Rabbotai, let’s try to understand this Mishna. Similar to the question asked on Rabbi Yishmael, why was there a need to ask in Heaven as to the decree’s validity? Why did Rabbi Chananya not turn to his tormentor, and with one glance send him off to his next world? Why did he not include the entire wicked empire at the same time, wiping them from the face of this earth and saving additional tzaddikim in the process? Why did he, the most righteous distributor of tzedakah, choose to subject himself to the act of this evil executioner when the very same skills used to verify the decree could eliminate the predicament altogether?
If the punishment was due, it would come to fruition. If not – not. Why, in both cases, was there a need to verify in Heaven? What is the meaning behind the manner in which these stories played out and are recounted?
The answer is simple. These Tanaim and tzaddikim had no issue whatsoever taking the executioner, Lupidos, and any other adversaries out. It would take hardly any effort to turn them all into a bag of bones. One of the ten tzaddikim, with one of their eyes, could have sent Lupidos, his family, and his palace to the World where all is Good, and their act would merely be added to a lengthy list of such examples already found in the Gemara. No sweat. But they needed to know if נִגְזַר הַדָּבָר מִמְּרוֹמִים – if it was a Heavenly decree, and if it was so, נִסְבֹּל בִּגְזֵרַת מָלֵא רַחֲמִים – they’d accept it with love because that was Hakadosh Baruch Hu’s will. They would not interfere in His plans, nor try to alter them in any way such as heating up the flames.
כִּי בְּזֹאת אַתֶּם נִלְכָּדִים – this was meant to be.
Rav Elya Lopian says, the Midrash says (Naso), all the tribes offered the same gift during the inauguration of the Mishkan but each tribe had its own unique intent behind their gift. What was Reuven thinking?
כַּף אַחַת עֲשָׂרָה זָהָב מְלֵאָה קְטֹרֶת׃
One spoon of ten gold shekalim, filled with incense.
The Midrash says, he was thinking וְיָד אַל תִּשְׁלְחוּ בוֹ – and lay no hand upon him, just as he instructed his brothers when they were plotting against Yosef. כַּף אַחַת – one hand do not lay on him! עֲשָׂרָה זָהָב – he save his brothers from death, which they’d be subject to if they touched Yosef. The gold in question, according to the Midrash, was a red-colored gold, like the blood they were stopped from shedding. מְלֵאָה קְטֹרֶת – when accused by Yosef of being spies, the brothers finally owned up to their guilt:
וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל־אָחִיו אֲבָל אֲשֵׁמִים אֲנַחְנוּ עַל־אָחִינוּ אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ צָרַת נַפְשׁוֹ בְּהִתְחַנְּנוֹ אֵלֵינוּ וְלֹא שָׁמַעְנוּ עַל־כֵּן בָּאָה אֵלֵינוּ הַצָּרָה הַזֹּאת׃
And they said one to another, Truly, we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
While sitting in jail, they each performed introspection and the only sin (left) with which they could identify, was their treatment of Yosef. The Midrash says they were tzaddikim other than this lone sin. Who here can stand up and identify their one and only sin? The idea is so that we react by laughing. Yet, these adults, in their forties and fifties, had one mere sin attached to their names and souls. Mechirat Yosef.
And here we are. We’ve arrived at the answer to the question of what suddenly changed in the communication between Yehuda and Yosef. Why did the dialogue shift from courtesy and respect to grave threats?
The tribes looked in the mirror and determined they were at fault for at first declaring their brother liable of death, and then downgrading his punishment – as if no longer believing their cause was just – to being sold off into slavery. The punishment due for that act was equal to the act itself – they were subject to becoming slaves. They contemplated their original motive in confronting Yosef, having accused him of being a spy and reporting back to their father what he had seen but not properly understood (vis a vis their true actions).
And now, Yosef was falsely accusing them of the same – of being spies. They threw Yosef into a pit, and now he turned the tables and placed them in jail – a glorified pit with no amenities – to defend against the same accusation. Shimon was the one who threw him into the pit, and now Shimon was the one who’d remain in the pit while his brothers travelled home.
Upon returning with Binyamin, the goblet was placed in his bag, and the brothers now said to one another, “We sold our brother into slavery; הָאֱלֹהִים מָצָא אֶת־עֲוֺן עֲבָדֶיךָ – this is it, it’s now our time to pay the price. If we sold him into slavery, our punishment is to become slaves ourselves.” Thus, Yehuda offered them all up as slaves to Yosef:
הִנֶּנּוּ עֲבָדִים לַאדֹנִי גַּם־אֲנַחְנוּ גַּם אֲשֶׁר־נִמְצָא הַגָּבִיעַ בְּיָדוֹ׃
Here we are, then, slaves of my lord, the rest of us as much as he in whose possession the goblet was found.”
But Yosef refused the offer, countering that only Binyamin would become a slave while the rest עֲלוּ לְשָׁלוֹם אֶל אֲבִיכֶם – would return home in peace. What was Yosef really telling his brothers in this modified plan? He was informing them this was not a גְזֵרָה מִמְּרֹמִים – a decree from Heaven. If it was, they’d all be slaves just as they had figured. But instead, the only individual not tied to Mechirat Yosef and who did not participate in the act – i.e., Binyamin – was to become the slave. Rav Lopian says, just like the Aseret Harugei Malchut, and just like Rabbi Chananya ben Tradyon, had it been a decree from Heaven, they’d have accepted it without any hesitation or opposition! But the very moment Yosef refused to accept that plan and instead pointed to Binyamin, all bets were off. They now knew this was not a decree from Heaven.
As a result, Yehuda approached Yosef and the conversation began anew, with a different tone and different terms:
“Do you know who I am? I am Yehuda. בִּי אֲדֹנִי – in my name are the four letters of G-d – yud and heh and vav and heh – along with a dalet in the middle symbolizing David HaMelech. David HaMelech and the Mashiach are here with me, in my hands. I am now warning you. If you do not release Binyamin, in the same way Moshe Rabbeinu sends the Egyptian to his next world, so, too, I will do to you! With the same סִלּוּדִים uttered by Rabbi Yishmael in the Heavens, I will destroy two – both you and Pharoah!”
בִּי אֲדֹנִי – with the name of his Master, embedded in his name and in his hand, Yehuda threatened to end this entire affair after determining it was not decreed from Heaven.
Rabbotai, after this wonderful introduction, we can enter the topic of the day being observed this week, Asara B’Tevet. We are currently in the midst of three days of mourning. Why three days? On the eighth of Tevet, the Torah was translated into Yevanit. On the ninth of Tevet, Ezra HaSofer died. And on the tenth of Tevet, the siege on Yerushalayim began.
