A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parshas Vayeishev. In Parshas Vayeishev it talks about the dreams that Yosef had and he told them to his brothers and his father. And the pasuk says ויקנאו בו אחיו, his brothers were jealous of him because the dreams hinted to the fact that he's going to be the ruler over them, and that's why they were jealous of him, but ואביו שמר את הדבר. But his father watched the thing. And Rashi says what does it mean he watched the thing? היה ממתין ומצפה מתי יבוא. He was waiting and hoping when this will come. And Rashi brings raayot from two pesukim in different places where it says the word שמר or שומר, and it means to wait and to hope. And one of the raayot is the pasuk where it says שומר אמונים, it's a pasuk in Yeshayahu, and Rashi in Yeshayahu means, what does that mean? It means that the Yidden are waiting and hoping לאמונתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא לגאלם, in the emunah in the Aibershter that he will redeem them. And that's so there we see, too, that the word שומר means to wait, not just to watch, but to wait and to hope. But the Rebbe asks a sh'eilah: What does it mean that ואביו שמר את הדבר, his father Yaakov waited for it? He waited for this to happen? This is connected to the galus of Mitzrayim! He waited for that to happen? Why would he wait for a galus?

And the Rebbe explains that this waiting hints that he was waiting for the geulah of Mashiach. We know what Chazal say, that the geulah of Mashiach will be through Mashiach ben David, but as an introduction to that there will be Mashiach ben Yosef. So this is like the beginning of the geulah of Mashiach ben David, the real geulah. And the Shelah says that when Yaakov waited for Yosef to be מלך is a hint to the fact that there will be the king משיח בן יוסף. This is Yosef being the king, and that is a remez to the fact that it will be משיח בן יוסף. And that's what Yaakov was waiting for. Yaakov was waiting for the geulah. And part of the geulah is that first there will be משיח בן יוסף, that's an introduction to the real geulah of משיח בן דוד. So when he saw that Yosef is going to become the king through the dreams, he was waiting for it because that's a hint to the fact that he was waiting for משיח בן יוסף, which afterwards will come משיח בן דוד.

And the Rebbe says, this is the beginning of the parsha. In the middle of the parsha we find something also. We find the story with Yehuda and Tamar, and Yehuda and Tamar is the way Mashiach will come from them, from Yehuda and Tamar. So this is telling us about the coming of משיח בן דוד. And at the beginning of the parsha it's talking about משיח בן יוסף, that Yosef will be the king, which is משיח בן יוסף. And this is what Yaakov Avinu was waiting for. And it's hinted in the words that Rashi brings the פסוק שומר אמונים as a re'aya that the word ואביו שמר את הדבר means that he was waiting for it. So as I said before, Rashi quotes the pasuk as a re'aya for the word shomer, but the Rebbe says this is also a hint to what we said before, that ואביו שמר את הדבר is connected to the fact where it says שומר אמונים. And שומר אמונים, as we said, means that the Yidden wait for the promise of the Eibershter to come true that Mashiach will come. So here we see that it starts off with משיח בן יוסף, and then continues with משיח בן דוד. So this is what Yaakov was waiting for. But as we know that whatever happened to the אבות, מעשה אבות סימן לבנים, and the same thing will apply also to the shevatim, whatever happened to the shevatim is what will happen later to Yidden, that this inyan that happened, that Yaakov was waiting for Yosef to become king, he was waiting for it because this means that he was waiting for the inyan of the geulah of Mashiach, that's a remez that that's what Yidden have to do. We Yidden will always wait for the geulah of Mashiach, which is Mashiach ben Yosef and then Mashiach ben David, but we have to wait for the geulah.

Actually, it is even hinted in the Midrash. In Midrash Rabbah, in the beginning of parashah פ\"ה, it says there that this is, he sums up what happened in the parashah: שבטים היו עסוקים במכירתו של יוסף, says the shevatim were involved in selling Yosef. יוסף היה עסוק בשקו ובתעניתו, יוסף was involved in his sack and his fasting, which means in his teshuvah. יעקב היה עסוק בשקו ובתעניתו, יעקב was involved in his sack and his fasting, which means is also teshuvah. יהודה היה עוסק ליקח לו אשה. Yehudah was involved getting a wife, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu, he was involved בורא אורו של מלך המשיח. He was creating the light of מלך המשיח, and he quotes the פסוק, ויהי בעת ההיא ירד יהודה, the story of Yehudah and Tamar, and that is the beginning of Mashiach. So Der Eibershter was involved in creating the light of Mashiach. And the Rebbe said what the Midrash means is not only each one was involved in a separate thing, and all the things that happened that the Midrash says they were involved, they were involved in selling Yosef, and what Yosef was involved, and Yaakov was involved, and Yehudah was involved, all that is all what Der Eibershter was involved in creating the light of Mashiach, because the selling of Yosef and then becoming the מלך, this is part of the creation of the light of Mashiach. That's what the Midrash means. So we see a hint in the Midrash to this inyan that the whole selling of Yosef is a remez for the coming of Mashiach starting with משיח בן יוסף.

And that is what Yaakov Avinu was waiting for, and we take a lesson from here that that's what every Yid has to wait for. Every Yid, as we say three times a day, has to wait for Mashiach. As we say, as it says in the Ani Maamins, we don't actually say it, Lubavitch doesn't say it, but it's a nusach that's written in the siddurim, but the nusach is אחכה לו בכל יום שיבוא. I wait every day for his coming. And the Rebbe stresses that the pashut pshat you would think, he waits every day that he might come today, he should come today, hoping he will come today, expecting he will come today. So the Rebbe says it's more than that. Not only expecting that he will come today, and every day he feels that way, but every hour, so to speak. As we see that we say it three times a day. Three times a day we say לישועתך קוינו כל היום, that we wait for the yeshuah all day. That means every moment of the day we wait for the coming of Mashiach. And as the Rebbe explained many times, that waiting for Mashiach is one of the things that will bring Mashiach. So we have to wait for Mashiach and ask Der Eibershter for the coming of Mashiach. The more we do that, this hastens the coming of Mashiach, that will come במהרה בימינו ממש.