From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 2:17 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vayechi, 5767





                                                  Stay Tuned

                 By Rabbi Joshua (persistently known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


  At the end of this week's parsha, the Torah tells us that Yosef's brothers, after Yaakov's death, said "Perhaps Yosef will nurse hatred against us and then he will surely repay us all the evil that we did him" (Bereishis 50:15). They then went to Yosef and asked him for his forgiveness. This request would seem to be superfluous, since Yosef had already told them not to feel bad about what they had done to him, and that God had brought about good results from what they thought had been evil actions. Ostensibly, then, he had already granted them forgiveness. Why, then, did they feel a need to approach him again? Rashi explains that the brothers noticed a certain distancing on Yosef's part after Yaakov's death, in that while Yaakov was still alive Yosef used to invite them to his home for meals, and after Yaakov's death he no longer did so. Moreover, the Midrash Rabbah notes that on the way back from Yaakov's funeral, Yosef stopped by the pit into which his brothers had thrown him, and blessed God for performing a miracle for him there. Although Yosef may have done this merely to fulfill his obligation to make this blessing, the location of the pit was actually not on the route of the trip back to Egypt, and the brothers may have perceived the detour as a way of deliberately reminding them of what they had done. Still, as Rabbi Raphael Boruch Sorotzkin points out in his HaBinah VeHaBeracha, Yosef's actions in both instances could have easily been explained away, without taking them as indications that he harbored any ill feelings towards his brothers. He may have avoided inviting them for meals after Yaakov's death because of the awkwardness of deciding who would sit at the head of the table, which was a non-issue while Yaakov was still alive, and he may have made the detour because he was simply anxious to thank God for His kindness. Why, then, were the brothers so worried about Yosef's attitude toward them? Although we have dealt with this question in the past (see Netvort to parshas Vayechi, 5764, available at Torahheights.com), I would like to present a different approach from that which we have previously suggested.


  Interestingly, both Rabbi Sorotzkin, a classic Lithuanian Talmudic scholar, and the Chassidic Rebbe, R. Yisroel Alter of Gur, in his Beis Yisroel, point to the same word in the verse we cited to explain the thinking of Yosef's brothers. Yosef's brothers said, 'perhaps Yosef will nurse hatred toward us.' There are two Hebrew words that can be used for 'perhaps' - 'pen,' and 'ulai.' The difference between these two words is that 'pen' indicates a desire for the contingency to be false, 'ulai 'indicates a desire fort he contingency to be true. Although the Beis Yisroel brings this distinction between these two words in the name of his father, it is more commonly attributed to the Vilna Gaon, which is the source that is quoted by Rabbi Sorotzkin, based on a Talmudic passage (Makkos 24a) in regard to Yaakov, which presents him as a paragon of truth. When Yaakov voiced some hesitation over fooling his father into thinking he was Eisav, he told his mother, "But see, my brother Eisav is a hairy man and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will touch me and I shall be as a mocker in his eyes" (Bereishis 27:11-12). The Talmud cites these verses as a tribute to Yaakov's dedication to the truth. The Gaon explains that the word used for perhaps here is ''ulai,' indicating that Yaakov actually wanted to be found out by his father, because he felt uncomfortable in deceiving him. In the same way, say Rabbi Alter and Rabbi Sorotzkin, Yosef's brothers were hoping that Yosef still harbored ill feelings towards them because they felt that they had not yet cleansed themselves of the wrong they had done him. As they saw it, they had not yet completed their process of teshuvah, and, therefore, asked their brother to forgive them.


  There is, in fact, a dispute in the Talmud (Yoma, 87b)  whether a person needs to confess for sins which he already confessed for in a previous year. The Rambam, in his Laws of Repentance (2:8), brings the opinion that one should, indeed, mention such sins again in subsequent years, even though he has maintained his status of repentance for them. My teacher, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, zt"l, explained that doing so is part of 'darchei teshuvah,' or paths of teshuvah, devices which keep a person in the right direction so that he does not repeat the wrong he once did. Viewing the petition of Yosef's brothers in this way, perhaps we can understand what they did in the wider context of parshas Vayechi. Yaakov, before he died, gathered all of his sons together, and gave each of them the blessing that was appropriate to his function within the wider context of the nation. By bringing them together for these blessings, he was stressing the need for unity among them. Rabbi Moshe Shapiro, in Mima'amakim, explains that Yaakov was, in this way, preparing his sons for the exile in Egypt, and for subsequent exiles as well, and teaching them that the key to redemption is the unity of the Jewish people. Perhaps, then, Yosef's brothers wanted to make sure that this element of unity, which they had greatly weakened through their actions towards Yosef, had, indeed, been restored so that the nation they were in the midst of forming would endure the exile and ultimately merit redemption. By engaging in a continuous process of soul-searching and cleansing themselves from any note of disharmony, they were in effect strengthening the element that would be needed by the nation in order to be redeemed.



  Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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