Relativity of Knowledge

“And Yosef recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him” (Bereishis 42:8). 

Rashi explains that they didn’t recognize him because when he’d left them, he didn’t have a beard, but now he had one.

Yet one can still wonder: Wouldn’t it be natural, even if he now had a beard, for them to recognize their own brother after seeing and speaking with him at length? (Rav Shimshon Pincus, Tiferes Shimshon)

There was a knock on our door. When I opened it, my neighbor’s ten-year-old stood in the doorway, holding a piece of paper.

Please join our son Mordechai in celebrating a siyum on Maseches Succos. We will be forming a minyan outside, and are hoping you’ll be able to participate in this momentous occasion for Mordechai. Oif simchos! The Friedman Family.

Tears sprang to my eyes. This was no random get-together. Mordechai Friedman was an adult with special needs, and this siyum marked his intense efforts to complete such a feat. I later learned that Mordechai had been learning this masechta for three years, with his rebbi, his father, and a local avreich in shul.

Now, during lockdown, Mordechai sought a minyan to rejoice with him in this accomplishment.