From:          "Yeshivat Har Etzion's Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To:            yhe-parsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject:       PARSHA61 -11: Parashat Vayigash


                   YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
      ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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                    PARASHAT VAYIGASH

                           
       Why Did Yosef Not Send Word to his Father?
                       A Solution
                           
                   By Rav Yoel Bin-Nun

                           
     Last week, we explored a variety of explanations for
Yosef's  puzzling  behavior vis-a-vis  his  brothers  and
father.   None  of  these  could  adequately  answer   the
glaring  question: Why, during all his years of servitude
and his rise to power, did Yosef not send a letter to his
father  telling him that he was still alive?  What  could
possibly  justify  the anguish he  caused  his  aged  and
loving father?

      I  would  like to propose a solution which accounts
for many perplexing aspects of the story.

      Our  entire  outlook on this story  changes   if  we
accept the fact that Yosef did not know that his brothers
had  fooled his father with the coat, the blood, and  the
lie  that  Yosef had been devoured by wild animals.  Such
thoughts  never occurred to him! Hence it was  Yosef  who
spent  thirteen  years  of  slavery  in  Egypt  and    the
following  years  of greatness wondering:  "Where  is  my
father? Why has no one come to look for me?"

      All  the  factors are now reversed, when seen   from
Yosef's  point  of view. Egypt is, after  all,  close  to
Canaan, and Ya'akov was a rich, important and influential
man,    with   international   familial   and    political
connections. The Midianites or Yishmaelites  who  brought
Yosef  to Egypt were his cousins; is it possible that  no
one  from  that  caravan could be located  in  all  those
years?  Yishmael, Medan and Midian were all  children  of
Avraham;  even after they had migrated to Eastern  lands,
they  certainly  could be located. Ya'akov  had  manpower
enough  to  marshal herds and flocks as a gift for  Esav;
surely he had manpower to search for Yosef. We know  that
Ya'akov  does not search for his son, as he thinks  Yosef
is dead, but Yosef has no way of knowing this.

     Yosef's wonder at his father's silence is joined  by
a terrible sense of anxiety which grows stronger over the
years,  as  seasons and years pass by and no  one  comes.
Yosef's  anguish centers on his father: the voice  inside
him  asking  "Where is my father?" is joined  by  another
harsh  voice - "Why did my father send me to my  brothers
that  day?  Why did they strip off my coat the  moment  I
arrived  and  throw  me in the pit? Didn't  he  know  how
dangerous  Shimon and Levi are, especially  since  I  had
brought  him  negative reports about them?  What  did  my
brothers tell him when they returned? Can he really  have
had no idea at all of what they had done?"
    
     The   voices   resound  and   intertwine,   eliciting
alternating waves of fear and helplessness, of anger  and
hatred.  Being  thrown into the pit,  the  kidnapping  to
Egypt,  slavery - a few months would be enough  to  drive
him mad - and no one ever comes.
    
     Finally, a quiet acceptance of his fate replaced the
anguish.  His brothers must have succeeded in  convincing
Ya'akov,  and  HE  HAD  BEEN  DISOWNED.  Leah  must   have
convinced  Ya'akov  that his vain and arrogant  son,  who
dreamt  of  ruling over them all, had to be  disposed  of
before  he  destroyed  the  household.  Had  Avraham   not
consented  to Sarah's insistence that he expel  Yishmael,
despite  his  love  for Yishmael?  Had  not  God   Himself
sanctioned  this? Had not Esav lost his  birthright?  And
had not Yitzchak capitulated to Rivka in choosing one son
over  another? Perhaps God Himself had told Ya'akov  that
Yosef had sinned and had to be expelled.
    
     Thirteen  years of torment brought in their  wake   a
quiet acceptance of his fate. He would live according  to
his father's traditions but apart from his home. He would
not  sin against God even though He had rejected him;  he
would  not be seduced by his master's wife. Years  later,
when Yosef rides in the viceroy's chariot, when he shaves
his  beard and stands before Pharaoh, it is clear to  him
that  God must have decreed that his life would be  lived
separately from his family's.
    
     Yosef gives expression to this feeling expression in
the  name  he  gives his eldest son, born of an  Egyptian
wife:

     He  called  him Menashe, because "God  has   made  me
     forget  (nashani)  all  my  labor  and   my  father's
     house." (41:51)

     To forget his father's house!  Yosef is more subdued
when his second son is born:

     [He  named  him] Efraim, because "God  has   made  me
     fruitful  (hifrani) in the land  of  my   suffering."
     (41:52)

                           ***

      Yosef's  entire world is built on the misconception
that  his father has renounced him, while Ya'akov's world
is  destroyed  by the misconception that Yosef  is  dead.
Yosef's  world is shaken when his brothers  stand  before
him,  not knowing who he is, and bow down to him. At that
moment,  he must question the new reality he has  created
for  himself;  "he remembers the dreams he  dreamt  about
them" and he is thrown back into the past.

     Stalling for time, he begins a line of inquiry - and
action - which is geared to one end: to find out why  his
father  had  rejected him, if at all.  He  aims  to  keep
Binyamin  behind, so that his maternal brother  can  tell
him  all that has transpired. After the conversation with
Binyamin,  he  will be able to decide whether  to  remain
silent or to speak out.

      All  Yosef's  actions  from  this   point  onward  -
including  arresting Shimon - are directed  towards  this
goal.  He  wanted both to get information  (could  Shimon
have  been interrogated in prison?) and to force  Ya'akov
to  send  Binyamin to Egypt. The cup was planted  in  his
sack not to test Yehuda - how could he have predicted his
older  brother's outburst? - but just the opposite. Yosef
assumed  the brothers would not be able to save Binyamin,
and this would be his means of keeping Binyamin with him,
ostensibly as his prisoner.

     This  was Yosef's plan to find out what had happened
and how to deal with it.

       Yehuda's   response  was  an   attempt  to   obtain
Binyamin's  release by appealing for mercy for  his  aged
father.   In   so  doing,  he  tells  Yosef    -   totally
unintentionally   -   exactly  what   Yosef    wanted   so
desperately  to hear, thereby freeing him and  eventually
Ya'akov, from their mutual errors.

     Your servant our father said to us:
     You know that my wife bore me two sons.
     One  has left me; I said he was devoured and I  have
     not seen him since.
     [If]  you take this son too and tragedy befalls him,
     you  will bring my old age down to She'ol in  agony.
     (44:24-30)

     Yosef needs to hear no more. He finally realizes the
naked truth: No one has cut him off at all! Not Leah, not
his  brothers and, least of all, his father. He  has  not
been forgotten!

     Yosef  could no longer restrain himself  before   all
     who were standing before him, and cried:
     "Have every one leave me!"...
     and he cried out loud...
     and he told his brothers:
     "I am Yosef; is my father still alive?"  (45:1-3)

      Does he live? Is he yet my father, who loves me and
has not forgotten me? Is it possible?

     Each  of  the players in our scene had a  plan,   and
pursued  that  plan.  But  the  plan  which  was   finally
revealed  was a higher plan, geared at bringing Ya'akov's
family to Egypt and creating the Jewish people.
    
     All  the  "forgetting" is revealed to   have  been  a
tragic  mistake.  Ya'akov symbolically  acknowledges  the
divine plan when, even though he is blind, he knows  that
he must take his hand off the head of Menashe (whose name
connotes  forgetting) and place it on the head of  Efraim
(whose name connotes fruitfulness).
    
     The   misunderstanding,  however,  does    have   its
results. Not Yosef, but his two sons, will replace him in
the list of twelve tribes.

     And  now, your two sons born to you in the  Land   of
     Egypt  before I came to you iEgypt are mine;  Efraim
     and  Menashe, like Reuven and Shimon, belong to  me.
     (48:5)

      The  ten tribes who were exiled and not heard   from
since  (see  the  dispute  in Sanhedrin  110b-111a  about
whether  they will return), the division of the Israelite
kingdom  into  two, all the "forgetting" of  our  ancient
forefather  - are but illusions. All of what we  consider
reality  is  revealed as secondary to the Divine  plan  -
"Our father is still alive."

                           ***

     If  we  look  at the text, and the text alone,   this
conclusion  is well-nigh unavoidable. This interpretation
is  directly  based on Yehuda's words,  paraphrasing  his
father:  "I said he was devoured and I have not seen  him
since." Now we see why these words caused Yosef to  break
down  and  reveal himself - for he learned for the  first
time  that  his father was deceived; his father  did  not
reject  him!  Now we understand why Yosef names  his  son
Menashe, "forgetting." Only this interpretation  is  free
of the assumption that Yosef meticulously planned exactly
what  transpired,  while the Torah  itself  presents  the
climax  as  a total surprise to all who were involved  in
it.
    
     This  explanation is also mandated by the historical
paradigm,  as  it  is presented in the  Torah's  view  of
Jewish history:

     Is Efraim My cherished son, the child I played with,
     that  when  I speak of him, I should be reminded   of
     him?  But  My  insides  pine  for   him;  I  will  be
     compassionate toward him, says the Lord.  (Yirmiyahu
     31)

      Jewish  history reverberates until our  times   with
questions  of forgetfulness and dispossessment (see  esp.
Yirmiyahu  3  and  31)  - and, on  the  other  hand,   the
discovery of errors and repentance.

      "Twelve  brothers are we" - not one is missing!  If
one  seems  missing,  it is only an  illusion,  a  tragic
misconception  which  will,  at  the  correct  time,    be
revealed.

      And finally, only this explanation merges with  the
Jewish  mystical tradition, which differentiates  between
the  revealed and the hidden, between the best-laid plans
of  even  the  purest of men and the plans of Providence,
and  weaves even failings and misunderstandings into  the
light  of  the  Redemption, bringing  all  twelve  tribes
together at last.

YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433

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