Shabbat Parashat Vayechi - 5783

Shabbat Parashat Vayechi - 5783

Rabbi Hal Miller So Yosef went up to bury his father, and with him went up all of Pharaoh's servants, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt and all of Yosef's household, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their young children, their flocks, and their cattle did they leave in the region of Goshen. [Bereishit 50:7-8] Did nobody trust Yosef? Just before our verses, Yosef tells Pharaoh that Yaakov made him swear to bring his body for burial in Canaan and that he, Yosef, would then return to Egypt. Pharaoh tells him to do just as Yaakov had commanded. Why, then, did Pharaoh send servants, elders, chariots and horsemen? Did he think Yosef would not come back? But they left the young children and animals, so this seems a stretch. Perhaps the caravan was to protect Yosef from the Canaanites, who must have found such a caravan quite fearsome. Another handful of verses following on, the brothers go through the well-known attempt to get Yosef to believe that their father had told them to beg Yosef to forgive them for what they had done years earlier. But Yosef had long ago made it clear that he held nothing against them, so why do this now? Rashi's position is that Pharaoh did not trust Yosef completely, but did believe Yosef would keep an oath. Since Yosef swore an oath to his father, had Pharaoh insisted Yosef break that, it might free Yosef to also break his promise to return. Thus it was not Yosef who wasn't trusted here, rather Pharaoh who did not trust his own judgment. Rav Soloveitchik goes another direction on the same topic. Yosef, having spent so many years in Egypt, was considered completely Egyptian and would not have dreamed of burying his father anywhere else, but for Yaakov's insistence. This is why Yosef mentioned his oath to Pharaoh, who then sent help along to make sure Yosef would not be waylaid by the Canaanites in what Pharaoh knew was a dangerous round trip. Verses 50:15 and on seem to indicate that the brothers directly lied to Yosef, saying that Yaakov directed them to say that they ask forgiveness from Yosef for the sale years earlier. But the brothers themselves are considered righteous, and would not have lied. All twelve, including Yosef, knew that Yaakov never found out about the sale, so it doesn't even make sense that the brothers would have done this. Instead, we can read the verses as meaning that Yaakov was trying to gain family harmony. Yaakov knew of the problems between them in their younger days. The brothers told Yaakov about their trips to Egypt for food, and the various punishments Yosef had inflicted on them. Yaakov understood that they must have done some ill to Yosef on those trips. Therefore, when Yosef reassured the brothers that he held no grievance over how he got to Egypt, both earlier and at this point, we understand that the subject of this passage was that he is only now forgiving them for the various other wrongs they had done to him, things of which Yaakov was aware. The brothers did not distrust Yosef about the sale, that having already been settled between them. They did not lie. They were in fact following Yaakov's directive to create peace.