GEN1452 We should not speak about our achievements to others, unless there is a pressing reason to do so.  Proverbs 27:2 advises, “Let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth.”   Although it is sometimes tempting to flaunt our accomplishments, we should try to refrain from doing so.   If we have achieved a great deal and are eager to impress others, restraining ourselves can be difficult. Therefore, we should work on developing this trait one occasion at a time.   We should resolve that the next time we are at a social gathering, we will not mention any personal achievement unless it is absolutely germane to the conversation. People who brag a lot about their accomplishments reveal a desperate need for recognition, admiration, and praise.   Therefore, although braggarts come across as conceited, their boasting often reflects a low sense of self-regard.   … Bragging, which often provokes annoyance and animosity in listeners, can also be self-destructive. The Bible informs us that when Joseph told his brothers of his dreams that they would one day bow down to him, “they hated him even more” [they already despite him for being their father’s favorite]. Later it was this boasting that served as the brothers’’ rationale for plotting his murder.   In addition,  “When a man boasts, if he is a sage, his wisdom departs from him.” Pesachim 66b.   Boasting causes us to stop thinking critically about ourselves, and therefore makes us more likely to say or do foolish things.  TELVOL 1:223-4

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GEN1453 See [[GEN1246]] Genesis 27:19 I FREUND 101-2

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GEN1454 See [[GEN1316]] Genesis 30:14 brought BLIDSTEIN 51-53

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GEN1455 The Rabbis taught: “Go and See [[when it is possible to see, i.e., by day] the peace of your brothers” – this teaches us that a Torah scholar should not go out alone at night” Chullin 91b TEMIMAH-GEN 155

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GEN1456 It is hard to predict what influences we will have on [others’] lives.   Recall the man Joseph encountered when he was searching for his brothers.  The man told Joseph where to find his brothers, information that led to Joseph’s sale into slavery.  Without this anonymous messenger, Jewish history would be very different.   The rabbis say this man was a malakh.   However the Hebrew word malakh is ambiguous.  It means “angel” and also “human messenger.”   Being in the right place at the right time can allow us to be messengers of God without even realizing it.  I believe that we are all malakhim at times in our lives.   And, like Joseph’s malakh, we do not always know the significance of our actions.   (By Robert S. Karasov) DORFFBOD 91

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GEN1457 The ancient taunt of Joseph’s brothers [this verse] seems to have been adopted as the battle cry of those non-Jewish nations intent on undermining Jewish claims of chosenness.  They chose to heap pain and suffering upon the Jew to show that he had no protector.   BOTEACH 275

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GEN1458 One who wishes that neither he nor others should give, is wicked.   Pirkei Avot V:16   When we give directly to a needy person, it is well to be discreet and inconspicuous. If the needy one does not meet you or learn your identity, so much the better. But amid a group making contributions or pledges, put modesty aside, for what you do influences others. In fact, herein lies the power and effectiveness of the public appeal: everyone becomes somewhat subject to public scrutiny.  The cause is made explicit; its urgency is explained. And as others respond, you must ponder your heart and your conscience, aware that what you do or fail to do will be significant.  A fascinating passage in the Midrash considers what might have occurred had certain Biblical characters known they wer to be Biblical characters: When Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill him, Scripture says: “Reuben heard, and he saved him from the their hands” by offering (hesitantly) a substitute plan only one degree better: let Joseph be thrown in to a pit rather than be murdered outright. Reuben planned, Scripture indicates, to come back quietly and rescue him. As an early commentary notes, יצלהוו, and he saved him,” is written defectively, a second yod omitted, to hint that this was hardly a way to save Joseph; Reuben meant well but his plan was a shabby subterfuge. [this verse; the early commentary is R’maze R. Joel, quoted from manuscript in Torah Shelemah ad loc. §135, bi’ur.)  And the Midrash notes that “the Torah thus teaches you proper behavior – that when a man does a mitzvah, let him do it with a happy whole heart. For had Reuben known that the Holy, Blessed One would have this written about him, Reuben heard, and he saved him from their hands, he would have carried Joseph on his shoulder back to his father!” SINAI3 165

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GEN1459 R. Tanchum b. Chanilai said: “Why did the tribe of Reuven merit being reckoned first [for the cities of refuge]? Because Reuven initiated the rescue, as it is written: ‘And Reuven heard, and rescued him from their hands’” Makkot 10a TEMIMAH-GEN 156

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GEN1460 From this it is to be derived that it is proper to write about and publicize the doer of a mitzvah, for the Torah publicized the mitzvah of Reuven, who thought to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. Responsa, Rashba 981 TEMIMAH-GEN 156

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GEN1462 Unfortunately, many of our children are deprived of a father image at home – and I do not mean only those children whose fathers are m’chal’lei Shabbos, violators of the Sabbath, or do not observe kashrus and taharas hamishpochoh – they are deprived of a father image simply because in their homes, and this includes even some religious homes, there is not the atmosphere of idealism and of a yearning and an aspiration toward things that soar above the mundaneness of the toil and moil of life. This is the main reason why youngsters today are in revolt against everybody and everything, why so many Jewish children become hippies, or beatniks. [Published in 1975 – AJL]   So many of us ascribe to youth all the responsibility and guilt for youth’s revolt and impetuosity without realizing that many times the parents themselves are more at fault than the youngsters for youth’s unrest and rebellion, in that they have failed to instill moral fibre in the hearts of the children by not providing the kind of atmosphere at home to inspire them toward things that soar above the mundaneness and the vulgarities and the profanities of life.   In regard to the verse, “V’habor raik, ein bo moyim” [this verse] – and the pit was empty, there was no water in it, our Sages say: “There was no water in it; however, it was full with serpents and scorpions” This Rabbinic comment is based upon a well-known scientific principle; namely, that “nature abhors a vacuum.” Hence the Torah, when said “v’habor reik – and the pit was empty,” could not have meant that it was void of everything for nature abhors a vacuum. If it was not filled with water, then it must have been full with serpents and scorpions. This scientific principle, namely that nature abhors a vacuum, is as true in the psychological realm as it is in the physical realm. Human nature too abhors a vacuum. Either a father ills us the spirit of his child with spiritual and ethical norms and aspirations or he invites spiritual and emotional scorpions to penetrate the heart of the child.   The only way for principals and teachers to inspire the children in our Day Schools so that they dill not join, when they grow up the ranks of the revolting youngsters is by supplying a sublime father image to the children. If the principals and teachers will consistently and scrupulously furnish a father image to the school children then there will be a spiritual and moral content in their lives and they will not be disposed to conjure up the idols of new morality, immorality and amorality. However, the fulfillment of the father role by the principal and the teacher of the Day School constitutes only one of the two functions incumbent upon a rebbe. For the other function incumbent upon a rebbe is the fulfillment of the mother role.  The mother role is realized through the Torah she imparts to the child, as it is written, “V’al titosh Toras imechah”  Proverbs 1:8 – Forsake not the Torah of your mother. Obviously, a mother does not impart Torah through instruction in books or through intellectual reasoning. The mother imparts the purely practical aspects of Torah, the inculcation of ethical qualities, through tender, tolerant, and sympathetic guidance. And so it should be with the rebbe.  Both the father image and the mother image have to be furnished by the Yeshiva teacher so that the child may be enduringly motivated by the concept of the dignity of man and of man as a being who was created in the image of God and by the concepts of love of God, love of Torah, love of Israel and love of mankind.   BUILD 24-5

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