Rabeinu Bachyei
ויעל יוסף לקבור את אביו, “Yosef went up in order to bury his father.” (Bereshis 50,7)
We find that nine groups of people traveled to Canaan to bury Yaakov and to eulogize him. These nine categories of people are hinted at in the text as follows:
- Yosef went up to bury his father (verse 7).
- All the servants of Pharoh went up with him, i.e. the ministers;
- the elders of Pharoh’s palace.
- The elders of the land of Egypt;
- the whole household of Yosef, (verse 8) his wife and her servant maids and the children.
- Yosef’s brothers;
- his father’s household;
- a military escort (verse 9) traveling in chariots.
- a cavalry escort.
ויספדו שם מספד גדול וכבד מאד, “they held there a very great and solemn eulogy.” Bereshis 50,10
There were nine types of eulogies (corresponding to the nine categories of mourners who had come from Egypt). In Hebrew they are known as מספד, נהי, צעקה, הילל, נידה, מרזה, קינים, הגה, והי. [He proceeds to quote verses showing that these various terms for “eulogy” occur scattered throughout Tanach]
Bereshis 50,17: So, shall you say to Yosef, ‘Forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly.’ Therefore, please forgive the offense of the servants of the G-d of your father.” And Yosef was in tears as they spoke to him.
“And Yosef wept when they were speaking to him.” As soon as the brothers merely mentioned the name of their father Yosef already started weeping. This was due to the great love he had for his now departed father. This stirred his sense of compassion, especially seeing that his brothers asked his forgiveness. The Torah does not spell out that Yosef actually forgave his brothers. Our sages (Bava Kama 92) point out that if a person has wronged his fellow man and regrets this wrong and determines not to act in the manner which had offended his fellow man he is not forgiven by G-d until after he has made an effort to obtain forgiveness by the aggrieved party first. At any rate, the Torah is not on record anywhere that Yosef did forgive his brothers. This was the reason why the sin committed against Yosef resulted in the ten martyrs being executed by torture at the hands of the Romans.
I tend to think that of the word פשע in this verse contains an allusion. This sin could be divided into two parts. 1) the sin of the brothers including the unwitting part of it in their capacity as Yosef’s brothers. 2) The sin in their capacity as servants of the L-rd G-d whom their father Yaakov revered. Had the Torah not wanted to hint that part of those sins had not been forgiven it should have written merely ועתה שא נא לפשעם, “and now, please, do forgive their sin (singular).”
The wording before us appears to make G-d’s forgiveness conditional on Yosef’s forgiveness. In other words: “if you Yosef forgive the sin of the brothers against you, then I G-d, will be able to forgive their sin seeing they are servants of the same G-d as your father Yaakov.” The concise meaning of the verse is: “the sin of the servants of your father’s G-d is the one they committed against their brother.”
