I have always been bothered with the end of this week’s parsha. Yaakov sent Yosef’s brothers to Mizrayim (Egypt) to get food and although Yosef recognizes them, they do not recognize him. Yosef looks at the brothers and notices that Binyamin is missing. After giving them a very hard time, he demands that they return with Binyamin. After Yehudah was able to finally convince Yaakov to send Binyamin with the brothers, they arrive at Yosef’s house again to ask for more food. Everything seems to be going well, until at the very end Binyamin is accused of stealing Yosef’s goblet. The brothers are told to go home while Binyamin will be made Yosef’s slave. And then the parsha ends. What will happen? Will the brothers be able to get Binyamin back home? Will Yosef reveal himself? It’s a cliffhanger.

This always bothered me because we normally don’t have these types of cliffhangers in the Torah parshas. The parsha finishes and the next one starts with a different subject. But Miketz ends with this cliffhanger. Rav Yissochar Frand offers an answer to my question. The reason is because sometimes we need to wait for answers. When we see something happening that does not seem right we need to realize that we are not getting the full picture. Just wait and the answer will come.

Have you ever been to an amusement park? It is amazing that people will wait on long lines, sometimes close to two hours, to go on a ride that lasts less than four minutes. How can people patiently wait so long? The answer is that they realize the wait is for something good. The wait is for a speeding fast, loop-to-loop, super high roller coaster that will make me feel sick for the next few hours. The wait is for something I want.

Whenever we are in a situation when we do not know what is going to happen, we should imagine waiting on line for that roller coaster. We sometimes need to step back and pause. We might not know the answer at this moment, but if we wait, we will see that an answer will appear.

When the Chofetz Chaim saw people making other people suffer and not being punished for it, he would respond by saying “Wait!” Where’s the justice? The answer is “Wait”. After some time passed, the justice was seen. The person that made others suffer, always suffers worse. It just sometimes takes time. There are many cliffhangers in life, but if we just relax, we will find the proper conclusion to the cliffhanger. This week’s parsha ends with a cliffhanger to remind us that sometimes just wait.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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