דבר תורה פרשת וישב

דבר תורה פרשת וישב

There are so many times in this week's Parsha that Yosef finds himself in trouble situations. Each time, he somehow comes out in an okay position.  First, Yosef is thrown into the pit by his brothers to die, and then by chance a merchant caravan travels by and saves him. Next, while Yosef is working in the palace of Potiphar, Potiphar's wife accuses him of some wrongdoing, and he is then banished to jail. Another fall. In jail, somehow he meets some other prisoners, and he is brought out of jail to serve in the palace again.

  

Some people might call this luck or coincidence, but I am going to call it a נס, a miracle, or God guiding our lives from above.  Why נס?

A נס in hebrew is translated literally as a banner or a sail. These two items are things that lead people. The sail is there to give a boat direction and a banner tells people which way to go.  The נס for Yosef was God directing his life to success. 

Even the word נס in Hebrew alludes to the combination of fall in the direction and going back . נס is spelled Nun Samech (נ ס).  The Nun (נ) as we see in the Talmud refers to the word נפל - falling down. The Samech (ס) reference is to סמח which is to support and pick up, give direction. So the word implies both falling, and getting up or supporting. 

This is exactly what happened with Yosef. Each time that he was put in a tough situation, each time he fell, he was brought back up, was supported. This was not a coincidence - this must have been a נס - a miracle - from Hashem, who supports each and every one of us when he fall. 

Shabbat Shalom, 

Rabbi Steven Penn