By the Grace of G-d
Dear Friend,
Yaakov was in Egypt.
The Torah uses the word ‘Vayechi’ which means ‘he lived’, in Egypt.
Let me jump in here with a joke.
(Thank you to Dr. Yitschok Shimshon aka Sandy Schwartz., my ‘Jewish humor provider’ who keeps me stocked with the jokes I provide in this weekly email. In this instance he was so kind as to find me the complete joke after I gave him the punch line, which was all I remembered. I think every rabbi needs a humor provider. Sermons are all that more relatable when they are infused with a sprinkling of humor. Humor that helps inspire, becomes infused with holiness. Holy humor. 
).
The census taker comes to the Goldman house.
“Does Louis Goldman live here?” he asks.
“No,” replies Goldman.
“Well, then, what is your name?”
“Louis Goldman.”
“Wait a minute–didn’t you just tell me that Goldman doesn’t live here?”
“Aha,” says Goldman. “You call this living?”
Yaakov lived in Egypt says the Torah.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel when he was a young boy asked his grandfather the Alter Rebbe, ‘how can you call living in Egypt ‘living’?
The Rebbe explained.
Living is not just about your geographical location. It is about the atmosphere and environment that you live in.
The Midrash relates that before Yaakov descended to Egypt, he first dispatched Yehuda to open a Yeshiva there. This means that Yaakov’s children and grandchildren and great grandchildren were being schooled in the Jewish tradition.
Being enveloped in that aura of holiness causes one to live a spiritually uplifting life. Even if the geographic location happens to be Egypt. see more details here
This is a lesson for our lives as well.
Wherever we live, we can create a holy environment.
Not just where we live permanently, but wherever we find ourselves, even during ‘vacation’, there are opportunities to engage in acts of holiness, goodness and kindness.
Like the following story.
I had dinner last Wednesday night at JCafe, with Martin and Karen, a couple who are longtime friends and supporters of Chabad of Thailand. They come to Thailand from UK and Israel to vacation during the winter period. Being observant, they make sure to have challah’s and wine for Shabbat delivered to their hotel every week.
I thought they would be back in Phuket for Shabbat, so I asked the Chabad House in Phuket to deliver Challas to their hotel in Phuket.
Martin called me on Thursday for something technical and quite trivial. From the conversation I learned that he was still in Bangkok for Shabbat. I set up a challah delivery to his hotel in Bangkok.
But I forgot to cancel the delivery in Phuket.
On Friday, when I checked up if he received the Bangkok delivery he responded
Yes thanks, they also sent to Phuket by mistake , but we have friends next door who are normally totally disinterested and they were thrilled to receive and will be making Hamoetze blessing tonight- G-d moves in strange ways
I asked Martin to keep me posted on the ‘mistake’.
I was hoping that Hashem would show us the purposefulness in the ‘mistake’.
Martin sent me this note that he received from the recipients of the Challa.
Saying Hamoetze tonight
May be a blessing from G-d to relieve Y….’s pain - nothing to lose everything to gain 
The recipient had fallen and was in pain. Unexpectedly challah showed upon on their doorstep. It was received as a message of healing that had arrived from Hashem in the form of fresh challahs for Shabbat.
Indeed, it was directly from Hashem.
Talking about mistakes… that turn out to be non-mistakes. This week I also had an inspiring experience involving once again what I thought was a mistake on my part.
I left my house to go to my office behind JCafe. My bag felt a drop lighter than usual. I checked to make sure I had my Tefilin with me (I always want them available in case I get the sweet opportunity to share the mitzvah with a fellow Jew), and my computer. When I saw that I had those two items, and yet my bag was a drop lighter, I figured it must be my imagination, and walked to the office.
Only after arriving and setting up my computer for my two important scheduled zoom meetings did I realize that it was the power cord that I had left at home. Since I usually recharge my computer at night, I figured that I had enough juice to comfortably have my two zoom meetings before I needed to recharge.
I discovered that on this night, I had not recharged my computer. I now had only 14% left on my computer.
And the miracle of Chanuka did not kick in to keep my computer running for the required two hours. I started my zooms on the computer which I must prefer, and when my computer ran out of battery I moved over to my phone.
A while later, I left my room to ask my secretary to send a messenger to pick up my cord. I was still on the zoom. Once I was walking around with the phone on zoom, I figured let me show my friend on the other side of the zoom, the way the JCafe looks.
I walked into JCafe with my camera facing outwards.
It was still early and besides the waiter staff there was no one there.
But there was one person in the outdoor seating area. I noticed him from the corner of my eye and I heard him say in English ‘finally a good morning’.
I realized that Chaim the chef had passed him by and said good morning.
He was obviously gratified to get this greeting.
My antennae went up.
Here is why.
The below article by Rabbi Yossi Goldman will give the background. click here for full article.
Would you think that “how are you today?” can be a religious question? And that it plays an important role in a major Biblical narrative?
In Parshat Vayeishev (Genesis 37–
How did Joseph’s salvation begin? It began with the imprisoned Joseph noticing that the butler and baker were looking somewhat depressed. “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?’” (Genesis 40:6–7). They tell him about their disturbing dreams, he interprets the dreams correctly, and the rest is history.
But why did Joseph have to ask them anything at all? Why was it so strange to see people in prison looking sad? Surely depression is quite the norm in dungeons. Wouldn’t we expect most people in jail to look miserable?
According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the answer is that Joseph was exhibiting a higher sense of care and concern for his fellow human beings. Torn away from his father and home life, imprisoned in a foreign land, he could have been forgiven for wallowing in his own miseries. Yet, upon seeing his fellow prisoners looking particularly unsettled, he was sensitive enough to take the time to inquire about their well-being. In the end, not only did he help them, but his own salvation came about through that fateful encounter. Had he thought to himself, “Hey, I’ve got my own problems, why worry about them?” he might have languished in prison indefinitely.
Sometimes, says the Rebbe, a simple “how are you today?” can prove historic.
It’s a lesson to all of us to be a little friendlier. To greet people, perhaps even to smile more often.
Because of the above teaching of the Rebbe’, this comment ‘finally a good morning’ triggered an immediate reaction in my brain. I went over, zoom meeting still in progress, to the man who was just finishing his breakfast and said a hearty ‘good morning’, ‘How are you’?
He was a Jewish man visiting from New York and was happy to talk. Actually, he looked hungry to talk. I asked him if he was in a rush as I would love to converse more fully with him, but I wanted to wrap up my zoom meeting first. He said he had time.
We met. And enjoyed each other’s company. M. shared some of his colorful life experiences. Then he said, ‘you know, I really needed a ‘good morning’ this morning. And you came out and gave me that ‘pick me up’ that I was starving for’.
I told him that G-d had Divinely orchestrated our meeting. How so, he asked? I shared with him the series of things that had taken place which led me to ‘bump into him’ at the JCafe at 9:45 am.
It all started from a mistake. Forgetting my wire. Without that, I wouldn’t have left my zoom meeting to walk into the JCafe and meet him.
It turns out that we know people in common. After speaking little bit more, I discovered that his late father was an erudite author and I have read some of his books. We struck up an instant chemistry and after sharing the mitzvah of Tefilin with him we hugged and wished each other well.
It never ceases to amaze me when I see the hand of G-d in His Divine providence over every detail.
I felt hugged by Hashem’s Divine Embrace with the palpable and visual Divine Providence that Hashem showed me.
Back to the topic I opened with, regarding living spiritually minded even in Egypt.
Martin called me excitedly a few days ago.
‘I met a Jewish person in my hotel who I think will really benefit from meeting you and getting closer to his roots. He was a little bit distanced from Jewish observance, but I have convinced him to come meet with you and get inspired. Please do your best to connect with him’.
Who said vacation isn’t holy?
It all depends on what you do there.
If you do mitzvahs and uplift and inspire others to do mitzvahs, you are engaging in something higher than just materialism. You are injecting your life with holiness. Making a dwelling place for G-d in the mundane world.
Yaakov’s life reminds us that notwithstanding being in ‘Egypt’ which symbolically means ‘unholiness’, we can do holy things and create a G-dly environment wherever we may be.
And if we can, then we must.
Wherever you are, take a moment to think about the Parsha and Yaakov’s life.
Learn from Yaakov how you can create a bubble of holiness and G-dliness wherever you may be.
Yaakov did not just have a ‘so so’ or ‘okay’ life in Egypt.
The best years of his life were in Egypt.
We have to aim high.
And try to make wherever we are, a wholesome place.
Good air quality is critical to physical wellness.
A wholesome spiritual environment is the key to spiritual wellness.
Click here to find out how the words of Torah purify the ‘air’ and atmosphere around you.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Yosef Kantor
PS I am sharing this link to an emotional, heartbreaking, and movingly inspiring letter written by Moussia, the eldest of the Federmans’ 13 children, Chabad emissaries to the Virgin Islands, whose mother is fighting for her life after the family’s tragic water accident on S. Thomas just over a month ago. May the Almighty send a miraculous recovery to Henya Rivkah bat Brachah