FLiP Parshat Vayeshev 12/1/18

(2) This, then, is the line of Jacob: At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers, as a helper to the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father.

2) את דבתם רעה THEIR EVIL REPORT — Whatever he saw wrong in his brothers, the sons of Leah, he reported to his father:

1) that they used to eat flesh cut off from a living animal

2) that they treated the sons of the handmaids with contempt, calling them slaves,

3) and that they were suspected of living in an immoral manner.

With three such similar matters he was therefore punished:

1) Because Yosef accused his brothers of eating flesh cut off from a living animal, (Genesis 37:31) “And they slew a he-goat" after they had sold him and they did not eat its flesh whilst the animal was still living.

2) And because of the slander which he related about them that they called their brothers slaves — (Psalms 105:17) “Joseph was sold for a slave.”

3) And because he charged them with immorality (Genesis 39:7) “his master’s wife cast her eyes upon him etc.” (Genesis Rabbah 84:7).

(7) He who beholds his fellow sinning or following an unrighteous path, is obliged to return him toward the good, and to let him know that he is actually sinning against himself in doing bad things for, it is said: "And you shall indeed rebuke your neighbor" (Lev. 19.17). He who rebukes his fellow, whether it be regarding a sin committed between man and man, or whether it be regarding matters between man and God, it is essential that the rebuke be administered only between them both; and he shall speak to him calmly, employing soft language, telling him that he only mentions it for his own good, to bring him to a life in the world to come.

(1) Vayeshev

(7) (Ibid. 37:2): "And Joseph brought evil report of them (the sons of Leah) to their father": He told him that they called their brothers [the sons of the concubines] "servants," and that they were suspect of illicit relations, and of eiver min hachai [(eating a limb torn from a living animal)]. The verse tells us that he told no one else but their father, and this, only in order that he reprove them — in spite of which he should not have done so, for he should first have reproved them himself; for the din of reproof applies even from a disciple to his teacher, and he should not have revealed it to his father.

אל אביהם TO THEIR FATHER: so that their father would rebuke the brothers and make peace between them. And from the side of Yosef, all this showed his righteousness and good midot... and therefore, when Yosef heard the brothers speaking to each other, he told his father out of his love for them and because of his trait of justice and peace which he found in his soul so that his father could rebuke them and make peace between them.