“And they said to each other, “Surely we are guilty
over our brother in that we saw his anguish when he appealed to us and we did
not listen. Therefore this affliction
has come upon us.” (Beresheit 42:21)
Teshuva – repentance – is an essential element of Judaism and human perfection. Is teshuva accomplished through recognizing that one has acted wrongly? How specific must one be in acknowledging one’s errors? Parshat Meketz deals with this issue.
The
famine that Yosef had foretold strikes the entire region. Yosef’s brothers come to Egypt to seek
provisions. Yosef recognizes his
brothers but they do not recognize him.
Yosef initiates a plan designed to torment his brothers. But through their suffering they will come
to recognize their own shortcomings and the injustice in their treatment of
Yosef.
Yosef
accuses his brothers of being spies. He
tells his brothers that he will provide them with the opportunity to vindicate
themselves of this charge. He will
permit them to return to Canaan with provisions for their families. However, one brother will be held in Egypt. He will only be released when the bothers
return to Egypt accompanied by Binyamin – their youngest brother.
The brothers
conclude that this tragedy is a result of their sin against Yosef. They had thrown Yosef into a pit and they
sold him into slavery. Yosef had
beseeched them to spare him. But they
had ignored his pleas. With this
acknowledgement, the brothers clearly began the process of repentance. Yosef’s plan to force the brothers to face
their mistake was beginning to work.
However, Reuven was not satisfied with the brothers. acknowledgement.
“And
Reuven responded to them saying, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the
child. And you did not listen and now
payment for his life is sought.” (Beresheit 42:22)
At first
glance, it seems that Reuven is attempting to exclude himself from his
brothers’ sin. He begins by reminding
the brothers that he had urged them not to act against Yosef. However, a more careful analysis of the
passage indicates that this was not Reuven’s intent in his response. The pasuk describes Reuven’s comments as a
response to the brothers’ declaration.
The brothers’ statement did not contain any judgment of Reuven. They did not make any accusation against
him. If his intention was to defend
himself, he was not responding to the brothers. He was responding to a personal and internal sense of guilt. Yet, the Chumash describes Reuven’s comments
as a direct response to the brothers’ declaration. He objected to some element of their assessment. What was his objection?
In
order to understand Reuven’s comments, we must more closely study the brothers’
confession. The brothers believed that
Yosef’s dreams reflected a desire to subjugate them. They interpreted Yosef’s behavior towards them as expressions of
his desire to dominate them. For
example, Yosef related to Yaakov critical reports on the brothers’ behavior. The brothers interpreted this as a
calculated attempt to defame them. They
were convinced that Yosef ultimately would try to destroy them. Based on this analysis, they believed that
they were justified in removing Yosef as a threat. They regarded their actions against him as self-defense.
Now,
let us study their confession. Their
acknowledgment focused on a single issue.
Sforno points out that they confessed to lacking compassion. Yosef had begged them to spare his
life. They had ignored his appeals. In disregarding his pleas, they had lacked
compassion for their brother. However,
the brother’s confession did not contain any reevaluation of their assessment
of Yosef. In other words, the brothers
were saying that their assessment of Yosef had been correct. But their response had been too harsh.
Sforno
explains that Reuven challenged their basic premise. He referred to the Yosef whom they sold into slavery as a
child. Children do not develop and
execute carefully designed plans.
Children act out of impulse.
Reuven was telling the brothers that they had misjudged Yosef. Yosef was not engaged in an elaborate scheme
to destroy them. He was a child, acting
out of immature motives. Their
resentment of Yosef had allowed them to exaggerate his intentions and to
rationalize their hatred.
In
short, Reuven was telling the brothers that their repentance was far from
complete. It is true that they had
acknowledged wrongdoing. But they had
not yet acknowledged their true sin.
Reuven told the brothers that their repentance could not be complete
unless they acknowledged their misjudgment of Yosef and their true
motivation. He was not willing to allow
the brothers to continue to deceive themselves.[1]
“And Yosef bought all of the land of Egypt for Paroh. For every Egyptian sold his field because of
the famine became intense. And all of
the land was Paroh’s. And Yosef
transferred all of the people to cites from one end of Egypt to the other.” (Beresheit 47:20-21)
The famine continued and Yosef feed the Egyptians with the provisions that had been stored during the seven years of prosperity. Eventually, the Egyptians were forced to sell all of their possessions in order to purchase food. Still, the famine continued. With their wealth exhausted, the Egyptians came to Yosef and offered to sell themselves and their land for more food. Yosef – acting as Paroh’s agent – agreed to buy their land in exchange for food. Yosef further decreed that twenty percent of all produce must be delivered to Paroh – as the owner of the land. The remaining eighty percent Paroh would allow the people to keep. The Torah tells us that Yosef then redistributed the population. Every Egyptian was required to move off of his land and resettle elsewhere. Why did Yosef require this relocation?
The
simplest answer is provided by Radak and others. Yosef realized that the sale of the land to Paroh would have
little meaning to the seller if he were permitted to remain on the land. In order to reinforce that one’s land now
belonged to Paroh, Yosef demanded that each person abandon his land and accept
another property – in a different location – given to the person by Paroh. This assured that the Egyptians fully
appreciated that they were not longer the owners of their land but were working
the land belonging to Paroh.[2]
This
interpretation raises another issue.
According to Radak’s interpretation, Yosef’s purchase of the land and
his redistribution of the population were an expression of his loyal and
devoted service to Paroh. Yosef took
his duties seriously and worked towards strengthening his king’s power and
influence. Although this is an
interesting lesson, the Torah is primarily an account of the relationship
between Hashem and Bnai Yisrael. Why
would the Torah delve into the nature of Yosef’s relationship with Paroh?
Rashi
suggests that Yosef’s motivations were more complicated. He did want to serve Paroh loyally. However, he was primarily interested in
helping Bnai Yisrael. He feared that as
immigrants to Egypt, they would be subject to suspicion and
discrimination. He saw an opportunity
to remove the stigma and being aliens in Egypt. His plan was to make every Egyptian and alien. By relocating the Egyptians, everyone became
an exile from his original home. Bnai
Yisrael and Egyptians all became aliens within Egypt.[3]
It
seems that according to Rashi, this account is not included to demonstrate
Yosef’s loyalty to Paroh. It is
intended to reveal his devotion to Bnai Yisrael. Yosef saw an opportunity to serve Paroh in a way that was
invaluable to Bnai Yisrael and he took full advantage of this opportunity.
However,
it is possible that there is a further message in Rashi’s comments. The Chumash tells us the ultimately, the
Egyptians persecuted Bnai Yisrael. To a
great extent, this persecution was based upon a suspicion of Bnai Yisrael as
foreigners in Egypt. In other words,
all of Yosef’s careful planning had little or no long term effect. Despite Yosef’s efforts to protect Bnai
Yisrael from the persecution that is often experienced by foreigners, the
persecution occurred.
This
teaches us two important lessons.
First, the persecution of Bnai Yisrael in Egypt was not the result of
poor diplomacy on Bnai Yisrael’s part.
On the contrary, Yosef exercised excellent judgment and devised and
carried out a brilliant plan to protect Bnai Yisrael. Instead, the persecution was part of the Divine plan and was an
expression of Hashem’s will.
Second,
Hashem’s plans cannot be defeated.
Hashem wanted Bnai Yisrael to be regarded with suspicion and Hashem’s
will was fulfilled despite Yosef’s masterful efforts. Even Yosef could not undermine Hashem’s plans!