וְעַתָּה לֹא אַתֶּם שְׁלַחְתֶּם אֹתִי הֵנָּה כִּי הָאֱ-לֹקִים וַיְשִׂימֵנִי לְאָב לְפַרְעֹה וּלְאָדוֹן לְכָל בֵּיתוֹ וּמֹשֵׁל בְּכָל אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם (בראשית מה, ח).
This shiur is based on ideas I heard from מוֹרִי וְרַבִּי HaRav Baruch Rosenblum שליט"א.
In this week's parsha we read about Yosef's reconciliation with his brothers.
From the first 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. The passuk then says וְלֹא יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק, Yosef, although he wanted to continue the ruse, 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 "Aba Kohen Bardela says: אוֹי לָנוּ מִיּוֹם הַדִּין אוֹי לָנוּ מִיּוֹם הַתּוֹכֵחָה ... לִכְשֶׁיָּבֹא הקב"ה וְיוֹכִיחַ כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד לְפִי מָה שֶׁהוּא (ב"ר צג, י). The shock and shame of the brothers is nothing compared to what each and every one of us will experience on יוֹם הַדִּין, when we go up to Heaven after 120.
Yosef then tries to placate his brothers by saying (from the passuk above). "You are feeling guilt over the fact you sent me down to Egypt, but it was not you at all, it was HKB"H who sent me here and made me viceroy over all Egypt". In next week's parsha, Vayechi, Yosef repeats a similar sentiment וְאַתֶּם חֲשַׁבְתֶּם עָלַי רָעָה אֱ-לֹקִים חֲשָׁבָהּ לְטֹבָה לְמַעַן עֲשֹׂה כַּיּוֹם הַזֶּה לְהַחֲיֹת עַם רָב (בראשית נ, כ).
Yosef seems to be saying "All's well that ends well" and absolving them from culpability. "Your intention was to harm me, but all the time it was not you orchestrating things, it was HKB"H 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 was philosophical about the whole episode and bore no grudge against them. It seems that Yosef forgave his brothers and if so, that should have been the end of it. However, we see that this was not the case.
1500 years later, the story of Yosef and his brothers had still not ended. Chazal say that the whole episode of עֲשָׂרָה הֲרוּגֵי מַלְכוּת was atonement for the brothers selling Yosef.
R' Yishmael ben Elisha Kohen Gadol (you know him from Avraham Fried's song "Tanya", which is really a Gemara – Brachot 7a) went up to Heaven to inquire if the Roman decree was part of a גְּזֵרָה מִשָּׁמַיִם or not. When he was told by the angel מט"ט 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. When R' Yishmael related this to the other Chachamim, they celebrated and mourned. They celebrated that HKB"H considered them on a par with Yosef's generation and mourned the fact that they would die horrific deaths.
This is incredible. It appears that even though Yosef had forgiven his brothers, HKB"H did not. What is even more incredible is that Yosef says to them "It was never you! Everything was HKB"H, all along". If the brothers were simply "pawns" in HKB"H's greater plan, then how can He come 1500 years later and still hold them liable?
To understand this, we need to bring a mashal from sefer Baruch Yomeiru (Vayigash).
There is a terrible feud going on between two business competitors, battling to gain control over their market. Let's call them Reuven and Shimon. Shimon is just about to sign a multimillion-dollar contract 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 USA. Shimon is booked on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York, 15 hours before the contract is to be signed.
Reuven learns of this and plots to sabotage the deal. He knows that Shimon will be driving to the airport 2 hours ahead of the flight, so he sneaks into Shimon's garage ahead of time and slow-punctures all four of Shimon's tires. Shimon wakes up at 3:30am, gets into his car and sets out for the airport.
As he is driving along a deserted road, he suddenly feels his car begin 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 4:50am 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 contract of a lifetime.
Three hours later Shimon hears a news bulletin "Flight 410 from Tel Aviv to New York has gone missing in a storm over the Atlantic. The plane suddenly disappeared from the radar and 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 extremely 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! What do you think? Is Reuven culpable for anything or not?
The Gemara (Nazir 23a) tells of Rebi Akiva, that each time he read the passuk וְאִם הָפֵר יָפֵר אֹתָם אִישָׁהּ בְּיוֹם שָׁמְעוֹ כָּל מוֹצָא שְׂפָתֶיהָ לִנְדָרֶיהָ וּלְאִסַּר נַפְשָׁהּ לֹא יָקוּם אִישָׁהּ הֲפֵרָם וַה' יִסְלַח לָהּ (במדבר ל, יג), he began to cry! R' Akiva – crying? We only know R' Akiva laughing! The Gemara relates numerous incidents in which everyone else is crying, but R' Akiva is laughing, like when they see foxes running around the ruins of Bayit Sheini - the Chachamim are crying and R' Akiva is laughing (מכות כד, ע"ב). Why davka does this passuk make R' Akiva burst into tears?
It is a passuk from parshat Matot that deals with נְדָרִים, vows. The above passuk specifically deals with the case of a woman who makes a vow (that involves not only her, but her husband as well), the husband can be מֵפֵר, annul the vow.
For example, the wife takes a vow that she is not going to bring any chocolate into the house for the next month. She wants to lose weight and finds it difficult to resist chocolate. When it is in the house, it is a constant temptation. It just so happens that her husband also likes to eat chocolate and when he hears her making this vow from the other room, he immediately says (without her hearing) "I annul the vow!"
A week goes by and the wife is steadfast in her vow, but her husband misses his chocolate. The second week, however, the wife sees a special in the supermarket "Two for the price of one" of her favorite chocolate. It is impossible to resist and she purchases the two chocolates, one which she eats in secret, out of sight of her husband. The second she gives to her deprived husband to eat.
As he is throwing the wrapper in the garbage, the husband notices the second wrapper from the chocolate his wife ate. "What's this?" he asks. The wife blushingly admits that she succumbed and broke her vow and ate the chocolate. "I now have to go to a Rav and do הַתָּרַת נְדָרִים" she says. "No, you don't!" replies her husband, "I heard you making the vow last week and without you hearing, I annulled it. You can go ahead and eat chocolate, everything is fine!"
The passuk says אִישָׁהּ הֲפֵרָם וַה' יִסְלַח לָהּ, the husband annuls the vow and HKB"H forgives her. Chazal ask "If her husband annulled the vow, why does HKB"H have to forgive her?" Chazal answer – when she broke the vow, she didn't know that her husband had annulled the vow.
She broke the vow thinking it was still a valid vow! For this she has to do teshuva and ask HKB"H to forgive her. Even though in reality there was no vow, but she didn't know that. She ate the chocolate with the intention of breaking the vow. This requires כַּפָּרָה.
Reuven ended up not harming Shimon, he in fact saved his life! However, when he punctured Shimon's tires, he had the intention of causing Shimon harm. This in itself requires Reuven to do teshuva, even if the outcome he intended did not transpire.
Yosef says to his brothers "You intended to do me harm, but HKB"H 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.
R' Akiva learns from the passuk in Matot, even if things turned out for the best, the fact that you had the intention of the opposite, requires you to do teshuva. When R' Akiva reads this passuk, he cries. Why does he cry? Because R' Akiva knows that even though Yosef placates his brothers, this does not absolve them, they still require teshuva, for HKB"H to forgive them.
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 teshuva. Therefore, their sin was not totally forgiven, it lingered and eventually R' Akiva would have to pay the ultimate price for it – he was one of the עֲשָׂרָה הֲרוּגֵי מַלְכוּת. This is why he cried.
The passuk says וְלֹא יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק, Yosef couldn't continue with the deception any longer and he broke down, revealed himself to his brothers and placated them. The Shem MiShmuel (ויגש, תרע"ד) says the fact that Yosef could not מִתְאַפֵּק just a little longer, was a national tragedy for Am Yisrael.
If Yosef had held out a little longer and told his brothers that all their claims were worthless and they will have to leave Binyamin behind, and return without him to their father, his brothers would have broken down and begged his forgiveness. That would have completed their teshuva and it would have been the end of the episode, for once and for all. Because of וְלֹא יָכֹל יוֹסֵף לְהִתְאַפֵּק, we are still paying for that sin today, which was not fully atoned for, even by the עֲשָׂרָה הֲרוּגֵי מַלְכוּת.
Next week we will be observing the fast of עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת. This year it falls out that the fast is on a Friday. With any other fast, if it falls out on a Friday, the fast is brought forward or postponed. The only exception is עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת.
The Abudraham says that theoretically if עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת fell out on Shabbat, we would even fast on Shabbat (with the way the calendar is planned it can never fall out on Shabbat), but the very fact that the Abudraham states this shows the severity of this fast day. The fact that we will be coming into Shabbat fasting, which is almost unprecedented, shows the severity of this fast day.
Why is עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת such a severe fast, that we would even fast if it fell out on Shabbat? What happened on עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת? The siege of Jerusalem began prior to the destruction of Bayit Rishon, on עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת. So what? Since when do we fast because of a siege? We don't fast on the day the siege began before the destruction of Bayit Sheini.
Most of us do not even know what day the siege of Jerusalem in the time of the Romans began. It was on כב' ניסן. What do we do on כב' ניסן? The answer is - we certainly don't fast - in fact we do the opposite, we eat "mufletot". כב' ניסן is the date of the Moroccan Mimouna after Pesach! So why is עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת such a serious fast day? Yes, siege was laid to Jerusalem which eventually led to the destruction of Bayit Rishon, but after that they rebuilt Bayit Sheini. So why do we commemorate that day at all?
The Chatam Sofer explains the essence of עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת. The Chatam Sofer says that every year on עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת HKB"H sits with the angels in judgement, to decide if the Beit HaMikdash will be rebuilt this year or not, if we are worthy of it being rebuilt or not.
If we are not worthy, then this coming year, the Beit HaMikdash will not be rebuilt, and anyone who does not merit seeing the Mikdash being rebuilt in his time, it is as if the Mikdash is destroyed all over again in his generation. It is such a serious fast that it is even דּוֹחֶה שַׁבָּת theoretically, just like Yom Kippur.
Every Yom Kippur we say רַֽחֶם נָא קְהַל עֲדַת יְשֻׁרוּן סְלַח וּמְחַל עֲוֹנָם וְהוֹשִׁיעֵֽנוּ אֱ-לֹקֵי יִשְׁעֵֽנוּ. שַׁעֲרֵי שָׁמַֽיִם פְּתַח וְאוֹצָרְךָ הַטּוֹב לָֽנוּ תִפְתַּח וכו'. Why does the tfila on Yom Kippur include the phrase קְהַל עֲדַת יְשֻׁרוּן? No other tfila, year-round, includes that phrase, only on Yom Kippur! The answer is because a major part of the fast of Yom Kippur is to atone for the sin of the brothers against Yosef, which lingers until this very day.
עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת is of the same severity of Yom Kippur, because it is the day on which we are judged whether to bring the Geulah this year or not and for once and for all be done with the sin of the brothers against Yosef.
The question is – one week before עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת, how are we looking? What is the state of Am Yisrael right now? What are the chances that we will receive a favorable judgement in this regard?
Yes, we have experienced untold miracles in the last year, the tables have been turned in so many arenas. Despite many peoples' bad intentions, וְאַתֶּם חֲשַׁבְתֶּם עָלַי רָעָה אֱ-לֹקִים חֲשָׁבָהּ לְטֹבָה, HKB"H is running things and He has turned the tables in our favor, regardless. The question is not only the final outcome, but the intention.
Did we have the right intention or not? and if not, we still need to do teshuva, even if it looks like a happy end is in sight. אִישָׁהּ הֲפֵרָם וַה' יִסְלַח לָהּ, the "husband", HKB"H has annulled the vow (we hope), but we still need for Him לִסְלֹחַ לָהּ, to forgive the "wife", Am Yisrael. This requires us to do teshuva and we have a short week to do so, before עֲשָׂרָה בְּטֵבֵת.
Let us use the time wisely, showing HKB"H how much we truly yearn for the Beit HaMikdash and the Geulah. We can do that by showing HKB"H how much we respect the Mikdash that we already have, our shuls, which are a מִקְדָּשׁ מְעַט. Let us use this coming week to show extra respect for our מִקְדָּשׁ מְעַט, by refraining from needless talking in shul, by arriving earlier for the tefilot and using our time in shul to daven with more kavanah than we usually do, focusing entirely on the tefilot and not being distracted with other, worldly things.
בִּזְכוּת זֶה we will hopefully arouse ourselves to do teshuva and thus merit רַחֲמֵי שָׁמַיִם. Next Friday B"H we will receive the judgement we all yearn for.
We certainly are living in exciting times. I noticed an interesting phenomenon that this month, the month of Tevet - the days of the Hebrew month are aligned with the Gregorian (English) calendar, i.e 1st of Tevet is 1st of Jan., 2nd of Tevet is 2nd of Jan., etc.
I don't know how often this happens, but I understand it is a rare occurrence. I believe it is symbolic of the changes we are about to experience in the month of January (from the 20th to be exact), where the agendas of Am Yisrael and the other G-d fearing nations will B"H become more aligned and in sync with each other and herald the dawn of a refreshing, new light that envelops the world. בבי"א.
Shabbat Shalom
Eliezer Meir Saidel
Machon Lechem Hapanim
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