This week we read about Yosef’s being sold by his own brothers into slavery. There is one detail in the story that seems redundant. We are told, “A caravan of Yishmaelites was coming…. And their camels were bearing spices and balsam, and birthwort”. The Medresh explains why we are told what type of goods they were trading in. Normally it is the way of Arabs to carry petroleum and resin whose odour is foul. But for Yosef Hashem arranged that they would uncharacteristically be carrying nice smelling goods so as to make his ride down to Egypt more comfortable.
Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz points out that here we have Yosef in the all-time doldrums, his brothers had attempted to kill him by throwing him in a pit full of venomous animals, and now as a ‘final solution’ to get him out of their way, they are selling him as a slave, perhaps never to return. Surely the absence of a bad smell would have done little to cheer Yosef up. Can you imagine the cattle carts heading to the death camps being made any more endurable because they had air-freshener machines on the ceiling of each cart?!
From here we can glean a point that runs to the very core of the concept of Galut – exile. Even at a time when suffering has been decreed on us G-d forbid, Hashem has not abandoned us to the elements, on the contrary he is orchestrating exactly how much we suffer. We see this from the fact that amongst the suffering there will often be glimpses of kindness from Him, often we only see these glimpses after the suffering has passed. If Hashem is caring for the insignificant details of my life then surely he is caring about the major issues in my life.
Yosef spends the prime years of his life – from the age of seventeen till he emerges as the viceroy some thirteen years later – in Egypt, the most perverse country, away from any family, and somehow he manages to remain sane after years in prison. We see time and time again with Yosef how he endured his years of suffering either with glimpses of Hashem’s kindness like the sweet smelling spices; or sometimes simply with the attitude ‘this to will work out for the best’ – and indeed it did. Yosef was the longest ruling Jewish King – ever.
I’d like to share the most inspiring story which illustrates how even amongst the most unbearable suffering, the Hand of Hashem is very much still there. In this story the Hand of Hashem was seen only years later, but this serves as a tremendous inspiration to know that during the most trying times Hashem runs the show.
After many painful years of not being blessed with children a mother in Miami Beach finally managed to give birth to quints! To help her with her newly acquired blessings she hired a nanny, Mrs Goldberg. One day the Nanny happens to go into a room of the house that she had never been into before and sees a picture on the wall of a woman, and faints. When Mrs Goldberg was revived she asked about the woman on the picture. “That’s my mother; she passed away last year” replies the mother of the quints.
Let me tell you my story says Mrs Goldberg. “I was in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the war. One year on Chanukah four other girls and I decided that we were going to light Chanukah lights. We had access to oil and we hand scraps of our clothes to use as wicks. The only problem was finding a receptacle in which to light. We knew that the guard over the kitchen left his post every night from 12:00 until 12:05. It was then that I was nominated to sneak in to get some receptacle for out Menorah, as the other four girls kept watch.”
“Unfortunately the mission failed and we were sentenced to be hung the next morning. In a frantic attempt to save our lives we went to Shaindel who had some form of ‘protectsia’ with the officers. We went to find her but she was nowhere to be found. A short distance from her ‘residence’ we could hear someone singing Mo’ar Tzur! Astounded we followed the voice and found Shaindel by her own Menorah. We desperately tried to present our case to her, but she stopped us even talking, “You want to get us all caught? Quick disappear!” She demanded.”
“The next morning the five of us were brought in front of the camp and had nooses hung around our necks. Words cannot describe the scene. As we were about to be hung, suddenly Shaindel appeared as if from out of nowhere, whispered something into the ear of the S.S. Officer whereupon he released us. We survived the war, but never saw Shaindel who had saved our lives ever again, until today when I saw the picture on the wall”, concluded Mrs Goldberg.
Now it was the mother of the quints who was crying hysterically. “Let me tell my story” she said. “Year after year I remained without children. Broken and saddened I trudged through life. Baruch Hashem eventually I was able to have five children. The night before the quints were born my mother O’H came to me in a dream and kept on saying, ‘five neshamos [souls] for five neshamos’. Until today I never understood what she meant. Now it is so clear to me!”
While the most terrible destruction was going on in Europe, Hashem was already sowing seeds of hope for the next generation. A broken hearten childless mother would be granted five babies, because of the act of her mother who saved five girls in the camps. May we merit to always see the acts of kindness from Hashem. Even when we are having a bad day let’s remember that the day will be saturated with other sweet smelling spices, we just need to be finely tuned like Yosef to see them!
Good Shabbos, Yaakov