 00:14:02.376
Kind of shrug your shoulders a little bit.

00:14:04.666 --> 00:14:18.345
You follow in the most I mean this in the most peaceful way the mild cognitive impairment type of mentality where you retain your critical thinking, you retain your reasoning skills.

00:14:18.345 --> 00:14:23.157
But people that suffer from this, they sometimes have significant short-term memory loss.

00:14:23.157 --> 00:14:33.259
But short-term memory loss I'm advocating should be used in a way that I do not remember my failures.

00:14:33.259 --> 00:14:50.350
I do not remember being thrown into a viper-filled, poisonous, reptile-filled, scorpion-filled, lacking water type of pit in the middle of a desert.

00:14:50.350 --> 00:15:00.120
I forgot it, I have moved on, I have chosen to neglect it, I have chosen to overlook going 0 for 9.

00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:08.988
And even the reason I actually missed that shot is I exposed myself here on the Motivation Congregation podcast.

00:15:08.988 --> 00:15:14.014
I did miss that shot against the Gateway Crusaders but we did go back to beat them in the championship, so all was well.

00:15:14.014 --> 00:15:18.427
It very much was because I failed to fully forget.

00:15:18.427 --> 00:15:21.125
As I'm running the play, I'm not going to hit the shot.

00:15:21.125 --> 00:15:27.556
I know it Tight, not ready Now.

00:15:27.576 --> 00:15:37.958
Shani Elohim was the reason that Yosef was probably so likely to succeed in his second act, second epoch.

00:15:37.958 --> 00:15:49.234
Second epoch, he names his own son that overflowing with tears, probably streaming down his face.

00:15:49.234 --> 00:15:53.410
God, I have forgotten the hardships of my past and I have moved on.

00:15:53.410 --> 00:15:55.211
That's what the name Menashe means.

00:15:55.211 --> 00:15:59.970
Every Friday night, this vark comes to my head.

00:15:59.985 --> 00:16:01.320
When you give a bracha, you look down at the words my head.

00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:03.980
When you give a bracha, you look down at the words in the siddur.

00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:05.745
I give a bracha because I have daughters.

00:16:05.745 --> 00:16:09.672
I give the sarif go racha ve'leah, but yivarecha shem v'yishmarecha.

00:16:09.672 --> 00:16:13.211
We give a bracha be like Ephraim and Menashe.

00:16:15.974 --> 00:16:20.529
It always hits me you gotta be able to shrug your shoulders and be able to say I'm gonna hit the next shot.

00:16:20.529 --> 00:16:25.924
Got to be able to shrug your shoulders and be able to say I'm going to hit the next shot.

00:16:25.924 --> 00:16:28.676
You got to be able to.

00:16:28.676 --> 00:16:30.605
In the realms of learning, you can really apply this idea.

00:16:30.605 --> 00:16:34.369
You come, sit down at the Gemara and say I've never seen this Gemara before.

00:16:34.369 --> 00:16:36.995
You have that mild short-term memory loss of not assuming that you've already know what's here.

00:16:36.995 --> 00:16:40.211
I've heard the story, I've learned this page of Gemara, I've learned this Bressa before.

00:16:40.211 --> 00:16:41.716
I've learned this Moshe Sefer before.

00:16:41.976 --> 00:16:51.350
But know, with fresh eyes, with a new perspective, you can choose to be a Zohar Zichrono, to forget how you previously thought that you ever even saw this Gemara and move forward.

00:16:51.350 --> 00:17:04.333
K'inoshani Elohim, ah, a fresh Gemara, I'm all ready to go, like the first day I've seen it, like that deterrent had just been given because you have chosen to forget.

00:17:04.333 --> 00:17:19.613
It's an ability, says Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, that humans possess of that you choose to disregard past failures.

00:17:19.613 --> 00:17:21.674
You choose, you choose.

00:17:21.674 --> 00:17:41.778
You choose to not dwell on the past and turn, unshackle yourself and then move forward with a fresh, energy-filled niris, youthfulness, exuberance about taking on life.

00:17:41.778 --> 00:18:00.498
I encourage you to open up the can of worms and look into your past, whether you reframe certain traumas, whether you have tremendous results and hatzlacha in your past.

00:18:00.498 --> 00:18:13.652
If you forget it, you can see yourself as now still hungry again, as opposed to feeling complacent from prior success, successes, advances, and that's my idea for you today.

00:18:13.652 --> 00:18:32.553
Take a play out of the Ishmat's playbook and disregard past tsarists, past traumas, past even understandings of certain Torah concepts, and see things in a fresh way, in a new way, like the way Yosef Atzadik did when he said on that morning at Sholi