Parshas Mikeitz - Yosef and his brothers, cont.
מיכאל ריטש
The brothers, recognizing their sin
42(21-22) “]The brothers] said to one another, ‘Truly we are guilty about our brother; we saw his suffering when he begged us and we did not listen - therefore this suffering has come upon us!’ Reuven answered them, ‘Didn’t I tell you, “Do not sin with the child!” - and you did not listen? His blood is on you too.’ ”
(28) “[One brother] said to the others, ‘My silver is returned - it is in my pack!’ Their hearts went out, and each trembled to the next, saying, ‘What is G-d doing with us?’ ”
The brothers, holy founders of the shevatim, were tremendous believers in G-d. They saw the world and everything that happened to them, not as coming from the actors, but as coming from the G-d who controls the actors. They knew that their judgment above caused the events below.
From this grew in them a recognition: maybe they had sinned in what they had done to Yosef.
They weren’t quite there yet, nor had they accepted full responsibility. They thought that their difficulties were מדה כנגד מדה because they had been insensitive, hadn’t listened to Yosef’s cries. Except for Reuven, they still had not taken responsibility for the actual sale.
Later:
44(16) “Yehudah said, ‘What can we say to my master, and how can we justify ourselves? G-d has found the sin of your servants. Behold, we are slaves to my master - both us, and the one in whose hands the goblet was found.’ ”
By the end of the parsha, the brothers have come to a full recognition. They were being punished מדה כנגד מדה, and they would be slaves, since they sinned in selling Yosef as a slave.
[All this is from the Lev Eliyahu.]
Yehudah’s acceptance of responsibility
43(9) “If I do not bring him to you, and stand him before you, I will have sinned against you forever.” (Rashi: forever - even in Olam Haba.)
A Jew earns Olom Haba through his membership in Klal Yisroel. כרת, excision, is the punishment of separation from Klal Yisroel. As the Torah always describes it: ונכרתה מעמיו, he will be cut off from his people. For Yehudah, in that generation, that meant his connection with his father Yaakov (Yisroel). He was telling his father that if he came back without Binyamin, he would no longer have a connection to the family. That meant: no Olom Haba.
See the gemara Makkos 11a that נידוי על תנאי (excommunication on a condition) needs release even if the condition is not fulfilled - and brings proof from here. Tosefos there (ד"ה אפילו) explains that this is because Yehudah was making a condition that he actually had no power to fulfill - it was dependent on the actions of others.
And with this risky course, he put his whole future world in peril.
I’d like to ask a question, practical halacha: Under what circumstances is a person justified in endangering his whole share in the World to Come? What goal is worth that risk?
The first chapter of Mesilas Yesharim: “A man is only created to enjoy Hashem’s presence, to bask in the shechinah... The true place of that enjoyment is Olom Haba...” - see all his words there. This is the actual goal of our creation, to inherit Olom Haba. Any other purpose is but a means to that end.
With that, I think we can answer my question in a very definitive way: there is no possible reason that justifies endangering one’s Olom Haba. It is a contradiction מיניה וביה; it makes no possible sense. And even if we’ve heard various stories about such things, the words of the Mesilas Yesharim have to be our clear starting point and conclusion.
But then how could Yehudah have done what he did?
See the Ramban on that same gemara. He discusses the parallel halacha there of קללת חכם, a curse of a talmid chacham, which is effective even if it seems baseless. He explains that קללת חנם לא תבא, a really baseless curse is indeed ineffective. But if a talmid chacham said it, it really cannot be baseless: the recipient actually did deserve it on some level - see his explanation.
It seems to me that this must be the idea of what Yehudah did to himself. He accepted excommunication, and endangered his world, because he knew that he was responsible already. If he didn’t quite grasp the reason yet, he still knew with certainty that everything was on his shoulders. Somehow he had wrecked everything. If he couldn’t fix it, he already had no share in the family, or in Olom Haba. He risked nothing; he took on the responsibility that he realized was his. He was explaining to his father his total commitment.
With this, I think we can understand his brother Reuven’s words as well.
42(37) “Reuven said to his father, ‘Kill my two sons if I don’t bring him back to you...!’ ” Sounds completely bizarre, see Rashi. But also see the Ramban on the verse: this was a type of oath (as I have discussed elsewhere). He was saying roughly the same thing as Yehudah, a guarantee to his father - but with a significant difference. Reuven had four sons (46(9)). He was accepting half the responsibility. That’s all he could do, for he was half responsible. He had been on the fence: He didn’t want Yosef to be harmed or sold, he tried to prevent it with trickery - and he didn’t stand up to stop what happened.
We find exactly the same with Aharon Hacohen at the Golden Calf. He wanted to prevent what happened, he tried to delay and circumvent it - but he didn’t stand up with mesiras nefesh to stop it. Also on the fence.
And he also had four sons, and two of them died.
דברים ט(כ) ובאהרן התאנף ה‘ מאד להשמידו ואתפלל גם־בעד אהרן בעת ההוא. פירש“י והועילה תפלתי לכפר מחצה, ומתו שנים ונשארו השנים עכ“ל.
D’varim 9(20) “Hashem was very angry with Aharon to destroy him, and I prayed for Aharon as well at that time.” Rashi: My prayers were partially successful; two died, and two were spared.
Yaakov Avinu didn’t listen to Reuven’s offer. He was waiting to hear from the one who would accept full responsibility.
Meraglim
42(11) “ ‘We are כנים, upright individuals; your servants are not מרגלים, spies’... They said, ‘Your twelve servants are brothers, sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The smallest is with his father today, and another is no more.’ Yosef said to them, ‘This is what I told you, that you are spies! With this shall you be tested; by the life of Par’oh, you shall not leave here unless your youngest brother comes here!’ ”
We the readers of course know the truth: Yosef is trying to bring Binyamin to him. But for many years I’ve been bothered that his words are not understandable. What did the brothers think that the viceroy was saying; what connection is there between what they said and what he commanded? If they would bring Binyamin, how does that prove that they aren’t spies - they could be spies who have a brother! It seems to make no sense.
Even though the brothers will later plead to their father that they never could have anticipated that the viceroy would ask them to bring their brother (43(7)), that just means it wasn’t an obvious consequence. It doesn’t mean that they suspected the viceroy of being a lunatic.
The brothers told the viceroy that they were כנים, from the word כן, a base. He told them, no, you are מרגלים, from the word רגל, walking about. They came from another land to get what they need, soon they will go back there. They have no loyalty here, no connection to Mitzrayim, no roots.
So when they said they had a brother and an old father in Canaan, he jumped on their words. You see: your ties and your loyalty are all over there. Bring the child here to me, show me that you trust me and want a connection here, and then I’ll be able to trust you as well. Then you will be כנים, people who have a place.
Yosef is hinting to them about the truth of his intentions. They really were once מרגלים, untrustworthy, unattached where they should have been steadfast - to their own family. They had betrayed their own father, and sold his son. And Yosef thought they might be willing to do the same to Binyamin, the last son of Rachel. Maybe they would give him up lightly to save themselves.
בס"ד, we’ll see next week. To be continued.
(Side note: I once asked my Rebbi, Rav Avraham Chaim Lapin z”l (the nephew and talmid of the Lev Eliyahu), How could Yosef Hatzaddik have caused all this suffering to his brother Binyamin, who hadn’t done anything to him at all? To frame him as a thief, to threaten him with slavery! The Rav answered me immediately: There is no way that Binyamin felt the slightest bit of pain or fear. Our sages have said that Binyamin was one of the four who never sinned in their whole lives, who only died because of the sin of Adam Harishon. He hadn’t sinned: Hashem would never allow any harm to come his way.
We have no experience with that kind of human being. But you can’t frighten someone like that.
Amazing idea.)