ולא יכל יוסף להתאפק לכל הנצבים עליו ויקרא הוציאו כל איש מעלי ולא עמד איש אתו בהתודע יוסף אל אחיו
“Yosef could no longer withhold his emotions, and he commanded everybody to leave the room, and there was no person in the room when revealed his identity to his brothers.” (Bereishis 45:1)
Parshas Miketz ends dramatically, with Yosef's servant (his son Menashe) overtaking his brothers on their return trip and “discovering” that Binyomin stole Yosef's divining goblet, which would presumably require the brothers to leave him in Egypt and return empty-handed to their inconsolable father. Parshas Vayigash continues the action and begins with Yehuda's heartrending plea for mercy for Binyomin, in which he explained to Yosef the potentially fatal consequences to Yaakov of returning home without Binyomin and suggested that he remain as a servant to Yosef instead of Binyomin.
Upon hearing this, Yosef was so overwhelmed by emotion that he could no longer restrain himself, and he commanded everybody to leave the room. He then revealed his true identity to his brothers, and the Torah stresses that there was no איש - person in the room when he did so. This is difficult to understand. If Yosef, who was the second-most powerful person in all of Egypt, gave an order for all of those present to go out, isn't it self-evident that nobody would remain in the room in violation of his instructions? What lesson is the Torah teaching by emphasizing this point?
Rav Shmuel Brazil explains that when tragedy and suffering strike, in order to avoid the discomfort of grappling with feelings of guilt, human nature is to seek out an excuse or a scapegoat on which to place the blame, reasoning that the situation would have turned out differently if not for a certain person's involvement or a set of unanticipated circumstances. However, this approach displays a lack of proper emunah and bitachon (belief and trust in Hashem), as a person who truly recognizes that everything that occurs in life emanates from Hashem will not look to excuse and rationalize events by blaming them on others.
In this light, we can appreciate that in Yosef's case, it would have been easy for him to partially attribute his being sold into slavery and eventually imprisoned in Egypt on an unexpected turn of events. His father had instructed him to travel to Shechem to check on his brothers' well-being, but when he arrived there, they were nowhere to be found. At that point, one would have expected Yosef to return safely to his home to inform Yaakov that he was unable to locate his brothers.
Instead, the Torah recounts (37:15) that Yosef met an איש in Shechem, who informed him that his brothers had moved on from Shechem to Dosan. Rashi explains that this איש wasn't an ordinary man, but the angel Gavriel, who was sent by Hashem as part of His master plan to ensure that Yosef would end up in Egypt.
With this introduction, Rav Brazil suggests that when Yosef finally revealed himself to his brothers and explained to them the entire complex chain of events which led up to this episode, it would have been natural for him to place part of the blame for his ordeal on this איש. However, on Yosef's lofty spiritual level, he accepted that everything that transpired was decreed by Hashem and did not try to pin responsibility for his suffering on his brothers for selling him or even on the well-intentioned איש who led him into their hands. This is what the Torah means when it stresses that there was no איש in the room when Yosef disclosed his identity: He accepted that all of the suffering that he endured was part of Hashem's master plan, and he did not attempt to blame anyone, even the איש, for everything that happened to him.
Many times in life we are tested with difficult and challenging situations. Our evil inclinations work to convince us that our suffering is unnecessary, and if only somebody had acted differently, our pain and distress could have been avoided. At such moments, we should remind ourselves of the lesson of Yosef, who teaches us not to place blame and fault on others, but rather to accept Hashem's decrees and judgments, which are ultimately for the good. (R’ Ozer Alport)
