Parshas Vayeishev: Everything is for the Best

Baby Levi

Baruch Hashem, last Friday we had a beautiful bris for our second son, whom we named Levi.  We were very touched by the calls, emails, gifts, and attendance of the community.  Our community in Adelaide may be small, but it is very much alive.  It is the kind of place where each and every Jew can truly feel how special and important (s)he is in his/her contributions.

You may have heard the saying that every cloud has its silver lining, meaning that even in a difficult situation there is something good, if only we look for it.  So too it is true in a place like Adelaide.  Being small, we notice when someone makes the effort to come to Shul to help make the minyan.  We notice when someone helps out in the Shul kitchen or calls to wish another Jew mazal tov.  In big communities, these contributions can often go unnoticed or be taken for granted, but not so here!  Here every person’s specialness shines forth in each and every little mitzvah we do.

In this week’s parsha, Joseph has quite a few difficult experiences.  Yet, he finds the silver lining to every cloud.  This is called emunah, faith, and Joseph’s emunah in G-d never wavers.  No matter what his situation, he finds something good in it.  For instance, when his brothers sell him as a slave, the merchants are carrying spices.  Normally Arab merchants on that route would have been carrying tar and naphtha, which smell terrible, but Joseph’s new masters were instead carrying delicious-smelling spices.  Joseph recognized this as a blessing and a sign that G-d was there with him in his time of need.

Ultimately, this is what each of us must do in our own times of need.  When we are up all night with a crying baby, we must remember to be grateful that we have a baby.  When we lose a job, we must have emunah that something better is coming to us and we must work to find it.  When our car breaks down and needs a repair, we must be grateful it is our car that has broken and not our body.  For everything in life, there is always something to be grateful for.  There is always a bonus, always a silver lining, if only we choose to seek it.

This week we wish you all that you should have such beautiful silver linings that you cannot fail to notice them!

Shabbat shalom!

Read more on Parshas Vayeishev: If You Can’t Go to Israel, Make Israel Come to You

Read more on Parshas Vayeishev: Joseph, Dreams, and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies