Simchas Avraham

Want a way to get out of Gehinom? Asher ben Yaakov will make sure you'll get out if you do a certain task. Just make sure you do it correctly.

The opening pasuk in the parsha is hard to understand. There are lots of questions we may ask. Perhaps these are some ways to answer them up..

The pasuk does not mention Yaakov dying; rather, it uses other terms to refer to death. He was very different from his predecessors, Avraham and Yitzchak, as all his kids went on the path of the Torah. Someone who passes on and has children on the correct path is as if they are still alive.

Yosef and Yaakov had the same thought process when they heard about each other. They both overcame their circumstances and both took satisfaction that the other did so.

Yosef reveals himself to his brothers and then asks if his father is alive. This wasn't a question, but he told the brothers that Yaakov wasn't the same since they sold him. After Yaakov sees the wagons, he gets a jolt of energy, seeing that his son Yosef is still the same as when he left.

Chanukah teaches us that things that look impossible are very much attainable. For Chanukah to happen seemed impossible, yet it did. So, too, we all can make the seemingly impossible possible.

Yosef Hatazadik was pulled out of the dungeon in an instant. The same happened by Yitzias Mitzrayim, and will happen Leasid Lavo. And the same will happen to us all!!

When the brothers throw Yosef into the pit, he could have been killed very easily by the snakes and scorpions inside it. Or could he? The Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh tells us it's not that simple.

The Gemara explains what Chanukah is not just to tell us the story but to tell something much deeper.

What did Yosef Hatzaddik do wrong by asking the butler to remember him? Is this not a normal thing to do? Why did that warrant an additional two years in prison?