Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Commentary פַּרְשָׁנוּת
Yosef’s brothers are dismayed after the Egyptian ruler (whom they don’t know is Yosef!) treats them harshly. They say to each other:
אֲבָל אֲשֵׁמִים אֲנַחְנוּ עַל אָחִינוּ
אֲשֶׁר רָאִינוּ צָרַת נַפְשׁוֹ בְּהִתְחַנְנוֹ אֵלֵינוּ וְלֹא שָׁמָעְנוּ
עַל כֵּן בָּאָה אֵלֵינוּ הַצָּרָה הַזֹּאת׃
“We are guilty because of what we did to our brother.
We saw his pain when he begged us for help, but we didn’t listen.
This is the reason we’re having this problem now.”
The brothers are remembering the time when they put Yosef into a pit. Then he was sold as a slave and ended up in Egypt. Our פַּרְשָׁנִים (parshanim, commentators) wonder: Why do the brothers only emphasize the part where they ignore Yosef’s pain? Why don’t they mention the crime of selling him into slavery as the reason they could now be having this problem?
חָשְׁבוּ לָהֶם הָאַכְזָרִיּוּת לְעֹנֶשׁ גָּדוֹל יוֹתֵר מִן הַמְּכִירָה, כִּי הָיָה אֲחֵיהֶם בְּשָׂרָם מִתְחַנֵּן וּמִתְנַפֵּל לִפְנֵיהֶם וְלֹא יְרַחֲמוּ.
They thought their cruelty made them deserve punishment even more than the act of selling Yosef. Because their own brother–their flesh and blood!–begged for help, but they did not show mercy.
- Can you imagine how afraid Yosef might have been in the pit, and how he might have begged his brothers for help? What was extra cruel about how the brothers did not listen to those cries?
- In what way might their own inner cruelty of having no mercy for their brother be even worse than the hurtful action of putting him into the pit in the first place?
- What do you think is worse - doing an act that causes pain to another person, or not really feeling bad about it afterward?
זֶה יוֹרֶה כְּדַעַת הַסּוֹבְרִים שֶׁלֹּא מְכָרוּהוּ אֶחָיו מֵעוֹלָם, שֶׁאִלּוּ כֵּן הָיָה לָהֶם לוֹמַר אֲבָל אֲשֵׁמִים אֲנַחְנוּ עַל אֲשֶׁר מָכַרְנוּ אֶת אָחִינוּ.
This is evidence for the opinion that the brothers didn’t sell Yosef. If they had sold him, they surely would have said here, “We are guilty for selling our brother!”
Rabbeinu Bahaye thinks that the brothers’ words in our pasuk can help us better understand what actually happened back at the pit when Yosef was sold. In that story, it’s not totally clear who sold Yosef.
- Look it up! In Bereishit 37:26-28, who seems to take Yosef out of the pit? Who seems to sell him? What are the possibilities?
- What surprises you about the way Rabbeinu Bahaye understands this story? Does it change the way you view the characters?
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