3 Tevet 5785
Erev Shabbat Kodesh
Parashat Vayigash
Something to keep in mind while the anti-Torah forces of the State try to convince us that Torah is only for our spare time.
Excerpted from the Stone Edition Chumash Commentary on Bereishit 47.22 . . .
"Only the land of the priests he did not buy." The verse explains that the priests had no need to sell their land for food because they received a stipend from Pharaoh, despite the famine. Verse 26 reiterates that only the priestly lands did not become Pharaoh's. The Torah's stress on the royal provision for the priests is seen by the commentators as a lesson for future generations of Israel: Jews should never be reluctant to give their tithes and contributions to the Kohanim, Levites, and the poor. God says, "See how Pharaoh did not take the land of his idol-worshiping priests and he freed them from paying a fifth of their produce to the crown. But to you, My children, I have given Eretz Yisrael as an outright gift - surely you, who are children of the living God, should graciously contribute a fifth" (Moshav Zekeinim).
Joseph prophetically established a precedent that would later benefit Israel while it was in Egypt. By giving a privileged status to the clergy, Joseph established a precedent that made it possible for the tribe of Levi - the Jewish "clerics" - to be exempt from the servitude to which the Egyptians later subjected the other tribes, so that there would be a strong nucleus of people who kept alive the teachings of the Patriarchs (R' Yaakov Kaminetzky).
~ SHABBAT SHALOM ~
