Yosef’s ascension to position of viceroy of Egypt in this week’s sedra follows his brothers selling him in last week’s sedra and will climax in parshas Vayigash, when Yosef reveals himself to his siblings.
Let us go on a journey of discovery in order to gain a deeper perspective of this episode…
Imagine the comparative size of a single grain of sand and a football; how many grains of sand can fit into it? Ten thousand? Now, contemplate the difference between that grain of sand and the earth – and how many trillions of grains it would take to fill the globe! Yet we have not yet finished, for let us, for a moment, contrast the size of a proton (a part of an atom) to the vastness of the sun, which itself is many hundreds of thousand times larger than the earth; trillions of times greater than a football, which itself is trillions of times greater than a proton… It is virtually unthinkable!
Although the earth is so many times smaller than the sun, an interesting illusion takes place: the sun appears in the sky as vastly small in our eyes. In other words, the very distance creates a misconception of the sun being far smaller. Perhaps in a similar way, our tremendous detachment from the great figures in the Torah makes them appear as small in our eyes. Whatever the explanation, we may be left with a mistaken assumption that they were “ordinary people like you and me”.
I do not mean to suggest that we have an inferior “value” to previous generations, in fact it may be true to say that our observance of the Torah in the 21st century is all the more precious in the eyes of Hashem than that of our ancestors who lived in – undeniably – times incomparably less spiritually challenging than those we are born into and live in. What I do mean to say, however is, that the spiritual plane we operate on and the challenges and triumphs we see are of a totally different nature to that of the characters in Tenach. To view these people by our own yardsticks is, plainly put, “Barking up the wrong tree”.
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There is a saying in the gemorah as follows: “If the early generations were angels, we are people; and if they were people, then we are like donkeys…” A sharp slant given is that if we view the early generations merely as common folk, as people of our own stature – as equals to ourselves – then we have lowered ourselves to the foolish level of donkeys.
There is a puzzling statement made by our Sages, which intimates that the sins attributed in Tenach to Reuven, the sons of Eli, the sons of Shemuel, Dovid with Bas-Sheva, and Shlomo were not actually committed; “Whoever says [they] sinned is completely mistaken”, say Chazal.
This means that whoever thinks that these great people sinned by his own standards is completely mistaken.
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We may read the story of Yosef and his brothers, and conclude that this was “an outrage”, a display of arrogance on the part of Yosef, and a display of jealousy and hatred on the part of his brothers.
Yes, on a superficial level it appears so – for the Torah is given over in a way that allows one to reach false conclusions.
It is beyond the scope of these few lines to do justice in analyzing this story – it would take many hours! Let us at least raise some points of discussion that serve to illustrate how there is “much more than meets the eye” going on here.
Now, the Torah’s standards are certainly the highest possible and it’s judgements represent the absolute truth. So, if the Torah reveals to us that the brothers were jealous of Yosef (verse 11, last week’s sedra), that is fact. And the reason it is revealed for us is so that we can draw lessons from their lives.
However, that was not overt jealousy that you and I encounter in our relationships. Rather, it was a motivating factor that they themselves were not consciously aware of. That is one possible interpretation.
And let us consider, alternatively that perhaps the Torah means not to point out the sin and motivating factor that brought the brothers to sell Yosef, namely jealousy and hatred; perhaps what is being said is that they were acting in a jealous and hateful manner, in other words that they employed righteous manifestations of jealousy and hatred. Maybe there is no criticism to be levelled at them for this! Had that occurred to you?!
Consider that the brothers themselves had no regrets for 22 years, and stood by their decision that they made as being truthful and just. Not only that, even when they ultimately expressed regret, some commentators point out that their sole self-criticism was for having not being merciful to their brother beyond the letter of the law. In other words, despite the realization that Yosef meant not to pursue them, the brothers understood that their judgement of him had not been unjustified.
Finally, consider that the sin they committed must have been minute and subtle, inasmuch as Hashem never rejected them from being the forbearers of all the Jewish people. If the root is rotten the tree falls down; evidently the blemish of sin in this story was not great in His eyes.
So what then was their sin? What was their calculation and what was Yosef’s intention in – what appears to us – sowing seeds of anger, jealousy and resentment?
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We are left with questions, not answers. What we can conclude is that the way the Torah perceives sin of the great is extremely subtle. The term “microscopic” is an understatement.
To think of these giants in our own terms, is not only an “outrage”, but a most foolish and superficial view. Only through careful and studious study of the Oral Tradition of Torah, can the Written Torah be understood.
Good Shabbos, Yosef