From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 4:34 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Vayeishev, 5768
I Saw What You Did
By Rabbi Joshua (investigatively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
Dedicated by Dr.Larry Bryskin and family in memory of his father Itzchok
Shlomo ben Label Halevi, Sam Bryskin, whose yohrzeit will occur this coming
Sunday night, the 23rd of Kislev.
After Yosef is sold to Mitzrayim, the Torah tells us that Yehudah ' went
down' (vayeired) from his brothers and turned away unto an Adulamite man whose
name was Chirah (Bereishis 38:1). Rashi, citing the midrash, asks why this
section concerning Yehudah, his marriage, and his children, is placed here,
interrupting the account of Yosef's life? He answers that once the brothers saw
the distress of their father over his loss of Yosef, they took Yehudah down
from his position of greatness. Why did he tell them to sell Yosef, they asked.
Had he told them to take him back to his father, they continued, they would
have listened to him ! Rav Yerucham Levovitz, the great mashgiach ruchani, or
spiritual guidance counselor, of the Mirrer Yeshiva in pre-world War II Poland,
and later in Shanghai, asks, in his Da'as Torah, why Yehudah should have been
treated so poorly by the brothers merely for failing to tell them to return
Yosef to their father. After all, Yehudah did save Yosef's life, and the
brothers were not exactly kindly disposed to Yosef at the time ! Rav Yerucham
then cites other midrashim which say that Yehudah's failing was in the category
of one who begins a mitzvoh and doesn't finish it. Yehudah began the mitzvoh of
saving Yosef's life by convincing the brothers not to kill him, but he did not
complete it by restoring him to his father. Rav Yerucham then goes on to
give two different explanations for the failing involved in doing a mitzvoh
only partially. However, I do not believe that the midrash cited by Rashi is
carrying the same message as the other midrashim cited by Rav Yerucham. I would
like to offer an explanation of this midrash based on an innovative approach to
Yosef's relationship with his brothers offered by Rav Moshe Tzvi Neriah,
founder of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivos, in general, and the Yeshivah in Kfar HaRoeh,
in particular, in his work Ner Lemeah.
Rav Neriah writes that when Yosef brought reports about his brothers'
activities to his father, he was doing so out of a genuine love for them, and a
desire to see them improve what he believed was their incorrect behavior. The
proof for this, says Rav Neriah, is the fact that the Torah tells us, after
informing us of Yosef's practice of reporting his brothers' behavior, that
Yaakov loved him. If Yosef was acting out of a desire to hurt his brothers,
Yaakov would not have loved him as a result. Although Rav Neriah does not say
this, Yosef was, in this way, actually following in the ways of his father, who
rebuked the shepherds in Charan when he saw them gathering around the local
well during working hours. As Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky points out, Yaakov first
inquired after their welfare, to show that he cared about them, and only then
rebuked them for what appeared to him to be incorrect behavior. Yosef, too,
tried to be friendly with his brothers by telling them of his dreams. As Ramban
points out, Yosef was in the habit of telling his brothers about his dreams
even before he had the two dreams described in the beginning of this week's
parsha. I believe he did this as an act of friendship towards his brothers, so
that they would know that he cared about them, and that when he spoke to his
father about them, it was for their welfare, so that each of the tribes of
Israel would properly carry out their individual missions in life and
contribute to the building of the house of Yaakov. The brothers, however, did
not take Yosef's actions in the proper way, and grew to hate him. Were it not
for Yehudah's intervention, they would have killed Yosef, but, in the end, they
only sold him into slavery, or, as Rashbam says, were the remote cause of his
being sold into slavery, but not the actual dealers. In any case, the process
began due to a failure to take Yosef's reportage of their behavior to their
father in the right way. Based on this understanding, we can now explain the
midrash regarding Yehudah, as cited by Rashi, in a different way then it is
usually understood, as well.
When the brothers saw how distressed Yaakov was over Yosef's loss, they
realized that they had made a mistake, and that Yosef really did have good
intentions at heart. Thus, they began their slow process of repentance at that
point. Now that they appreciated the positive aspects of rebuke, they realized
that Yehudah, too, had not previously pursued this important instrument of
behavioral correction towards them when they wanted to kill Yosef. This failure
demonstrated that he, too, did not fully appreciate the importance of rebuke,
and because of that shared in their responsibility for failing to recognize
Yosef's service to them when he reported on their behavior to Yaakov. Yosef,
they now realized, had actually been using the leadership position in which he
was placed by Yaakov, as symbolized by the special coat he gave him, to try to
correct the seemingly errant behavior of his brothers through reporting
on it to Yaakov. Thus, when the brothers removed Yehudah from his position of
leadership among them for not rebuking them properly, they were really saying
that he shared in their original attitude toward Yosef, as well, rejecting his
use of the medium of rebuke to correct errant behavior, and because of that was
instrumental in his sale.
Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman)
with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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