Vayigash: 5783 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with a wonderful insight for the parsha 'Vayigash'. "And Yosef said to his brothers, 'I am Yosef; is my father still alive?' But his brothers could not answer him, for they were terrified before him."…

00:00 Speaker 1 Rabbi Shimon, please.

00:03 Speaker 2 There’s an interesting Midrash about a verse in the parsha we’re learning: “Yosef said to his brothers, ‘I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?’ But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed before him.” The Midrash says in the name of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah: “Woe to a person on the day of judgment; woe to a person on the day of rebuke. If Yosef, who was flesh and blood, left his brothers unable to answer him, what will a person answer on the day of judgment before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who is not flesh and blood but exists eternally?” How will a person withstand that rebuke? There are several things here we need to understand. First, where does it say that Yosef rebuked them? On the contrary, he reassured them: “And now, do not be distressed. It was not you who sent me here, but G-d; He sent me ahead to preserve life.” Where does it say that he rebuked them? That’s the first question. The second thing that seems puzzling is that Yehudah keeps speaking to Yosef about their father: if he doesn’t bring Binyamin back, their father will die right away. His soul is bound up with Binyamin’s soul. So why is the first thing Yosef says to them, “I am Yosef. Is my father still alive?” They’ve been talking about their father the whole time. What does “Is my father still alive?” mean? There’s a very interesting explanation here. What is Yehudah telling Yosef? He’s saying, “Listen, we can’t come back to our father without—listen, we can’t come back to our father without Binyamin. His soul is bound up with his soul; he’s the only one left to him from Rachel.” So they can’t do it. The moment they come back without Binyamin, their father will hear and die. Yosef says to them, “I am Yosef. Is my father still alive? When you sold me, did you make that calculation too—that our father wouldn’t be able to bear the news? You didn’t make that calculation. He survived then, and he’ll survive now too.” And they could not answer him. They had no answer at all. That was the rebuke with which Yosef

02:16 Speaker 2 rebuked his brothers. And about this Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah says: Woe to a person on the day of judgment, on the day of rebuke, right? That was the rebuke with which Yosef rebuked his brothers.

02:27 Speaker 1 Thank you!

02:28 Speaker 3 And what strength.

02:29 Speaker 1 After all, he can’t ask them.