From: krulwich@zowie.ils.nwu.edu (Bruce Krulwich)
Subject: Dvar Torah -- Parshas Vayigash -- Rabbi Alter
Organization: The Institute for the Learning Sciences, Evanston, IL
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 18:31:46 GMT


  Parshas Vayigash -- Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai Alter -- Yeshiva Migdal Torah

It's very fitting that this week's parsha, Vayigash, occurs on the day before
Asara BeTeves [the tenth day of the month of Teves].  Asara BeTeves is the day
that Nevuzadran, the Babylonian general, laid siege to Yerushalayim
[Jerusalem] prior to the destruction of the first Bais HaMikdosh [Holy
Temple].  The siege almost lasted three years until the city walls were
breached and the Temple was destroyed (it should be rebuilt speedily in our
days).  This is remembered every year by a day of fasting and introspection
towards self-improvement on the day of Asara BeTeves.

At the end of last week's parsha, Yosef [Joseph] threatened to imprison
Binyomin [Benjamin], having framed him for theft, as a test to see if his
brothers would rish their lives to redeem him.  This would be an indication to
Yosef that his brothers had truly repented from their sin.  This week's parsha
begins with Yehuda [Judah] confronting Yosef, asking that he be allowed to
take Binyomin's place in jail.  When Yosef heard this concern that his brother
had for Binyomin and for the grief their father Ya'akov [Jacob] would have to
endure, "Yosef could not contain himself before all who stood by him, and he
cried 'let everyone leave me,' and no one was there when Yosef revealed
himself to his brothers. ... 'I am Yosef, is my father still alive?'  And his
brothers could not answer him, for they were overcome." [Gen. 45:1-3].  Yosef
then calmed them with an elaborate pardon for selling him into slavery 22
years earlier.  This pardon had three elements.  He first assured them that
their actions were obviously pre-destined in order to save the family from the
famine.  Secondly, in case they still felt shame for what they did (for they
certainly hadn't intended the positive results of their actions), he told them
that "it was not you who sent me here, but the Al-mighty" [Gen. 45:8].
Lastly, if they still felt remorse for Yosef's suffering during his time in
Egypt, he reminded them that he had become "a lord of all [Pharoh's] house and
ruler over all the land of Egypt" [Gen. 45:8].  Why did Yosef offer them this
elaborate pardon, when they didn't even ask him for forgiveness?  "You crummy
shtunks," we can imagine him saying, "How could you do such a thing?"  Even if
he elected to disregard his personal suffering, why did he excuse them so
completely?  Why was Yosef so concerned with alleviating even the smallest
feeling of guilt over what was truly a wrong action?

After forgiving them, Yosef was overcome with emotion and "he fell upon his
brother Binyomin's neck and wept, and Binyomin wept upon his neck" [Gen.
45:14].  This scene doesn't make sense given the background provided by ChaZaL
[our sages of blessed memory].  The Midrash says that Yosef identified himself
to Binyomin during last week's parsha.  After the brothers brought Binyomin to
Egypt, Yosef took him aside, showed him an astrological map of Egypt, and
asked him to use his divine inspiration to locate his long-lost brother Yosef.
Binyomin successively identified the district, the city, and the building in
which they were sitting.  When shown a map of the palace, he indicated the
room they were in, and said "my brother is beside me."  This puts everything
in a new light!  If Yosef had already revealed himself to Binyomin, why did
this emotional scene take place when Yosef identified himself to the rest of
his brothers?  Rashi explains that Yosef was weeping "for the two Batai
Mikdash [Holy Temples] that were to be in Binyomin's portion [of the land of
Israel] and were destined ultimately to be destroyed," while Binyomin was
weeping over "the Mishkan [Tabernacle (predecessor of the Temple in
Jerusalem)] of Shiloh destined to be in Yosef's portion, which also ended in
destruction."  This seems like a non-sequitur.  Why did the brothers' reunion
elicit this response from Yosef and Binyomin?

ChaZal tell us that the destruction of the Bais HaMikdosh was divine
punishment for the sinas chinam [groundless hatred] that existed among the
Jews at that time.  Hatred is inexcusable and it brought about the complete
destruction of the nation's essense -- the embodiment of their relationship
with the Al-mighty.  Indeed, the Midrash tells us the site of the Bais
HaMikdosh was chosen by the Al-mighty because an incident of abundant love and
devotion between brothers:

There once were two brothers who lived in valleys separated by a mountain.
One had a family and many children, the other was a bachelor.  Once, during
harvest season, the bachelor, concerned with the many children his brother
needed to feed, decided that at night, under cover of darkness, he would go
over the mountain and place some of his own bundles of grain in his brother's
field.  Meanwhile, his married brother, concerned that his bachelor brother,
who had no children to care for him in his old age, would need more money for
his later years, independently decided on the same course of action.

In the middle of the night, each of the brothers crossed over the mountain
into the other's field, and left many bundles of grain.  In the morning, when
each counted his bundles, they were surprised to find their full harvest, with
no bundles missing.  So, that night, they, again, repeated the previous
night's act of kindness.  This continued until one night, the brothers met on
the mountaintop.  Immediately, each had understood the events of the past few
nights.  They were so overcome by the other's selfless devotion they dropped
their bundles and wept on each other's shoulders.

Our sages tell us that at that moment, the Al-mighty designated the ground
where the bundles lay, a place imbued with boundless brotherly love, to be the
site where He would manifest his love to the Jewish people via the Bais
HaMikdosh.

The root of sinas chinam is the "big G": ga'ava, [the insidious selfishness
that renders people completely incapable of seeing beyond their own petty
needs and mean concerns].  Yosef and Binyomin had just seen the end of 22
years of suffering caused by sinas chinam.  They knew that the sinas chinam
which had torn apart their own lives was the seed of the sinas chinam that
would later tear Klal Yisroel [the nation of Israel] asunder, and bring the
churban [destruction of the Temple].  Therefore, they attempted to begin to
rectify sinas chinam, whose root is self-centeredness, focusing on one's self
to the point that no one else matters.  The tears that they shed over this
were particularly for the loss of the other.  Yosef wept only for the
destruction that would happen in Binyomin's territory, while Binyomin wept
solely for Yosef's future loss (despite the fact that the Bais HaMikdosh could
not be built in his own portion until after Shiloh's destruction).  This
concern for others and their misfortunes ahead of one's own loss demonstrates
the selflessness which is the antithesis of ga'ava.

Now we can understand why Yosef was so careful to alleviate any sentiments
which could have continued to separate him from his brothers.  Anything less
would be to retain some moral standing over his brothers, and to do so would
reflect ga'ava on his part, which was the root of their problems.  Instead he
wished to promote achdus [unity] between himself and his brothers, to combat
the sinas chinam which had caused so much suffering.  What better way, than to
feel their (his brothers) suffering (of remorse) to the point of eliminating
it by elaborating why they should not feel bad.  Yosef demonstrated to them
how one should focus on another's feelings even before his own.  In place of
"twisting the knife" and leaving them guilt-ridden, he made them feel at ease.

This has a clear message for us on Asara BeTeves.  ChaZaL say that the main
reason for fasting is to bring about t'shuvah [repentance].  This is seen in
the story of Yona [Jonah] when "the Al-mighty saw their [the people of
Ninveh's] actions, in that they turned from their evil way" [Jonah 3:10].  The
Al-mighty didn't respond to their fasting, or to their sackcloth, but rather
to their "actions," the changes that they made in their lives.  To make such
changes they had to commit to something beyond themselves, to aspire to
something more important than their own concerns.  In order to improve
ourselves, we must emulate Yosef by transcending our own concerns and
committing ourselves to the needs of others.

                          Rabbi Avrohom Mordechai Alter, Yeshiva Migdal Torah
                                       Parshas Vayigash 5750, January 6, 1990
                                 Transcribed by Moshe Handel and Dov Krulwich