Weekly Torah Portion

Last week’s Torah portion ends on a cliffhanger. The viceroy of Egypt takes captive Binyamin, the youngest of the ten sons of Yaakov. Unbeknownst to the other sons, the viceroy was their brother Yosef, whom they had sold into slavery many years prior. But he had not revealed his identity yet.

The brothers were terrified, as they knew they could not go back to their elderly father without Binyamin. Yaakov had not recovered from the tragedy of losing Yoseph and they feared that this loss would be his undoing.

The beginning of this Torah portion begins with another of the brothers, Yehudah, deciding to take matters into his own hands. He confronts Yosef, leading to one of the most significant personal confrontations in the Torah. He pleads with Yosef in his mother tongue, Hebrew, with all his heart and might! This begs the question of what Yehuda was thinking at this time? He thought Yosef was Egyptian and could not possibly understand Hebrew and yet that was the language he used at this most pivotal moment. What was happening here?

I recently heard a beautiful explanation to answer this very obvious question. Yehudah was using language that came right from his heart and the depths of his soul. It didn’t matter if Yosef could not understand him literally because his heart did. The actual language was insignificant and the appeal had no boundaries or limitations, as it was Yehuda’s heart that connected to the heart of Yosef.

I recently returned from taking a wonderful group of women to Israel on a Momentum program trip. One of the highlights of the experience is when the participants visit the Kotel as a group for the first time.

We walk in silence from the Aish building behind the Kotel, walking hand in hand. The energy is palpable and the emotions are running high as so many beautiful Jewish women come and say “hello” to their God in the holiest place on earth. Over the years of taking women to Israel, many of them have told me that at this moment they did not even have the words to talk. They just cried. And when they were finished they felt heard and calm.

When we communicate from the heart, whether to each other or God, the words are not what matters most. We know, we understand and we connect. Just as the two brothers Yehudah and Yosef communicated without seeming to understand each other’s words, so too we can connect with each other when we bring our heart into the conversation.That is truly the power of speaking from the heart!