The Sedra of Vayaishev began a story, which comes to a climatic conclusion in this week's Sedra, Vayigash.

The brother’s hatred of Yosef was made far worse when he told them his dream. They were convinced that far from being prophecy this dream was merely a continuation in his sleeping mind of the inappropriate ambitions of his waking thoughts. They were unable to see how the story would end and that they would indeed gather and bow to the King whose corn stood high while everyone else’s collapsed. Rather they went on to make one mistake after another. First they tried to kill him, then they tried having animals do it for them and finally they sold him as a slave.

Rabbi Dessler zt’l, explains why it was part of HaShem’s design that misinterpretation and misunderstanding should follow miscalculation, so that the brothers were "Unable to speak to him in peace."

Yakov knew that his children would have to face exile in Egypt. He also knew that Egypt held the potential to completely destroy any vestige of the Jewish people. He busied himself in years of preparation as he readied his children for their forthcoming exile.

When they bring Yakov to Egypt the Torah calls them "Bnei Yisroel" not Bnei Yakov. He had succeeded in enabling his children to be designated by the name Yisroel.

Yosef too had to spend these years in preparation. Whereas Yakov had to prepare Bnei Yisroel for Egypt, Yosef had to prepare Egypt for Bnei Yisroel!

As King, he would be able to alter Egyptian society in several significant respects. These would blunt the effects that it would have on his people.

Yosef first had to reach the spiritual level whereby HaShem would perform Miracles through him. By Yosef’s efforts Egypt’s food would survive a famine in which all other food rotted whether it had been safely stored or not.

For Yosef to be worthy to be the vehicle for this miracle, then he, like the finest steel would have to be cast into the forge several times and worked anew before returning again and again to the flames.

Therefore he had to be betrayed and sold as a slave and specifically by those who should have been his fiercest protectors, his own brothers. His destination had to be Egypt from where no slave could ever escape and who treated slaves with severe harshness. When his fortune at last seems to turn and Potiphar promotes him, he is faced by an extreme test from Potiphar’s wife. When he passes this, he might have been able to expect HaShem to reward his victory. Instead he is thrown into jail and despite his innocence, through him the name "Jew" is besmirched and sullied. Even from here when he seems to find a way out, his trust is betrayed by the Wine Butler who repays Yosef’s kindness by celebrating his return to office with a bout of amnesia. Through all this Yosef never for a moment wavers in his Emunah and accepts it all with love and trust in HaShem.

These tests produced a Yosef who was worthy of being the vehicle through which Egypt was changed enough to save Klal Yisroel. When Yosef reveals himself to his brothers he reports,

"And now," both Yosef and they could see what HaShem had planned all along. Before the end was revealed though, Yosef’s journey had been a long and a hard one.

Reb Yisroel of Rizhyn once said,

There is a phrase in English, which states "forewarned is forearmed." Knowledge of what’s waiting round the corner allows us to prepare and be ready to meet it. Not knowing what awaits us, makes any task or journey profoundly more difficult. Rashi explains that is why a component of Avrohom’s ultimate test was the instruction to go to "One of the mountains which I will show you." HaShem increases the challenge he sets his Tzaddikim by starting them on their journeys before they know where it will lead.

Without a guarantee of an eventual final destination and the knowledge that a hard road will end a journey could seem too daunting to attempt.

This point is never truer than when in next weeks Sedra, Yakov wants to reveal to his sons what will happen at the end of days, when the Moshiach will arrive. He wanted to, but the Shechina left him and his ability to do so was removed. But Yakov could reveal the glimpse of the future he had been shown as he watched the Angels ascending and descending the ladder. He knew that their journey and that of their children would be a long and dark one. It was a vision of a journey that would last thousands of years. It would be along a road upon which were displayed place names he could read. Here they could find rest for a little time before being compelled to take to the road again. Many of the place names would be written in blood red. Towards the very end, he would read road signs with names like Auschwitz and Treblinka. Despite not knowing when and how the journey would finish, his sons were willing to make it never the less and to move on, even after these terrible place names.

A few months ago I received a phone call from someone who wasn’t Jewish. She had heard me broadcasting on the BBC and wanted to ask a favour. Her Au pair was a young woman from Russia. Her name is Tanya and she is Jewish. She explained that Tanya had always wanted to meet a Rabbi and see a Synagogue! Could I think of anyone who might help her? I arranged for Tanya to come to my house two days later. She entered nervously and sat down with a notebook in her hand. She had lots of questions. Before she began I asked her if she really had never met a Rabbi before nor seen a Synagogue and she confirmed that it was true. She told me that she comes from Siberia from the city of Irkutzk. Then she asked her first question, "Why is Sabbath on Saturday?"

I spend a great deal of my time answering every conceivable kind of question from "How do you prove that G-d exists" to "If HaShem knows what I am going to choose, how do I have freedom of choice." Her question was so unusual I paused for a few seconds thinking how to reply. I asked her if she knew the story of creation in Genesis. She looked puzzled. I asked her if she had heard of the Garden of Eden, she shook her head. Then a thought struck me, "Have you heard of the Torah?" She had not. She had though, heard something about about G-d.

It was a rare and a wonderful opportunity to be facing a fully mature adult whose Jewish knowledge was that of a two-year old. The one hour I had set aside for Tanya became three and a half hours. I told her about Bereshis and how there were two Torahs not one. I explained how Jewish law works and introduced her to Rabbi Akiva and the Vilna Gaon.

She met Soroh and Esther and learnt of Kashrus and Rabbonim and even why "Sabbath" is on Saturday. I told her too, how you can prove G-d exists and how, even though He knows what you are going to choose you still have freedom of choice.

Her trip to a Synagogue and watching her eyes as I opened the Aaron HaKodesh and showed her a Sefer Torah was a memory to be treasured. Later I drove her round the Frum area of Manchester and as she observed Jewish Schools, Yeshivos, Sems and the bussle and rush of Jewish life, she asked me a last question, "What do you do?"

I was unsure what she meant and asked her to ellaborate. She explained that her sister now lived in Israel and she written to her occasionally. She had heard "Things" about Hareidi Jews, so she wanted to know for herself "What do we do."

I told her that we laugh a lot and worry a lot about things like the mortgage and the phone bill and whether we will be able to afford a well earned vacation. I explained that we particularly worry about our children and some times we argue with our spouses. We try to make what the Torah says the compass by which we steer our lives. "Apart from being religious," I concluded, "We’re very much like everybody else."

Tanya understood what I was saying and laughed, "I thought so" she said, "I just had to check it out for myself."

I invited Tanya to spend a, "Saturday Sabbath" but she told me that she had to work on Saturdays. I asked her to keep in touch and perhaps come for a midweek meal. She assured me she would try to get the time off.

A week ago, I received an e-mail from Russia. It was from Tanya now back in Irkutzk.

She writes that she simply could not get the time off to come for that meal. She is missing England as the temperature is now below freezing. Then she continues,

"Several days ago my Mother took me to the local Synagogue for some lecture. I enjoyed the lecture very much. We celebrated Sabbath’s beginning (it was Friday.) I am certainly going again next Friday. The Rabbi asked me about England and I told him about you. He asked me if it was possible to invite you for some talks or lectures…"

I was simply astonished. These Jews have suffered invasion by Hitler y’sh as well as the terror of Stalin y’sh. They have endured decades of atheism so that they don’t know what the Torah is and why Shabbos is on Saturday. Not only, like the rest of us, are they uncertain where the Jewish road leads they are also unclear were it began. Yet when they have the first opportunity to get back on that journey, they often stride forth, sometimes leaving the rest of us behind.

I’m hoping to take my first trip to Siberia Iy’h in two months time. Not as they might think to be Mechazek them, rather to have them Mechazak me. I‘m quite sure I’ll return with more than one story that will help us all on that journey whose end we know will come soon, even if we don’t know exactly how or when.