A Taste of Torah in Honor of Shabbat by Rabbi Avi Weiss

A Taste of Torah in Honor of Shabbat
by Rabbi Avi Weiss

Shabbat Parshat Miketz

27 Kislev 5758

In his Hilkhot Deot (Laws of Personality Development), Maimonides emphasizes the importance of the Golden Mean. He insists however, that one must go to the extreme to do away with anger. Concerning this emotion, the middle way is not enough.

At our synagogue this week, Liron Kranzler offered a brilliant Dvar Torah in honor of her bat mitzvah in which she suggested that the story of Yosef (Joseph) teaches how different people helped Yosef assuage his anger.

Yosef had every reason to be upset--after all his brothers had sold him into slavery. Hence, when his brothers came to Egypt, Yosef expresses his anger by doing to them precisely what they did to him. He accuses them of being spies, cast them into a dungeon, and takes Shimon--the prime mover of Yosef's sale--as a hostage.

In time however, Yosef's rage is abated.

The Midrash notes that when appearing before Yosef, Binyamin (Benjamin) reveals that his ten children were named for Yosef--Binyamin's name would recall his lost brother. This no doubt stirred Yosef's compassion. (Rashi, Genesis 43:30)

Yet another Midrash notes that it was Yosef's son Menasheh who decreed that the brother who stole the goblet would become a slave, while the others would be freed. This was a non-aggressive, less angry sentence, as in truth, the brother who stole the goblet should have been killed and the others taken as slaves. Here again, this act of softening the penalty must have impressed Yosef. (Rashi, Genesis 42:23)

And of course, when Binyamin was detained by Yosef for allegedly stealing the goblet, the same Yehudah who 22 years earlier instigated the sale of Yosef, comes to the defense of Binyamin. Here Yehudah shows his remorse which, again must have impacted upon Yosef.

Only after Yosef heard that his brother Binyamin had missed him so, only after his son Menasheh tempered Yosef's brother's sentence, only after Yehudah defended Binyamin was Yosef's anger calmed. Through Binyamin, Menasheh and Yehudah, Yosef's deep upset was counterbalanced; he was able to learn from them the importance of compassion, of running from anger.

And only then, soft, caring and forgiving is Yosef able to reveal himself to his brothers.

SHABBAT SHALOM

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