Weekly Sermonette

I remember the Rebbe thundering: “The whole Egyptian exile can be traced to Reuben’s ill-timed teshuvah! When a Jewish child is languishing in the pit, this is not the time to be worrying about your own spiritual state . . .”

Determined as he was, on this occasion Joseph was beginning to falter. What saved him? The classical image of the sage with the long, white beard...

“And Joseph came to them in the morning and he saw them, and behold, they were troubled. He asked Pharaoh’s officials . . . ‘Why do you look so bad today?’” But why would Joseph see anything unusual in that? Wouldn’t we expect most people in jail to look miserable?