Friday, January 06, 2006

Vayigash I: Who's In Charge?

After Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he tells them that the whole situation was part of HKBH's master plan. Yosef says "V'ata lo atem sh'lachtem osi haina ki Elokim vaYisimani l'av l'pharoah u'l'adon l'kol baiso u'mosheil b'chol eretz Mitzrayim". Rav Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht asks why in the first half of the possuk does Yosef say " l'av l'pharoah u'l'adon" (with a lamed) while in the end of the possuk he just says "u'mosheil" without a lamed? Rav Goldvicht zt"l brings an interesting answer from Rav Yehoshua M'Belz zt"l. Rav Yehoshua M'Belz answers that we constantly see throughout these last few parshiyos that Yosef always attributed everything he acheived to HKBH. This was Yosef's intention in the first half of the possuk. When Yosef said "VaYisimani l'av l'pharoah u'l'adon", he meant to tell them that HKBH had made him in charge and he, Yosef had nothing to do with it. However, Yosef wanted to stress another point. Not only was everything ha had accomplished due to Hashem's guiding hand, but even more than that, HKBH himself was really running the show. When Yosef said "u'mosheil b'chol eretz Mitzrayim", he was not referring to himself but rather to HKBH. The real mosheil, the real ruler was Hashem.
With this Rav Yehoshua M'Belz says we can understand why Yaakov did not originally believe the brothers that Yosef was alive. When the brothers told Yaakov what Yosef said they originally misquoted him. The brothers said "Od Yosef chai v'chi hu mosheil b'kol eretz Mitzrayim". The implication of this statement is that Yosef felt he was the ruler and he was in charge. Yaakov had always known, based on the dreams, that Yosef had the potential to achieve the status of a melech. However, Yaakov knew that it had to be a malchus l'shen shamayim. Consequently, when Yaakov heard Yosef's words that didn't reference HKBH, he felt that this was not the kiyum of the dreams. It was only afterwards when the brothers repeated to Yaakov exactly what Yosef had said ("Vayidabru eilav kol divrei Yosef") and Yaakov heard how Yosef understood that HKBH was in charge, did Yaakov realize that it was truely Yosef.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is really a very nice pshat that goes very well with what Rabbi Sholom Smith writes in his sefer Rav Pam on Chumash in last weeks parsha. Rav Pam said that the reason that Yosef became so grat in Mitzrayim was because he was "toleh hagedulah bivualuv" meaning he attributed everything to Hakadosh Boruch Hu.When Paroh saw that when yosef was offered the oportunity to get anything he wanted (after he had interpreted the dreams correctly)and he atrributed the greatness to Hkadosh Baruch Hu, He knew such a person was Ready to be a leader of Mitzraim.