This past Friday at the Kabbalat Shabbat program I talked to the students about gifts we give to family and friends. Some gifts are things we want, while some gifts are things we need. Sometimes gifts last a long time, and sometimes they last for a very short while.
I shared with the students that I was recently in a 4th grade classroom celebrating a siyum for parshat Vayigash. The studentsand I were talking about some of the stories and plot lines in the parsha. One story that struck me as particularly important to share with everyone was connected to gifts that are very meaningful. In parshat Vayigash, after Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he sends gifts back home. The gifts were wagons in which to transport his brothers’ families, clothing and food. They were very nice gifts for a large family making a long journey. Yaakov at first did not believe the news his sons brought back from Egypt. Yosef was still alive? No Way!! However, Rashi says that when Yaakovsaw the wagons he knew that this was a present that could have only come from Yosef. Rashi points out, based on a Midrash, that there was a hidden message in the gift of Agalot that Yosef sent.Agalot can mean wagons but it can also mean calves, or young cows. This was a message to Yaakov that Yosef remembered thelast topic they learned together, Eglah Arufah, the ritual of an unsolved murder. Once Yaakov saw these wagons, he felt better and cried out "Yosef still lives."
The gift that Yaakov and Yosef had given each other was a gift thatwas so strong, it could last forever. It was the gift of learning Torah with one another. At the end of the school year we reflect back onall that we have accomplished and completed. We have a siyum/party. The party is over in 30 minutes, but the gift that will stay with the teacher and the students is the learning of Torah thattook place in their classroom all year. This connection can never be broken. Years later these 4th graders will have memories of learning the story of Yosef together with their morot and their classmates. Nothing can take that away. In an era when children have more and more electronic devices, the one gift that will never get old or be put on a shelf to collect dust, is the time that we parents, teachers, and friends take to learn with them.
