2025/5785
In our Parashah, Parashat VaYigash, Yehudah approaches Yosef to defend Binyamin. During his defense, Yehudah refers to Yaakov as “Avdecha Avinu,” “Our father, your servant” (BeReishit 44:31). The Gemara (Sotah 13b) criticizes Yosef for not intervening to protect the honor of his father. The Gemara explains that this is the reason Yosef’s body is referred to as Atzmot Yosef, the bones of Yosef, even in his lifetime. This raises the question of how someone like Yosef was not careful about the Kavod of his father?
Furthermore, the Midrash quotes Rabi Yishmael who says regarding the ten times the brothers referred to Yosef as Avadachecha, Yosef did not say anything against it, and as a result Yosef lost ten years of his life. Why did Yosef not speak up?
A simple answer is that Yosef wanted to be absolutely certain that his brothers had done complete Teshuvah.
When Yosef finally reveals himself to his brothers, the Pasuk says “”VeLo Yachol Yosef Lehdapek”, “Now Yosef could not restrain himself” (BeReishit 45:1). We see from the Pasuk that Yosef had been forcing self-restraint from revealing himself, which he could no longer hold in.
We therefore need to understand why his brothers’ Teshuvah was more important to Yosef than protecting his father’s honor.
This was a crucial moment not only for the brothers but for all of Am Yisrael, because it was the beginning of Galut Mitzrayim. Yosef realized that the only way for Bnei Yisrael to leave Mitzrayim was to be unified. Since Yosef realized that this was crucial to the Exodus, he was willing to sacrifice his years to make sure the Achim learned from their mistake. Once Yosef knew that they had learned from their mistake, he was filled with emotion because he knew that the Geulah would be able to come.
We should learn from Yosef and the brothers to fix our mistakes, and hopefully, BeEzrat Hashem soon, we will be able to bring the ultimate Geulah.