2021/5782
In this week's Parashah, Yehudah makes a passionate speech describing the great tragedy that would befall Yaakov Avinu if Binyamin isn’t brought home. Then finally, in a dramatic moment, Yosef reveals himself to his brothers. The question is, why didn’t Yosef’s brothers recognize him earlier. Rashi says that it is because Yosef had grown a beard. However, Rav Moshe Weinberger explains that there is something much deeper going on here.
He explains that Yosef’s brothers failed to recognize him because they had fundamentally misunderstood who he was as a person since his childhood. Rashi in Parashat VaYishlach describes Yosef as not only good looking, but as someone who cared about his appearance, and even combed his hair. Rav Weinberger explains that Yosef as a young man engaged in a constant struggle with his Yetzer HaRa for lust and immorality. He wasn’t a troublemaker at the core, but rather, his Tafikid/challenge was to overcome this challenge, and once he was able to, he became Yosef HaTzaddik, the prime example of Tzaddik Yesod Olam. However since his brothers never faced the same battle in this regard, and were Tzaddikim from the start, they could not fathom his struggle, and therefore misunderstood him as no more than a troublemaker. Therefore, Yosef’s brothers could not identify him as viceroy over Egypt. They viewed Yosef as a lowly boy and could not imagine such potential in him.
Rav Moshe Weinberger brings a proof from a Midrash. The Midrash says that when Yosef’s brothers made their first trip to Egypt, the first place they searched for Yosef was in the Kubah Shel Zonot, a place of harlotry. He explains the brothers thought that’s where he would be found because they perceived him as a troublemaker, a “playboy”, a “bad kid”. Rav Weinberger continues and explains that the sin of the brothers continues today, as parents and communities fail to see the struggle on a boy’s face, and tend to cast a young man off as a “bad kid” when he has a funny haircut or acts out.
It is our job as the generation before Mashiach, to see through the surface and answer the call to all those Tzaddikim who are struggling as did Yosef HaTzaddik. In the merit that we see the beauty and potential in our own children, may we correct the sin of Yosef's brothers and merit the Binyan Beit HaMikdash with the coming of Mashiach Tzidkeinu BeMeheirah BeYameinu.