Netvort Parsha Vayeishev 5770: It’s the Pits

By Rabbi Joshua (pithily known as the Hoffer) Hoffman

When the brothers grab Yosef and want to kill him, Reuven hears their plan and convinces them not to do so, but rather throw him into a pit. The Torah tells us that he did this in order to save Yosef's life. His plan was to come back later, pull him out of the pit, and bring him back to his father. However, after Reuven left the scene, Yosef is sold into slavery, and when Reuven returns, Yosef is no longer in the pit. Reuven laments the fact that he did not get a chance to complete his mitzvah, saying, " The child is not here, and I - where will I go?" (Bereishis, 37:30). Where was Reuven when Yosef was sold? Rashi mentions two different answers given by the midrash, but I would like to focus on only one of them. Reuven, says the midrash, was engaged in repentance for having moved his father's bed to a different tent. This answer is difficult, because there does not seem to be any reason why the struggle between Yosef and his brothers should have moved Reuven to recall what he had done some time before and feel a need to repent for it directly after advising his brothers to throw Yosef into a pit rather than killing him.  What, then, is the connection between that struggle and Reuven's repentance? To answer this question, we must first understand what Reuven's sin was in the first place.

According to the Ramban in parshas Vayishlach, Reuven moved Yaakov’s bed, after Rachel died, from Bilhah's tent to Leah's so that Yaakov would not have any more children. The reason for this was to prevent Yaakov from further dividing his estate among his children and thus take away part of the double inheritance that Reuven would receive as the firstborn. Reuven was punished measure for measure, and Yaakov took that status of firstborn away from him and gave it to Yosef. In effect, it was Reuven's act of moving Yaakov’s bed to Leah's tent that spurred Yosef's elevation to the status of firstborn, which helped generate the jealousy and hatred that his brothers had for him. When Reuven saw how far that hatred and jealousy went, when the brothers were planning to kill him, he realized the gravity of his own original offense, which was the immediate cause of Yosef's acquisition of his status as firstborn, and, therefore, he put on sackcloth and repented for his deed.

Our explanation of  Reuven's sudden repentance immediately after saving Yosef from his brothers' plan to kill him can help us understand two enigmatic midrashim in regard to Reuven's saving of Yosef. One midrash says that, as a reward for Reuven saving Yosef, the first city that was designated as a city of refuge was in the territory of the tribe of Reuven. The other midrash says that since Reuven was the first person to do teshuvah, his descendant, Hoshea ben Beari, would be the first prophet to speak to the Jewish people about teshuvah. Both of these midrashim are difficult to understand.  The first midrash is problematic because the cities of refuge were meant to save a person who killed inadvertently from being killed by a relative of the deceased who, as the 'goel hadam,' or blood avenger,' would try to kill him.  Yosef's brothers, however, meant to kill him purposely. In regard to the second midrash, we can ask, was Reuven really the first person to do teshuvah? Didn't Adam and Kayin do teshuvah, according to the midrash? Why then, is Reuven rewarded for being the person who 'first opened with teshuvah?' Based on our explanation of Reuven's repentance following his act of saving Yosef, however, we can answer these questions.

What was unique about Reuven's repentance at precisely this point in time is that he realized the wider implications of his sin that unfolded over the course of time. Perhaps moving the bed of his father to a different tent was not in itself such a grave matter, but the broader consequences of that act were horrendous. Because Yosef became the bechor as a result of Reuven's sin, the brothers came to hate him and they tried to kill him. The connection between this episode and the cities of refuge, then, is that Reuven himself, in a certain sense, was involved inadvertently in the attempted killing of Yosef. By saving Yosef from his brothers, he merited to have the first city of refuge designated in his territory. The repentance that Reuven did immediately after saving Yosef was not an ordinary act of repentance, for the sinful act itself, but for the wider consequences of that original act. When Reuven saw how strong the jealousy and hatred of his brothers was, he realized the wider implications of his sin, and repented for it on that level.

What we can learn from Reuven is that when we sin, we do not sin in a vacuum, and what we may originally have viewed as a minor transgression may carry much wider implications that effect many people who seemingly had no connection to our original act. When doing teshuvah, we must reconsider our sinful actions, analyze what were their wider consequences, and repent for those consequences, as well, just as Reuven did when he repented for moving his father's bed into his mother's tent.

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