When Yosef finally revealed his identity to his brothers, he announced to them, “I am your brother, Yosef, whom you sold to Egypt” (45:4). The Sefas Emes raises the question of why Yosef emphasized at this moment that they had sold him as a slave. In the very next passuk, he urged them not to feel ashamed or overcome by guilt over what they did to him because Hashem arranged that this should happen in order to rescue Egypt and the world from hunger. It was because they sold him as a slave to Egypt that he ended up interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams and foreseeing the seven famine years, which in turn led to his storing grain to save the region from starvation. Yosef therefore assured his brothers that this was Hashem’s plan, such that they would not wallow in guilt over what they did to him.
If Yosef’s purpose at this point was to ease his brothers’ concerns and assure them that they had no reason to feel ashamed, why did he make a point of emphasizing, אני יוסף אשר מכרתם למצרים, “I am Yosef whom you sold to Mitzrayim,” that they had sold him to Mitzrayim as a slave?
The Sefas Emes answers this question by offering a fascinating, novel interpretation to this passuk. He notes that the word אשר can sometimes mean “because of.” Accordingly, the Sefas Emes suggests reading Yosef’s remark to mean, “I am your brother Yosef because you sold me to Egypt.” Yosef was telling his brothers that he became the person he became, the outstanding, righteous figure that Yosef was, specifically because of the ordeals that he endured. It was a result of his struggles and hardship that he grew and developed into Yosef Ha’tzaddik. Of course, he did not want all this to happen, and it was not pleasant going through everything he went through. But over the course of this difficult, painful process, Yosef became Yosef, the extraordinary figure that he was.
Many of us have many regrets, and we wish that many things that happened in our past would not have happened. We sometimes think, “If only my parents had raised me differently,” “If only I had better teachers,” “If only I had a better group of friends,” and so on. But the truth is that everything in our lives, even that which we would have preferred to have unfolded differently, contributed to building us into the people that we are and contributed to our growth.
While we certainly do not hope for difficult challenges and crises, when we face hardship, we must embrace it as an opportunity for growth, an occasion to build ourselves into the great people that we are capable of becoming.
RABBI ZVI SOBOLOFSKY
RABBI EFREM GOLDBERG
