From the moment his brothers set foot in Egypt, Yosef missed no opportunity to test them, right until the very end. According to the Midrash (Tanchuma, Vayigash 5:11), just before the “big reveal,” Yosef said to his brothers “You are looking for your missing brother who you sold into slavery? I know where he is, I bought him as a slave! Yosef ben Yaakov, come out and show yourself!” The confused brothers began looking around at all the entrances expecting Yosef to suddenly appear. Then Yosef could no longer contain himself and blurted out “Why do you look at the entrances? Look here, at me… I am Yosef!” The brothers were so shocked, they could not respond.
According to the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 93:10), Aba Kohen Bardela says that the shock and shame of the brothers is nothing compared to what each and every one of us will experience on the Day of Judgement, when we go up to Heaven after 120.
Yosef then tries to placate his brothers “You are feeling guilt over the fact you sent me down to Egypt, but it was not you at all, it was HaKadosh Baruch Hu who sent me here and made me viceroy over all Egypt”.
Yosef seems to be absolving them from culpability. “Your intention was to harm me, but all the time it was not you orchestrating things, it was HaKadosh Baruch Hu pulling the strings. Even if you didn’t sell me to Egypt, things would have ended up the same way, I would have ended up in Egypt and become viceroy. It was a prophecy, not a simple dream and prophecies always come to pass”.
This placated the brothers. They understood that Yosef bore no grudge against them. Yosef forgave his brothers and that should have been the end of it. However, we see that this was not the case.
1,500 years later, the story of Yosef and his brothers had still not ended. Chazal say that the whole episode of Asara Harugei Malchut, the Ten Martyrs who were killed by the Romans (which we recall on Tisha B’Av and Yom Kippur), was atonement for the brothers selling Yosef.
The Gemara (Brachot 7a) tells us that R’ Yishmael ben Elisha Kohen Gadol went up to Heaven to inquire if the Roman edict was part of a Heavenly decree or not. When he was told by an angel that it was a decree from Heaven, R’ Yishmael asked “Why now? 1500 years after Yosef died?” The answer he received was that until then there was never a generation worthy enough to make atonement for this sin.
Even though Yosef had forgiven his brothers, HaKadosh Baruch Hu had not. What is incredible is that Yosef says to them “It was never you! Everything was HaKadosh Baruch Hu, all along”. If the brothers were simply “pawns” in HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s greater plan, then how can HaKadosh Baruch Hu come 1,500 years later and still hold them liable?
To understand this, we need to bring a parable.
There is a terrible feud waging between two business competitors, let’s call them Reuven and Shimon. Shimon is just about to sign a multimillion-dollar deal which will give him the upper hand in the market for the foreseeable future. This secret deal is to take place two days from now in the UK. Shimon is booked on a flight from New York to London, 15 hours before the contract is to be signed.
Reuven learns of this and plots to sabotage the deal. He sneaks into Shimon’s garage and slow-punctures all four of Shimon’s tires. Shimon wakes up at 3:30 a.m., gets into his car and sets out for the airport. As he is driving along a deserted road, his car begins to veer wildly. He hits the brakes just in time to prevent an accident and exits the vehicle to discover all four tires flat. What to do? Order a taxi! Only problem is that the area he is in has no cellphone reception. The nearest landline is at a gas station 10 miles back. Shimon starts walking back to the gas station and arrives there out of breath an hour later. It is not so easy to find a taxi at 4:50 a.m. and eventually the taxi arrives and they speed towards the airport. Just as they pull into the departures, Shimon sees his flight taking off.
Shimon heads straight to the airline desk to book the next available flight, but is told that all flights have been suspended pending bad weather. His missed flight was the last one out for the next 24 hours. Cursing his car and fate, Shimon has no choice but to take a taxi home. There is no way he is going to make it to New York in time to sign the deal of a lifetime.
Three hours later Shimon hears a news bulletin “Flight 410 from New York to London has gone missing in a storm over the Atlantic. Rescue attempts are under way to see if there are any survivors!” In an instant Shimon’s “disaster” becomes his “salvation.”
Meanwhile, Reuven also hears the news and is sad to learn that he missed the opportunity of getting rid of his competitor for good. Instead of torpedoing Shimon, he ended up saving his life!
The question is – “Is Reuven now culpable for anything?” He had the intention of causing Shimon harm, but things turned out the opposite and he ended up saving Shimon’s life! However, when he punctured Shimon’s tires, he had the intention of causing Shimon harm. This in itself requires Reuven to do teshuvah, even if the outcome he intended did not transpire.
Yosef says to his brothers “You intended to do me harm, but HaKadosh Baruch Hu is running the show, not you. He turned things around and everything had a happy end!” Seemingly this absolves the brothers, but this is not the case.
The brothers did not fully do teshuva. Yes, they had remorse. They learned their lesson with Binyamin and did not repeat with Binyamin what they did with Yosef. However, the brothers never went to Yosef and asked him to forgive them. They accepted his placations and never completed the process of teshuvah. Therefore, their sin was not totally forgiven, it lingered and the Ten Martyrs eventually would have to pay the ultimate price for it.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: After the reconciliation, Yosef wept on Binyamin’s “necks” and Binyamin wept on Yosef’s “necks” (Bereishit 45:14) How many “necks” did they each have?
Answer to Last Shiur’s Trivia Question: What does the name Pharaoh gave to Joseph, Tzafnat Pa’aneach mean? Many Mefarshim say the name is Egyptian and we do not know the meaning. Others try to correlate it with the Aramaic equivalent meaning “decipherer of codes.”