by Rabbi Yechezkel Fox

The Imperfect Tribe

Reuven heard, and he rescued him from their hand; he said, “We will not strike him mortally.” Ch.37/21

Why is it that Reuven, alone among the brothers, took it upon himself to save Yosef’s life?

Rabbi Aahron Kotler explains that since Reuven bore the sin of having switched his father’s bed to his mother’s tent (see Ch.35/22 and Rashi there), he was afraid that he would not make the grade as one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. But when he heard the dream of Yosef, that eleven stars (representing Yosef’s eleven brothers) were bowing down to Yosef, that gave him new hope. For had he forfeited his place, then there would have been only ten stars.

Reuven’s self-image as a flawed personality enabled him to perceive Yosef with greater sympathy than the other brothers. He was able to forgive Yosef his shortcomings, and acted to save him. This, says Rabbi Kotler, is a lesson to all of us: If only we could admit our own imperfections, we would be able to view others much more favorably.

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A Silver Lining—And Fragrant Too!

They sat to eat food: they raised their eyes and saw, behold! – a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead and their camels were bearing spices and balsam, and birthwort – on their way to Egypt. Ch37/25

This was the caravan to whom the brothers are going to sell Yoseph into slavery. Isn’t the main point that they were travelling to Egypt? Why did the Torah give so much detail about the cargo of the caravan?

Rashi tells us that it was unusual for the Arabs to be transporting this kind of cargo. Ordinarily, it would be petroleum and resin. But since those products have a foul odor, G-d arranged for a caravan of spices to be passing by at just that time.

Yoseph was destined to be the leader of his family; his father Yaakov was already grooming him for this. Yet, he was now being sold by his own brothers into slavery. Furthermore, he was on his way to Egypt, infamous in those times as the most licentious place on earth, devoid of all spirituality. His situation was grim, to say the least. And yet if he would pay very careful attention, he would notice that G-d had not abandoned him – He was providing special transportation for him – Arabs carrying sweet-smelling spices. For this he could be grateful, and with this he could still feel close to G-d.

The common saying, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” is certainly true according to the Torah. But in order to see the silver lining in every cloud, one has to reflect carefully on the fine details of what is going on around him. Then one will see that G-d is still with him.

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Yosef and the Limits of Freedom

The chamberlain of cup-bearers had a dream, which Yosef correctly interpreted to mean that the chamberlain would go free from prison. Using this opportunity to try to win his own freedom, Yosef asked the chamberlain to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh, but alas….

Yet the chamberlain of the cup-bearers did not remember Yosef, and he forgot him. Ch.40/23

Rashi comments on this verse: Since Yosef depended upon him to remember him, he had to remain imprisoned for two more years.

Why was Yosef punished? What was wrong with what he did?

The answer can be illustrated as follows: A person needs to find a job, so he goes to the job center and registers. This is surely a sensible effort on his part. Now that he has done his part, he should trust in G-d to help him. But once he does so, he should not think that G-d is limited to helping him only via the job center. His job could come from a completely different direction; through a friend, an advert or just a “chance” meeting at a bus stop. Why did he have to go to the job center at all, why not simply trust in G-d, and wait? Because that isn’t enough; G-d expects us to invest some effort to show that it’s important to us.

Yosef made his effort to get free; but then he “limited” G-d. From then on he trusted G-d to help him only via the chamberlain, and for that he languished in prison an additional two years.

Sources:Rabbi Moshe Sternbach – T’aam VeDas

Related posts:

1. Parshas Vayeitzei
2. Parshas Noach
3. Parshas Vayishlach
4. Chayei Sarah
5. Parshas Toldos