Parshat Vayechi: The Story of Yosef: What Does the Text Say? by Rabbi Neil Winkler

happy to see everyone again and those who were not here last few times I'm happy to greet you at any rate the serum for today today's have been have been dedicated by uh and sponsored by Dove Warner and he does so in appreciation of the Torah tidbits which we all appreciate so how nice that is and uh I greet you again now um I think that you've already okay I have my now I have some I have a little problem here um and that is is it is there any way that I can right now on my screen all I see is that and I see myself is there any way of making this um I put I suppose I can just put stop share and then uh just put it along when I need it it's easier for me because I'd rather have the ability to see everybody but uh at any rate um are we um I think it's time for us to get started correct yes yes yes yes we're recording already very good okay the um the part of this more of this week of course is which closes the book of shot and how fitting it is there are many reasons for [Music] that thank you so it the begins right before we begin seot it's the closing of with the par of um there are many reasons that one can see why this was a logical ending uh and not the least of which uh is the fact that um you have the story of uh Yosef and the brothers coming to a real full stop and ending a reunion of the of the family and um even last week when we read primarily uh the story of the reunion we did not quite get to the end in we see with the death of yov there was still some fear about from the brothers that perhaps ysph would then take revenge and uh the reassurance that Yosef gives in this week's paraa puts a clear ending to the story uh and a complete wonderful actually reunion uh and once again an attachment of the brothers to Y and once the family has been healed and once it is together and now it's time in next week's para shot to start the story of uh uh B Isel for the first time the descendants of yov are called an am a nation and that's next week paraa but before we say goodbye to ysep and his brothers I have chosen to take a rather different approach um perhaps um a fresh view of the well-known perhaps the best known story in all of tanak certainly in the um in the Torah uh it might be considered the most the best known story in Biblical history if I can put those that that Grands uh connection to it but I will tell you that we have from the time we were young we've been educated with a specific view of the uh story we all know the story we know it well I've been discussing it in the last few weeks uh regarding their the mission of the brothers to uh Yosef to Egypt uh and it's a traditional view I'm a traditional guy but I want to show you what the text says about the story you might have might have heard some of this maybe you have not but I think the approach especially for those of you who have not yet heard this may open up worlds for you in understanding not the story perhaps as it was taught to us when we were so young but rather the story of yoseph and the brothers as the Torah tells us what the text says and perhaps you will be S surprised it is I hate to say a new approach it's it's actually the the oldest approach um much of what we have about the story is from our traditional views of kazal and why they say what they say they had a reason for it but it does uh not agree can I use that term doesn't quite jive with the text itself from the Torah itself so I want to look then simply to the story as a Torah takes sees it and I I think you'll find that we get to um solve some of the the problems and difficulties we may have in the text in the story that we've learned for so many years um I'm not being a radical here this is an approach that that is taken from many par and the rasham and others but it's really very basic it is a story as the Torah tells it and um so for the next 4 40 minutes 45 minutes I hope to be able to open up this other view of the story um I feel very even more comfortable with it and I think this is closer to the real story as the Torah tells it and uh I think that if I don't change your understanding at least I'll help convince you that there's a different way of viewing all of the event that occurred maybe 3,500 years ago and actually shaped our very history so let me begin with a simple thing that I touched upon actually last week too tells us in we all have man has many plans and many ideas but in the end it's God's plan that always works out that's the idea when we were when we were balancing last week the idea the concept of um man's actions and God's Destiny and what he does um Rashi says much about this approach when discussing in the beginning of the story of yose that basically he says that the um brothers and Joseph everybody was doing what human beings do making their plans and ideas but in the end what they were doing was um carrying out God's agenda and uh if I touch for a second here in the screen uh and we go to what I just had and suddenly got here it is um you'll see I give you'll see in Rashi number two uh and I purposely translated as well when it says that yo sent ysph from fromone from actually aone and Rashi says but Kone is not in a valley it's on a hill however he says it means from the deep counsel of the righteous one from Deep counsel of Abraham who was buried in the idea is that these the story is in effect fulfillment of that which was told to Abraham your descendants will be foreigners in another land simply put it was very interesting and Rashi says it very very clearly Rashi says um no he says um let just see this Rashi says to um that the whole story of yob sending Yosef to see the brothers was really part of God's um plan to get everybody get all of Israel down to Egypt as he had promised Abraham that that your descendants will be enslaved in another um country at any rate um the um the entire yose Saga I put it that way was a ploy to bring the people the the family of Israel to Egypt um does that mean we reli all of the misdeeds of the brothers as saying ah it's okay you know God did it no they didn't make their own decisions but I want to uncover in this uh crucial parts of the text that will change perhaps your view of exactly what happened and we'll start very simply we start in um the Torah where it says uh that ysep approached the um the brothers as he was looking for them and uh when they see him from afar you all know the story uh they plotted against him to kill him actually they said ah here comes the dreamer right they said exactly let's throw him into a pit we kill him and throw him into a pit the plan was they were going to throw him into a pit they weren't going to kill him that they figured you know he'll go into a pit and he'll die there that's all we won't have killed him per se we will will have caused his death but you know we didn't officially kill him and will say we'll think we'll assume that he was probably eaten by a wild animal and whenu hears this he decides he's gonna save yoseph from this plan and he said no we shouldn't make him die um you know so that he'll killed by um will throw him in the pit and and and see to it that he get killed you know what will just um we'll just throw him in the pit he says go to throw him not into a farway into a pit that's nearby over here be but don't you they really harm him directly and as the Torah says this was it was ru's plan in order to save him very nice okay he convinces them not to murder Yosef with their own hands but rather to just throw him into a nearby pit so that he could go over and save them something he didn't tell the brothers of course well um they agree and in order to carry out ru's plan um it says there that when Yosef approached them they grab him and they take off they strip off his Kon Pim his that expensive cloth he's wearing that caused so much uh resentment and um they throw him into um a pit that had no water and then they sat down by and they sat down to have lunch and they saw from afar there was an there was a caravan of what were they doing doing they were gilad they were coming from the east from gillad the Northeast and gilad and they were carrying because they were Traders with a d they were bringing spices to bring it down to Egypt as I pointed out last week they were bringing it to Egypt they were International Traders coming from the east north going down through ER Isel Canan down to Egypt and there they would sell the spices and so Yehuda has a brilliant idea he feels rather guilty it would seem that possibly have yose killed so he said M bet he said of what prophet will we have if we just kill him better we should send tell him to them without harming him after all he is our brother and they listen to him and that's of course what they do now comes the crucial thing and I want to perhaps share the text with you here very important now um and so uh please see this this text here um look at this in the the second Vu after they make this decision as I just read to you what prophet is it if we slay our brother and cancel his brother his blood says Yehuda let's sell him to the ish and not lay our hand against him he's our brother and they agreed now and that's in the 27th P 207th okay and there the very next verse by um while they were waiting for the Israelites to come and then they would take Yosef out of the pit to sell him unbeknown to them while they were eating from behind them came a traveling traders who were not International Traders but local Traders um they are Merchants mid the m who and they came and they took y out of the pit sold for 20 M and brought him to Egypt and I'm going to pause here for I have you to look at this very clearly and I under it see that the Mite sear P Merchants passed by they Drew yoseph out of the pit who drew ysf out of the pit and it says they that pronoun was referring to whom was it referring to the brothers do you see the brothers even mentioned in this verse at all who is mentioned who is the noun here to which the pronoun RS the Mite Merchants the midianites JW y out of the pit the midianites they sold ysph to the ishim and they is who brought ysep into Egypt now how do K the story that we've learned for so long how do they see these verse they take the brothers who are not even mentioned here they're mentioned in the last verse and they said that they took um ysf out of the that the brothers took ysf out of the pit the brothers sold ysf to the isim and who brought him down to Egypt now there's clearly a problem here not only because the you missing the word the brothers here you're throwing that in when they're not here beyond that there's another problem if this is what really happen that the that the Egyptians took him out of the I'm sorry the brothers took ysph out of the pit would it not have been very simply logical to say they sat and they saw the and they went by and they took y out of the pit this little thing by and well midianite Merchants passed by what of what import is that word are those words who cares is that they have to pass by if it is the brothers who came and took ysep out of the pit and the brothers who sold him to the ishim then that would have been a perfect continuation from the last verse where the brothers saw the isim so they went and took him out of the pit but the Torah purposely puts down midnight Merchants passed by because the Torah is telling you it isn't the brothers who took your safe out of the pit there was the minites and if that's the case we Now understand the rest of it the rest of the story the story which now says Ru goes back to the pit why does Ru go back to the pit Ru goes back to the pit because he's trying now to save yoseph from the plan that the brothers had yes the brothers were going to take ysf out and they were going to sell sell him to Mish totally logical but the ishmaelites were and it in the international trade route which was going down closer to the west to the um from the the the ocean the Mediterranean they were up in the do or you know near near um and they look down because was up high and they saw that they knew it's going to take a while for the Caravan to reach them while they were waiting and eating that's when the midan came and they're the ones who took him out of the pit I know I'm going crazy come on Rabbi wi be had a couple of thousand years of telling this story very differently yeah I know but the Torah tells it differently too and I'll tell you why it's so much more logical what happens when you uan comes to the pet Pit he says ysep isn't in the pit any anymore and he he cries out and he goes back to the brothers he says what am I going to do I'm the eldest yoseph isn't there now what did we learn why if the brothers sold yoseph what what's ruven doing hey how come ysf isn't here so what did you all learn oh well you see um that was the day that ruin had gone back to yako back in kevron and he wasn't there when they did that it's a lovely story makes no sense makes no sense did you ever walk from toon do you think it's a half hour it would take days and days so ruen said I'm Gonna Save y I'll take him out of the pit but first I'll take about a week to go down and take worry about my father and then I'll come back up and by that time well a week without water he'll be okay but it made no sense what made also no sense is now if indeed as tell us every day had a different a different person went and and tended to the father well if that's the case if they were always going there why was yo said go and see how how my my sons are doing over there with the street he's had people coming and informing on him every single day coming to all the brothers one of the brothers were coming why did they need yoseph to go there to see how they're doing it doesn't make sense what does make sense when ruven comes and cries and says Ys Ando ysep is missing what am I going to do you'll notice nowhere in the Torah do the brother say hey Ruby what are you worried about wew we sold him to isim they say nothing ruang is crying saying where's ysep where's ysep where is ysf and nobody says anything why because like Ru the brothers are convinced that yoseph had been attacked by a wild beast and and the dragged away to his lair and was eaten and killed and he was no longer there now this changes the story and in my view makes it a lot more logical because now we have a story where yoseph is gone the brothers who plan to sell him and get rid of him have no idea what happened to him they had no idea they never went to the is they didn't know there were M behind them who took him out their assumption and it was a logical one was that in that little T that they were there and yoseph was screaming and Y help me help me and they weren't listening that he had been dragged Away by a wild animal and now they had a problem we're going to go back to Papa and what what are we gonna tell him oh we just threw uh you know Joey into the pit and uh who knows what happened to him what are they gonna tell him oh and we just happen to have his cloak over here how is Papa going to ever believe that his deliciously perfect favorite son from Rael is dead he'll never accept the clear truth that ysf is gone he's dead how how do be convinced of that so they take the cloak they dip it in Blood and by the way again in the text it tells us that they don't bring the cloak to the father look at the they sent the cloak the special Coat of Many Colors if you want to call it that they sent it through somebody else through agents friends and they're the ones who came to jaob and said do you recognize is this your your son's a coat now would it make sense for the brothers to ask their father is this your son's coat hey wouldn't they know what Cod it is they had asked yov can you please recognize this coat we've been seeing for 17 years you know is and would it make sense for them to say pleas is this your sons and they wouldn't say is this yosef's clo they thought he was dead Yakov didn't know and as being was being convinced and that hold that changes the whole story of the entire story of yoseph no I wasn't going to give the brothers ker for the alah but they did sell him they thought to they thought to kill him too which is why kazal is so angry with him but they never did and now everything makes more sense you know the whole story oh my goodness they came down to Egypt and and uh and yoseph recognized that man they never recognized yoseph yeah because he had a beard come give me a break yoseph was six years younger than U he was probably a half a year maybe a year younger than the other youngest brother it was same age so because he had a beard they couldn't recognize him okay it's been 22 years admittedly and yes he was dressed as an Egyptian I understood that but you know it's like trying to understand how in the world uh nobody recognized Clark Kent as being Superman because he put glasses on give me a break well didn't recognize him but if you think he's dead when you had no idea was taken to Egypt that you would might find him there in Egypt come down to get food now they inability to recognize ysf makes total sense what about ysf what is yoseph thinking when he is pulled pulled out of the pit what is he thinking how did they get me here there for his his thought my brothers probably told them to take out and sold me my brothers told them I'm here they so saved my life but they sold me for a slave so in yose's mind it was the brothers who sold him and now he's very frustrated isn't anyone going to look for me I had to spend time as a slave to puttifar I had to spend time in a jail in the pit because of a a a a false accusation papa papa how come he sent me to see my brothers who grabbed me and threw me into a pit he he knew how much they hated me why did my father send me I know he loved how could what is your safe thinking my father didn't even bother to look for me he has all of his wealth and everything he had flocks all over the place what what is it I mean did you ever imagine here he's living in Kone and he told the brother his sons go and see how the the flocks are doing up in if he's Inon what's he doing in but there's no grass there they had FL no he had flocks Ina he's very wealthy he had flocks even like I said a good three four day Journey from walking to to so he you know he had that and he could couldn't send anybody to look for me my brother sold me to Egypt wouldn't they send somebody to find me so what is yoseph thinking you see all the time that we heard this story from so many years ago we always ask boy that Yosef you couldn't send a nice picture postcard hey being here in Egypt things are really great here never sent anything tell Tata that he's old he's fine and ysep is saying what's wrong with my father and my brothers that couldn't come and look for me miscommunication misunderstanding the brothers think he's dead Yakov thinks he's dead he says it himself K I'm going to be they'll bury me mourning for yoseph and ysep is saying they have completely forgotten about me they've abandoned me they don't care about me so what does yfe going to do what is yoseph going to do they don't like me they go going to abandon me as I pointed out last week maybe yoseph it says look not everybody was going to be part of B Israel I know we were going to be a great nation we were told that but Ismael wasn't part of that Nation to Abraham and Y said that ASA would be part of that nation and maybe just maybe we thought all of us would make a nation maybe I'm the one who won't be part of that Nation just like as wasn't and yesel wasn't I'm I was part of that uh that choosing and I I didn't make it I picked up this this the Short Straw and if that's the case I'm gonna make it big I'm gonna show them I'll make a life for myself here in Egypt rather wild thing right you're making up stories Winkler come on I'm not I'm reading the T that's the Torah saying that how can I say that yoseph makes it and yoseph now has a son what does he call his eldest son what was y's oldest son is Mas why is it Mas the Torah says this I'm not going to go to the um to the I promise you I have it on on my uh sources but I'm take my word for it he says I had a son and I'm gonna thank God because he let me forget all of am the difficult times had the and help me forget my family B he's thanking God to help him forget his family and that's how he named his eldest son I'm having great to my son I'm gonna say hooray we forgot about our family that's exactly how yoseph felt he has been abandoned he's not part of the special people the chosen people he was unchosen I'll make it big here I thank God for helping me at least forget what I went through and let me build another life that's what he says that's what the Torah says again I didn't make it up how else do you understand him calling his eldest son I'm so happy that you help me forget my father's house and my family that's the scenario when they now come to Egypt as we went through the last two weeks when the brothers come to Egypt they have no idea um ysep is there they think he's dead ysep thinks they've abandoned me they don't care about me now you understand why he does what he does when they come to see him he's angry he's frustrated eventually yes he tries to make them repair that breaker but to understand the proof that we have that this is exactly what they did you see in the conversations that they had they have conversations with with Yosef and even thinking that Yosef didn't understand they uh they also said things that Yosef very well did understand they said for example let me see if I have it over here look at number four that you now see in front of you they are talking one to another with with uh Yosef their understanding but they think he doesn't know Hebrew and they said to each other when when Shimon was thrown into the pit into the they oh bab we got problems here so they said to each othered deed we are guilty over our brothers and that we saw his distress when he pleaded with us and we didn't listen that's why this distress has come to us so let me ask a question if they sold him to Egypt would they not have said we are guilty for um for you know for having seen him you know crying out for the pit that we didn't listen why not say we had guilty because we sold him to Egypt as a slave they don't say that they don't say that um and um and that's when Ruan says I told you you shouldn't have harmed him and you listen to me that's why D he his blood BL blood is being demanded as repayment his blood what do you mean his blood his death you spilled his blood I you didn't spill it but you caused him to be eaten by that wild animal and we are guilty for that well he says you were guilty because I was going to take him out of the pit and that is why we're suffering now because we caused our brothers death because they believed Yosef was dead and more they say other things which become very very clear and we actually mentioned it when we were um talking about the last the last conversation he has that ysep has when he finally uh breaks down and reveals who he is um that they never say anything that they so told yoseph in fact they keep on saying when they meet Yosef the first time he says tell me about your family and he says one of the brothers is gone he gone not one of his is Egyptian or he a slave he's gone and then when he comes to yoseph a second time or a third time when he's been talking to Ys he says the mate this is the youngest son called Benyamin and the father loves him and is the only one left from his mother because his brother is dead the mate they weren't lying to Yosef they were telling the truth as far as they knew it he must be dead We Believe for 22 years that he had been killed by a wild animal this is what was going on and the story that we've heard I I I I'll touch upon why kazal did this and what was uh but that's not the story in the Torah the brothers weren't that terrible they were terrible enough they wanted to kill him and they almost would have and they did throw him into a pit but they did not kill him and they did not sell him and they did not lie to their father they believed he was gone he was dead and had to convince the father of that fact of that truth and suddenly everything changes when they see Ys when they come to Egypt they don't know they see ysep ysep knows it ysep can play the game now this is what was truly happening in the real story now yes there's one or two verses which seem to undermine that because when he finally reveals himself takes off his glasses and his Capers out and yoseph says it's me it's y I'm super Y and they and he says so don't get don't feel so terrible and don't get so sad um for the know he says I'm your brother you sold me to Egypt oh you see they sold him but remember what I told you in the beginning what was yosef's thought when he was pulled out by the MIM his assumption is the brothers had said we got his kid brother over there he's a pain in the neck get him out of the pit and and and you can pay us you can take him for a slave he's believing that they did sell him he didn't know about how else would they knew know he was there so yoseph believed he was sold by the brothers not that he saw them sell him but they assumed that the midianites knew he was there because the brothers told him told them so that is why he can say but after the first two times the next thing we read next time he says you sent me here no longer was you actually so here but difference is it between that changes his words from to and in between that it says they spoke with each other so so what do you think the brothers and ysph were talking about I would suggest and I have no proof to it but I think it makes sense but after the first time he said you sold me here they said he said JoJo we didn't sell you we were going to take you out of the pit we shouldn't just thrown you there we were taking you out when we came back you were gone we have no idea how what happened to you we thought you were dead that's exactly what he finds out yoseph at least about the death when he hears Yehuda sayate that the brother who is missing is dead and that suddenly opens up the mind of the of Y to say oh my God I was wrong for 22 years Papa didn't forget about me he didn't abandon me I part of the future Israelite Nation I haven't been put aside they thought I was dead but why ah this is Ys who when he had to interpret dream said hello leim God knows it and when Pharaoh wanted his dreams present uh understood and translated y says God does it God this is is elimo he's a man that had Elohim on his mind so he realizes it's all from God Lo he tells the brothers you are not the ones who caused me to come to Egypt it was God it was God and now he says aha it was all part of the plan did he know about the promise that God made to Abraham that the nation would come that be enslaved in another in a foreign land did he know that I would imagine he did I'm sure the promise was set down and now and now begins to understand this my friends is what the text tells us it's a different story from what we learned and if that's so what is it all our coloring books since the second grade telling showing us how the brothers were pulling ysf why H were understandably absolutely uh couldn't believe how any brothers would want to kill their brother that they would send him into a pit they weren't going to Simply let the the um story go with they made a mistake but it's okay such a horrific thing that want you to understand and want for generations to know what a terrible terrible thing is to hate brothers Shalom when you can't talk peacefully to your brother when you're constantly yelling and screaming and you don't listen to someone else's arguments you just ignore them you can't talk to each other and your brothers you got trouble here and Kaz was trying to teach us that just as we have certain modern generation hasn't learned that that you fight with brothers and you don't listen and don't discuss with them but you hate them so much that you will not talk to them peacefully which is what the Torah says Shalom then this is far worse than something that I can say okay it just happened and so forth they build the story Into the text somewhat they change it here and there and they look at what to say it's as if they did sell sell him it's as if it was their fault yeah maybe not directly but it was their fault if they hadn't thrown thrown him into the pit he wouldn't have been found he wouldn't have been so down so everything that happened indeed was their fault and they deserve to be punished for that that's how see the story and everything else Works into it textually no morally educationally oh yes that's my friends story of ysep and the brothers so now you have a fresh look you have two ways of seeing it both are extremely important but you see now how the lessons of 3500 years ago can be given today and applicable for us as they are in every generation okay thank you very much I hope you enjoyed and we know