וישב                                 בס"ד

The פני מנחם, the Gerrer Rebbi, says that the Parshiot of בראשית which we read in the colder winter months, are ‘clothed’ with the secrets of Torah. The Opta Rav, the אוהב ישראל, says that the first letters of וישב יעקב בארץ מגורי is יבום , which is a tikun for the נשמה that passed away w/o children. This is the Parsha of יבום .The Zohar says that the one who dies w/o children comes back in the child that the יבום and the במהי have together, that is, his wife becomes his mother. Yebum is the secret of גלגל telling us that even after a yid dies, there is a תיקון. A certainרב , I believe the זרנ אבני said that one should not say ימח שמו on any Jew, even a רשע, since he could be born as a child of Yevamosיבמות =458= המלך המשיח The משיח will bring a תיקון to every yid. Before the תורה was given there was also יבום, however it was permitted with a close relative, as withיהודה (father in law) and תמר. There was also a יבום between בועז and רות since יאלמונ פלוני, didn’t want to marry רות. And so we see that the משיח is born from יבום. In all the פרשיות that fall in the month of כסלו, there are many many hints to the great י”ט of חנוכה.

The uniqueness of חנוכה is that it goes to where no other י”ט goes, that is below ten tefachim, on the left, in the public domain and in the nighttime. On חנוכה there is a תקון for all yiddin, those that are on the left side, and those who find themselves in a very low place, (below ten טפחים) and those who are in total darkness. The טור in the הלכות of חודש ראש says that the אבות are connected to the Chagim, Avraham is פסח ( most of the major events of Avraham’s life took place פסח time ) יצחק is שבועות, and יעקב is Sukkosויעקב נסעה סכתה – אלה תולדות יעקב יוסף, Yosef who extends from ביעק, is חנוכה which is an extension ofסוכות . There are various similarities between סוכות and חנוכה – 1) Sukkos culminates with the חג of eight, העצרת שמיני, similar to חנוכה. 2) both the מנורה and the סוכה are פסול when above twenty אמות and 3) with the חנוכה נרות we are בהם תמשלהש רשות לנו אין like the סוכה נוי. Yosef isלשון of הוספה like on חנוכה we are מוסיף והולך. In the second pasuk of וישב it says ‘והוא נער את בני בלהה’ and רשי says that סףיו would מקרב the הבלה בני, when his brothers would push them away. Rashi says elsewhere in ויקהל that דן was the lowest of the שבטים, the ones that were out of the ענני כבוד in the desert, and thus the ones that עמלק started up with בני בלהה=104=חוץ Like the candles of חנוכה are to be placed outside, and below ten, all in order to bring light and support to the lower factions of עם ישראל, Yosef was מקרב the Bnei Dan. Yosef had a special connection to דן since, sort of speaking, because of Dan, Yosef was born. Rachel gave her שפחה בלהה to יעקב and said ‘ואבנה גם אנכי ממנה’, so that she could be זוכה to have a child. Dan was born to בלהה, resulting in רחל giving birth to Yosef – = שבט דן 365= יוסף הצדיק. Later יהושע who comes from יוסף, attacks עמלק who were primarily after the דן טשב, the ones who were spit out of the clouds – ‘כל הנחשלים’ (the weak ones, the late comers), referring to דן. The root of נחשלים is נחשל which is the ר”ת of להדליק נר של חנוכה. Chanuka has the ability to elevate the weak and the lowly, especially our generation, a generation of Dan.

In הלכות ליקותי, Rav Nasan elaborates the beginning of the Parsha.‘מגורי אביו’ Yaakov was involved in מגייר גרים and בקירו, bringing close the ones far from Yiddeshkeit. אלה תולדות יעקב יוסף -Yosef was also involved in this עבודה of קירוב רחוקים. Yosef was בן שבע עשרה. To be involved in the עבודה of קירוב one must be good, 17טוב=, to all. והוא נער את בני בלהה -Yosef was מקרב Dan and Naftali, as we mentioned already who were of the lowest שבטים. Yaakov loved ףיוס more than the other brothers כי בן זקנים הוא לו- the תרגום says that זקנים בן is בר חכים, a wise person. Rav Natan explains that one has to have high and deep wisdom to bring yidden close to Hashem. ועשה לו כתנת פסים -Yaakov taught יוסף the wisdom of how to dress up the light of Hashem (the Sfirot) and bring it down to wherever the yid is holding. Here lies one פשט of the מחלוקת of the םבטיש with הצדיק יוסף. The brothers didn’t believe in this practice of קירוב. They held that there is a danger in being involved with the lower yidden. Parallel to this is the ט”י of חנוכה. There was also very much controversy in the concept of חנוכה – performing a mitzva on the left? below ten tefachim? In the public domain? At night? We see even שהקוד רבינו didn’t include חנוכהin משנה. Some say it was because ביר was from מלכות בת דוד and the חשמונאים were not supposed to take the מלכות. Others say he was from יהודה, who although he didn’t want יוסף killed, he still sold him. Today, where would we be without the light of חנוכה ?? חנוכה is for all- =בני השפחות861=מתתיהו

The מחלוקת between יוסף and his brothers was really a lack of giving כף זכות on the part of the שבטי י-ה. In לז:יח פסוק , it says יראו אתו מרחק- that the brothers sight of, perspective of יוסף was ‘far’ from the truth- that יוסף was a צדיק. Yosef doesn’t have our payos!! He wears a short coat!! Also by the עקידה, it says that Avraham was confused, in darkness, as it says וירא את המקום מרחוק. Avraham closed off his דעת, and relied on אמונה – וצונו להדליק נר חנוכה=676=מרחוק יה-וה נראה לי .
In our times, the עקביתא דמשיחא, when we are blind to the real אמת, we have to turn on our strong אמונה that we inherited from Avraham עקביתא דמשיחא=946= (וירא) את המקום מרחוק. Just as Avraham passed the test then, we have Chanuka to help us through this time-
מתתיהו=861=והאלה-ים נסה את אברהם.

True .. the שבטים saw in הקודש רוח thatירעבם בן נבט , who enticed most of ישראל כלל into ז”ע, and אחאב and Yehu will come from ףיוס. Better to kill him now and he’ll die righteous. They judged him as a ומורה סורר בן- לו נרות חנכה=775=בן סורר ומורה. Chanuka is a tikun for every yid, even the rebellious ones. They didn’t look at Yosef with כף זכות, that יהושע בן נון and משיח בן יוסף will also come from Yosef- בן יוסף תיקון =566= משיח. As soon as the brothers saw the Yishmaelim והנה ארחת ישמעאלים באה, they remembered באשר הוא שם in וירא, that they cannot judge a yid on what will come from him.
The brothers sold Yosef as opposed to killing him. The הטורים בעל says that רז=207=זקנים , that יעקב taught יוסף the secrets of Torah. The brothers thought that since יוסף was a בעל לשון הרע, it was not fitting for their father to teach him secrets of Torah. In the fourth pasuk of בראשית, Rashi says that this אור was the hidden light, the אור הגנוז, that was put away for the צדיקים in the future.
סתר=660=את האור כי טוב. The last letters spell out ברית. There is a ברית הלשון and a ברית המעור, the bris of sexual purity. Both are dependent one on the other. The brothers felt since יוסף was not pure in the bris of speech, he shouldn’t be taught the סתרי תורה. Also why is יוסף revealing his dreams (which are 1/60th of prophesy) to them, if he considers them unworthy-
את האור כי טוב כי יבדל=712=הלשון המעור. The Rokeach and the בני יששכר and others all say that on Chanuka we experience a blast of the future light – 8 x חנוכה = 8 x 89 =712=את האור כי טוב ויבדל.

The זקניםבן in pasuk ג is קנים- ז referring to the מנורה in the ק”בהמ. The בעל הטורים also says that זקנים is ר”ת for זרעים קדשים נשים ישועות מועד, five of the משנה סדרי ששה. What about טהרות? Yosef developed in himself, סדר טהרות. Chanuka was the last ט”י, referring and שייך to our last generation. In the עשרה דברות there are 172 =עקב words, and 620 letters. There are 613 מצוות from the תורה and seven from the רבנן, totaling 620 מצוות .The last word of theהדברות עשרת or the (עקב) is לרעך, hinting to us that the מצוה of ואהבת לרעך כמוך is extremely important in the end of days. The last letter ך, the 620th letter of the דברות, refers to חנוכה, since the last of the seven רבנן מצוות is חנוכה. The ך extends down, hinting to the מנורה חנוכה which is placed below ten טפחים. One of the מילוים of חנוכה is 620- טהרות=620=חת נון כף הא Also ך is 500= חנוכה משמאל. Chanuka is the י”ט of טהרות. Chanuka is the גמר חתימה of יה”כ, which is the main time of purity- – לפני ה” תטהרו = וצונו להדליק נר חנוכה676=אטהר אתכם . Chanuka and יה”כ are times of purity כתר=620=תטהרו. The הקדוש ארי writes that the כונה of the מקוה is the מולוי of holy name אהיה- אלף הה יוד הה =151= כה כסליו=151=מקוה

Hashem put theנשמה of משיח in the most unlikely places. Lot with his daughters produce רות in סדם, the lowest place on earth physically as well as spiritually, (the ר”ת of בסדם is סוד מלכות בת דוד ), and here in our Parsha with יהודה ותמר. The שטן would never look in places like these. In Parshas וישב, everyone is in a lowly and distressed state. Yaakov is mourning over יוסף, and cannot be consoled “וימאן להתנחם”. Yosef is being sold as a slave, and later finds himself incarcerated in a dungeon for a crime he didn’t commit, and יהודה has a ירידה due to his brothers blaming him for selling יוסף (Yehuda being the “מלכות” should have prevented the sale). And the שבטים are in anguish for their part in the חטא after seeing their father inconsolable, and.. הקדוש ברוך הוא בורא אור של משיח

The fourth עליה tells of the birth of משיח, Peretz- ויהי בעת ההיא וירד יהודה. Yehuda has a ירידה (below ten טפחים), and he went down to someone he thought was … ויחשבה לזונה. A זונה really means someone who sins. By the מרגלים, in שלח יד:לג the term זנותיכם is used where a זונה is someone who goes out from where he should be. Unkeles translates זונה as נפקת ברא. Chanuka is for those who go out, and the מנורה is placed outside in order to light up the outside world, the חוץ- – = נפקת ברא 833 = פך אחד של שמן.

Tamar sat בפתח עינים=670=וצונו להדליק נר חנכה. The בת עין, a talmid of the Chenoble Magid, says there are many רמזים here to חנוכה. In pasuk לח:כד it saysויהי כמשלש חדשים -three months after the world was created on כה אלול, is חנוכה on כה כסלו. Yehuda says הוציאוה ותשרף refers to lighting the חנוכה lights outside. In the same קפסו it says וגם הנה הרה לזנונים= 512= להדליק נר חנכה. This is a perfect example of a ירדה לצורך עליה=680=להדליק נר חנכה וציונו. Mashiach is born. Zerach sticks his arm out first and the midwife ties a red string on him, however פרץ is born first. זרח means to shine, a רמז to חנוכה ויקרא שמו זרח =878= הדלקת נר חנוכה – The light of חנוכה (Zerach) is here before משיח (Peretz). And so the story of יהודה and תמרcoming in the middle of theפרשה is timely and an exact רמז to Chanuka- יהודה ותמר =676= וצונו להדליק נר חנוכה. The eight days of חנוכה is a פריצה, a breakthrough of all barriers, bringing a blast of the אור הגנוז into the world, bringing the future into the present. =מה פרצת עליך945=שמונת ימי חנוכה. Chanuka is the light needed to endure this long Galus. ויהי בעת ההיא וירד יהודה =770= פרצת and =250= וירד יהודה נר Why is the משיח referred to, or comes from the name פרץ? The משיח will פורץ, break all the barriers of גלות, especially the three שבועות mentioned in Gemorra כתובות – that is, לא יעלה בחומה ולא דוחה את הקץ.. , not to start up with or enter the boundry of the goyim. Chanuka, being a visit from the future, results in these restrictions not being in play, in a spiritual sense – נר חנוכה משמאל ולמטה מיוד =900=פרצת עליך. On the other side, the יונים were the פורץ גדר in the צד הטומאה. They made thirteen פרצות, breaches in the סורג around the בהמ”ק, and they raped the Jewish brides before their weddings, תחלה להגמון תבעל, all in order to contaminate the קדושת ישראל.

The last הלכה that יעקב learned with יוסף was עגלה הערופה which is also a תקון for the murdered yid, the חלל. The עגלה is decapitated in נחל איתן. The word איתן are the letters of the future tense referring to the future (the future light), and נחל is the acronym of להדליק נר חנוכה. The deeper understanding of עגלה ערופה is that no yid should fall, no חלל, no void על העגלה הערופה בנחל =669=נר של חנוכה. Yosef remembers this Halacha. Chanuka is the י”ט of (זכרון (שמן זית against the להשכיחם תורתך of the Greeks. The brothers, especially שמעון said that יוסף was a בעל החלומות, which they meant in a derogatory sense. The truth is יוסף was exactly this. We see in the Parsha and in מקץ, Yosef ‘s life is full of dreams, the two dreams he had, the two dreams of the שר המשקים and the שר האפים, and the two dreams of פרעה. Yosef was the master of dreams. In הלכות ליקוטי, Rav Nasan explains that all dreams are mixture of both good and bad. Yosef being the צדיק who is pure good, when he experiences a dream, the רע in the dream is בטל and he’s left with the אמת of the dream, which is נבואה. Like a dream is a taste of what’s coming, חנוכה is a taste of the future. Yaakov said מה החלום הזה to Yosef89=החלום =חנוכה. The truth is our lives are one big dream, which could be made into a nightmare or a sweet dream, היינו כחלמים. When משיח comes we’ll realize life was all a dream.

והוא נער את בני בלהה… The word נער also means to awaken. Chanuka awakens the low נשמות that weren’t affected by ר”ה ויה”כ etc. It awakens in them the five parts to the נשמה especially the יחידה which the משיח will awaken in every yid = את יחידך453= מלך המשיח. The ניצוץ of יהדות is awakened on חנוכה. The מדרש says that יוסף was sold five times, and so כלל ישראל had to endure five גליות, the first being גלות מצרים. The fifth expression of Geula is משיח בן דוד=424=והבאתי. On Pesach we have five cups of wine, four cups during the Seder and the fifth being כוס אליהו. In our Parsha, the word כוס is mentioned five times, four in the dream of the שר המשקים and the fifth at the very end when the שר המשקים is reinstated. This fifth כוס represents the fifth Galus, גלות ישמעאל – –
לו נרת של חנכה=1099=בימי מתתיהו בן יוחנן=1099=נפש רוח נשמה חיה יחידה=
שבת חדש מילה= 1099 =בעשרים וחמשה בכסלו The three גזרות of the יונים were שבת חדש and מילה.

At the beginning of בראשית, the word אור is the twenty fifth word, and is written five times, symbolizing the five גאולות from the five גליות. At the end of תולדות when computing the years of ישמעאל, Rashi says that יעקב was נטמן in the ישיבה of עבר for fourteen years. He was learning the secrets- נטמן, of Torah in order for him to deal with the ערב, that is, with the depths of גלות. This is the תורה that יעקב passed on to יוסף. In שיר השירים it says ישקני מנשיקות פיהו which רשי says is the תורה of the future. It says that the תורה we have is הבל compared to the Torah of לעתיד לבו-=ועשה לו כתנת פסים1477ישקני מנשיקות פיהו=

Just as פנחס, a descendant of Yosef, took revenge on Midyan for their part in מכירת יוסף, משיח בן יוסף will take revenge from Yishmael for their part. The Maggid defines the מחלוקת ב”ש וב”ה in that ב”ש holds that the סור מרע precedes the עשה טוב, and משיח בן יוסף will come before משיח בו דוד. Beis Hillel holds that in later generations especially, this will be impossible, and so the עשה טוב comes first and then the bad will dissipate. In lighting the Menorah, the הטבת הנרות-סור מרע comes before the הדלקה- עשה טוב. However we see that Kislev, the month of הדלקה precedes טבת the month of הטבה. On Chanuka, we have of fusion of משיח בן יוסף and משיח בן דוד. The מגלה עמוקות gives the names for these two משיחים- – נחמיה בן חושיאלMashiach ben Yosef and מנחם בן עמיאל- משיח בן דוד
בית המקדש=861=מתתיהו=861=נחמיה בן חושיאל מנחם בן עמיאל . Hashem said to Aharon after he was upset that he did not contribute to the inauguration sacrifices in the Mishkan, that his lighting of the Menorah is greater than their עבודה of bringing theקרבנות . One clear difference is that the קרבנות are only brought when there is a בהמ”ק, whereas the lighting of Chanuka candles are forever -מתתיהו=861=חייך שלך גדולה משלהם. From you אהרן will come מתתיהו.

Chanuka is a ט”י of אחדות. The מנורה was אחת מקשה, one solid unified piece. Chanuka was a תיקון for the הנחש חטא who spoke הרע לשון on Hashem. Anyone speaking הרע לשון on another yid is speaking against Hashem. The תיקון of this חטא will be completed by משיח- נחש=358=משיח. The נחש brought הטומא into the world – זהומה בה והיטל הוה על הנחש בא. Chanuka is טהרה and also סףיו is טהרה. The קוןית for the עהר לשון of the נחש is the ט”י of ולהלל להודות. The דבור comes from the הקנ, the windpipe- קנה =155= בכסליו בכה . The הרע דבתם that יוסף spoke was really for the benefit of his brothers and he only spoke to his father, but still יוסף was incarcerated for ten years, one year for each brother, and another two years for putting his trust in the משקיםה שר. In פסוק לט:כ ,when יוסף was thrown in jail, it says אסורי but the אהקרי is אסירי. When Yosef told יעקב of the החי מן אבר or העריות על דיםחשו, of his brothers, then he spoke against all ten of them, therefore ייראס with a י. But יוסף really spoke against six שבטים who were חותהשפ בבני מזלזלין, thereforeאסורי with a ו – אסורים המלך רייואס אשר מקום=1386=אביהם אלהער דבתם את סףיו ויבא

When the brothers saw יוסף coming toward them, they sent dogs after him. It says of someone who speaks הרע לשון that אותו תשליחו בכלב, but the dogs didn’t touch Yosef- יחרץלא =339=וכהחנ נר. Also in the pit, if יוסף had really spoken הרע לשון, he would have been bit by the נחשים. This proves that יוסף didn’t actually speak הרע לשון. The צדיקים can’t be harmed by dangerous creatures. The שבטים thought that Yosef was another Esav, but they didn’t realize that he was the שטנה of Esav. Chanuka was also the most misunderstood י”ט – on the left, below ten, and facing the רה”ר. Some say that the reason רבינו הקדוש didn’t include Chanuka in the משניות was because the חשמונאים took over the מלכות which was לא כדין, and this is why they all died out –
(the opinion of the Ramban) However the Rambam disagrees and says that this was one of the great נסים of Chanuka. The מלכות returned to כלל ישראל for a short while even if it was not from מלכות בית דוד. On Chanuka, even the נדחים and the אובדים that were affected byעשו , have a tikun-
חנכה=83=ובאו האובדים and נר חנוכה משמאל=750=תיו יוד קוף ויו נון The month of כסלו is under the domain of יעקב -כסלו=116=ימינו, while טבת is under the domain of Esav- טבת =411= אלמשמ. Chanuka is the only ט” י that connects two months. The light of חנוכה lights up the low and dark month of טבת. The אמת שפת says that the thirty six candles of Chanuka light up the thirty six days from כסלו כה till the end of טבת.

Our פרשה begins with יוסף learning תורה in י”א with the best Chevrusa יעקב אבינו and ends with יוסף being in a dungeon, in complete darkness. The פרשה begins in כסלו and ends in טבת . Yosef is the light of חנוכה countering the חשך of יון. The second פסוק in חומש says תהום פני על וחשך ובהו תהו היתה והארץ. The שיםמפור say תהו is Bavel (טבת=411=תהו), then בהו is Persia the second Galus, חשך is יון the third גלות, and then יפנ על =240= עמלק and תהום =451= ישמעאל the fourth and fifth Galus- יון מלך =156=אנטיוכס=156=יוסף. Yosef who represents חנוכה, had the power to אנטיוכס מכניע, the יון מלך.

Yosef was the epitome of purity, מדת היסוד and תקון הברית. The ultimate test was with אשת פוטיפר attempting to seduce him. It was after passing this very difficult test that Yosef was coined יוסף הצדיק.
Yosef was then accused of adultery or rape which should have resulted in Yosef being tremendously disturbed. However we do not see one time that Yosef complained –incredible. After being in prison, the dungeon for ten years, Yosef who understood the השגשה that he had to serve one year for each of his brothers that he spoke דבת רעה, saw that the שר המשקים having his dream, was his way out. Now he had to apply a little השתדלות and remind the שר המשקים not to forget Yosef’s interpreting his dream. For this another two years was added on to his sentence. Why? Yosef was on such a high level of בטחון that this was considered a slight פגם. Yosef again did not complain.

Yaakov did not have any prophesy for twenty two years because of he was mourning for Yosef, and thus not בשמחה. Yosef on the other hand received נבואה in interpreting the dreams in prison. This is because Yosef was always happy. He saw the good in every situation. A yid that has בטחון also has שמחה. One may ask how the Parsha could be called וישב which implies tranquility, peace and ישוב דעת . As we mentioned, everyone was in mourning and sad or have some type of ירידה in the Parsha. The name of the Parsha is the essence and every pasuk is under its title. The acronym of וישב is ויבטחו בך יודעי שמך. Yosef is connected to Chanuka, where thirteen yidden fought against and defeated tens of thousands of Greeks, demonstrating unfathomable בטחון.

In the merit of our בטחון, אמונה and שמחה, we will witness the coming of Mashiach and the building of the בית השלישי.