Parshat Vayigash: Divine Equanimity

(4) Then Yosef said to his brothers, “Come forward to me.” And when they came forward, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, he whom you sold into Egypt. (5) Now, do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me hither; it was to save life that God sent me ahead of you. (6) It is now two years that there has been famine in the land, and there are still five years to come in which there shall be no yield from tilling. (7) God has sent me ahead of you to ensure your survival on earth, and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. (8) So, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his household, and ruler over the whole land of Egypt.

He did not want them to hear the words: “you have sold me,” however, in order not to embarrass them publicly, and because he intended to settle Yaakov’s whole family in Egypt. If his employees had heard him refer to this, they would have objected to such wicked people settling in Egypt. They would conclude that if these people had been capable of selling their own brother, how much worse would they deal with Egyptian neighbours that were not related to them by blood? This is why he asked them to step closer so that the balance of the conversation could be conducted in whispers. An alternate interpretation: first Joseph told his brothers that he was their brother; next he asked if his father was still alive; He did not want to raise the subject of their having sold him in the presence of his brother Binyamin who had been unaware of that. He knew that this would greatly embarrass his brothers, and that Binyamin upon hearing of this would surely report it to their father. He therefore motioned the brothers to move over so that he could continue the conversation where Binyamin could not overhear it.

Reish Lakish says: Sometimes the dereliction of the study of Torah is its foundation, This is derived from a verse, as it is written: “And the Lord said to Moses: Carve for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which [asher] you broke” (Shemot 34:1). The word “asher” is an allusion to the fact that that the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses: Your strength is true [yishar koḥakha] in that you broke the tablets.

In the pasuk it says "I am your brother Joseph, he who [asher] you sold..." This is like what is said by Chazal when they taught that the asher of the line "...which [asher] you broke" (Shemot 34:1) is "an allusion to the fact that that the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses: Your strength is true [yishar koḥakha] in that you broke the tablets." (Menachot 99b). Indeed Yosef comforted his brothers because he attained everything by virtue of his sale into slavery

‎“I place (shiviti) Hashem before me, always” (Tehillim 16:8). Shiviti is an expression of hishtavut, equanimity: ‎That is, every matter that arises before a person must be considered as equal. This is true when ‎others praise or denigrate someone, and so too with all other matters. Similarly, regarding food, ‎whether eating delicacies or anything else, all should be equal in one’s eyes, because the evil ‎inclination has been removed from him entirely. Whatever arises, a person must declare, “This too ‎is from Hashem, and if it is proper in His eyes, etc.,” and all of a person’s actions should be for the ‎sake of Heaven, although from the individual’s perspective there is no difference [between good ‎and bad events] at all. This is a very high level.‎ Every person must serve Hashem with all their strength, for it is all necessity, for Hashem desires ‎that people serve Him in every way.

This means that there are times when a person engages in ‎conversation and is unable to learn Torah. At these times, a person must maintain focus on ‎Hashem and effect yichudim (unifications of the Divine). And when a person is going on the way and is unable ‎to pray or learn as usual, and one must find other ways in which to serve Hashem, one must never ‎be distraught about these things. Hashem wishes to be served in many ways, and therefore He ‎grants the opportunity to travel or converse in order to serve Hashem in that way....

When Joseph saw that they were extremely embarrassed, he said to them: Come near to me, I pray you (Gen. 45:4). As each one of them approached, he kissed him and wept with him, as is said: And he kissed all his brothers, and wept upon them (ibid., v. 15). Just as Joseph comforted his brothers while they were weeping, so the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem Israel while she weeps, as it is said: They shall come with weeping, And with compassion will I guide them. I will lead them to streams of water, By a level road where they will not stumble. For I am ever a Father to Israel, Ephraim is My first-born. (Jer. 31:9).