THE ORIGIN OF GOLUS
We are in Sefer Shemos. These are the parshios of Deep Golus, the prototype exile which is the model of all our exiles. How we got into exile is a subject which needs to be studied in great depth. This, I believe, is the key to understanding where we are today and how we can emerge from this darkness into the eternal light which Hashem has promised His children. This week’s article is longer than usual, but I believe the subject matter warrants the additional length.
In Parshas Vayigash Yehuda confronts Yosef. Yehuda’s argument is so powerful that apparently Yosef is overcome and is – so to speak – “forced” to yield to Yehuda and release Binyomin. In fact Midrashim tell us that the brothers were prepared to destroy Mitzraim – including Yosef himself -- if Yosef did not yield. They had the power to carry this out, and Yosef – who understood every word they said in Hebrew in his presence – was completely aware of their plans.
The Torah uses the fateful words: “V’lo yachol Yosef l’hisapaik … Now Yosef could not restrain himself….” (Beraishis 44:34) These words have always jumped off the page at me! They scream out a strong question. If, in fact, Yosef “could not restrain himself,” that implies that he wanted to restrain himself, that he was not ready at that moment to reveal his identity. Rather, events “forced” him to reveal himself prematurely.
Why, you may ask, is that so important? What difference did it make when Yosef revealed himself? I will answer you that the fate of the world hangs on those words.
What was Yosef trying to accomplish? By his manipulation of events, Yosef was trying to erase the sina, the hatred among the brothers. If, in fact, he was not able to fulfill his plan, that implies that the sina had not in fact been erased.
The consequences of this are mind boggling.
Because the sina was not completely erased, our ancestors were plunged into torturous slavery in Mitzraim, which became the prototype for all future goluses, down to this very day. Because the sina was not completely erased, the Ten Martyrs were tortured and killed. Because the sina was not erased, the Second Temple was destroyed and we were thrown into the terrible Exile which enchains us to this very day. Because the sina was not erased, we endured centuries of torture, including the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Nazis, Communism, October 7, every catastrophe down to this very moment!
All because Yosef was not able to restrain himself in front of his brothers!
I am not, chas v’shalom, judging Yosef. To have restrained himself would have been like a person standing on a mountaintop and trying to stop a meteor before it hit the earth’s surface! But the fact is that, apparently, he wanted to restrain himself and could not.
I had not been able to find a commentary which agrees with this, until our son, Rabbi Aharon Yaakov Neuberger Shlita”h, told me that he had heard precisely this approach from Rabbi Malkiel Kotler Shlita”h in the name of his father, Reb Schneur zt”l.
Rabbi Kotler referred specifically to the Rashi on the possuk which says, “Then he [Yosef] fell upon his brother Binyamin’s neck and wept, and Binyanim wept upon [Yosef’s] neck….” (Beraishis 45:14) The Gemara states, “Reb Elazar said, [Yosef] wept over the two temples that were destined to be in Binyanim’s territory and were destined to be destroyed … and that Binyomin wept over Mishkan Shilo, which was in Yosef’s territory and was destined to be destroyed.” (Megillah 16b)
Why, at this moment of the brothers’ reconciliation, would the Torah allude to the destruction of the Mishkan and Bais Hamikdosh? Precisely because the reconciliation was incomplete! Yosef had not able to restrain his revelation; the sina had not been completely erased, and that sina is the cause of all our troubles down to this very day!
In addition, Rabbi Kotler mentioned the Haftara for Parshas Vayigash, in which Yechezkel ha Novi describes two wooden tablets, one representing Yehuda and Bnai Yisroel and the other representing Yosef. Hashem says to the Novi that these two tablets “shall become one in your hand.” Thus, the Novi foretells the day when all Bnai Yisroel shall become one and the sina will be erased forever. The Haftara thus alludes to the essence of the Parsha, which is the ultimate unity of all Bnai Yisroel!
Since then, I heard also from Rabbi Yair Hoffman Shlita”h that the Zohar and Rabbeinu Bachya take a similar approach: although Yosef had completely forgiven his brothers, it is possible to say that the brothers – on their exalted level – had not yet completely erased their sina toward Yosef. This, my friends, appears to be the cause of all our terrible troubles until the present day.
May Hashem help us!
Now I want to examine a burning question: if this is correct, what exactly did Yosef want to achieve? What was he waiting for? What more could the brothers have done to erase sina from Am Yisroel and prevent future catastrophe?
In order to answer that question, I want to examine Yosef’s two dreams in Parshas Vayeishev. In the first dream, the brothers’ sheaves stood up and bowed down to Yosef’s sheaf. In the second dream, the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowed down to him. These two dreams are, although similar, actually quite different. In the first dream, Yosef is “seen” so to speak, represented by his sheaf, and the brothers bow down to him. In the second dream, Yosef is not seen – meaning that there is nothing in the dream representing Yosef – and not only his brothers, but apparently his parents bow down.
I would like to suggest that the entire series of machinations to which Yosef subjects his brothers in Mitzraim can be seen as a gigantic moshul. Yosef’s actions are apparently illogical. He accuses his brothers falsely and the accusations are fabricated. Obviously, there is deep logic to what he is doing, but his actions do not seen to make sense.
What happened in Mitzraim reminds me of a chapter in Tehillim, in which Dovid Hamelech says of Hashem, “You reduce man to pulp and say, ‘Repent Oh sons of man.’ For a thousand years are [like] yesterday … [until] we shall acquire a heart of wisdom.” (Tehillim 90)
It seems that Dovid Hamelech is speaking about golus, which reduces man to pulp. We don’t understand what is going on; it all seems to make no sense, but we are crushed. They raise blood libels against the nation which by statute is not permitted to consume blood! It is all lies, lies upon lies. They know it and we know it! Everything they say is sheker, but they use it to attack us, regardless of truth or falsity.
In the end we know it is all from Hashem. All this sheker, these centuries of torture and false accusations are all from Shomayim, because we apparently need to be “reduced to pulp” in order to do teshuva and “acquire a heart of wisdom.” Until we get the sheker out of our own hearts, we will be confronted by a world of sheker.
This reminds me of Yosef in Mitzraim. All the false accusations, the torture and imprisonment … they are all meant to reduce his brothers to “pulp” so they will do teshuva and the sina can be erased. (Besides being actual events), this is a gigantic moshul foreshadowing our own future goluses! “Ma’ase avos siman l’banim … the events of the fathers are a sign for the children.”
Now what would have been the result if Yosef had been able to resist the pressure and not reveal himself prematurely? As I said before, the Midrash tells us that the brothers were prepared to destroy Yosef himself and all of Mitzraim if Yosef did not release Binyomin. So far the brothers had not done complete teshuva. If they had done complete teshuva they would have given up their plans to destroy Yosef and Mitzraim and instead have said, “Ribono shel Olam, all this has come upon us because we sold our brother into slavery! Forgive us. Chatasi! Chattasi! Chattasi! We were completely wrong! We are the evil ones and the Viceroy’s absurd punishments are only coming upon us because we sinned against our brother. Hashem forgive us! We are the evil ones!”
That is, I believe, what Yosef wanted to achieve! But he could not restrain himself and he therefore failed to achieve his goal of inducing the brothers to do complete teshuva!
My friends, I believe that all the absurd accusations that have been leveled against Am Yisroel over the centuries, all the insane torture and hatred over the past two thousand years are exactly echoing this scenario. What Yosef was doing in Mitzraim was a foreshadowing of exactly what would happen to us in Golus. And why? Because we are living out the consequences of our failure to do teshuva for our own sinas chinom.
Now let’s return to Yosef’s dreams. Dream Number One refers to events in Mitzraim. It was directly fulfilled when the brothers bowed down to him. But Dream Number Two is different. Where was Yosef in this dream? He wasn’t there, so to speak, because Dream Number Two seems to be a moshul for Hashem’s conduct of history. Dream Number Two will only be fulfilled when “the sun and the moon and eleven stars,” meaning all of Am Yisroel, will bow down before Hashem in the final act of teshuva, when we understand that the blame is all ours and we are “reduced to pulp” and accept all responsibility upon ourselves and acknowledge before the Ribono shel Olam “Chatasi, I am guilty. Please forgive me. I accept all responsibility for my fate.”
(Why “eleven stars,” by the way? Perhaps, there will be those among Am Yisroel who will not be able to stand the test of Golus, who will not be willing to do teshuva and will therefore be “missing” at the end of history, just as those who did not choose to follow Moshe Rabbeinu out of Mitzraim died in the Plague of Darkness and never were zoche to stand at Har Sinai.)
My friends, where does this bring us?
It would seem to me that this is telling us that we are in Golus today because the stain of sinas chinom has not been erased. It was not erased through the actions of Yosef and it still has not been erased through all the intervening centuries. All that happens to us, the false accusations, the hatred, the senseless violence, the illogical condemnations which bear no relation to reality, all of these are a message from the King of the Universe. And what is the message?
"Fellow Yidden, we need to heal ourselves! We are tearing ourselves apart through jealousy and causeless hatred! All our troubles occur because we need to heal the internal breach! When we heal the breach in our Jewish Family, then we will simultaneously heal the breach between us and our Father in Shomayim. When we do this, the day which we have all been awaiting will suddenly dawn, k'heref ayin! Then, suddenly, Moshiach ben Dovid will reign and the Bais Hamikdosh will be rebuilt, and on that day Hashem will be One, ‘Hashem Echad Ush’mo Echad!’"
Meteor hurtling toward the earth
GLOSSARY
Dovid Hamelech: King David
Golus: Exile
K’heref ayin: in the blink of an eye
Midrashim: classic commentary on the Torah
Mitzraim: Ancient Egypt
Moshul: parable
Parshios: Torah portions
Ribono shel Olam: the Master of the Universe, G-d
Sefer Shemos: the Book of Exodues, second book of the Torah
Sheker: lies
Shomayim: Heaven
Sina: hatred
Tehillim: Psalms
Teshuva: repentance
Zoche: had the merit to ….
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