בס״ד
Vaera
Moshiach will come when God’s ready,
And not necessarily in a way we expect,
We must be open to see him as he chooses to appear,
Or so says Rabbi Zev Leff.
Moshe expected HaShem to appear,
In a way that the Avos would get,
But God disappoints, in a manner of speaking,
And says “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet”!
בס״ד
Shemos
Midianim brought Yosef down,
To Egypt as a slave,
Not knowing they had bought him there,
So Israel would be saved.
But when Moshe Rabbeinu runs away,
Because he killed the Egyptian,
Who is the one that takes him in?
Yisro, the Priest of Midian.
Then Zipporah rescues Moshe’s life,
Circumcising their son in-the-Inn,
Once more, salvation for our side,
From the hands of Midian.
בס״ד
Vayechi
Vayechi means: “and he lived”,
But that’s not what Yaakov told Pharaoh,
He said he was old,
But his life had been cold,
Compared to the lives of his Avos.
When Yosef used the phrase “od Avi chai”
As a question - or statement of truth,
He could not perceive,
How his Father had grieved,
All the way back to his youth.
Yaakov wouldn’t tell Pharaoh that he had “lived”,
To say otherwise would be a lie,
’Til he’d savored the juice,
Of the fruit he’d produced,
Now he could respond, Ani Chai.
בס״ד
Vayigash
It’s fitting that Bnei Yisroel,
Come to live in a land called Goshen,
Because Vayigash, and Goshna, too,
Come from the verb, approachin’.
Yehuda approaches Yosef,
And sets the ball in motion,
He risks his life for Binyamin,
Thus proving his devotion.
Hence, Yosef approaches Yaakov,
Embracing him with emotion,
When all are reconciled now,
Together, in a land called Goshen.
בס״ד
Chanukah
One tiny bit of shemen,
Was found in one small pach,
But the long war leading up to that,
Is nowhere in Tanach.
For 30 years the Maccabees,
Led a war against Antiochus,
But Chazal decided not to preserve,
That war as the main focus.
Yet defeating the Seleucid Greeks,
Was just as big a nes,
As lighting the Menorah,
And cleaning up the mess.
The Maccabees made the error,
Of mixing Kahuna with the Melech,
And perhaps that contributed to,
Their going off the derech.
But other sefarim in Tanach,
Speak frankly of our leaders,
Bad errors, mistakes, and attitudes,
But they’re included for the readers.
It may be good to read both Maccabees,
And consider them with pride,
And though indeed they made mistakes,
There’s nothing there to hide.
They became as Hellenistic,
As the Greeks that they defeated,
But perhaps that is the error,
That we should not see repeated.
בס״ד
Mikeitz
A dream that has not been interpreted,
Is like a letter that has not been read,
This is not something that I made up,
It is what Rav Chisda said.
What would have happened in Egypt,
If Pharaoh’s dream had remained hidden?
Would famine have come down to Egypt,
Along with our People, unbidden?
Mikeitz 2
Seven years of plenty,
Seven years of loss,
A goodly life in Goshen,
And then that life was lost.
A new Viceroy comes to Egypt,
From famine they are saved,
A new Pharaoh arises in Egypt,
And makes the Jews his slaves.
Yosef gathers up the harvests,
And stores them in the cities,
The Jews scour the land for straw,
And build Pharaoh’s treasure cities.
Yosef sells the grain for money,
And barters it for land,
The Mitzrim lose their independence,
They depend on Pharaoh’s hand.
The Jews buy their food with money,
And receive an open land,
But become the slaves of Pharaoh,
Their Eden turns to sand.
