 | The Beginning of the End
The only fast that can take place on a Friday is Asara B'Tevet, as it does this year, because this was the beginning of the end. The siege of Jerusalem was the beginning of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.
Rabbi Shlomo Fischer says that he believes that the sale of Yosef also took place on the tenth of Tevet, because that too was the beginning of the end. The sale of the brothers is the first place where brothers give up on others, the sin of breaking up the Jewish family, which continues to haunt us until this day.
Just as Yehuda elicited the outpouring of emotion from Yosef and brought the family back together, since October 7 we too understand we are one family, and dare not give up on our brothers. May we all recommit to the integrity and unity of the Jewish people! | |  | | Asara B'Tevet, its special significance: a shiur with our Educational Director Rabbanit Shani Taragin from 2020, when the fast also fell on Friday. | | | 8 Stories of Heroic Self-Sacrifice for Am Yisrael | על הגבורות ועל התשועות
With over 400,000 views on this video series we have been able to share the incredible stories of these heroes worldwide.
To watch the full series click here: | | | This week, Rabbi Perez addressed a group of about 40 women from Englewood, New Jersey, who are on a special solidarity mission to Israel. | |  | As part of the JLI - The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, our Executive Chairman, Rabbi Doron Perez, was interviewed about his family's experiences since October 7th.
As JLI wrote: "Rabbi Doron Perez… and his wife Shelley have been examples of faith and resilience..."
"This episode is dedicated to the swift and safe return of Daniel Shimon Ben Sharon, together with all of the other hostages. May they all come home." | | | This Sunday, the Jerusalem College of Technology are holding a special prayer service featuring Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, Rabbi Doron Perez and others to pray for the safe return of our soldiers and hostages, for the speedy recovery of the wounded and in memory of those who have perished. | |  Schools for Schools!  Mizrachi's Schools Department is launching an initiative to show solidarity and support Jews around the world to schools in Israel. In the spirit of achdut and true empathy that world Jewry has shown, you can make a meaningful contribution to their resilience.
 Letters/Videos of chizuk
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To support the campaign go here  jgive.com/new/en/usd/donation-targets/114919 | | 🇮🇱 WANT TO BRING A SOLIDARITY MISSION TO ISRAEL?
🌍 World Mizrachi is the global leader in organizing over 40 delegations from 8 countries over the past month!
📩 For more information, contact Ilan Frydman: ilan@mizrachi.org | | | New WhatsApp group for families of Israeli soldiers!
If you or anyone you know has a family member currently serving in the IDF join our new group | | | The Spirit of Our Nation
Add inspiration to your day by receiving uplifting messages from leaders around the world! | | 📣 The Youth materials for Parshat Vayigash are now online!
📰 HaMizrachi Parsha Weekly Youth Edition, a Parsha sheet designed for youth
🗞️ Chavruta, a study sheet great for kids or parent-student sessions
🌐 Now Available in Spanish and Portuguese!
👉 To download, print, and register: mizrachi.org/youth | | Thousands of Israeli families cannot return to their homes in the coming months, and you can help them! Do you own an apartment that is currently vacant? 🏠 The World Zionist Organization undertakes responsibility for your apartment for 3️⃣ months, pays the water, electricity and gas bills, insures the apartment and commits to returning it clean and in good condition at the end of the period. If you open your heart and your home 💙 we will furnish it if necessary and make all the necessary arrangements to house families of evacuees from the south and the north. By doing so we will provide them with a home for 3️⃣ months, and we will give them the opportunity to sleep peacefully at night, 🙏 and everything is under the responsibility of the World Zionist Organization. To date, we have housed more than 250 families in homes donated to us by Israelis and Jews worldwide, but hundreds more families are still waiting. For more information and to leave details about apartments that you would like to donate to the "My Home - Your Home" project, please visit https://tinyurl.com/emyhomeisyourhome Or send an email to arielc@wzo.org.il Please share 💪 🇮🇱 Together we will win this war! | |  Unite with Israel
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mizrachi.org/unitewithisrael | | Looking for speakers from Israel? World Mizrachi can connect you with leading speakers on a variety of topics related to the current situation:
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 For more information, email jacqui@mizrachi.org | | HaMizrachi Parsha Weekly
The Parshat Vayigash edition of HaMizrachi Parsha Weekly is now available!
You can find it in 2 formats:
1️⃣ Economic Printing (7 double sided pages)
2️⃣ Full Printing (14 double sided pages) | |  | Tzurba Hilchot Shabbat Program has begun!
Weekly shiur by Rabbi Shalom Rosner is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube, as well as OU Torah and YU Torah websites.
Tzurba M'Rabanan is a groundbreaking learning program that makes the learning of Halacha clear, relevant and interesting.
To date, the Lax Family Tzurba M'Rabanan English Series consists of 17 volumes, covering around one hundred and fifty topics in Halacha.
For more information and to purchase volumes of Tzurba M'Rabanan, go to tzurbaolami.com | | 📖 "The Jewish State" Available to Purchase
Following the book launch at Mizrachi's World Orthodox Israel Congress, "The Jewish State" by Rabbi Doron Perez is available to buy online for delivery to Israel, Australia, Canada, UK, and USA, as well as for collection at the Mizrachi offices in Israel and South Africa.
For some of the approbations, see the flyer above.
To purchase, click here: mizrachi.org/the-jewish-state-order-form | | VAYIGASH
Bringing Them Home
By Rabbanit Sally Mayer Sometimes it feels like the parsha is talking directly to us about our situation today. Who can read Yehuda's impassioned plea to release Binyamin without thinking of the hostages held by the evil Hamas terrorists in Gaza? The description of Ya'akov's pain in losing Yosef without ever finding him, and Yehuda's refusal to inflict the same pain on his father by losing Binyamin rings painfully true for so many families in Israel right now.
Yehuda has evolved since the story we read in Vayeishev, two parshiot ago. This is the same Yehuda who many years previously had been the one to suggest selling Yosef! He was part of the group of brothers who sat to eat after they threw Yosef in the pit, as Yosef pleaded for mercy. And he must have been part of the cover-up, sending Yosef's bloodstained coat to his father with the words, "haker na – recognize please." Ya'akov was heartbroken and inconsolable at the end of that story.
Yehuda then withdraws from his brothers, marrying a Canaanite woman. Such a marriage is a sign of leaving the family, as we see from Avraham's insistence that Yitzchak marry a woman from his family, and from Yitzchak and Rivkah's disapproval of Esav's Canaanite wives. Yehuda's son Onan exhibits a lack of brotherly responsibility in his refusal to have children with Tamar to carry on his deceased brother Er's legacy, reminding us of Yehuda's not taking responsibility for the safety of Yosef. And yet Yehuda finds the strength to turn things around. When Yehuda sends Tamar to her death for violating the requirement to wait to marry his next son, she uses the same words that he and his brothers had used in their message to their father: "haker na – recognize please." Yehuda indeed recognizes – recognizes that he is the father of the children she is carrying, and that "She is more righteous than I," taking responsibility for Tamar at the cost of his honor and dignity.
Yehuda in this week's parsha exhibits more of that gevurah, strength and fortitude. He stands up to the viceroy of Egypt, unaware it is his long-lost brother Yosef, and demands that Binyamin be released. He speaks of being unable to see his father's pain – a true reversal from where he was after selling Yosef and sending the bloodstained coat back to Ya'akov. And he offers himself instead, willing to sacrifice his own life to rescue his brother and save his father from further anguish.
This is the very gevurah that we see every day here in Israel from our soldiers, who risk their lives in attempts to rescue hostages, and fight to protect our ability to live in peace. From children who are serving and protecting their parents, even though we all wish we could protect our kids. This is family responsibility at its finest, channeling Yehuda's inner strength in impossibly challenging circumstances. We are all waiting and praying for so many parents and spouses and siblings to be able to say the words that Ya'akov says in our parsha: "Incredible, my son Yosef is still alive!" May it be G-d's Will. Rabbanit Sally Mayer serves as Rosh Midrasha at Ohr Torah Stone's Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem. She is a member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau (www.mizrachi.org/speakers). | | | Besorot Tovot and Shabbat Shalom! | | | | |
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