There is a Gemara which says that for all the beautiful things in the world that a person did not enjoy he will be punished for after he dies.  How are we to understand this?  Isn’t a person is to be praised for denying oneself physical pleasure and enjoyment?  This is not the way that Judaism views life.  G-d created a wonderous beautiful and enjoyable world.  He wants us to appreciate it to it’s fullest.  Denial of pleasure for the sake of denying pleasure is not to be condoned but rather condemned.  We were given a Torah which teaches us the proper way to enjoy the world to it’s fullest possibility.  By following the guidelines of the Torah not only will we have a supremely enjoyable afterlife, but even this world will then be able to be enjoyed and appreciated manifold!!

In the Shmone Esrei prayer is the section of Modim.  This prayer is thanks to HaShem.  It lists many things for which we are grateful, including life, Hashem’s ensuring that we are taken care of, as well as many others.  The prayer climaxes with thanks for the opportunity to offer thanks to HaShem. Let each of us absorb that this is indeed the greatest privelege…

Yosef was sold into slavery to a group of Arabs.  The Arabs of that time period generally carried tar and other foul smelling merchandise to sell.  The group to which Yosef was sold carried spices and perfumes.  Rashi comments on this that it was so that Yosef would not be subject to the unpleasant odors, but rather would have a comfortable aroma.  This is because everything that a person endures in their life is measured with exactness by HaShem and although for whatever the reason was Yosef had to go through being sold as a slave by his brothers, these acrid smells were not part of his judgement.

When Yosef revealed himself to his brothers he and Binyamin cried on each others shoulders.  Rashi explains that they were crying because of the Bais Hamikdash which were in their territories and were destroyed.  Why were they crying now for something that wasn’t going to happen for thousands of years?  Each tribe (as well as each individual) has a different way that they are to serve HaShem.  The Bais Hamikdash was the place where all the different forms of service were used as one.  This moment when all the brothers were finally united and unified for the first time ever, Yosef and Binyamin were crying that this unity would not last.  Let us try to bring back the Bais Hamikdash by being unified with all segments of the Jewish People in all their ways of serving HaShem!!!

When Yacov saw his beloved son Yosef after 22 years of being seperated, one can only imagine the overwhelming feelings of love that welled up within him.  We are taught that at that moment although Yosef completely gave himself over to his father, Yacov said the Shma, focusing these feelings towards HaShem.  There is a tremendous lesson to be learnt here.  Although we are by no means anywhere near the greatness of Yacov, we still must learn from his ways.  Whenever we have an experience we should try our utmost to gain from it in our service of G-d.

The Torah lists the 10 children of Binyamin then immediately lists the son of Dan.  We see when the Jews left Egypt 210 years later the tribe of Dan was a significantly larger tribe than that of Benyamin.  The one son of Dan was also disabled.  We see that many years later the greatest warrior and mightiest in all our history, Samson, came from the tribe of Dan.  When the Mishkan was being built the tribe of Yehuda is called the greatest and Dan is called the least of the tribes.  Yet we find that some of the greatest prophets came from this tribe.  We see from this that although things may look to us like we can tell who is great and how things and people may develop, we really do not know.  Let us not be quick to judge another and let us try to help all those around us to reach their full potential.

When Yacov came to Yitzchok to get the bracha from him, Yitzchok who was blind, thought he might have been Esav.  When he felt his hands and they were hairy but the person spoke like Yacov, Yitzchok cried out “the voice is the voice of Yacov but the hands are the hands of Esav”.  We learn from this that when Yacov’s children’s (us) voices are raised in the study of Torah and prayer, the hands of Esav (the goyim) will have no power over us.

Torah is compared to water.  Water provides life to the world as does Torah.  Water renders the impure pure, water cleanses, so does the Torah.  There is no condition attached to water providing life as any amount of Torah will sustain a person.  Torah will cleanse a person of all sins but that requires a total immersion.  Just as for a person to become clean from dirt entirely he must wash himself entirely with water.  Also when a person is tamai (spiritually impure) in order to become tahor (pure) one must cover themselves entirely with water with no seperation.  Torah has these tremendous powers but total immersion is required for this effect.  Let us immerse ourselves in Torah, each of us on our own level…

Avraham Avinu was an extremely hospitable person.  He went out of his way to ensure that he had guests.  After his guests would eat they would thank him for the food he had given them.  Avraham would then direct their thanks to HaShem from whom the food actually came.  It behooves us to remember always that we are required to thank G-d’s human emissaries, we must never forget that all actually comes from Him.  It is also important to remember that when someone wrongs us it is also coming from HaShem and is only for our good.

One of the greatest wiles of the yetzer horah is to fool us into believing that if something is not done properly it is worthless.  Certainly we all know that the best way to perform any action is to have it entirely devoted to HaShem.  Due to the fact that we are not at that level, we may not be able to achieve that goal.  Our yetzer horah may try to convince us therefore that our actions are not worthwhile.  Similarly he may try to tell us that if we can’t do all the mitzvos we shouldn’t do any.  These thoughts are patently false!! Every single mitzva a person does he will be greatly rewarded for, even if there was one that was missed.