At the end of last week’s Parsha the Shevatim (tribes) come back to Mitzrayim because Yosef’s silver cup was found in Binyamin’s bag. Yehuda tells Yosef that they are all to become slaves to Yosef. Yosef replies that only the ‘thief’ Binyamin has to become a slave but all the other brothers can go back home to their father.
Yehuda begins a dialogue with Yosef how Binyamin cannot leave his father as it is dangerous for Yaakov’s health. Instead Yehuda offers to be a slave instead.
The Midrash adds that the dialogue became very heated up and was heading towards a dangerous battle of the Shevatim who were very strong against Yosef, Mitzrayim and Pharaoh.
Yosef had no choice and had to reveal his identity to his brothers.
This Parsha needs a lot of explanation why Yosef was trying to hide his identity from his brothers. However there is a different point that we are going to focus on.
When Yosef revealed himself to his brothers they were in terrible shock, they couldn’t even talk. The dreams of Yosef had become true, everything fitted into place. But naturally they expected that Yosef hated them in his heart and may want to take revenge. After all, the brothers had sold him as a slave and they were the cause of so many years of suffering he went through, in the house of Potifar and in the jail in Mitzrayim.
But Yosef said an amazing thing to his brothers.
“You weren’t the ones that sent me here to Mitzrayim, it was Hashem.”
Yosef had reached a very great spiritual level in Emunah. He explained to his brothers that although they hated him, plotted to kill him, then selling him and being the cause of his suffering. But in reality it wasn’t them. They were only the messengers fulfilling the plan of Hashem that he arrives in Mitrayim.
Hashem had a plan. Hashem fulfilled His plan using the Shevatim. Yosef explained to his brothers that if it wasn’t the plan of Hashem what was meant to happen to him, they would have never been able to do anything to him, nor cause him any harm.
So, although the Shevatim had personal motives for what they did, Yosef was on a higher to understand the depth of what was really happening, and wasn’t carried away by what looked like an act of hate and revenge.
By Rabbi Dovid Caro
This is a very powerful message for us.
So many times, things occur in our lives that is so obvious that someone was trying to cause us harm or suffering. We have so many people to blame for what they wanted to do to us and cause us damage or pain. But our Avodas Hashem is to come to the recognition that if Hashem didn’t want it to happen to us, it could have never happened. And if it did, it was because that’s what Hashem wanted. So really it’s irrelevant what were the intentions of the person that Hashem used as our Nisayon. We have to come to the recognition that Hashem wants something from us.
Then there is another point.
Al the way through, it looked like so many bad things were happening. But if we look a bit further and see the outcome we can see that Hashem had a plan that was for the good. Hashem had His reasons why He did it in such a way but in the end it was for the good.
Yosef was sold as a slave, in the end he became the second to the king and the one responsible for the food of the whole world.
He was in jail and in the end from sitting in jail he ended up becoming second to the king.
Yaakov thought his Yosef was killed. But in the end Yosef was the one that provided them with food and was there in Mitzrayim when Yaakov came so he could set up everyone in a good way.
Obviously the suffering endured on the way was for a reason but in the end the outcome was good.
So too we go through so many difficult times in our lives but our purpose is to reach the understanding that everything Hashem does is for our benefit and our good. At times it may take a few years till we see it, sometimes it may take a whole lifetime and it sometimes we may only find out in Olam Haba. But here and there Hashem shows us how the bad was really for our good so that we can see that really Hashem always means our good.
