Kabbalat Shabbat Kavannah | Rabbi Roly Matalon| December 26, 2025

But I said, Vegas, we are coming to the

end of the book on the receipt.

Look at Genesis.

I want to take us back to the beginning of the book of receipt

into the story.

The tragic story of Cain and Abel.

When Cain murdered Abel,

God said to Cain,

where is your brother Abel?

And Cain said,

I do not know.

Am I my brother's keeper?

And this question

has been resonating through the entire

book of Genesis.

Am I my brother's keeper?

And we think about all the brothers and one pair of sisters

of Ithaca and Ishmael

of Yaakov, and they serve

over a year

of Yosef and his brothers.

Every one of those relationships was fraught

with enmity and.

Distance, estrangement,

sometimes with cruelty,

suspicion with jealousy.

Am I my brother's keeper?

Is one of the

the questions that is a thread throughout

the entire book of Beresheet.

And then we come now to the almost

to the end of the book, and the turning point of the entire book of Beresheet

with respect to this question about the relationship

between siblings happens in person, where you gush

when after the very intense

and persuasive.

Appeal

of you on behalf of the brothers to yourself,

still not knowing that he's there, brother, thinking

he is the ruler of Egypt,

second only to Pharaoh.

You that speaks in a very poignant and,

intense terms.

And then Yosef

basically can contain himself anymore

and reveals himself to his brothers.

Yosef said to his brothers, I am Yosef.

Is my father still alive?

But his brothers could not answer him,

for they were dismayed before him.

And here's the turning point.

Then Yosef said to his brothers,

come close to me.

And when they came close,

he said,

I am your brother.

Yosef.

He whom you sold into Egypt.

So some of the truth.

But listen to these words.

And this is not just in the physical I ask you to hear,

not just in the physical level, but also the metaphysical level.

Yosef said to his brothers,

come close to me.

And when they came close.

So something is happening here, right?

Not just the physical distance, but the closeness come close to me.

They had never been close.

He had been arrogant

with them.

They been cruel to him.

They lied to their father.

In turn, later on, he takes them out on them.

He's cruel to them.

But then the moment

of reconciliation happens.

It comes here

and he invites them to come close.

Not just close physically, but to come close.

And when they came close, he says, I am your brother,

Yosef.

For the first time in all these years,

he can call themselves himself their brother,

and they can call him their brother.

So this question am I my brother's keeper?

That has been resonating throughout the book. Now

finds some sort of a response here.

Yes, it's not easy

to be each other's brother or sibling or sister.

It's not easy.

You know, there was a time back when Joseph was young

and the brothers had been sent to pasture. The

their flocks.

In a place far away,

three days walk.

Yaakov sends Yosef.

Go find your brothers and he gets lost. You.

If gets lost

in a place called the and finds

some anonymous person,

some commentator says he's the angel Gabriel

and Yosef asked this man.

The man ask a simple

where are you going?

He says, well, I.

He says, like this.

What are you looking for?

He answered, I am looking for my brothers.

Could you tell me where they are?

That's the question.

Am I looking for my brothers?

He found them at the end.

And the question is how we found

who our brothers are.

The question continues to resonate

in humanity.

Look how

humanity, how we treat each other.

We are divided, painfully divided within our own people.

Painfully divided.

One side doesn't want to talk to the other anymore.

No engaging.

We are divided as a nation here.

The world is divided.

Look at the wars.

Look at the way that migrants

or immigrants are treated in different parts of the world.

In different countries.

You know, when we were supposed to consider

each other, siblings.

The distance,

the gap is vast

and it's becoming wider and wider.

And so this is a major teaching

that doesn't stay with a book of Genesis.

It's a teaching that follows us.

Am I my brother's keeper?

I'm looking for my brothers.

Are we looking?

I'm looking for my brother's.

Okay to tell me where they are.

So I invite us on this Shabbat.

By gosh, as we

are approaching now,

in a few days, a new year,

we enter 2026

to ponder this question.

Am I my brother's keeper?

Am I my sister's keeper?

And to perhaps

find it within ourselves, to us,

or to affirm.

I'm looking for my brothers to make the effort.

What would it mean to be looking for our brothers?

Can you tell me where they are?

Perhaps we should

change it a little bit.

Can you tell me who they are

and look around and ask ourselves the question?

Can you tell me who they are?

So not a very easy time for our people.

Neither for our country

nor for humanity.

But perhaps, perhaps

in 2026, this question will become sharper and my my brother's

keeper will begin somehow

to answer, yes we are.

And yes, I'm looking for my brothers and I'm looking for my sisters.

May 2026.

And that respect be much, much, much better

than 2025.

Maybe

the beginning

of a new path for all of us.