oi{"id":32998,"date":"2015-12-02T18:17:38","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/?p=32998"},"modified":"2015-12-02T18:17:38","modified_gmt":"2015-12-02T18:17:38","slug":"torah-portion-vayeshev-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n
By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb<\/p>\n
You thought your life would run smoothly, right? We all do. Then, something comes off, tragic or happy, which proves to us that life is not smooth at all, and probably is not supposed to be.<\/p>\n
There is a passage in Psalms 30, and it is one of my favorite biblical quotations, which says this better than I can. It reads, \u201cI said in my tranquility (shalvi), I shall never fall down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of all the 50-plus weekly Torah portions, it is this week\u2019s parsha, Vayeshev, that conveys this message most powerfully.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Jacob dwelled\u2026\u201d Rashi comments that Jacob sought to dwell in shalva, tranquility. He thought that he had finally made it home, the dwelling place of his fathers, and that his encounters with Laban and Esau were now over. It was clear sailing from here on in. But wouldn\u2019t you know, his troubles with Joseph soon \u201cjumped on him.\u201d He never anticipated that his life would be completely disrupted and changed forever because of his favorite son and his internal family dynamics. From this point on, Jacob experienced no tranquility; only surprises, which eventually climaxed in exile to Egypt. Not only could he not live in the land of his fathers, but he was destined not even to die there.<\/p>\n
There is a Yiddish saying which captures this lesson in four brief words: \u201cMentsch tracht, Gott lacht.\u201d Literally, this means, \u201cMan plans, God laughs.\u201d I have seen it paraphrased as, \u201cMan proposes, God disposes.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point, I want to introduce to you the second most important traditional Jewish biblical commentator. In previous columns, I have referred to Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, who is unanimously acclaimed as the chief traditional commentator. Second to him is Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, or Nachmanides.<\/p>\n
Ramban uses the narrative of Joseph\u2019s search for his brothers and their plot to sell him into slavery as a primary example of how man\u2019s plans usually go awry. He, too, formulates a four-word phrase which conveys this idea, but his is in Hebrew: \u201cHagezera emet, vehacharitzut sheker.\u201d This means that God\u2019s design is true while man\u2019s efforts are futile. Sounds pessimistic, but it has the ring of reality.<\/p>\n
Ramban points out that Joseph was sent by Jacob to the brothers but could not find them. Ordinarily, if he would be convinced that his search for them would be unsuccessful, he would have returned home. But lo and behold, a strange man (an angel, according to rabbinic legends) appeared on the scene and guided Joseph to his brothers, who promptly sold him to the next passing caravan.<\/p>\n
This lesson is a profound existential one for all of us. But it has needed implications for the way we tend to raise our children in this day and age.<\/p>\n
Many of us parents are guilty of trying to arrange our children\u2019s lives so that they will never experience problems or difficulties. We are protective to a ridiculous extreme in the hope that our children will never have to face the challenges and obstacles which we faced.<\/p>\n
But we delude ourselves and, more importantly, are not fair to our children. Their lives will contain unpredicted and unpredictable circumstances, negative and positive, and we cannot make their lives fool-proof.<\/p>\n
How much better off they would be if we taught them not how to avoid problems, but how to cope with problems. Problems are unavoidable. They are the very stuff of life. A good parent, and a good teacher, conveys the lesson that life will have its challenges, but that these challenges can be met and that, by meeting them, the individual grows.<\/p>\n
We, as observers of current youth, particularly in the Jewish community, have identified a sense of entitlement in our children. They feel entitled to leisure and comfort and an environment free of restriction. We would well-advised to dispel this sense of entitlement, and instead enable them to face the unanticipated surprises that life has in store for all of us.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb is the executive vice president, emeritus of the Orthodox Union.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb You thought your life would run smoothly, right? We all do. Then, something comes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":32999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0 - Jewish Ledger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0 - Jewish Ledger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb You thought your life would run smoothly, right? We all do. Then, something comes...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jewish Ledger\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-02T18:17:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/torah.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"677\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"404\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"LedgerOnline\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jewish Ledger\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/torah.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/torah.jpg\",\"width\":677,\"height\":404,\"caption\":\"Torah Scroll ca. 2001\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/\",\"name\":\"Torah Portion \\u2013 Vayeshev\\u00a0 - Jewish Ledger\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-02T18:17:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-02T18:17:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c592fa51cbe3a6f41a1bbc2d017c3d2d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Torah Portion \\u2013 Vayeshev\\u00a0\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c592fa51cbe3a6f41a1bbc2d017c3d2d\",\"name\":\"LedgerOnline\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7925283031f07c52eb79d2e37263664b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7925283031f07c52eb79d2e37263664b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"LedgerOnline\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/author\/ledgeronline\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0 - Jewish Ledger","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0 - Jewish Ledger","og_description":" By Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb You thought your life would run smoothly, right? We all do. Then, something comes...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/","og_site_name":"Jewish Ledger","article_published_time":"2015-12-02T18:17:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":677,"height":404,"url":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/torah.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_misc":{"Written by":"LedgerOnline","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/","name":"Jewish Ledger","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/torah.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/torah.jpg","width":677,"height":404,"caption":"Torah Scroll ca. 2001"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/","name":"Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0 - Jewish Ledger","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2015-12-02T18:17:38+00:00","dateModified":"2015-12-02T18:17:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c592fa51cbe3a6f41a1bbc2d017c3d2d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/2015\/12\/torah-portion-vayeshev-3\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Torah Portion \u2013 Vayeshev\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c592fa51cbe3a6f41a1bbc2d017c3d2d","name":"LedgerOnline","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7925283031f07c52eb79d2e37263664b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7925283031f07c52eb79d2e37263664b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"LedgerOnline"},"url":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/author\/ledgeronline\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishledger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}