And Yehuda approached (44:18)
The Medrash (Bereishis Rabbah 93:2) reads the encounter between Yosef and Yehuda into the following pessukim in Tehillim. The passuk says (Tehillim 48:5-7), “Behold the kings assembled.” This refers to Yosef, who was the king of Egypt, and Yehuda, who was the king of the brothers. The passuk continues, “They came together.” The Medrash translates the word עברו, which usually means “come together,” to mean that they became angry, from the word עברה. This means that Yehuda and Yosef became furious with each other during this confrontation. The passuk continues, “They watched and were astounded” – this refers to the brothers who were witnessing this confrontation. “They were stunned and fled in haste” – this, as well, refers to the brothers. “Trembling gripped them there” – this too, is a reference to the brothers.
The Zera Shimshon explains this Medrash in a very interesting way. He writes that the brothers were surprised with Yehuda’s display of anger and tried to understand which category of anger it went under. The Mishnah (Avos 5:10) describes that there are four ways that people get angry.
- One who is quick to get angry and quick to be appeased. His bad trait of being quick to anger is countered by being quickly appeased.
- One who is slow to anger and slow to being appeased. His good trait is countered by his bad trait.
- One who is slow to anger and quick to be appeased. This is a righteous individual.
- One who is quick to anger and slow to being appeased. This is a wicked person.
The Zera Shimshon explains that when the brothers witnessed Yehuda’s explosion into anger, they did not hear the give and take between Yehuda and Yosef (this is the understanding of the Zera Shimshon) and therefore were surprised by Yehuda’s behavior. Since he was a righteous person, he should not have gotten angry so quickly. This is how the Zera Shimshon explains what the Medrash says, “They watched and were astounded” – this refers to the brothers who were witnessing this confrontation and were surprised by Yehuda’s anger.
The Medrash continues, “They were stunned and fled in haste” – this, as well, refers to the brothers. The Zera Shimshon explains this to mean that although it seemed to the brothers that Yehuda was quick to anger, they were sure that since he was a righteous person, he would calm down just as quickly (otherwise falling into category 4). The words “.... and fled in haste,” the Zera Shimshon explains to mean that the brothers held that the anger would leave in haste.
Then, when the brothers realized the reason for Yehuda’s anger and that it was the recounting of the sequence of events that angered him more and more as he spoke, this rendered him as one who is in reality slow to anger. On this realization, the Medrash says, “Trembling gripped them there” – this too, is a reference to the brothers. Now they were concerned that perhaps Yehuda would be slow to be appeased, and they were afraid of this.
In other words, the same way they assumed that if he was quick to get angry, they could assume that he would be quick to be appeased. Now, when they realized that he was slow to anger, they were nervous that perhaps he would also be slow to be appeased.
The Zera Shimshon strongly implies that the fear mentioned in the Medrash was over the middos, and not over a possible outcome of Yehuda’s anger. With everything going on, the brothers were concerned about Yehuda not falling prey to the terrible trait of anger.
ZERA SHIMSHON
ZERA SHIMSHON SHIUR BY RABBI SIMCHA BUNIM BURGER
THURSDAY 8:15 PM - 9:15 PM (20 Upstairs)
