Divrei Vayeisheiv
The Plan
Until this week’s parsha, the birth and development of the Jewish people has followed a reliable pattern. The avos and imahos, every one of them tzaddikim and tzidkaniyos, have withstood one trial after another, and as we learn about their lives and deeds we stand back in awe. Suddenly, we can’t understand what’s happening. Can it be? How can we understand certain actions which the Torah tells us were committed by these giants of the spirit?
From the very beginning, the Torah testifies. “And Yosef would bring evil reports about them [his brothers] to their father.” (37:2) Granted there was no Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation back then, but could it be that Yosef HaTzaddik spoke lashon hora?
The list goes on. “Now Yisrael loved Yosef more than all his sons . . . and he made for him a fine woolen tunic” (3) is a direct violation of the Gemara in Shabbos (10b) which states, “A parent should not favor one child over another.”
And the Shvotim? “His brothers saw that it was he [Yosef] whom their father loved most of all his brothers, so they hated him . . . and they were jealous of him.” (4, 11) Don’t Chazal tell us (in Avos 4:28) that “Jealousy, lust, and glory drive a man from the world”?
When Yosef met the Malach Gavriel as he searched for his brothers, Gavriel strongly hinted to him that his brothers were planning to kill him. Upon hearing the danger, Yosef should have gone home; after all, the Torah says, “And you should guard your lives very well,” (Devarim 4:15) a prohibition against taking unnecessary risks. Instead, Yosef marched on, improperly jeopardizing his life.
For over three millenia, we have found ourselves on the defensive, trying to explain to the world how the ancestors we honor and hope to emulate could actually sell their own brother as a slave. According to the Midrash, the Asara Harugei Malchus, ten gedolim whose deaths came from a twisted understanding of this maaseh, are the tip of the iceberg.
“And he (Yaakov) refused to be comforted” (35) itself violates halacha, for a mourner must allow consolation. A Jew must accept Hashem’s judgments, as it says in Brochos (54a), “a person must bless upon the bad as well as the good.”
Finally, how could Yehudah, the leader of these utterly holy shvotim, act as he did with Tamar?
Rather, says the Slonimer Rav zt”l, we need to examine the goings-on in this parsha from a fresh perspective. Yaakov and his family wished to permanently settle in Israel, All of them were indeed tzaddikim of the highest caliber, and on their own merit would have never been exiled. However, Hashem had other plans; Vayeishev is the beginning of the descent into Mitzrayim, for Hashem had already said to Avraham: ”Your offspring will be aliens in a land not their own,” and the time had come for that prophecy to be fulfilled. Therefore, Hashem Himself interceded to orchestrate the various episodes which let Yaakov and his family to Mitzrayim.
We see this overriding concept – the great tzadikim who were the Shivtei Kah being maneuvered to bring about Hashem’s Master Plan - throughout the Parsha. The Yishmaelim who bought Yosef normally carried foul-smelling fuel; they were the oil tankers of their time. Now, how often does an oil tanker get cleaned out and filled to the brim with fragrant spices and honey? Not too often! Likewise, this change of cargo tells us that while Hashem’s Plan was being fulfilled, the players, like Yosef HaTzaddik, were as sweet-smelling as before.
Yaakov’s endless mourning (compounded by the incidents, 22 years later, of Shimon and Binyamin being taken from their loving father), and the episode of Yehuda and Tamar emphasize the hand of the Master of the Universe in everything that transpired. Both are inexplicable. Hashem’s gzaira of Galus must be fulfilled, and rather than being led into exile as captives (like we were in later Galuyos), Yaakov’s 22 years of agony led to the Galus Mitzrayim in an honorable fashion. Concurrent with setting up our first Galus, Hashem was preparing for the end of our final Galus. Moshiach had to come from Peretz, who had to be in some way a descendant of Yehudah and Tamar. When Er and Onan proved themselves unworthy, and Yehudah withheld Shelah from Tamar, the Divine Plan propelled Yehudah to become the father of Peretz himself. As the Midrash (B.R. 85:8) tells us, Yehudah did not want to turn off the path to Tamar, but a malach came and pushed him.
This parsha teaches us an all-encompassing concept. Hashem has His Plan, and all of us have a role in its fulfillment. Nothing can stand in that Plan’s way, even if complete tzaddikim must do things which we mere mortals cannot comprehend.
We see this Plan in action throughout our history. As recorded in the Midrash and the piyut we say during Musaf of Yom Kippur, when the Asarah Harugei Malchus were sentenced to death, they sent Rabbi Yishmael Kohen Gadol to shamayim to ascertain if this decree was Divinely ordained. He went up, returned, and said, “I have heard from behind the innermost sanctum that we have been destined for this.”
This Plan continues today, with each of us taking a role. One example comes from an amazing phenomenon within the ba’al teshuva movement. In the past 40 years, thousands of unconnected Jews not only have adopted a Torah life, but have become talmidei chachomim, rabbonim and rebbetzins. The only explanation for their meteoric ascent is that this is part of the Divine Plan for this generation.
Where does the Plan lead? What we know can be summarized by HaRav Dovid Moscovitz, Morah D”Asra of Congregation Chayei Odom, in Boston. When asked his opinion of the Mideast conflict, he said, “We don’t know the middle parts, but we do know the end – Hashem will be One, and His Name will be One.”