Rav Chaim Ibn Attar, the Ohr HaChaim
The Ohr HaChaim asks an obvious question: All the time that Yosef was alive in Mitzrayim, his father Yaakov thought him dead, mourned for him and suffered (see Bereishis 45:26). What was the reason that Yosef refrained from contacting Yaakov? Why didn’t his father’s suffering and anguish move him to reveal that he was alive in Egypt?
This is how the Ohr HaChaim builds the question: While Yosef was enslaved we can rest assured that he was either unable to contact his father or that he tried but failed to do so. But once he was appointed as viceroy to Pharaoh we may question why he never wrote to Yaakov any letter to lessen his father’s anguish and suffering. Furthermore, during the years of famine, when there was constant traffic between Canaan and Mitzrayim, he could have contacted Yaakov. Once he met his brothers and recognized them, and discovered that his father was alive, he could have sent word to his father immediately! Who allowed Yosef to prolong Yaakov’s mourning and wait so long before revealing that he was alive?
The Ohr HaChaim gives several answers to this question:
Truly Hashem’s ways are many and varied, and He decreed that these events must unfold in this way. Because Yaakov himself spent twenty-two years away from his own father Yitzchok and was unable to honor him, he was repaid with twenty-two years of pain and suffering. Additionally, Hashem had decreed two hundred and ten years of exile, yet Yaakov had to descend with great wealth and honor. All these prophetic decrees would not have been fulfilled had Yaakov descended to Egypt sooner. However, these explanations are divine reasons why the scenario had to play out the way it did; they do not actually explain or justify Yosef’s own actions.
The Ohr HaChaim justifies Yosef’s behavior as praiseworthy. First, he says that Yosef feared for his life from his brothers. The Ohr HaChaim explains that as soon as Yosef was exiled in Egypt, he could not contact Yaakov because he feared that his brothers would discover his whereabouts. They had already attempted to take his life and had sold him into slavery. The brothers’ embarrassment at their actions against Yosef would be very great and Yosef feared their revenge. Yosef was worried that if he contacted Yaakov and his brothers discovered that he was alive they would track him down and attempt to finish him off! He also feared that Yaakov might curse his brothers and they would die, and that perhaps they would try to kill him before any of that occurred.
After he was released from prison and rose to a high-ranking position as viceroy, he was no longer concerned that he would be killed. He then held back from contacting his father for a different reason. Chazal say (Bova Metzia 59a), “Better that someone should fling himself into a fiery furnace than embarrass his friend publicly.” Yosef applied this dictum to himself and worried lest he embarrass his brothers before Yaakov, Yitzchok and any other members of his family. Perhaps he also still feared that they would attempt to kill him even now when he was viceroy; the Medrash Tanchuma says that the Maloch Gavriel had to scatter them to forestall their plot to harm Yosef. Yosef might have feared them even after the famine brought them to Egypt, until after he fed them and befriended them once more. But after showing them his mercy and love he was no longer afraid that they would harm him. All this was revealed to be Hashem’s way of running the world, arranging events through hashgocha protis so that they unfolded to fit the Master Plan. Then they no longer bore him any malice or grudge. This also removed any feelings of shame or embarrassment before Yaakov because everyone could clearly see the hand of Hashem in the way that history unfolded.
Still, the Tanchuma tells us that Hashem needed to send a Maloch to save Yosef. We also could not expect Yosef to rely on this Maloch who saved him before to save him again now, because we may not rely on miracles to save us. For these reasons, Yosef is blameless in not having contacted Yaakov.
Praises for the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh
The Holiest Place
It is said in the name of Rav Meir Abuchatzeira of Ashdod that the holiest place where tefillos are answered is the tziun of the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh. Some even say that the main reason Rav Yaakov Abuchatzeira traveled to Eretz Yisrael was to daven at the tziun of the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh. (Toldos Ohr HaChaim introduction)
Specializing in Peshat
I should point out that the commentary of the Ohr HaChaim is one of those specific commentaries that through Hashgocha Protis (Divine Providence) was printed together with the Chumash like the commentary of Rashi. It is therefore more connected to the simple, plain meaning (peshat) of the text more than other commentaries that were printed on their own. (Toras Menachem by Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Lubavitch)
Every Time a New Taste
Rav Moshe Weiss was a Chassid affectionately known as Reb Moshe Batlan (because he was always learning and botel from work). He was an expert in the Ohr HaChaim and was always studying it. He was so attached to the Ohr HaChaim that he knew it by heart and would often quote it verbatim. He would also teach from it, often adding his own comments and novel insights. When asked why he did not gather his comments and print them as a commentary to the Ohr HaChaim, he answered, “What can I do? Every time I learn the sefer Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh I find a new flavor; the explanations are fresh and different each time as well! The sefer Ohr HaChaim can be studied in the manner of Pardes – Peshat, Remez, Derush and Sod, simple straightforward meaning, hints and allusions, sermons and exegesis and the secrets of Kabbola. So why should I write a sefer when next time I study the sefer I will understand it in a whole new and different manner, and taste in it a brand new ta’am?!” (Ner HaMaaravi 429)
