Why Didn't Joseph Phone Home? (Debate) - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

so Judah approaches Joseph and gives him a background about the situation to explain why he's uh you know about to offer himself up as a guarantor for Benjamin explaining that Benjamin had a brother who had been torn to bits by wild animals which by the way Joseph only learned right then he never knew what the story was given or what what happened after his sale into slavery at all I think sometimes we forget that and that Joseph wasn't really privy to what happened back at the Israelite Camp after he was sold anyways um I want to open a parenthesis because there's an a a question that I've had many years and I'm sometimes dabble at answering it and I feel like this year I actually got a pretty good answer to it and it seems sort of obvious but the question is why did Joseph never uh go back to his father yaakov when he rose to power he could have or at least he could have said word right is this a question that any of you have thought of that question like why Joseph was living in the palace and Jacob is still suffering why he didn't say anything a lot of hands I see going up here so a beautiful and I think seemingly obvious reason I encountered is because he knew that if he returned or even sent word it would rip the family apart it would come to light what the brothers did to him and casting him into the pin selling him into slavery and so to protect his brothers from abject humiliation and embarrassment to that be the best of it even from perhaps being disowned he held his tongue by the way much like what his mother Rachel did uh for their mother right the brother there's mother Leia when she shared the passwords to spare her humiliation and embarrassment well and it's a little bit more than ironic that his brothers perceived him as a gossip-bearing tattletale that was constantly informing on them to their father and here he was remaining in Egypt and estranged from his father and his family all these years in order not to tell him to that reason like sort of resonate with you it makes sense intuitively what what would I like I like I like that reason but I just want to offer an alternative because it better not be better than the reason I just shared it's not better it's just the exact opposite and it's okay because we can sort of hold both of those together and it just adds different dimensions to the story but what to heal and I were talking about over Shabbat is that it could be that Joseph thought that his father didn't want him and that just like the way that Ishmael was sent off and the way that ASAP was sort of cast away and not a part of the nation that after Joseph had his you know Big Dreams the parents he may sound like wow maybe I'm done with like my father did send me out alone why did he send me out to my brothers who he knew didn't like me maybe it was really a part of a familial plan and I meant to be the Ishmael and the ASAP of this family and I meant to be cast out so okay I'm cast out the reason I didn't share that because I actually thought of it wrote it up thought it through and then I cut it out because it's so uh it's just not true okay Joseph knew his father loved him he knew he was his favorite his father's they had that relationship you know the the way I heard that reason is that he only exposed himself to his brothers and shared who he was once his brother Judah said we had a brother that was ripped up by wild animals and he never heard that before I was like oh that's why first of all I I really agree with what you're saying it could be that yours I mean I don't know what the word true means because how will we know but I do want to say though that Abraham loved Ishmael he was really really sad he was upset with Sarah and I think maybe even with God that he was being commanded to send Ishmael away like it could be that Jacob loved Joseph that's like that's not contested but yet still for whatever Divine ordinance because of the dreams because Judah was supposed to be the leader but Joseph was so much more competent and maybe I don't know what might have been arise in his mind but it's not fair to say that it's not a possibility it really could be that Joseph didn't know and he lived that entire time really feeling betrayed and lost to the whole family it could be that could be but I think it's pretty universally rejected that opinion at least I universally rejected but that being said when we're talking about casting blame if I go over time it's your fault Jeremy but I do encourage you to continue adding in because it makes it more fun and exciting but I thought of sharing that idea and I didn't because it just to me it's too out there and it doesn't seem it doesn't feel true to me anyways um so there was this situation that he didn't want to tell his his father uh what happened to his brother so what could redeem the seemingly irredeemable situation well we see that in chapter 44 verses 32 and 33 it says explains to Joseph who he of course fully believes is the Egyptian Viceroy he says for your servant took responsibility for the for the Youth for my father saying if I do not bring him back to you then I will have sinned to my father for all time now therefore please let your servant remain instead of the youth as a servant to my Lord and let the youth go up with his brothers this was all Joseph needed to hear this was it this is the reason that he shared who he was at that point at this point it was clear that Judah and by extension the brothers had repented not just with words but truly repented because uh what is true repentance as you said Jeremy what's chuva Gomorrah true repentance is when you're placed in the same situation and when when she once failed and what you once sinned and now you decide to take the path of righteousness exactly opposites the path you took at the initial sin and