ויאמר ישראל אל יוסף הלוא אחיך רעים בשכם לכה ואשלחך אליהם
As far as the brothers were concerned, Yosef snitched on them – he told their father that they had sinned. There was no love lost between Yosef and his brothers. Since there was an obvious dislike, to put it mildly, why did Yaakov Avinu send Yosef to check on his brothers? Wasn’t Yaakov Avinu concerned that perhaps the brothers might harm Yosef?
Yaakov knew that they did not have a good relationship, but he also knew that these were the Shivtei Koh, holy individuals. Certainly, they would never harm Yosef, as that would be against the Torah. The brothers were indeed holy individuals. However, it appears that in this scenario, their generally excellent thought process was clouded due to their intense dislike for Yosef. The brothers sat in din Torah and paskened that Yosef was a rodef; he was chasing after them. He was telling their father that they were sinning, when, in fact, they had done no evil. Thus, they felt compelled to act in this manner. When they threw him into a pit with snakes and scorpions, they firmly believed that Hashem runs the world. If indeed Yosef’s dreams were real nevuah, then certainly they would come to fruition, and no animals would be able to stop them. If they were a nevuah, no harm would come to Yosef from the animals, for he would become king.
The brothers thought that this was a great way to test out if Yosef was indeed correct, and either way, they were doing no wrong. If indeed Yosef was a rodef, and the dreams were nothing more than dreams, then the animals would kill him, a just punishment for his actions. If he was really innocent, and his dreams were accurate, he would be saved from the animals.
The Maharsha says that when one is mispallel that he be saved from something, it does not decrease his merits. This rule applies any time one is mispallel, for tefillah is part of the natural order of the world, and it works. The brothers knew that if Yosef was really innocent, he would be mispallel and would not be harmed and would not lose any of his zechuyos. This was all part of the master plan of Hashem that would send Klal Yisroel down to Mitzrayim and, ultimately, to the geulah of Mitzrayim, which was followed by Matan Torah.
Chanukah is for eight nights, while the miracle of one day’s oil lasting for eight nights was only a miracle for seven days. That tefillah works is considered part of the natural order of the world, but really it isn’t. We must realize that it is all from Hashem, and when He answers our tefillos, that is a miracle, just as other “miracles” are. Chazal tell us that Klal Yisroel had the koach of tefillah at that time. They were mispallel to Hashem with great intensity and were zoche to win a completely lopsided battle, a battle in which they should have been crushed. Instead, they returned with a great victory. They were mispallel that they should find oil, and they found for one night. It did not detract from the zechuyos, but was nonetheless a miracle, and thus we have Chanukah for eight nights.
May we be zoche to tap into the great power of tefillah, and may we be mispallel with great intensity that Hashem take us out of this dark golus and that we be zoche to the geulah shelaima, במהרה בימינו אמן!
RABBI YAKOV YOSEF SCHECHTER
