By: Chaya Sora Jungreis-Gertzulin

“Vayigash, and he approached”.

The parsha opens with Yehuda pleading to Yosef on behalf of his youngest brother, Binyamin.

Picture it. Yosef, Viceroy to the Pharaoh, sitting on a regal throne. His brothers standing before him. They don’t recognize him, never imagining that the seventeen-year-old boy they sold, would someday be a leader in Egypt.

Yosef sees it as an opportunity to find out if his brothers have changed their ways and are remorseful for their past. He comes up with a plan.

Unbeknownst to the brothers, Yosef had a silver goblet planted in Binyamin’s sack. Thereby, implicating his brother as a thief.

Yosef and Binyamin were the only two sons of Yaakov and Rochel. Yosef was setting up a scene, waiting to see how it would play out. Would the brothers, sons of Leah, Bilhah and Zilpah be there to speak up for Binyamin? Would they beg and plead for his freedom, or “throw him into the pit” as they did to Yosef?

If Binyamin, son of Rochel, was in trouble, how would the brothers react.

It was Yehuda who stepped up to the plate. Like a true diplomat, he opened softly, with great respect. “Bi Adoni, Please my master, do not be angry with your servant.” (Bereishis 44:18)

He continued on and spoke with strength, hoping to appeal to Yosef’s emotions, telling of an elderly father who had already lost one son from his wife, Rochel. If the remaining son, Binyamin, would not return, it would destroy him. Yehuda even offered himself as a slave instead of Binyamin. “Please, let your servant remain, instead of the youth.” (Bereishis 44:33)

Upon hearing Yehuda’s plea, Yosef realizes that the brothers did change. Yehuda, who earlier had wanted to sell Yosef, now shows remorse, speaking up for Binyamin and even offering to take his place.

“And Yehuda said, how can I return to my father, if the child (Binyamin) is not with me?” (Bereishis 44:34).

This passage is not only giving us Yehuda’s words, but a message for generations to come. A message that speaks to us on so many different levels.

HaRav Kalonymus Kalman Shapira The Piaseczna Rebbe, also known as the “Aish Kodesh “, the Holy Fire, perished in the Holocaust. His writings on the Torah survived, and are still studied today. The Rebbe has a deeper explanation for this passage. “How can I return to my father?” – How can I stand before my Father in Heaven without my brothers, without my fellow Jews? Words expressed by a man who lost his entire family, yet spent the last days of his life mentoring, encouraging and teaching Torah in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The Piaseczna Rebbe understood that he had a mission in life. To be there for others, even to the last moments of his own life.

We all carry a responsibility to be there for each other. To share the beauty of Torah with one another. To open our homes, our Shabbos tables, our hearts. At the end of the day, each of us must be able to say, HaShem, I cared, I tried, I did my very best. Each day that HaShem gives us the gift of life, is another day to do, to accomplish, to bring blessing to the world. It means HaShem trusts us with the mission of a new day.

“How can I return to my father if the child isn’t with me?”

Stories of heroism at Bondi Beach are still emerging. I recently saw a clip where fourteen-year-old Chaya Dadon is interviewed. She was at the beach on that first night of Chanukah. When the shooting began, she hid under a bench, saying Shema. For a moment, she picked her head up, and noticed an elderly woman who was shot in the stomach, and a younger woman who was shot in the head. Each was bleeding out. She hears the call, “Save my children, save my children”.

Chaya knew she had to do something. Afraid as she was, she felt that HaShem wanted her to save the children. She quickly got up and ran towards them. She heard shouts from others, “Get down, save yourself”, but courageously ignored them.

Two children were beside their mother, covered in her blood. She was no longer able to help them, but Chaya did. She laid down on top of them, shielding them from harm. And then, she felt it. A shot. In her leg. She was in intense pain, but wouldn’t stop reassuring the little ones that they were loved.

The interviewer asked, “You’re only fourteen, how did you do it?” Chaya spoke of channeling her pain to strength. Of knowing that one has a mission in life. As Chaya said, “I told myself, if I die saving the children’s lives, I die. But, I knew that it was what G-d wanted from me, to save the children.”

(Update: As of this writing, Chaya was released from the hospital following surgery, and is doing well. Boruch HaShem.)

There are so many ways one can be a hero.

This past week was the yahrtzeit of my Zeide, Harav Avraham HaLevi Jungreis zt”l. Coincidentally–though we know there are no coincidences – Judy approached me and shared a story. A story about my zeide and her father. It goes back to post World War II in a DP (Displaced Persons) camp in Switzerland. Her father was a rov in the camp, ready to give advice and support.

In the camp, there was a group of teenage boys and girls, many of them war orphans. They had left behind the frum world they grew up in. They acted in ways that were not appropriate. As much as he tried, Judy’s father was unable to influence them. He approached my zeide, and told him that he was the only rabbi who could reach the neshamos of these youth. And reach them Zeide did.

How did Zeide do it? With love… with heart… with understanding. With seeing every Jew as a good Jew.

“How can I return to my ‘Father’ if the child isn’t with me?” Each of us has a defining moment in life where we must ask ourselves this question. Yehuda taught us the meaning of taking responsibility for the vulnerable. Chaya showed us how to truly appreciate the mission that HaShem has given each of us in this world. And Zeide was a living example of one who never gives up on any Jew, who sees the Tzelem Elokim, the image of HaShem in every neshama.

Shabbat Shalom!

Chaya Sora

Chaya Sora can reached at [email protected]

This article was written L’zecher Nishmas / In Memory Of HaRav Meshulem ben HaRav Osher Anshil HaLevi, zt”l and Rebbetzin Esther bas HaRav Avraham HaLevi, zt’l