Vayigash—A Nation of Clergy—R’ Dovid Rhodes

Yaakov sent Yehuda to Goshen (to establish a yeshiva). What did he need to set up? Yosef was second in
command; he could have given them any building! He didn’t recruit any talmidim; he already had his family!
Why did he go? Yosef got all the Egyptians to get a bris milah. He also moved all the people around in different
locations. “All the people paid taxes except for the priests.” Yosef all had two different dreams. The first one
was fulfilled by the sheaves of grain bowing down to him, but the second one only happened at the end of his
life. Yosef wasn’t a prophet in the true sense, but he had tremendous ruach hakodesh in that everything he
interpreted came true.

Bris Ben HaB’sarim: Your children will be afflicted for 400 years. What happened to the other 190 years?
Hagadah: Hashem calculated the end. The decree was “open for interpretation.” HE said it began from the
birth of Yitzchak, who was a “stranger in a strange land” since they hadn’t inherited the land yet. Yosef wanted
to soften the blow of the words of the prophecy of “slaves” and “afflicted in Egypt.” He knew there were to
Mashiachs, one of Yosef and one of Yehuda. Yosef’s was the military leader, and Yehuda’s was the spiritual
leader. Two dreams: wheat and sustenance and then the “stars,” the elite level of spirituality of the Jewish
people. Their bowing to him acknowledged that Yosef would take care of their physical needs to allow them to
be spiritual. Yosef’s plan was to grow the Jews

Yehuda created the spiritual groundwork to allow Yosef’s plan to come to fruition. The Egyptians, therefore,
helped weaken the power of znus spiritually. He moved them around to decrease their stability and be
vulnerable to the power of the Jewish people. Clergy was supported by the government and didn’t need to
pay taxes. The Jews were going to be a nation of clergy to prevent taxes being collected from them. The Jews
wouldn’t be independent; they’d be under the control of Pharaoh (“enslaved and afflicted”).

However, the Jews messed up; they became like an “infestation of rats” in the eyes of the Egyptians. They
weren’t happy to be clergy in Goshen; they wanted to integrate and acclimate. The Egyptians, therefore,
became disgusted by them. Pharaoh tricked them into making bricks, which led to the actual fulfillment of the
words.

Mashiach ben Yosef/Yehuda: Yehoshua was the Mashiach ben Yosef, who needed to rid Israel of goyim.
Yehuda would then take up the mantle of the other Mashiach. Yehoshua did NOT destroy the nations though.
Yehuda then took on the role of a spiritual warrior, as in David. In the end, the Yosef will conquer the world,
and the Yehuda will claim his place as rightful spiritual leader.