Vayigash 5774:                       A Sad Story

By Rabbi Joshua (suggestively known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

            Yosef, after revealing his true identity to his brothers, tells them, “And now do not be sad, do not reproach yourselves for having sold me to Egypt, for it is as a supporter of life that God has sent me ahead of you” (Bereishis 45:5). Rabbi Menachem Genack in his Bircas Yitzchok to parshas Vayigash, cites the Malbim, who notes that the Torah uses similar expressions in regard to the sons of Yaakov after they heard that Shechem had violated Dinah. The Torah there says, “The sons of Yaakov arrived from the field when they heard, and they were sad, and were fired deeply with indignation” (Bereishis 34:7). The Malbim does not offer an explanation for the similarity of expressions used in the two verses, but Rabbi Genack does suggest one. He says that Yosef, along with comforting his brothers, also subtly rebuked them. By using expressions similar to those used by the Torah in regard to Dinah, Yosef was thereby hinting to them that when it came to their sister, they were ostensibly concerned about her welfare and honor, but with regard to their brother, they were not similarly concerned. 

            Rabbi Genack’s explanation is somewhat difficult, because the Torah was not yet written at that time, and it would thus have been unlikely that Yosef purposely used the same expression in speaking to his brothers as the Torah used in speaking of them. The similarity in expressions may, of course, indicate that Yosef somehow alluded to the episode of Dina in his remarks to his brothers.  Interestingly, however, there is another verse, in parshas Vayeishev, which uses an expression somewhat similar to an expression used by Yosef in speaking to his brothers that can shed light on the verse in our parsha as well.

            In parshas Vayeishev, we find Yosef incarcerated in the same prison as Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker.  One morning, noticing that they looked aggrieved, he asked them, “Why are your faces downcast?” (Bereishis 40:7). They proceeded to tell him their dreams, Yosef interprets them accurately, and, eventually, his reputation for dream interpretation gains his freedom and his elevation to the position as Pharaoh’s viceroy. As we noted last week, Yosef’s question to the two servants of Pharaoh reflected his caring attitude for others, but, we may add, it may also have reflected his understanding that God’s providence placed him in a position to interpret these dreams and thereby advance his status in Egypt, as part of the process of bringing his family down to that country. 

            Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, explains in his Darash Moshe to parshas Vayeishev, that Yosef, according to Chazal, was punished with the extra years of imprisonment for asking the cupbearer to mention him to Pharaoh, because he should have realized that God had him placed in prison for a reason, and he should have trusted in Him to be released. Perhaps, however, we can suggest that Yosef did realize that he was in prison as part of God’s plan but, just as the Ramban says that Yosef did not send a message to Yaakov from Egypt to inform him that he was alive, because he felt that that it was up to him to see that his prophetic dream would be fulfilled, so too, did he ask the cupbearer to help him because it was up to him to expedite God’s plan. The mistake he made, as the Chazon Ish explains in his Emunah V’Bitachon, was that by asking a prisoner to help him, he was giving the appearance of being desperate, and lacking trust in God. For someone on his high level that was an issue.

            When Yosef told his brothers, then, not to be sad over having sold him to Egypt, he again, on the one hand, displayed his caring attitude for others, and, at the same time, demonstrated his understanding that his brothers were serving as agents of God in a finely orchestrated process that would lead his family into exile in Egypt, in order to forge a nation that through their own experiences as slaves in that country, would feel concern for the plight of other people as well, and thereby lead them to an acceptance of God’s rulership of the world.