AES RS DEC 04 2023
AES RS DEC 07 2023
HEBREW
Rules of the Shvah- review and new
PARSHA:
VAYESHEV
1) What’s a Ketonet?
a. Why do people
play favorites?
b. Why do parents
play favories
c. Text
d. Commentators
2) The power of
dreams
Dream interpretation Game:
Do we
care about our dreams these days?
Why did
our ancestors? No snapchat or netflix?
Dreams in
Talmud- Handout
The main themes of Hannukah are joy, peace, love and hope.
Hannukah is NOT a Biblical holiday.
Hannukah is the Jewish Christmas.
Hannukah is NOT one of Judaism’s most important festivals.
The Maccabees were from a long line of Jewish
warriors.
The Maccabees fought the Greeks- as in
The Maccabees were supported by the entire Jewish People.
Each one of the candles stands for a different
value: Faith, Love, Charity, Family, and so on.
The giving of Hannukah gifts is a tradition that goes back to the old country.
When it comes to Hannukah foods, Sufganiot are older
than Latkes.
The Maccabees lived happily ever after.
There is such a thing as a Hannukah bush.
Aside from lighting candles, there are no other
prayers just for hannukah.
BONUS: Which
of the following was not a Maccabee Brother:
Yochanan, Eli, Ari,
Shimon, Yehonatan?
Vayeshev: Genesis 37 1-11
Yaakov settled in the land of his father’s journeys,
in the land of C’na’an. These are the (stories
of the) offspring of Yaakov.
Yosef, seventeen years old, used to tend the sheep along with his brothers,
for he was serving-lad with the sons of Bilha and the sons of Zilpa, his
father’s wives. And Yosef brought a
report of them, a nasty one, to their father.
Now Yisrael loved Yosef above all his sons, for he was a “son of old age” to him,
so he made him a ketonet passim*.
(*a kind of
garment, translations vary).
His brothers saw that it was he whom their father loved
above all his brothers,
so they hated him, and could not speak
to him in peace.
Yosef dreamt a dream, and told it to his brothers
—from then on they hated him still more—;
he said to them:
“So listen to this dream that I have dreamed:
So there we were, binding sheaf-bundles out in the field,
and suddenly, my sheaf of wheat arose, and it was standing upright,
and suddenly, your sheaves were turning round and bowing down to my sheaf!”
His brothers said to him:
“Would you imperially be emperor over us?
And would you ruthlessly rule over us?”
From then on they hated him still more—for his dreams, for his words.
But he dreamt still another dream, and recounted it to his
brothers;
he said: “Look, I have dreamt still
[another] dream:
See, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me!”
[When] he recounted it to his father and his brothers,
his father rebuked him and said to him:
"What kind of dream is this that you have dreamt!
Shall we certainly come, your mother and
your brothers,
to bow down to you to the ground?”
His brothers envied him,
while his father kept the matter in mind.
WHAT’S A KETONET PASSIM?
Sa’adya
Gaon, Babylonia, 9th Century:
Linen in its warp, silk in its woof. (Silk would
have been immensely expensive). Silk, as we learn in tractate Sanhedrin (Babylonian
Talmud)--- Raba bar Mehasia also said in
the name of Rabbi Hama ben Goria in Rab's name: “A man should never favor one
son among his other sons, for on account of the two sela's (ancient pounds) weight
of silk, which Jacob gave Joseph in excess of his other sons, his brothers
became jealous of him and the matter resulted in our forefathers' descent into the
house of slavery.”
Chizkuni
(13th Century France): A different explanation sees in the
word פסים as a “compensation,” for being a half
orphan, not having a mother anymore. Yaakov tried to compensate him by having a
costly garment made for him.
Daat Zkenim (group commentary, 11th and 12th
century France and Spain)
כתונת פסים, “an embroidered
garment;” extending down to the palms of his hands (and likely to his ankles as
well). [Not a garment for working in.]
Ibn Ezra (Spain, 13th Century) A COAT
OF MANY COLORS. Ketonet passim means an embroidered coat. The word passim
(many colors) is similar to the Aramaic word pas (part) in part of
(pas) a hand (Dan. 5:5).
Malbim (Rabbi, Meir
Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser, 19th
Century Poland, later Chief Rabbi of Romania)
Ketonet Passim--A long colorful cloak. The other brothers
were dressed like shepherds, but because Yosef was his father’s attendant he
was required to dress in a dignified manner.
Rabbeinu Bahya (14th Century, Zaragosa): ועשה
לו כתונת פסים, “he made for him a striped coat.” This
was a superior quality garment. It may have resembled the כתונת תשבץ/ketonet tashbetz worn by the High Priest
(Exodus 28,4). The brothers were envious of Joseph on account of this garment. According
to Bereshit Rabbah 84,6 the expression פסים
(plural) is used because these stripes were as wide as two פסות ידיו, two handbreadths.
Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, 13th century):
ועשה לו כתונת פסים, the word פס is related to the same word in Daniel 5,5 פס ידא, palm of a hand. The cloth was made of
differently colored surfaces similar to garments made of soft wool which are
made in a number of differently colored stripes or sections. The garment looked
very impressive, arousing the hatred of the brothers in addition to the fact
that they hated him for spreading tales about them to their father.
AND TO SUM IT ALL UP…..
Rav Jonah Berele, z”l (one of Mar Hirsch’s teachers): “Any of the possible answers
to what made this garment special meant it took time to source its elements and
create it. Surely the brothers were expecting this to be Jacob’s robe indicating his status as patriarch, chieftain,
and father of many. Surely they watched
it being crafted, or had to bring progress reports from the artisans making it to
their father. Add in that fact,
and then imagine the brothers reaction when this garment fit for
royalty, long under construction, now
winds up not around their father’s shoulders but wrapped around Joseph!”
1. I dreamt I was
on a long road trip, on a greyhound
bus. Every time I went to the back of
the bus to use the bathroom, my bubbe Phyllis got in my way and said very angrily: “Why don’t you like my
brisket?” Then I woke up.
2. I dreamt I was rich and happy because I had a great
job. One day, I took the morning off and
went to help rabbi Dror build a new building .
When I was done helping him, I
had lost my job and had to go work in a soup factory. Then I woke up.
3. I dreamed I was
a cat, dreaming I was a cat. I woke up
and I was still a cat. Then I woke up.
4. I dreamed I was
a roach, and I was leading the other roaches on a long journey. We came to the light at the end of a long
tunnel, and we came out onto the stove
in my best friend’s house and she was cooking bacon. She screamed and
smushed me. Then I woke up.
5. I dreamed I was
at my summer camp and everyone was telling me to call the new kid a
“mudblood”. They kept yelling at me until I said “BUT Harry Potter books are bad
for Basketball players.” Then I woke
up.
6. I dreamt I was
studying for my bat/bar with Hazzan Mizrahi, who gave me a page of music and
said “Don’t lose it, no matter what!”
But when I went home I was hungry, so it turned into a pizza and I ate
it. Then I woke up.
7. I dreamt I was
working in a particle accelerator lab, and when the director came to ask me to work an extra day, I said “I
don’t roll on Shabbes.” He said I had to
work on Shabbat or I would be turned into a unicorn. I said “not if I get you first,” fed him a
rainbow, and he turned into a half-unicorn half-snake. And then I woke up in the main sanctuary, I
had fallen asleep during Shabbat morning services.
8. I dreamt I was
reading Torah for my brother’s bar Mitzvah, but I was floating above the bimah
because I was wearing a jet pack. Rabbi
Seigel told me my application to
Rabbinical school had been accepted, and handed me a kitten with black fangs.
Then I woke up.
9. I dreamt I was
Google, and everyone just kept asking me questions all day, and some of them
made no sense, like “How heart pumps to California sideways?” Eventually, I just put up a few pictures of
cats being cute, and then sat and cried for an hour. Then I woke up.
BERAYSHEET/GENESIS CH. 40
1 It happened
after these things, that the chief butler [in charge of the wine] of the king of Mitzrayim and his chief baker
offended their lord, the king of Mitzrayim. 2 Par`oh was angry with his two
officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. 3 He put them in custody in the
house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Yosef was
bound. 4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Yosef, and he took care of
them. They stayed in prison many days.
5 They both dreamed a dream, each man his dream, in one night, each man’s dream with a different meaning, both the butler and the baker of the king of Mitzrayim, who were bound in the prison. 6 Yosef came in to them in the morning, and saw them, and saw that they were sad. 7 He asked Par`oh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, saying, "Why do you look so sad today?" 8 They said to him, "We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it." Yosef said to them, "Don't interpretations belong to God? Please tell it to me."
9 The chief butler told his dream to Yosef, and
said to him, "In my dream, behold, a vine was in front of me, 10 and in
the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, its blossoms shot
forth, and the clusters of it brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Par`oh's cup was in
my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Par`oh's cup, and I gave
the cup into Par`oh's hand." 12 Yosef said to him, "This is the
interpretation of it: the three branches are three days. 13 Within three more
days, Par`oh will lift up your head, and restore you to your office. You will
give Par`oh's cup into his hand, the way you did when you were his butler. 14
But remember me when it will be well with you, and show kindness, please, to
me, and make mention of me to Par`oh, and bring me out of this house. 15 For
indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Ivrim/ those over the river,
and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the
dungeon."
16 When the
chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Yosef, "I
also was in my dream, and, behold, three baskets of white bread were on my
head. 17 In the uppermost basket there was all kinds of baked food for Par`oh,
and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head." 18 Yosef answered,
"This is the interpretation of it. The three baskets are three days. 19
Within three more days, Par`oh will lift up your head from off you, and will
hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from off you."
20 It
happened the third day, which was Par`oh's birthday, that he made a feast for
all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the head of
the chief baker among his servants. 21 He restored the chief butler to his
position again, and he gave the cup into Par`oh's hand; 22 but he hanged the
chief baker, as Yosef had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief butler didn't
remember Yosef, but forgot him.
-
PARSHAT
VAYESHEV ---6TH GRADE BRAUN RELIGIOUS SCHOOL
THOUGHTS ON THE
MEANING OF DREAMS
FROM THE TALMUD BAVLI, BRACHOT 57A-57B (200-500 CE)
B) Bar
Kappara said to Rabbi [Judah the Regent]
“I dreamt that my nose (aph) fell off!”
He replied to him “It means you will no longer lose your temper (charon aph).“
C) The
elephants in a dream are a good omen if
saddled, a bad omen if not saddled. If
one dreams that he is reciting the Shema', he is worthy that the Divine
presence should rest upon him, but his generation is not deserving enough. If
one dreams he is putting on tefillin, he may look forward to greatness.
E) Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani said in the name
of Rabbi Jonathan: A man is shown in a
dream only what is suggested by his own thoughts, as it says in the book of
Daniel, “To you, O king, as you lay in
bed came thoughts of what would be after this….” Or if you like, I can derive it from here: “So that you
know the thoughts of the heart.”
Raba said “No- this is proved by the simple fact that a man is never
shown in a dream a date palm of gold, or an elephant going through the eye of a
needle-- that is to say something he has never seen before or that is
impossible.”
Question
#1: When Judah and his remaining
brothers finished dedicating the Temple, things were great except for one major
problem. What was it?
A-- It was violent raids by Hellenized Jews who wanted Judah
to lose to the Greeks. These were Jews who wanted the Torah to disappear so the
Jews could be like everyone else. They hated hearing Greeks say “You are
Jewish? Isn’t today that Yom
Kippur? How come you are eating on a
fast day?” In revenge, they began to
use the same guerrilla tactics against the Maccabees that Judah had used. They ambushed the Maccabees’ caravans, set
fire to Judah’s soldiers’ tents, and killed horses in the night. This was their revenge on the Maccabees for
being unable to blend in perfectly with the Greek world. It took a year to stop all the raids.
B--It was the economy.
After years of war, crops were neglected, shops were ruined, and the
ports were empty. Local Idol
worshippers stopped coming to Jerusalem, since with the destruction of the
Altar to Zeus in the Temple, with its many layers of encrusted pig blood, guts
and fat, they no longer felt wanted.
Merchants no longer came to trade, and all the gold and silver had gone
into the Temple instead of into coins for buying and selling. It took four
years to fix the economy and get trade going.
C-- It was a giant fortress called the Acra. This massive fort, a castle inside a castle,
was well stocked with food and weapons and was just outside of the Jerusalem
walls. It was also filled with
Hellenized Jews and Seleucid Greek soldiers who would shoot arrows or other
weapons at anyone who got too close. It made travel to Jerusalem
difficult. Every time Judah tried to lay
siege to the thing and knock it down, he would have to leave to do battle
elsewhere. It would be ten years before the Maccabees finally got inside and
got rid of the threat it posed.
Question #2: What
did Judah do that led to disaster 250 years later?
A- He Offended the Romans.
A famous gladiator named Pantheras wanted to face Judah Maccabee in a
duel. Judah refused and had the man
escorted to the borders of the Jewish country and told him never to
return. But Pantheras had been honored
with freedom by the Emperor of Rome directly, and so the refusal to duel was
taken as an insult against the Roman Empire, one the empire never forgot. In time, Rome would destroy Jerusalem.
B-He Offended the Persians.
An emissary from Persian Emperor Xerxes came and asked that Judah make
an alliance. When the ambassador asked
Judah to bow to a golden medallion with Xerxes’ face on it as a sign of good
faith. Judah ripped off the medallion,
smashed it to bits with the haft of his sword, swept it into a bag and gave the
shattered parts back to the ambassador.
The shattering of the Persian emperor’s image was taken as an insult
against the Persian Empire, one the empire never forgot. In time, the Persians
would destroy Jerusalem.
C- He Befriended the Romans.
If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then the young Roman empire was
the friend of the Maccabees and the enemy of the Syrian Greeks. Judah Maccabee himself sent a delegation to
make a treaty with Rome, which until the treaty had no idea about this little
Jewish nation. Rome continued to grow
and eventually made the small Jewish country Judah fought to free into a part
of the Roman empire. In time, when Jews tried to rebel against Rome, Rome would destroy the rebellion, Jerusalem and
the Jewish Nation along with it.
Question #3: How did Judah Maccabee die?
A- At peace, in his old age with the Shema on his lips, 50
years after the first Hanukah. Judah
knew his time had come, so he took one long trip back to Modin, his home
town. In the small house that his father
and mother raised him in, he held one
last meal, his family gathered around.
When the meal was done, he blessed each of his children and grandchildren. He laid down on his bed and charged all his
family to follow the Torah and keep the Jewish people free. He then said the
Shema and died as the last letter left his lips, finally at peace.
B- From Heart disease, 23 Years after the First
Hanukah. When peace was truly
established in the years following the first Hanukah, Judah threw great meals
each Sabbath and huge banquets on Pesach, Sukkot and Shavuot. The book of Maccabees even mentions his
breaking-the-fast after one Yom Kippur that feed one thousand of the residents
of Jerusalem. No longer climbing through
mountainous lands and living on lean army rations, Judah enjoyed a little too
much of the good life, and became very overweight. His death 23 years was sudden and swift, and
believed now to have been a massive heart attack brought on from eating too
much refined flour and fried foods.
C- In Battle, just two years after the first Hannukah. The
Syrian Greeks did not stop trying to conquer the Jewish people, and a
man even more dangerous than Antiochus the Fourth came to power. His name was Demetrious Soter, and he commanded a massive army of 20,000
men, all with one purpose---to kill Judah Maccabee. When Judah’s small army saw the massive
forces coming at them, many of the
soldiers fled; only 800 remained.
Judah’s best troops died fighting at his side, but not even Judah
Maccabee could beat 20,000 Greek soldiers with only 800 troops. His death sparked new outrage in the land of
Israel, and the battle for Jewish freedom continued.
Question #4: How
did the last Maccabee brother, Shimon, die?
A- At peace, in his old age with the Shema on his lips. Shimon knew his time had come, so he took one
long trip back to Modin, his home town.
In the small house that his father and mother raised him in, he held one last meal, his family gathered
around. When the meal was done, Shimon
blessed each of his children and grandchildren.
He laid down on his bed and charged all his family to follow the Torah
and keep the Jewish people free. He then said the Shema and died as the last
letter left his lips, at peace.
B- In Battle, like Judah, his slain enemies heaped about
him, all of them broken and defeated. The
Syrian Greeks did not stop trying to conquer the Jewish people, and a
man even more dangerous than Antiochus the Fourth came to power. His name was Demetrious Soter, and he commanded a massive army of 20,000
men, all with one purpose---to retake Jerusalem. Shimon met him with an army of 5,000 men at
Beit Horon, and stopped Demetrious in a muddy field the Maccabees
flooded to slow the Greek army down. The
Greek Troops eventually retreated, but
Shimon died fighting in the muddy field he made
to stop the invasion.
C- He was murdered, in fact poisoned by his daughter’s
husband, along with everyone else in the Macabee family. Shimon ruled for many years, and had a large
family. His daughter married a man named
Ptolemy Abubus, who the Greeks had appointed governor of the nearby city
Jericho. At first, Ptolemy was content
running one city, but soon he wanted to take over the country. He invited his wife’s family to a special
banquet for Tu Bishvhat, drugged the wine, and slaughtered Shimon, his sons,
and everyone else from Shimon’s family.
Only Shimon’s youngest son,
Jonathan, survived of all his family, as he was not at the party, home with
what was probably the flu.
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