BS”D
REUVEN’S RETURN: PARSHAT VAYESHEV
Shira Smiles shiur –
2015/5776
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
The sale of Yosef is a seminal event in the history of our nation. But in
addition to the historical importance of the sale itself, there are many
lessons to be learned from the details surrounding the core narrative. One of
the secondary plot lines is the journey of Reuven.
Yaakov had sent Yosef to check on his brothers and bring back word as to their
well being. The brothers saw Yosef coming toward them and immediately plotted
to kill him. Reuven intervenes. He suggests that rather than killing Yosef
themselves, they throw Yosef into a nearby pit where the forces of nature can
do the job for them. The Torah then tells us that Reuven’s true purpose was to come back later
and rescue Yosef. Reuven then disappears while the brothers go off to eat. When
Reuven returns, he finds the pit empty and tears his garment in grief, not
knowing that the brothers had sold Yosef to a passing caravan of Ishmaelites.
Perhaps the most overriding question of this whole episode is where did Reuven
go? If he was intent on saving Yosef, why did he not wait nearby for the
opportunity instead of going off somewhere, anywhere?
Rashi offers two explanations for Reuven’s
disappearance: It was his day to return home and serve his father. Alternately,
he was fasting and doing teshuvah for tampering with his father’s sleeping
arrangements after the death of Rachel. Either way, Reuven was not around while
the brothers ate and when they sold Yosef.
These explanations seem to raise more questions than they answer. First,
honoring one’s
father through serving him, although a major mitzvah, does not take precedence
over pikuach nefesh, danger to life, which was clearly the situation
Yosef would be in. Further, tampering with Yaakov’s
bed took place many years ago. What prompted Reuven to do teshuvah now?
Let us discuss the second question. When Reuven moved Yaakov’s bed to the tent
of his mother Leah, he believed he was doing the right thing and upholding the
honor of his mother, writes Letitcha Elyon citing Rabbi Ruderman. He
acted impetuously without consulting others, and relied only on his personal
perception. Now the brothers seemed to be following his lead, relying on their
own perception of Yosef as a rodef, a threat to themselves, and
sentenced him to death without consulting any authorities. Reuven now realized
he had set a dangerous precedent of not consulting Torah authorities and
understood that Yosef ‘s
death sentence could be traced directly back to his own rash action, writes Ohel
Moshe. As Rabbi Bergman elaborates in Shaarei Orah, the brothers’ decision to kill
Yosef was a result of the same hastiness Reuven had exhibited, and by
suggesting they throw him into the pit instead, Reuven was trying to buy time
so they would reconsider and he could save Yosef. When Yosef was not in the pit
at his return, Reuven feared the worst. He tore his garment and lamented, for
even now he had not considered enough options. This was his teshuvah. He had
been put in a similar situation and had failed because he had not considered
the effect of his actions on others. It was for this earlier hastiness that he
was now doing teshuvah.
While earlier he had championed the honor of his mother, he did not
consider the effect of his actions on his father. Here too, the brothers were
judging Yosef through their own lens without considering either the youth of
Yosef or the effect on their father, writes Rabbi Yosef Ben-Amram in Be’er Hatorah.
Reuven realized how easily one can err when one feels his actions are really
only for the sake of mitzvah performance. This was the concept that was
innovative in the Teshuvah of Reuven. Others had done teshuvah before him,
including Adam and Cain, but no one had done teshuvah for the consequences of
actions they performed by doing what they believed was right. On a similar
note, how often do we push others aside in our zeal to have the opportunity to
participate in a mitzvah, or make others wait while we do what we feel is more
important? Our impetus is leshem Shamayim, for the sake of Heaven, but
we sin in the process.
Rabbi Beyfus highlights this idea in Yalkut Lekach Tov. It is much
easier to do teshuvah when you realize you have actually sinned than when you
believe you have acted correctly. This is the meaning of the verse of the
Prophet Hoshea, Reuven’s
descendant, who wrote, “Return
unto Hashem Your God, for you have stumbled in your sin,” you have fallen into sin because you
thought you were performing a mitzvah.
Rabbi Frand expands on this idea, explaining that it is much more difficult to
reason with someone who is on a mission, who feels self righteous, than to
reason with someone who realizes he has actually sinned.
Moving in another direction, Reuven’s
teshuvah was unique from another perspective. Until now, all teshuvah was
depressive, being sorry. What Reuven added was a positive element to teshuvah,
using the sin and the regret as a catalyst and motivation to change and repair
the damaged relationship. As Rabbi Nissan Alpert writes in Limudei Nissan,
Reuven used his remorse to return to the pit and check on Yosef. Wanting to
repair his relationship with his father and with his Father enabled Reuven to
feel his brother’s
pain and prompted him to a course of action.
It is this idea that is inspired by the verse from Michah, “Rejoice not over
me, my enemy, for though I have fallen I have (also arisen, though I sit in
darkness, Hashem is a light for me).”
Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz explains that it is precisely the experience of having
fallen that precipitates one’s
rise, the experience of darkness that allows one to see the light. Therefore,
where a baal teshuvah stands, even a completely righteous person cannot
stand, say our Sages. Sometimes it is just habit and routine which lead us away
from Hakodosh Boruch Hu. Only when one realizes how far one has strayed from
his relationship with the Almighty can one attempt to return and repair the
relationship, and that return can reach all the way up to God’s Throne of Glory.
Teshuvah is about becoming more responsible and rebuilding that relationship
with Hakodosh Boruch Hu as it was with Adam, writes Rabbi Ezrachi in Birkas
Mordechai. In other words, doing teshuvah involves not only moving
horizontally away from sin, but also moving vertically toward spiritual heights
out of a sense of love.
Rabbi Weinberger introduces yet another approach in Shemen Hatov. While
the brothers viewed Yosef as a rodef, a pursuer who posed a mortal
danger to them, Reuven viewed Yosef as a goel, a redeemer. After Reuven
had sinned by tampering with Yaakov’s
sleeping arrangements, Reuven was afraid that he would be an outcast and no
longer share in the Abrahamitic legacy and mission. When Yosef ‘s dream included
eleven stars, Reuven recognized that dream as prophetic, and that he would
remain one of the twelve tribes of Israel. The brothers, on the other hand, had
interpreted the dream to mean that Yosef would usurp the role of firstborn.
Reuven therefore felt that his position as part of the family would only be
ensured through Yosef and he was willing to subjugate himself to Yosef ‘s rule, even though
he was the firstborn, for he realized that he had lost the right of the
firstborn through his sin. Now, with Yosef not in the pit and thought that
Yosef might be dead, he himself felt lost, for it was only through Yosef and
Yosef ‘s
prophecy that his sin would be forgiven and he would remain part of this Godly
family. Reuven proved himself worthy, for he accepted his lesser role, unlike
his uncle Esau who refused to submit himself to Yaakov’s leadership even though he had sold
his birthright to Yaakov.
Since Parshat Vayeshev is usually read right before or during Chanukah, The
Sefer Menachem Tzion makes an interesting contrast between the character
of Reuven and that of Greek culture. The greatness of Reuven, he notes, was
that he recognized that he was not perfect, and he used that imperfection as a
springboard for growth. Greeks, on the other hand, recognized only perfection.
They refused to accept anything less. Therefore they would allow an imperfect
baby to die and they practiced euthanasia. They banned circumcision which commanded
us to perfect ourselves rather than being born perfect, and they banned
blessing the New Moon which was incomplete but had the ability to become whole
and full. Nothing builds a person like the recognition of his own imperfection
and limitations, a concept the Greeks could not accept even though this was the
blessing that their ancestor Yafet received from his father Noah, to dwell in
the tents of Shem and learn to perfect himself through those precepts of Torah
that Shem and his descendents would live by.
This is the message of the lights of Chanukah, continues Menachem Tzion.
One can only appreciate light when one sits in darkness, and one can only
improve through recognizing and accepting that one is imperfect. Reuven was now
repairing the chasm between himself and both his earthly father and his
heavenly Father. He now felt he could return to take his turn at serving Yaakov
along with his brothers. And so, as according to Rashi, Reuven left to serve
Yaakov, writes the Ohel Yosef, Reuven felt his brothers were more likely
to listen to him after he repaired his relationship with their father.
Rabbi Schwab in Maayan Beit Hashoevah interprets Rashi’s comment more
practically. It was much too long a journey to go back to Chevron to serve
Yaakov and still expect to be able to save Yosef. What Rashi meant, posits
Rabbi Schwab, was that the brothers took turns taking their flocks to Shechem,
where Yaakov had originally sent them. They had moved on to Dothan, but each
day one of the brothers would go back to Shechem to be in compliance with
Yaakov’s
wishes and thus “serve” him. Reuven was on
his way to Shechem and therefore missed the sale of Yosef. On the other hand,
Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov offers that Reuven used his going to serve their father as
a pretext to hide and wait in the mountains for an opportunity to save Yosef,
but when he returned to the pit, Yosef was gone.
All this seems quite convoluted. Isn’t
saving a life more important than any of these ruses? Rabbi Sorotskin explains
that this indeed may be so, but when Hashem has a plan in mind, people are
blinded from reason or reality, for Hashem wants his plan to go through, in
this case for Yosef to descend to Egypt and eventually bring all Bnei Yisroel
down to Egypt.
Hashem’s plan
will prevail in all circumstances. The lights of Chanukah teach us that
whatever darkness we find ourselves in, personally or nationally, Hashem’s light is the only
truth, writes Rabbi Salomon Breuer in Chochma uMussar. We must remain
confident that though we find ourselves in darkness, and as empires fall, we
subordinate ourselves to the light of Torah just as Reuven subordinated himself
to the supremacy of Yosef. Hashem’s
plan for the final supremacy of our nation supporting the light of Torah values
will emerge triumphant and will bring light to a world in darkness.