Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Story Behind The Story: The Sale of Joseph

You my birthday. Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you for coming and uh first let me just announce the dedications. Uh we are praying as always for the lasting unity of Amy Israel which will lead to victory and for all of those whose health has been affected by terror. Aliat Shama for Barl Ben Hershel whose yard site is on the 5th of Tes. Additionally, the Jacob siblings are sponsoring this year in honor of their parents' wedding anniversary. Shivan and Sha Jacovic. Uh, and in honor of the upcoming wedding of their eldest grandchild, Schlma Kavik to, it's hard to read here, Rick Ricky Bash. Our parents should have continued gaz. We also want to express our collective gratitude to Ibon writers for weekly inspiring words of Torah especially from Boon Beach Florida where our parents live and where the RAV has developed the following. Okay. Thank you. Anonymous dedication protection and it of all of our soldiers. Briuchma for all of Ami Israel. The final week of the financial year is here. Ibana has reached only half its fundraising goal. Please help us reach the finishing line. One can partner with Ibana and help us continue to help so many people through the programs. Social events and Torah classes. Special dedications are available in honor and memory of loved ones. More information about how to contribute can be found on the Bonet website and in the YouTube description box below. Okay. Uh uh obviously Khan is over. Just want to mention one thing that is not no longer relevant. It'll be relevant next year. So I should have said it last week. uh you know the last day of Kaneka is known as Zos Kaneka because the Torah reading that Zosanuk this is the dedication of the Misbak uh but in there's a very very interesting that Kaneka and particularly the last day of Kaneka is the conclusion of the Yum meaning gives us a lot of chances just like a parent will say I'm going to count to five and you better do something or And when he says five, okay, let's go to 10. So uh judges and they are written and inscribed. Uh the benonim the middle of the rotors get their judgment on yum kipper and then does not deliver it to the to carry out till hosana. So the check is in the desk. It's not carried out. But then there's a thing themselves don't go out until Kaneka and therefore Kaneka is still a last time where one can do chuva and be zoka to a good and favorable year and it's brought down that the power of zaneka is so great that what the greatest sadikim are able to accomplish in even the pu is able to do on if he's sincere and opens his heart toad. So it was a very very powerful day and as they say uh that has passed but chuba is really a beautiful thing every single day of the year you know there's no there's no notion that too late to do chouba such a musk is not but has a great great spiritual power uh now uh because of kaneka we had have not been speaking a lot of para uh the past uh two or even three weeks perhaps So we have to catch up on a big long complicated story which kind of reaches its climax uh this week and that is the whole story of Makas Yoseph and Yoseph's deception and Yoseph eventually revealing himself to the brothers. It is really one of the longest perhaps it might it might in fact be the longest story the longest narrative structure uh in the kh and uh it is something that has really captivated not only mfortion but even novelists and you know just it's one of the great we don't look at the literature but it is considered to be one of the great literary structures of the bible of the tan uh and I just want to again just go over some very very basic points A lot of it I think will be somewhat familiar to you but perhaps there'll be some new twists and turns. Uh every year we look at this story and we all have the same questions. First of all, I mean we believe that the sadikim they are righteous people comes from righteous people. Now even if they resented Yoseph because he told Yakov lashenhara about the brothers, he told Yakov derogatory things about the brothers and Yseph is parading around with this special coat of many colors. So one can understand and he's telling them there's dreams and by the way I heard the most beautiful two-line encapsulation of the story of this is so great. Uh this is from Rav Yak Isaac Bernstein was a very very great Rav and Darian in London and he said the central idea of Makas Yosef is if you spend time talking about your dreams you get thrown into the pit. When you spend time listening to other people's dreams that's when you ascend to Gdulla. It's exactly what happened. Yoseph talks about his dreams. He gets sold. He listens to someone else's dreams. You know that that results. So he says he early Bernstein used to say that out of says wife you know pay attention to the other person don't talk about yourself so much and you're going to have a lot of lot of so that's kind of a two-line summary of of the basic story but everyone has a real serious question selling your brother. First of all they they wanted to kill Yoseph initially. It was only Ruvang that said throw him into the pit and then Yehuda said let's sell him into slavery. Uh not but not only they sell him into slavery they wanted to kill him. So what's going on? How is it Shia that Sadikim would turn against their brother and even kill him. So on this we do have a famous insight of the Soporno one of the great Mforim in which the brothers actually felt it was not true. which was an error but they felt they had aic basis for doing what they did and this is the principle of rode right the principle of rode says that if somebody is threatening your life you are allowed and even there's a mitzvah to kill them someone is coming to kill you take the initiative and you kill them and they looked at Yoseph as a rodeave in what sense was Yoseph a rodeave because they saw a pattern they saw the good son, bad son pattern. Abraham had a Yeshel and um a Yitzk and Yeshel got excluded from the destiny of the Abraham brris and then Yitzk had a Yakov and an Asov and Asov also gets excluded. They now see that Yoseph is informing on the brothers and saying negative things about the brothers and especially since Yoseph comes from Raul and Raul was Yakov's you know favorite wife whatever that means. So they saw that Yoseph is engineering a type of division that would be analogous to Yitzkshel Jacob and that would mean that the were actually afraid that they would be totally excluded from the spiritual destiny of AmIrael. that am Israel might conceivably be built up completely from the children of Ra Yoseph and Biny and because when you cause someone to sin that's even worse than physically killing them they actually felt that Yseph was a rode Yoseph was endangering not only their spiritual life but Yoseph was endangering the lives of all of the future generations who would be excluded from AmIrael based on the parallel of Yitzkshel and Yakov Asaf. And therefore the Soperno said they actually passed that Yoseph was Misa. Yoseph was deserving of death because Yoseph was a rodeave. And what Yehuda came up with is that even by a rodeave, you're only allowed to kill a rodeave if you cannot disable him by any other means. Right? So you don't you don't kill a terrorist once you can disable the terrorist. The terrorist can then be judged by a court. But you can't just shoot him uh if you can disable him in any other way. So Yehuda took the position that if we sell Yoseph as a slave, he will be disabled. He will no longer be able to do what he's doing. So therefore we're not allowed to kill him. So the porno's famous insight is he brings in the law of rodeave as a justification. Now in this connection there's a fascinating comment of the orimatar uh who builds on this insight of the soporno actually says it on his own but but and he and he raises an interesting question. Ruvane initially, right? Ruvane was the one who spoke up initially and Ruvane is the one that said, "Hey, let's not kill him. Let's throw him into the pit." Ruv's intention, of course, was that he would retrieve Yoseph and bring him back. But Ruven was not present when Yehuda said, "Let's sell him." And the Gomorrah actually says Ruven was doing chuva because of the fact that he had either slept with Ba or or the way Kazal understand it he had moved uh when when Raul died uh so Yakov moved his his marital bed into Baha's tent who was Rael's concubine uh and uh Ruang felt uh it should be in Leia. In other words, even if Rael has priority over Leia, but the shifa of Rael should not have priority over Leia. So he moved the bed and the Tyra considers that to be as if be as it may, Ruain was not present because he was crying and doing chuva over that a and the like. Now so so the two stages here, Ruvane was the one that said throw him in the pit. Yehuda was the one that said, "Let's take him out and and sell him." Now the Gomorrah says on the Pak, the Gmoran Shabas, the pit was empty, there was no water. So the Gomorrah asks the if the pit was empty, there was no water. Right? Why does the Torah say the superfluous expression? So the famous Russia is ah it was empty of water but there were snakes and scorpions. There were if that's the case then Ruain's attempt to save Yoseph doesn't make any sense. Uh let's not kill him lest we be guilty of murder. Let's throw him into a pit that contains snakes and scorpions. Now you know the gar the Mishna says in Yamos that if a man falls into a pit that has snakes and scorpions that is sufficient evidence to allow his wife to remarry even if we don't see whether the body is dead because it is such a certainty that he's going to die we treat that as proof of death. So, how could Ruvane attempt to save Yoseph by having him thrown into a pit of snakes and scorpions? Now, the truth is the simple answer would be that Ruvane didn't know that. It was a dark pit. Ruben didn't know that. Okay, the Seder. U but the Oraims say has another very interesting idea and I will have to preface this idea by saying by all means do not try this at home because it's going to be a very very dangerous idea. The brothers are making the argument that Yoseph deserves to die because he's a rode. Ruvane is making the following counterargument. Maybe we're right or maybe we're wrong. Maybe we're motivated by jealousy. We're motivated by hate. We're motivated by rivalry that's distorting our judgment. We really cannot go ahead and actually kill him lest our judgment is distorted. So here's what the orim says a tremendously controversial. The says since human beings were given the capacity of free will, we we can choose to do evil. It is possible for us to murder an innocent person and we can never turn around and say well if God didn't want him to die he wouldn't have died because Bira can even override divine will that that is the way God made the world. So if we kill Yoseph, that's not a proof that our decision was valid. Because even if our decision was invalid, an evil person can kill an innocent person. But was only given to people. Was not given to animals. And therefore an animal cannot inflict harm on a human being unless it is God's will that that person die. So the orim says if we want to test whether Yoseph is of Misa or not, we cannot validate the test by what we do. But we can validate the test by throwing him into a pit of snakes and scorpions. because they will not be able to harm him unless he's now as I say do not try this at home. I mean I mean indeed this is exact I mean thehat is exactly the justification of those Christian groups that play with snakes they basically say oh you know if God is with me the snakes are not going to harm me you know that doesn't always work the person doesn't know what is but this is the orim's point a human being can kill another human being even if it's not the direct will of God an animal cannot kill a human being unless it is the direct will of God. And therefore, Ruvane said the litmus test that would validate our decision is to throw him to the snakes. Now, the amazing thing is that Yoseph was was not killed by the snakes, the scorpions. And still the brothers didn't change their mind. I mean, the whole test of Rubain was if he survives that means he's innocent. Well, he survived and they still sold him. So that just shows you that the power of hate can be so strong that they'll say well maybe these are benign scorpions or whatever it is you know can't can't prove anything that way. Okay. So that's the of the now again many many people in fact people even say that this passage in the smacks of kafira smacks of heresy because it is suggesting that the of can mean that a result can be perpetrated that is not the will of God. Now, that doesn't mean if someone dies, you know, they're guilty of something. But whatever it is, no one dies unless it's the will of God for whatever the reason. Whatever the reason the is positing that creates a counter force in the universe that can go against against God. There are those who actually say that this is aus etc. Uh but the orim who was a great great makubel etc. uh certainly uh has the authority to make this point. Other people reinterpret the orim in various ways uh because it's so radical. Uh but this is what the orim says. In fact, there's a whole different approach to things like the holocaust, things like um evil in the world. People say, "How could God do this?" According to the again, this deserves much more time than I'm going to give it tonight. It's not really a question, you know, how could God do this? The power of can go against God only because God made the world that way. God made the world that human can perpetrate results that are not directly the divine will. And as I say, that's the issue that many find very controversial. Be it as it may, obviously with all of the justifications that the soporno gives the brothers Yoseph is obviously treated as a very very severe aa whose repercussions are born by the Jewish people. Do you remember both on tishab and onyum kipper? We read the story of the 10 great martyrs, one of which is Rabbi Akiba who were mercilessly the greatest rabbis who were mercilessly uh murdered by the Romans, tortured and murdered by the Romans. And if you remember uh the story uh at least the poetic version of the story, the emperor called these together and he asked these he says the Torah says if you kidnap a person and you sell him into slavery, what is the punishment? And the said the Torah says to get the death penalty. So the emperor said, "You are the descendants of the tribe that sold Yseph into slavery. You are Kay Misa." They were murdered because of the sin of Mak Ysef. And I should also say that um next week or the you know we're going to have the fast of the 10th of Tes and uh there are swarms that point out that on one hand each of the fast days are connected to the basa mikdash. So the nth of a is the destruction of the basa mikdash. The 17th of tamos is uh when the siege against Jerusalem they the Romans broke through the wall. the 10th of Tes is when began the siege that culminated in the uh so so on one hand they're connected to the temple but they're also connected to primeval root causes of sin so the ninth of a is connected to the of the moragim the 17th of tamos is connected to theel that's when Moshe broke the the tablets So what is the tenth of tase connected to in a primeval sense? So in truth we don't really have any mocker in direct that directly addresses this. The gammoran tinus does tell us of course the nth of a is moraglin and the 17th of tamos is ael the golden calf. What is so fisher great very very posits that perhaps was the date of Yseph. So essentially all of the aos that manifest itself in different stages of the destruction of the temple really have root causes that go way way way back. Uh and once again uh the is a lack of amuna in Hashem. Theel is a form of and is of course the paradigm of sinas the hatred of brother to brother a cancer that still exists with us to this very very day. People ask why isn't Mashiach here? Why isn't Kola here? I don't know. But if kazal teach us that the basikdash was destroyed for a certain reason, it seems to make sense that until that reason is fixed, the basikdash is not going to be rebuilt. Kazal tell us the second temple was destroyed because of hatred and polarization among Jews for no reason. So as long as there's there cannot be gula there cannot be redemption. So you got to fix the reason when you fix the reason the redemption the redemption comes. Now I don't want to talk about tonight so much. I have something something else I want to talk about. But I just want to say that in some ways is a funny thing literally means hatred that is groundless. Hatred that has no reason. Well, who hates somebody without a reason? Like you know I I tell somebody, you know, you shouldn't hate people for no reason. So the person's response is you're right. I I I think everybody would agree with that. Every single person in the world will agree. I mean, Nick Fuentes, you know, he he doesn't hate Jews for no reason. He says he has reasons. Okay. So, what's the course I'm against? I just I have I have reasons. So, everybody has reasons. So, what does it mean to talk about? There's no such thing. The answer has to be that even what we think are reasons are no reasons. I mean meaning to say yeah the reasons are no good. The reasons are worth. So that's something to think about as we're entering the period of coming up and maybe we'll talk more about it next week. uh we have to think about and I've said many many times already so I I hope I'm not boring by repeating it that if there was any silver lining in the tragedy of October 7 it was that for a brief time there was tremendous unity in Ami Israel again if you remember pre-occtober 7 the country was being torn apart torn apart by this controversy over judicial reform Now it sounds like just an abstract political issue but it was tearing the country apart. People were talking about civil war. Uh people were talking about leaving the country. Businesses were talking about pulling out capital or reservists at least were talking about not reporting for duty. And although they did, but who knows if those statements might not have emboldened kamas to do what they're doing. You know, you could speculate about that. So the country was had reached a fever pitch of divisiveness, hatred, animosity and then comes the tragedy on Sim Torah, happiest day of the year. And it was, of course, it was tragic. It is tragic. People are still suffering from it. But it did bring us together in a way that we had not been brought together for a very long time. uh people understood that we're all called Israel whether it's uh black yamaka or knitted yamaka or no keepa we're one nation we have to be together we have to care about each other and that was a wonderful thing within the darkness that was the light that broke through the darkness but you know old habits die very hard and like an elastic band that you can stretch and stretch and stretch but when you let go of it it snaps back into the old position. So eventually as the war kept on going and going and going much much longer than most people expected it to be, there's a certain fatigue that sets in. And when you're in a state of fatigue, you revert to your natural habitat. You revert back to the old habits. And thus once again um some people disagree with me but but I I think a lot of the octus a lot of the unity uh has gotten dissipated. Not everything I mean I think there's still some bit of an improvement but a lot of it has gotten dissipated with new controversies about the army and the army or whatever whatever the controversy is. Uh in Israel we're never short of controversies. everything can become a mlo and that compounds the tragedy of October 7 because October 7 was a tragedy but if we learned from it if we grew from it then at least there is something redeeming about the experience that we went through but if we go through a tragic experience and we remain unchanged that becomes a tragedy on top of the tragedy that makes the tragedy much much worse because we're not taking from the tragedy something positive that can unite us and bring us together. So this is kind of a little bit of a digression on a base but once again the sasum starts pretty early. Well of course it starts with cayenne in heaven started much much earlier than Yoseph and his brothers but it's certainly highlighted in the story of Yoseph and his brothers. Okay, but now let's let's focus on the brothers. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We were focusing on the brothers. Let's focus on Yoseph. So Yoseph, again, Yoseph's story is frankly so unbelievable that had it not been in the Torah and somebody pitched it as a movie in Hollywood, it would have been rejected as too improbable, too unlikely that somehow this slave kid somehow becomes the most powerful man in the world who determines not only the destinies of Egypt, but really the destinies of the whole known world because he is the one that's in charge of the food lie uh and uh and and the like too unbelievable but it happens right it happens uh truth is stranger than fiction as the saying as the saying goes uh but now we have to analyze Yoseph's behavior Yoseph finally sees his brothers and um he recognizes them they do not recognize him saying because he was only 17 he didn't have a beard at the time now he has a beard he looks differently. So, he knows who they are. They don't know who he is. And um he keeps on he he he puts them through a cross-examination and he says, "Um, I'm going to take one of your brothers hostage, Shima, and he will not be released unless you bring back that younger brother that you're talking about. Otherwise, I think you're spies and uh you're all going to get going to get punished for it." Now this is after the whole story was said that how much Yakov did not want Binyam to go because he didn't want to lose his last child from Raka the one that Rahul died in childbirth. So what is Yoseph's behavior in not revealing himself to his brothers right away and then when Binyammen shows up and Yoseph gets exactly what he wanted that's not the end of the drama. When they leave, Yoseph plants his special cup in Minyammen's sack and Minyamin is now framed as the thief. And then Yehuda intercedes and the long speech in the beginning of Aayash and then Yoseph finally breaks down. What what what is Yoseph doing here? What is Yoseph's behavior? Why does he not reveal his identity at the outset? Why does he frame Byamin? What was he thinking to accomplish here? And the implication of the kish is that Yoseph would have gone further. We don't know exactly how further. I'll try to address that. Had he not broken down because Yehuda kind of shortcircuited the process. Meaning Yoseph had a process that was going to keep on going. But at some point, Yoseph cut it because he was overcome with emotion. What's going on? So there are two basic approaches in the maforim although there are different nuances in different commentaries. Approach number one is uh the Ramban. The Ramban said that Yose felt he had a divine mandate to fulfill the dreams that he had as a 17-year-old. As a 17year-old Yseph had two dreams. One was the dream of the 11 sheav of grain bowing down to his sheath of grain which was a dream that he would be a melik over his brothers. Dream number two uh was the sun and the moon and the 11 stars bowing down to him. Yoseph saw these dreams indeed as as they were the case as really a divine mission. His mission is to be a melik over his brothers. And because this was his divine mission as he saw it, he had to be sure that it was fulfilled. Now the first time his brother showed up, only 10 of them showed up. Beyammen didn't come. So Yoseph has to get Binyam to Egypt. So Binyam will acknowledge him as a Malik. Now had Yoseph revealed himself, they wouldn't have looked at him like a Melik. They would have looked at him like a brother. So Yoseph, this is all the Yoseph had to keep his identity secret. So the 10 brothers would bow down to him as a king and bin Yammen would come down and bow down to him as a king and that would be the fulfillment of the 11 sheav of grain. But even that is not complete because there's also the sun and the moon. The sun is Yakov. Now the moon theoretically would be the mother ra is not alive. In fact that's why Jacob dismissed the dream at one point. But kazal say it meant bilah the mates who raised Yoseph uh as a as her own child. So therefore here's what the Ramban says. Binyam is framed because Yoseph thought Yakov will come down and beg and that would be the final fulfillment of the dream and then Yoseph would reveal himself and the Ramban says that part of the dream was actually not fully fulfilled because Yoseph broke down. But Lammya it actually was fulfilled because we're going to read later before Yakov's death. Yakov bowed when he asked Yoseph to be sure that he gets buried in the land of Israel. So it says Yakov bowed down and even though you could learn he bowed down to Hashem but Rashi actually brings was a bowing down to Yoseph. So actually it was fulfilled but not in the way that Yoseph intended. So this is the shittita of the Ramban. Again, a very well-known shittita that all of Yoseph's bizarre, strange, and cruel behavior was to engineer a fulfillment of the Kalomos. Now, the Abarbanel, right, the Ravitz Barbaranel, the great great Spanish commentator. Again, a few words of biography about the Barbaranel. The Abarbanell lived in the 1400s. Barbanell was the finance minister for Ferdinand and Isabella and uh this was 1492 he actually raised the money for Columbus's expedition to the new world and this was the time in which Jews were ordered to either convert to Christianity at least openly or face expo death or expulsion and Ferdinand was willing to give the Abrael an exception. And he needed the Arabel so much. He said, "You can be Jewish and you can stay." As you would expect, the Arabel did not accept that offer. And he went into exile with the all the Jews that were exiled from Spain. Uh at least part of it was on the 9th of Abanel was the elder of the community. And uh he was at the head of the line. At the very end of the line, it is recorded in old tradition, there was a mother with a four-year-old baby, a four-year-old child. And that four-year-old child's name was Yoseph Cairo, uh the one who became the author of the Shan. So, he was four years old at the time of the expulsion. his family moved to Turkey uh and uh and then eventually he went to where he authored the shar. Be it as it may, the Abbanel was exiled from Spain and the Abrael uh had children in Portugal and then children in Italy and he did spend the rest of his life in the Italian citystates and that is where he compiled his many of his great great commentaries on Kh. He wrote many things. He's wrote on the Kumish. He wrote on many books of Niveim, not not all, many books of the Niveim. Uh he wrote a lot about on safer don which talks about messianic predictions. He wrote a lot about Mashiach. Three different commentaries on safer denil going through inanim of of Moshiach. He wrote on prios. He wrote on the pes and he also wrote a commentary on the Rambam's morim guide to the perplex. Rebell is a very prolific writer. Uh he has a lot of very beautiful stuff. Uh part of the problem is uh he's very long. He's very very very long. So uh most people uh don't have the patience to read through it. Like everything is like a big essay of of you know 20 pages. He also has a very interesting habit and that is when he addresses anything he will give you a list of like between 20 30 or even up to a hundred questions and then he'll give you a shot that will answer those questions. So the old joke is that a person used to enjoy reading the barbanell after cholant on chabas where he would sit in his chair and he would read the barbaranel and read a hundred questions on the Torah and then fall asleep before he read the answers. So he became an apicurist. Oh, so many questions, contradict, contradictions, repetitions. Oh yeah. You know, he couldn't stay awake for the answers. So that's the danger of so many questions before you come to the answer. Uh but the Abarbanel uh has another very very um great advantage which is part of why he's so long and that is before he gives his explanation, he summarizes what everybody said before him. So you'll summarize Rashi, Ramban, Ebene, Ezra, Radak, all of the different commentaries. So you can actually get an overview of all of the maf and the and the barbell will then ask questions on those different Mapor and then offer his own explanation. So the Rabbel in paras brings the Ramban and the and theel asks very simple kasha on the Ramban and he says, "Listen, do the ends justify the means? You dream, you know, you have a dream that you're supposed to be a meal. So that does that justify lying? Does that justify causing pain to your father? Does that justify all of the things that Yoseph did? If God is giving you a dream, then God has the responsibility to carry out the dream. You don't have a h to do cruel and immoral things because you have some dream from God that you're supposed to be a melik. So he simply says that even if Yoseph had the right to assume that God was giving him a prophetic dream that would not justify putting his father through the torture first of all it wouldn't even justify torturing his brothers and how much more so it would not justify torturing Jacob and the like so because of this theel does not like the rabbans and theel offers a second approach to this question. And the second approach is that Yoseph wanted to determine that the rivalry and hatred that the children of Leia had against the children of Rael has been overcome. I mean after all ultimately what generated the hatred and jealousy that resulted Yoseph was not just Yoseph slashinhara and Yseph wearing the sonus pim but it was the ultimate seed of rejection that they felt that because Yakov loved Rael more than Leia and the Torah uses extraordinarily strong language which I think we have to modify but the Torah uses it the Torah describes Leia as a hated woman. Now granted, I don't think we would assume that Yakov hated Leia, but I think it is accurate to assume that Leia perhaps perceived at various points in her life that she was hated. And certainly the brothers growing up might have had that perception as well. Like you see even in the names that Leia as Leia has child after child you see how much she is hoping and yearning that through the children she's going to get Yakov's love. God has seen my affliction and given me a son. Shimon God has heard my suffering and given me a son. Levy now my husband will accompany me for I have given him three sons when she has son number four and she says Yehuda now I am grateful to God some of understands that she's kind of saying okay I'm not going to get my husband's love but I'm happy for the kids meaning I'm happy I have the children meaning it's kind of a poignant realization even though it is fascinating that it's precisely Leia that is buried next to Yako for eternity. Interesting thing. So again, I I just cannot believe myself that hatred is meant to be taken totally literally. Um but nevertheless, there was that perception. So the brothers sold Yoseph because of the hatred and the rivalry between Leia's children, including the maidervants and ra. Now Yoseph is gone as far as the brothers are concerned. Who is the only remaining son of Rael that is in the picture? Bin Yammen. So Yoseph wants to know, have the brothers overcome their hatred? Have they overcome their rivalry? Is their love so great that they are willing to sacrifice for Rael's last child? So Yoseph says, "I got to put them to a test. I'm going to demand that they bring Binyamin here and then I'm going to frame Binyamin and I will say I'm going to take him as a slave and let's see the reaction of the brothers because if they still have that hatred, they'll say good riddance. What can you do?" But if they stand up and they fight on behalf of Binyammen, that shows they have transcended the hatred and the rivalry. So according to Barbanel, the purpose of Yoseph's behavior was not to engineer fulfillment of the dreams, but it was to make sure that the brothers have overcome the jealousy and the rivalry that created the makose in the first place. This is a barbell. So these are the two basic approaches in the mafia. So now I just want to add something to the Abarbanel that one might raise the following problem. Could not one ask on the Abarbanel the very same question that you could ask that the Abrael asks on the Ramban. Right? The Abbanel asks on the Ramban. It's not Yoseph's business to engineer fulfillment of his dreams. That's up to God. And Yoseph cannot engage in fraud and lying and cheating and pain because of his dream. Well, let's ask the same question. Yoseph wants to be sure that his brothers did choua. Well, so that gives him the right to put Yako through suffering and Byam to be accused and and and everything else. Meaning the brothers have to do chuba to be sure. But is Yoseph supposed to manipulate that through all the bad things that he did? So here's the point I would add to the Ramban and that is if this simply would have been a matter of 10 people doing something bad to a brother and they have to do chuva. You're right. Yseph would not be allowed to be engaged in this. But this is something much more cosmic that's at stake here. Remember that all the way back in the time of Abraham, there was the covenant of the parts, the Brisbane Absarim. And God said to Abraham, "Your children will be enslaved in a land that is not theirs. And they will uh well, they'll be strangers. Strangers not theirs. They'll be enslaved and they will be persecuted for 400 years." Ever since the Brisbane Absarim, the spectre of the Jewish people being enslaved in a foreign land, although they may not have known it would be Egypt, is hanging over their heads like a sword. We don't know when it's going to happen, when it's going to start. But Yakov knows. That's why Yakov is so afraid. Even when he gets the good news that Yseph is alive, YaKob is afraid to go to Mitzim because Yakov knows this is going to be the beginning of what's going to turn into servitude and persecution. That's why God appears him at night, which is symbolic of Galas. And that's why God says calls him Yakov, not Israel. Israel, the name of the angel that the angel gave him is the name of triumph. Yakov, which is heal, is the name of failure. And throughout the para, when when Yoseph is gone and YaKob doesn't know about it, he's called Yakov. When he hears about Yoseph, he's called Yrael. But when God comes to him at night and says, "Don't be afraid," he's called YaKob. Again, YaKob is very afraid. This is the beginning of the gullus. And Yoseph also knows that as soon as he reveals himself and Yakov and the brothers go down, the gullos is going to begin. It is Yoseph's cosmic role to prepare Ami Israel, not only that generation, but all generations how to survive Gulos. And in gulos we face two different types of situations. We face the nision. We face the the challenge of persecution, genocide, people who tried to destroy us, poverty. But we also face the nisan of wealth and prosperity which can even be a bigger nissan in terms of assimilation. Yoseph has to go through all of those different experiences. Yoseph is a slave. Yoseph is a is in prison for for 12 years. Yoseph experiences the depths of despair, the depths of poverty, the depths of persecution, and he still remains faithful to God. And Yoseph also experiences the pinnacle of success and power and remains faithful to God. Yoseph is the role model who teaches us how to navigate the challenges of gullis. And even though Yakov also did that, but Yakov had a a family with him. Yoseph did it kind of alone. no support system and the like. So Yoseph understands when Yoseph contemplates the very improbable life that he's led, right? You try to make sense of your life. Yoseph doesn't make any rational sense. His brothers would sell him into slavery. He's a slave. He's in prison for 12 years and all of a sudden he becomes the most powerful man in the world. Yoseph understands as he says to his brothers. He says, "You thought to do bad to me." But God had a plan. And the plan is not just Yoseph's personal success. Yoseph is the teacher of how to navigate the challenges of so very clear that Yoseph saw his own life as having the uniqueness of that mission. Now we know that the Jewish soldier in Egypt which was not 400 years as it should have been. It was 210 years was not easy for us. Besides the slavery we were spiritually very very low. Most of the Jewish people were idol worshippers except for the tribe of Ley. Most of the Jewish people did not practice Brit circumcision except for the tribe of Levy. four fifths of the Jews died because they were not worthy to leave. Only 1/5if left and that 1/5if were the ones who were mainly idol worshippers. I mean when we say other words you were that one which means the other ones were much much worse whatever that would mean in many many ways we were not deserving of redemption both because of our spiritual level and because we did not complete the 400 years both both aspects of it and yet God had to take us out because we're on the 49th level of impurity and sink ing fast. That's the 1/5 sinking fast. And it is said if you hit level 50, you're irredeemable. So, Hashem had to take us out in a rush. That when it says we didn't have time to let our dough rise and that's why we baked our bread as matzah, not says it doesn't just mean because parro was kicking us out. It means if we would have waited till our dough had risen into bread, we would have hit level 50 and we would have been irredeemable. You know, we can't even understand that. Meaning you got it only takes 9 minutes, I'm sorry, takes 18 minutes for dough to rise. We couldn't have those 18 minutes. We would have hit level 50. And yet the Gmorrah says in spite of the fact that we were so bereff of mitzvot that we were not worthy of redemption, we had certain zuyots that enabled redemption. And what the exact list is varies from source to source, but some of the ones that are mentioned is we didn't change our names. We kept our Jewish names. We didn't change our language. We spoke Hebrew. We didn't speak lash and har against each other etc. We tried to keep distinctively Jewish clothing. And these were the merits that enabled redemption. So let's think about what those merits represented. A guy doesn't keep shabas. Guy doesn't keep kosher. Guy doesn't keep any mitzvah at all. But he wears a mug name Davidid and he goes by the name Rafi. So he has a distinctively Jewish name and he wears a distinctive article of Jewish clothing. We might look at such a Jew and say, you know, I mean I mean the guy's not doing anything that's particularly worthwhile. And yet that is why the Jewish the 1/5 got redeemed. They were idol worshippers. They were over there bodisara. But they kept the name Rafi and wore the equivalent of a mug of it counted for something. It's not the end point but it's the beginning point. The sense of being connected to the Jewish people. Akus unity. When it says they didn't speak lash, it's not because they learned the of the day. They weren't keeping the laws of lash. Rather, this was group solidarity. We're in this together. That's why people ask and that they didn't speak that we find that when Mosher Rabenu killed the Egyptian. So who were fighting so uh they said to Mosha are you going to kill us the way you killed the Egyptian and Mosher Rabenu said ah that means they speak lash they spread it. So people ask the question the says they don't they don't speak but the answer is very simple they're not speaking was a group solidarity for all of those who were suffering as slaves Mosher Raen was an outsider he was growing up in Pyro court so it's not a from thing it's not we follow the rather all of these are what you might call ethnic identification premised on Jewish unity and a Israel. So now let's swing back to the Abarbanel and I hope you'll see how all of this fits in. If it is Yoseph's divine mission to give us the survival skills of navigating Gulas and Yoseph knows or Yoseph foresees that in the course of the Egyptian exile, we're going to lose all of our religious connection to Hashem. But the only thing that will save us is the unity and the avas Israel of keeping our name and keeping our language and wearing Jewish clothing. Then Yoseph cannot allow the exile to begin until he has determined that there is this capacity of love and unity within his people. Meaning as I say if the issue simply would have been that 10 guys did something bad for which they need to do chuva then it wouldn't have been Yoseph's business to manipulate them that way. But if Yoseph is the guardian of the survival skill that we will need to survive the gullus then we always say Hashem gives you the rafua gives you the the the cure before the sickness. Yoseph cannot allow cannot allow because once he reveals himself that begins the golas because Jacob is going to come down. Yoseph will not give the green light to golas until he is convinced that the brothers have overcome the hatred and the rivalry which resulted in Yseph. Because unless you overcome that hatred and rivalry, you're going to hit level 50. And if you hit level 50, you're going to be irredeemable. Okay. So yeah, if we ask the ka, is it Yoseph's business to make sure that his brothers do chuva? The answer is as a bunch of private people, it wouldn't be Yoseph's business. But as the seed of Amy Israel that will be going through an Egyptian exile, it 100% is Yoseph's business. And that is why it is so important that the galut cannot begin until the seed that will allow us to survive that galot is in place. That is the care and concern for Israel. And this is a very important point. The point basically is that redemption starts doesn't end. Remember the purpose of the Exodus as we'll see you know next week and the week after. The purpose of the Exodus is to accept the Torah, right? So obviously Jewish unity is not the end of the story, but it absolutely is the beginning of the story. There wouldn't have been a beginning without that unity. We would have been on level 50 had we not have the merit of language and names. And as I indicated, this was not from kite. This was group solidarity as it were a Israel as Benjamin Franklin remarked about the American Revolution and I I quote this very often. We all have to hang together or we will surely hang separately and that's kind of the motto of Jewish history. Um the newspapers in Israel used to I don't know if they still they probably still do. I haven't seen it recently. They used to run a survey of what people regarded as the biggest problems in Israeli society. It's a fairly big list as you might expect. Uh obviously there's some obvious issues, terrorism, war, uh Iran and nuclear weapons. Uh water is an issue in different parts of the country. Uh sometimes it's cost of housing other rights is a big thing. Uh, one time it was the price of butter and cottage cheese. I'm not sure why that would be the biggest problem, but there were people people who were concerned about about those things. Uh, but you know, the number one problem that is identified in every p every time this poll is given, the number one problem is the lack of unity and the sasum that exists among the Jewish people. And it makes no difference if the respondents are religious or datomi or secular. They all say the same thing that the number one problem is the lack of unity that there is a sense that when we are together blesses us and when we are apart we don't have all of those brahos and this is what yose has to assure before the gulus is allowed is allowed to begin as I say this is a very apppropo thought as we approach Mikdash. It is true of course that the first B mikdash was destroyed because of the worst of Gilarayasim the worst of Aos. Uh but the second basik was destroyed because of this hatred and polarization. And the Gmoran Yuma says Boer come and see. The first basis was destroyed because of the worst of Aos. How long was that exile till the second temple was built? Only 70 years. The second base of mikdash that was destroyed because of it's already been very very close to 2,000 years. The second temple was destroyed between the years 68 and 70. So let's say let's go with 70 even. Right? So it's now the secular year is now 2025 almost 2026. So it's very close to 2,000 years. So the Gomorrah says in Y, you see what is the worst of aos? We got a reprieve after 70 years. And the truth is in the time of the Gomorrah, which was, you know, more than 1500 years ago, the Gomorrah already was wondering how long the gulos is because of sin. The Gamarra said it as a bitmia and we just now add on another 1500 years years to that in terms of what sin is. So so you know we make a big deal about anti-semitism. We make a big deal about the hatred of the nations towards us. But the truth is we need to be much more concerned about the hatred or at least the indifference. When I say hatred, I include indifference, coldness uh among us. That's a much more important thing to focus on than the hatred of the nations against us. No hatred of nations against us. Okay? You know, been there, done that. You know, uh that's uh that's the way it is. That's the way life is. And there's not a lot we can necessarily do about that. But the internal makus that's something we all need to think about very very much. So wish you all a good chabas, a good week and thank you. He burn my