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Wisdom for Living
Rabbi Noah Weinberg on the Parashah
10 min read
God is always sending us messages through His Divine Providence. But what do we need to do in order to understand His messages clearly? The saga of Yosef and his brothers gives us a critical insight regarding how to decipher God’s messages to us.
After Yosef’s brothers falsely accused him of being a megalomaniac with fanciful dreams of ruling over them, they sold him into slavery. Yosef was separated from his beloved father for 22 years, and eventually became the viceroy in Egypt. There was famine in the land that forced his brothers to go down to Egypt to get food. Upon seeing them, Yosef devised a scheme to make them realize that they had misjudged him, and cause them to do teshuvah, repent.
Yosef’s brothers were great men, the future progenitors of the Jewish people, who lived with a constant awareness of Hashem’s presence in their lives. They knew that life is not a series of random events and that everything that happens is orchestrated by Hashem and contains a message.
But for some reason, no matter what events God and Yosef conspired to bring upon his 10 brothers, they never fully got the message that Yosef's dreams were actually prophetic. It never occurred to them that they had completely misjudged him when they labeled him a usurper who was trying to push them out of the children of Israel.
Their first recognition that they had done something wrong is recorded in Parashas Vayeishev, when Yehudah was removed from power: "It was at that time that Yehudah went down from his brothers" (Bereishis 38:1). Rashi comments: "Why was this section placed here, where it interrupts the section dealing with Yosef? To teach us that [Yehudah’s] brothers demoted him from his high position when they saw their father’s pain. They said, 'You told us to sell him. Had you told us to return him, we would have obeyed you.'”
They did not recognize that it was wrong to sell Yosef; they realized only that they were wrong to cause their father such pain.
The second time they recognized that they had erred was when they went to Egypt to purchase food, after God brought a famine to the region. "So Yosef’s brothers – ten of them – went down to buy grain" (ibid 42:3). Why does the Torah refer to them as "Yosef's brothers" and not the sons of Yaakov? Rashi, based on the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 91:6), explains: "They regretted selling him and decided to behave toward him in a brotherly manner and to ransom him for whatever price would be demanded of them." Twenty-two years after selling Yosef, they took to heart Hashem's message that they should go find him and redeem him. The pain they had caused was too great, and now they wanted to correct their misdeed.
In Egypt, they were falsely accused of being spies. All ten brothers were placed in prison for three days until Yosef decided to detain only Shimon – the brother who actually threw Yosef into the pit – while the others headed back to Yaakov. Once again they realized that Hashem was sending them a message, and they asked themselves, "Why is this happening to us? What is the message?" The Torah says, "They then said to one another, ‘Indeed we are guilty concerning our brother inasmuch as we saw his heartfelt anguish when he pleaded with us and we paid no heed; that is why this anguish has come upon us" (ibid 42:21). Nine of the brothers said it was their fault because they did not have mercy on their brother. They got part of the message. Reuven, the oldest brother, went even further and told them that they were wrong in their judgment about Yosef. But they still did not put all the pieces together; they did not realize that Yosef was standing before them.
After money was discovered in each of their sacks, they were again falsely accused of stealing. "Their hearts sank, and they turned trembling one to another, saying, 'What is this that God has done to us?'" (ibid 42:28). They were afraid; they realized something was happening, but they still could not connect all the dots.
Then Yosef did something that only someone intimately familiar with the sons of Yaakov could have done: he sat them around the table according to their order of birth. "They were seated before him, the firstborn according to his seniority and the youngest according to his youth. The men looked at one another in astonishment" (ibid 43:33). What are the odds of getting this order right? Who else could have known this information besides a member of Yaakov’s family? How obvious can it get? But the brothers still did not dream that the viceroy in front of them was their brother Yosef!
And finally, Binyamin was set up with the viceroy’s cup and taken captive. The brothers mistakenly assumed that he was guilty, but they did realize that they had to fight for him. Seeing their commitment to their brother, Yosef could no longer withhold his identity, and he finally revealed himself to them: "Ani Yosef – ha’od avi chai? I am Yosef – is my father still alive?"
The ten brothers were great men who continuously strove to understand the deeper meaning behind God’s Providence. Why did they not grasp what the Almighty was telling them? Why did they not realize that the viceroy was none other than Yosef?
Had they just asked themselves one question, it would have been impossible for them to miss the message. That question was: Is it possible that Yosef's dreams were really prophetic? Once they asked themselves that question, they would then have had to ask themselves: If the dreams were prophetic, and we were destined to bow down before Yosef, could it be that the man who somehow knew the order of our births, the man we bowed down to – just as Yosef’s dream depicted – is actually Yosef? All the pieces would have suddenly clicked, and they would have realized how badly they misjudged Yosef 22 years earlier. They would have understood that the viceroy chose to leave Shimon behind bars since he was the one who cast Yosef into the pit and said to Levi, “Look! That dreamer is coming!” (ibid 37:19). It would have explained all the false accusations leveled at them, as well as why they were being forced to defend Binyamin.
Had they at some point reconsidered their original judgment of Yosef and entertained the possibility that their assessment of him as a usurper was wrong, they would have immediately recognized him.
Their core mistake was their unwillingness to reevaluate their underlying assumptions. Once they made their judgment 22 years earlier, that judgment became sacrosanct. Their assessment became an immovable pillar of truth holding up an entire edifice of subsequent decisions. They were not prepared to dismantle this edifice by challenging the assumptions underpinning it, and that blinded them to what was patently obvious.
If Yosef’s brothers fell into the trap of closed-mindedness, then we most certainly need to be on guard to prevent ourselves from being ensnared in tunnel vision. It is human nature to refuse to question the very axioms our worldview is based upon and become impervious to hearing an opposing message.
There is an old joke about a small town that gets a flood warning. As soon as the storm begins, everyone in the town runs, except one man. A state trooper drives by in his jeep and says, “Buddy, get inside. A flood is coming!”
“It’s okay,” says the man. “I trust in God. He will save me.” Shaking his head, the state trooper drives off.
A short while later, the man is standing in two feet of water, and a heavy-duty amphibian truck manned by the Coast Guard finds him. “Hey, come on aboard!” they shout. “The water is rising!”
“It’s okay,” he assures them. “I’m fine, I trust in God. He will save me.”
The water creeps up to his second floor window. There are no trucks around anymore, just emergency boats looking for stranded people. The skipper of one of these boats spots him and calls out, “Come on board!”
But the man stays put. “No thanks,” he says. “I trust in God. He will save me.”
The water rises to his roof, forcing him to scramble to the top of his chimney. A helicopter swoops by, dropping a rope. “Grab on to the rope and let’s get out of here!” the pilot yells.
“No, no,” the man says serenely. “My trust in God is complete. He will save me.”
The helicopter flies away, and the water engulfs the man, drowning him. He goes to Heaven and complains to Hashem, “I trusted You! Why didn't you save me?”
“I kept sending messengers to save you!” Hashem replies. “I sent you a jeep, I sent you an amphibian truck, I sent you a boat, I sent you a helicopter. What more did you want Me to do?”
The man was trapped by his notions of what trusting in God means. He never considered the possibility that the Almighty wanted him to grab onto the rope and put in his effort.
When was the last time you challenged your assumptions and truly questioned the basic underpinnings of your life? Ask yourself: Why do I learn Torah? What are my goals? Why am I learning Torah according to this approach? Should I consider a different approach? Why am I working as a professional? Should I dedicate my life to working for the Jewish people? Should I curb back my efforts to advance my career and spend more time learning, doing outreach, or with my family? Just how much money do I really need each year?
We would likely discover a number of startling insights if we would step out of our box and question our assumptions. It is not easy, but with courage, open-mindedness, and fierce objectivity, it is doable. But if we remain stuck in our thinking, then we can miss the obvious that is right under our nose.
At the very least, we should pray to Hashem to give us the clarity to understand His messages and uncover the faulty assumptions that may be hampering our ability to hear what He is saying.
God is talking to us. He wants us to understand His messages. Sometimes they are very obvious, but we need to discover them ourselves. In the end the brothers did not get the message themselves, and Yosef had to reveal himself. God is trying to get our attention. If we remain oblivious, that compels Him to send us louder wake-up calls. Let us embrace God’s Providence, reconsider our assumptions, and open ourselves up to seeing His guiding Hand and internalizing the messages He is transmitting to us.
