”ואתם חשבתם עלי רעה, אלקים חשבה לטובה למען עשה כיום הזה 50:20 להחיות עם רב“
“And you intended to harm me, Hashem intended it for good; in order to accomplish, it is as this day, that a vast people be kept alive.” Yosef tells his brothers that you thought to do evil to me, however Hashem wanted good for me – for I would be the one who would sustain many. Why does Yosef mention to the brothers that they thought to do evil to him, instead of just focusing on the positive that Hashem wanted good for him, and thus it was all good?
“And Yosef’s brothers saw that their father was dead, and they said: Perhaps Yosef will nurse hatred against us and then he will surely repay us all the evil that we did to him.” The posuk uses a double Lashon of, “והשב ישיב”. It says in the Yalkut Shimoni 150 that even after Yosef revealed himself to the brothers, they still wanted to kill him. They were sticking to their error, that the judgment they gave was correct, and that Yosef was a Rasha. They thought that Yosef should try to appease them, as he had said Lashon Hara about them. At the same time, Yosef thought the exact opposite. He believed that the brothers owed him an apology, and they should be appeasing him for their evil acts against him. The brothers thought, “והשב” – although Yosef should be seeking to do Teshuva for what he did to them, “ישיב לנו” – nonetheless, he will seek to repay us with all the evil he perceives we did to him. (מהר"י שטייף)
His brothers clearly had evil intentions against him, although they felt that they had a right to those feelings and were justified. Yosef was telling the brothers that in fact they were wrong, and they needed to do Teshuva for it. Yosef was humble and was not saying that he was great, while they were not. Yosef tells them that Hashem did good for him on behalf of the many. He was being humble and saying that it was not in his Zechus that Hashem did good for him, rather it was just that he is a messenger for the many. However, Yosef was pointing out to the brothers that by the fact that Hashem did not allow evil to befall him despite their intentions, that is the proof that they were wrong. Thus, Yosef was telling the brothers that while he did not have anything personal against them, they needed to do Teshuva.
There are times that we get so caught up in something, that we cannot see clearly. We think that we acted properly, while in fact we did not. Hashem sends us signs, sometimes faint ones and other times strong ones, that we in fact did wrong and must atone for it. We must be humble and be ready to see the truth, so that we can do Teshuva when we do wrong. When one is not convinced he actually sinned, he won’t be able to do a proper Teshuva, for in his mind, perhaps he did nothing wrong. May we be Zoche to have our eyes open and recognize what we need to do Teshuva for, and then achieve it.
- RABBI YAKOV YOSEF SCHECHTER
