What I love about this parsha is that it never fails to make us smile. I know the objective of a dvar torah is not to smile, but Rabbi W. has his own special style of telling stories (anecdotes as he calls them).
Rabbi W. was the rabbi of a small shule in Hampstead Garden Suburb, England, called the Shteibel. Every week he would give a dvar torah and his anecdotes are well remembered and loved, most of all by my husband.
I would like to share with you each week his stories and jokes - hopefully they will make you smile too!
He starts this week with
He goes on this week to discuss the acts of mida keneged mida (measure for measure)."A housewife once rebuked her maid in front of a visitor: "The house is not clean and dusted properly." However, the visitor who noticed that everything was perfect, turned to the lady and said "Madam, I think the dust you see is on your own glasses"...
Some examples of this were:
1) Joseph told tales to his father that some of his brothers were calling the other brothers, those whose brothers were originally maid servants, "slaves" - Joseph was sold into slavery.
2) Yaacov did not fulfill the mitzva of honoring his father and mother for 22 years when he was away at Laban's house - Joseph was lost to him when he was 22.
3) Yaacov cheated his father by covering his arms in goat skin - His sons in turn cheated him by dipping Joseph's coat in goat's blood. These are lessons, so says Rabbi W., of mida keneged mida.
more next week....
P.S. Speaking of not clean - On Friday my husband was helping me get ready for shabbat by doing some of the washing up in the kitchen. I was amused and humbled when he brought a pot he had been scrubbing and said to me, "is this washed up enough for you?"
