Musar su Genesi 42:78

ארץ אשר לא במסכנות תאכל בה לחם . We have an allusion here to the advice of our sages not to eat like a glutton, but to eat in order to stay alive. We learned this first when the Torah describes the amount that Joseph sold to the brothers. The amount is described as שבר רעבון, i.e. enough grain to still the hunger (Genesis 42,19). This is the meaning of the words לא במסכנות. On the one hand one must be careful not to suffer from under-nourishment; on the other hand one must not eat as a matter of indulgence. This is why the Torah demands that we bless the Lord as soon as we have eaten enough to feel sated, (8,10). We should train ourselves to be satisfied with what G–d has granted us.

ויכלכל יוסף ... לחם לפי הטף . Rashi (47,12) says that Joseph provided based on need. He did not provide luxuries. We must not seek luxuries in our lives. Jacob too said to the brothers: לכו שברו רעבון בתיכם, מעט אוכל "Go back, buy us a little food." We should eat only to still our hunger and not to fill our bellies (43,2).

ויוסף הוא השליט . The prophet Isaiah quotes G–d as saying: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, etc," (Isaiah 55,8). Man's thoughts are vain. When man believes that a certain course of action would prove beneficial to him, the reverse is often the case. The brothers, who had attempted to frustrate any chance of Joseph ever realizing his dreams, had furthered Joseph's career by their very actions. We must learn from this example to always strive to further G–d's plans and to abandon our own will when it appears to conflict with the will of G–d.

למה תתראו . The Talmud Taanit 10b, on which Rashi bases his first explanation comments that although Jacob and his family were not short of provisions, Jacob told his sons not to arouse the envy of their neighbors by appearing to have ample supplies. The Zohar feels that by provoking one's neighbors envy one also provokes Heavenly judgment.

איש אל אחיו אבל אשמים אנחנו . They confessed their sin and went into the details as is necessary in order for a confession to be legally valid. Even according to the opinion that one does not have to confess to all details it is certainly better if one does so. In this instance the details included watching Joseph's anguish, listening to his entreaties, and failing to respond. When man confesses before his Maker, he must weep, entreat, and mourn. When the brothers said אבל אשמים אנחנו, the first word should be read as Eyvel.

ויחרדו איש אל אחיו . We find an outstanding example of how G–d employs the principle of מדה כנגד מדה, tit for tat, in this paragraph. When Jacob masqueraded as his twin brother Esau in order to obtain the blessing from his father, the Torah spoke about the עורות גדיי העזים, "the skins of the goats," with which he covered the smooth skin of his arms (Genesis 27,16). G–d punished him for this when the brothers dipped Joseph's coat in the blood of the goat they slaughtered in order to deceive their father. Jacob caused his father חרדה, great alarm, when Isaac realized that he had blessed Jacob instead of Esau. The brothers caused their father great alarm when they asked him to determine if the blood-drenched coat was Joseph's. Yehudah, who had deceived his father, was in turn deceived by Tamar who challenged him with the identical words Yehudah had used to his father at the time, i.e. 38,25) !הכר נא). Now, when the "one" i.e. Levi (who had been separated from Shimon whom Joseph had imprisoned) opened his sack and found his money, he experienced alarm. The expression והנה … ויאמר אל אחיו ויחרדו איש אל אחיו … מה זאת עשה אלוקים לנו in 42 27-28, parallels the time when Shimon and Levi had announced the approach of Joseph with the words: הנה בעל החלומות בא ויאמרו איש אל אחיו in 37, 19. The latter words correspond to what they had said to their father in 37,32: זאת מצאנו. When we keep this in mind, we understand a number of words in these paragraphs which otherwise appear superfluous. The Torah wanted to direct our attention to the manner in which G–d made the punishment fit the crime. The author credits the above comments to a book called .דברי שלום

(Bereshith 42:9): "And Joseph remembered the dreams … and he said to them: 'You are spies, etc.'" In all of this his intent was to secure atonement for their sins," as it was [his intent] in (Ibid. 25): "And Joseph commanded that their vessels be filled with grain, that their money be returned, each to his sack, etc." And, in truth, the money caused them much grief in the beginning of their [return journey], when (Ibid. 27): "the one [Levi (according to Rashi)] opened his sack (28) … and their hearts went out, and each trembled to his brother, saying: 'What is this that G-d has done to us?'" And also at the end, when they came to their father (Ibid. 35): "And, as they emptied their sacks, behold, each (found) his money bundle in his sack, and they saw their money bundles, they and their father, and they were afraid." And also (Ibid. 43:18): "And the men were afraid, for they were brought into the house of Joseph … and they said: 'It is because of the money which was returned to our sacks, etc.'" They suffered greatly because of the money; this, to atone for them because of the money they had taken for him [in selling him as a slave].

(Ibid. 42:37): "And Reuven said to his father: 'You may kill my two sons if I do not bring him [Benjamin] back to you… (38): And he said: 'My son shall not go down with you.'" The Midrash relates that Yaakov said about him [Reuven]: "He is a foolish bechor [(first-born)]. Are they his sons and not my sons?" The words of Reuven must, indeed, be understood, but, essentially, this is the explanation: Whatever issues from a man's mouth [(aside from what relates to fear of the L-rd, which is a function of man's free will)] is brought about by Heaven. This is the thrust of Chazal's statement: "All is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven." And the Midrash tells us that this ejaculation of Reuven's [("You may kill my two sons, etc.")] was fulfilled in his sons, [i.e., descendants], Dathan and Aviram [(in the episode of Korach)]. And, in truth, he [Reuven] himself was the cause of this, by saying (Bereshith 27:32): "Cast him into this pit which is in the desert." The act was extremely evil, for which reason they [Dathan and Aviram] descended, living, to Sheol, to the midst of the pit. As to his intent, being good, as it is written (Bereshith, Ibid.): "in order to rescue him from their hands to return him to his father," he merited that one of his descendants, On ben Peleth, be saved, by returning in repentance to His Father in heaven (wherefore he was called "On," his being in aninuth ["mourning" (for his sin)] all of his life, as Chazal have stated.

Now there is one who does not listen and is rewarded and this would be Joseph. For it is said "that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her" (Gen. 39:10). And what was his reward? "And Joseph was the ruler over all the land" (Gen. 42:6).

The brothers had described themselves as כלנו בני איש אחד, "We are all the sons of one man" (42, 11). The word אחד, which is not really necessary, is the reference to Joseph. It is significant that the brothers did not say 13 ,42) ,אנחנו) for "we are," but only נחנו. The letter א is missing in the word "we." Later on, however, they acknowledged the significance of Joseph as also being a substitute for the "one" represented by their father Jacob, when they described themselves as שנים עשר עבדיך אחים אנחנו בני איש אחד. In elaborating on the word אחד later on in the same verse, the brothers refer to Joseph as האחד איננו, the "disappearance of the one." Rashi already comments that the brothers explained the fact they had dispersed throughout the country, -an uncharacteristic behaviour if indeed they were brothers,- was all because of the "one" whom they tried to locate. Rashi also says that the inclusion of the "one" in their statement :"we are all (including you) the sons of one man," was said with "Holy Spirit," though they were not aware of it at the time.

Moreover, Joseph had already heard the brothers express remorse over the way they had treated Joseph (42, 21) We have found another Midrash according to which the brothers tried to kill Joseph when he revealed himself, but that an angel intervened and scattered them. The assumption underlying that statement seems to be that the brothers felt so ashamed that their very shame prompted them to do away with its cause. Psychologically, this seems strange indeed! Remorse and repentance are traditionally feelings triggered by shame. Why, in this case, should these feelings of shame have triggered the opposite reaction? We have ample proof from scripture that shame leads to repentance and forgiveness of one's sins, viz. Ezra 9,6: "O my G–d, I am too ashamed and mortified to lift my face to You, O my G–d, etc." We are told in Berachot 12b, that whoever commits a sin and is ashamed of that sin will have his sins forgiven. How then could feelings of shame have triggered the brothers' desire to kill Joseph?

We also need to understand Joseph's accusing the brothers of being spies. The brothers's denial: "Your servants have not been spies" (42, 11), phrased in the past tense, is also peculiar. They should have said: "We are not spies."

Let me first relate an explanation I have heard about the well known statement attributed to Rabbi Yochanan, in Taanit 5b that "our patriarch Jacob did not die." The explanation I heard understands this statement not as something homiletic, but as the פשט. This in spite of the Torah having testified that Jacob's body was embalmed (Genesis 50,2-3). How do we reconcile the statement with the report in the Torah? Jacob had two names, Jacob and Israel. A person having more than one name implies that he commands additional spiritual powers. When Jacob mourned the loss of Joseph, part of his spiritual powers, i.e. the part associated with the name Jacob, departed from him because of the anguish he experienced. As a result all the spiritual powers that he remained with were the ones associated with the name ישראל. He experienced the loss of the spiritual powers associated with the name Jacob when the brothers took Benjamin to Egypt, an action which Jacob described with the words: "You have bereaved me already; Joseph is gone, Shimon is gone, and you would take Benjamin!" (42,36) At that moment Jacob's soul departed. If you will examine the text in the Torah, you will find that the name Jacob is not mentioned any more until he received the message that Joseph was alive. At that time the Torah writes: ותחי רוח יעקב אביהם, "The spirit of their father Jacob was revived" (45,27). In view of what we have just said, how can we account for the Torah's reference to the name Jacob in 45,25 where the brothers are reported as returning to their father Jacob? We may assume that when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers and they all experienced joy, the soul of Jacob began to revive.

We therefore find the "crown" of Torah and the "crown" of Priesthood combined within one person, Samuel, all for the sake of the "crown" of Torah. Joseph represented the "crown" of Torah as we have pointed out on page 306. The pillar the world rests on is called צדיק; Joseph, universally renowned as יוסף הצדיק is that pillar. The righteous person is the emanation יסוד which leads directly to the emanation מלכות. All the forces, the influences found within the various emanations are channeled to the emanation מלכות only after having passed through the emanation יסוד. All this has been described in Pardes Rimonim in the chapter called צינורות. The emanation מלכות has to be perceived as the מנהיג, guide of the physical universe, acting on behalf of the various other emanations in the name of the אין סוף, G–d Himself. This is the reason it is called מלכות עולם, kingdom of the universe. The pillar which keeps this world going is the צדיק, i.e. the צינור, pipe, which leads from יסוד to מלכות. We derive the "crown" of מלכות, Royalty, from the attribute of מלכות as well as the Holy Temple, the היכל השם, the site of the "crown" of Priesthood. Joseph was the ruler who repaired many of the shortcomings in the world.

Reuben had already hinted at this development when he told his brothers (42,22) that Joseph's blood was being demanded from them. True, they did not at the time understand the deeper meaning of what was happening and what was being said, but the words were inspired by G–d even though He had not revealed their full meaning to the brothers. The mystical dimension of Joseph's historical mission was that he acted in the capacity of forerunner – not only in the story related in our פרשה – but also in the distant future when he will be killed performing a similar mission and his blood will be avenged. This is what he told his brothers when he said: "Now not you have sent me here but G–d, who has placed me in the position of father to Pharaoh."

When Joseph claimed that the brothers had come to view ערות הארץ, "the land in its nakedness" (42,9), he chose words which reflected the attitude of the spies hundreds of years later when they wanted to appoint a leader to bring them back to Egypt (Numbers 14,4). Yehudah answered Joseph that he was the spokesman of the brothers, and that Levi was second in line to him because he wore (or would wear) the "crown" of the Priesthood. He added: "Your servants have never been spies," pointing out that Caleb of the tribe of Yehudah who had been sent out as a spy, had played a faultless role in that episode. Since Moses had not seen fit to send a member of the tribe of Levi on that mission, Levi too could not be faulted for lack of love for the land of Canaan. When Yehudah stated "your servants, [meaning myself as the wearer of the "crown" of Royalty and Levi as the wearer of the "crown" of Priesthood Ed.] have not been spies" (in the past tense), he alluded to the fact that at a later date when Joshua would send out spies a member of the tribe of Levi would be included, namely Pinchas.

When Joseph claimed that the brothers had come to view ערות הארץ, "the land in its nakedness" (42,9), he chose words which reflected the attitude of the spies hundreds of years later when they wanted to appoint a leader to bring them back to Egypt (Numbers 14,4). Yehudah answered Joseph that he was the spokesman of the brothers, and that Levi was second in line to him because he wore (or would wear) the "crown" of the Priesthood. He added: "Your servants have never been spies," pointing out that Caleb of the tribe of Yehudah who had been sent out as a spy, had played a faultless role in that episode. Since Moses had not seen fit to send a member of the tribe of Levi on that mission, Levi too could not be faulted for lack of love for the land of Canaan. When Yehudah stated "your servants, [meaning myself as the wearer of the "crown" of Royalty and Levi as the wearer of the "crown" of Priesthood Ed.] have not been spies" (in the past tense), he alluded to the fact that at a later date when Joshua would send out spies a member of the tribe of Levi would be included, namely Pinchas.